Warming Trend

The Warming Trend Photo courtesy of George Krieger   Man, I really wish I could get more info on this one.  Located who I think is a member of this recording, but she won't return my e-mails.  Also located the producer (Dugg Duggan)...and nope, not a word.

Private issue breezy femme folk on the TWT label.  

 

Photo courtesy of George Krieger Listen to a sample   Flip side is a hootenanny style tribute to Colorado,written by David B. Allen and Paul Coldwell (Up With People).

I found another reference to a second Warming Trend single, "Never Ending Rain!" / "It Wasn't Very Long Ago," on the Klass label (6943). The lead singer is Mark Klass. No clue if this was released before, or after the record posted above. As noted in the autographed record sleeve below, there isn't a Mark.

Found a very small reference to the group in a 1968 Billboard.

Billboard - April 27, 1968

That same year, Warming Trend appeared with the group Action Brass, at McEwen Music Company (8460 W. Colfax) for some "Magnavox celebration."

Photo courtesy of George Krieger   The only other hint is an alternative picture sleeve cover, which just happens to be autographed (and also shows six group members, instead of five on the other one - note the names: Dave, Lin, Scott, Bobby and Brandy).

Flamingo Plus

I took five semesters of Spanish throughout high school and college, and have retained enough for me to cause an international incident. That said, there's something about Tejano, Tex-Mex, norteño, mariachi, or ranchera music that I've always enjoyed--even though I don't understand any of the lyrics.

Ah, the joy of being oblivious.

Much like religious vinyl, I find quite a few Hispanic records when I go digging in the dollar bins. Here lately I buy pretty much everything with a Colorado address on the label, as they tend to be passed over by folks looking to score the next big eBay sale.

That's good for me.

That said, last year a most generous fellow Colorado record collector mailed me a batch of state Hispanic singles he had no interest in.

Among the singles were three by the group Flamingo Plus.

As is most always the case, the vinyl had few clues to go on. The label was blank, however it credited James Vigil on saxophone, as well as Nick and Jane Herrera. A quick Google search discovered that a Jane Herrera, who had been married to a Nick Herrera, in Denver, passed away last year, at the age of 75. I couldn't find any other additional information (Correction - comment below says they were brother and sister).

I had two copies of "Tu Destino," however one copy had a flip of "Llorando, Llorando" (both credited to Crystal Sound Recording in Denver), while the other had a b-side saxophone instrumental, "El Carpintero Colorado," and no notation of where it was recorded. Nothing really standing out here on either recording.

 Listen to a sample

However, a third single, from what appeared to be the same group, sounded nothing like the other two. While "Solamenta Una Vez" is your standard bolero issue, the flip, the bilingual "Te Queiro" was heavy on organ vibes, and rocked out.

Sweet.

Listen to a sample

EDIT 7/3/12: Recently discovered another Flamingo Plus record, which was offered to me from a wonderful overseas seller.

Another cool rocker...

"Scream" / "Teach Me"
CFS 832 (no label name)

Velma Stapleton

Velma Stapleton interviewed March 2012.

 

Side One:
Here We Are
Love Grew Where the Blood Fell
Mercy Rewrote My Life
It Made News in Heaven
A Vessel of Honor For God

Side Two:
There is a River
He's Ever Interceding
I Have to Worry
Spirit Song
I Love Him Too Much

Velma Stapleton loved country music. In fact, her dream had always been to be a country performer, and record an album. She would eventually record an album – but it wasn’t country.

 “Back in my day it was all I wanted to do – sing country,” she said. “But I realized the words were not positive, so I discovered gospel music.”

Velma’s move from secular to spiritual music wasn’t an overnight switch. She had already been singing Christian songs at an early age, growing up in Lamar (she graduated Lamar High School in 1971). When she married, her family, which included her boys Michael and Steven, would take to the road to perform in Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky.

“Wherever I could perform, I did. My husband ran the sound.”

In 1983, at the urging of her pastor, she recorded her one and only album.

“My pastor foot the bill for me to record,” she said. “I recorded it in Denver. I think it took about two hours to make.”

She said her back-up musicians were actually pre-recorded songs, of which she simply sang to in the studio. “I think we pressed 500 copies of the record.”

Standard issue gospel here, but Velma gets to use her country chops on at least one song, "It Made News in Heaven."

The picture on the front cover of what was to be titled Mercy, Love and Praise, was taken at her church.

"The picture on the back was done in a studio,” she said.

Velma gave up singing to care for her husband, who has been ill for the past 12 years. She currently resides in Pueblo. “It was always on my bucket list to record an album,” she said. “And I did.”

Five Bucks, Four Shades, and Five Peaks

 The Four Shades

Clockwise from top:  Gerald Gantt, Robert Stallworth

Casey Hynes, and Joel Scherzer

 Interview with Robert Stallworth and Joel Scherzer conducted January-March 2012.

Last year I received a cryptic e-mail from a record collector who told me about a doo-wop single recorded in Colorado, or one that had ties with someone in Colorado. The single, "Alone and Blue," by The Five Bucks, blew me away. In all of my years of collecting, I had never heard the single. But what caught me as odd was while the sound was something straight out of the 1950s, the actual single appeared to be, at least, issued in the 1970s.

I tried every possible avenue to locate information on the group. Who were these guys? Why was there absolutely no information on this record?

So, after almost a year of searching, I contacted my dear friend, and fellow Colorado record collector, Joel Scherzer.

"Yeah, I know about the Five Bucks," he told me. "I put out that record."

Well how about that...

In the mid 1970s, Joel and fellow music lover, Robert Stallworth, who was attending medical school in Boulder,  teamed up with Casey Hynes, a professor at CU-Boulder, and fellow student Gerald Gantt, to occasionally sing doo-wop tunes--a genre they all loved. They soon decided to form their own group, the Four Shades, and start up their own label, Race Records.

The first release from the group was "Yes Sir! That's My Baby," and the b-side, "Stormy Weather" (Race 1000).

Listen to a sample

Looking for additional material to release on their new label, Scherzer looked to Stallworth's extensive record collection--and several acetates of unused material from R&B groups, whose real names are lost to posterity.

"While looking for old records in Gary, Indiana in the 1970s, I came upon three acetates, possibly recorded in the 1950s, of unknown and unnamed singing groups," said Stallworth. "The songs were "I Got Goofed," "Just Rhymes," and "My Mama Done Told Me." When we were putting together our label, we decided to release these, and give the group the name of The Five Bucks."

"I Got Goofed" and the flip "Just Rhymes" was the second release for the label (Race 1001).

Listen to sample

Needing a fourth song to put out a third single, the duo used a 1971 recording Stallworth had made while a student at Millikin University.

"We never performed anywhere, we just sang together for fun. I had a radio program, and a crude way of recording at the station. So one night I asked the guys to come up and sing a song. We decided to do our version of the Delacardos, "Got No One."

Listen to a sample

Along with Stallworth, the members of the group were lead singer Gregory Purvis, Nelson Harvey, Ronald Thompson, and Charles Fields.

"After the recording, I decided to add a sixth voice," Stallworth said. "I added a falsetto tenor top to the background."

The song was renamed "Alone and Blue," and was the b-side to "My Mama Done Told Me" (Race 1002).

 The Four Shades would record just one more single, "Let It Please Be You"/"I Thought You'd Care" (Race 1003--red vinyl).

The group eventually broke-up, after Gantt headed off to graduate school, and the other members pursued other interests.

 In 1987, Stallworth and Scherzer teamed up again to release "Sittin' on the Porch"/"Hair-Net" (Jay-R 100). The record was credited as the 5 Peaks.

"I only minimally knew Maurice Simpkins at the time of the Race releases.  I was in Colorado and Maurice was in Chicago," Stallworth said.  "I did not really reconnect with Maurice until after I moved back to Illinois, which was in 1982.  Maurice and I were friends again by 1983.  One day while I was at this apartment, I noticed an acetate on the floor behind his living room couch.  It was "Sittin' On The Porch" as done by Maurice and his group, The Five Chimes.

"I asked Maurice if he could get some of his singing friends to record two songs and I would have them pressed up.  I asked Maurice if he could re-do "Sittin On The Porch" and he agreed, since it was a song which he already knew."

 "Sittin' on the Porch" was a departure for us in that the recording included instrumental accompaniment.  Robert sang lead and overdubbed the bass part.  I didn't sing on this one, but I came up with the name and design of the label, the name of the group, and also helped with the distribution," said Scherzer. "It got airplay on various radio stations around the country, most notably WCBS-FM in New York."

The song was released on the Jay-R label (JR 1000), and was later included in the Heavy on Doo-Wop CD series.  

 Listen to a sample

Joel Scherzer lives in Pueblo and runs a successful online used record operation. Robert Stallworth is now retired in Nevada, after a career in medicine. Casey Hynes divides his time between Colorado and Paris, France. Gerald Gantt's whereabouts are unknown.

Creighton Jazz Ensemble

Side One:
Spotlighter
Windsong
Getting Straight
Can't Take My Eyes Off of You
The Stripper
Close to You
Totem Pole
Spelunker's Folly

Side Two:
Black Magic Woman
The Swizzler
Suburban Soul
The Way You Look Tonight
Funky Turtle
Mantilla Lace
Easy Mover

Received this album from Dave Ray, owner of Beat Pharm, the uber-cool record store, located on Union Avenue, by the library, in Pueblo. Could spend all day in there.

Dated 1972, and under the direction of R.L. Bollig, the 32 member Creighton Jr. High Jazz Ensemble of Lakewood (saxophone, flute, trumpet, trombone, piano, bass, and drums) sounds more like a junior high assembly stage band, than an actual jazz group, but I won't judge the kids too harshly.

I usually don't go for school band things, but this one intrigued me, if only for the fact that the kiddos do an spirited version of "Black Magic Woman."

The album appears on the IM record label of Denver (IM-10641-1972). A quick search of the address finds that it's now home to an insurance company.

1863 S. Pearl - former home of IM Records

By the way...I grew up attending what was then called junior high school, so I'm not sure when they became "middle schools," or when they decided to go up to ninth grade in some parts of the country. Back in my day, ninth grade was high school, but I digress.

Evangelist Elma and the Children of Truth

Side One:
Get Ready
Fill My Cup
I Can't Help But Serve the Lord
O Happy Day
Sweet Sweet Spirit

Side Two:
Swing Down Sweet Chariot
God is So Real
Sermonette
Get Ready

I'm a sucker for gospel albums. While I haven't been a church-goer in decades, I nonetheless understand the heart and soul that goes into these records. That, and the fact that they're the most overlooked, and plentiful pieces of vinyl at most thrift stores will make the genre one I probably post more than occasionally on here.

The local gospel LPs I usually find are fairly generic, with Osmond-looking families, posed in matching clothes, and a matriarch in a gravity-defying beehive. As I almost always bring my portable turntable when I hunt for vinyl, it becomes apparent rather quickly that most of these albums will have sanitized songs, and really nothing worthy to write about.


Elma Howze began her preaching career in 1950. The first House of Prayer started in her living room in Colorado Springs, in 1974. It soon moved to 203 E. Bijou (the current location of the YMCA, and across the street from the First Presbyterian Church), and later located to 324 N. Wahsatch.

God Is So Real was pressed on the prolific Colorado Springs-based John Law Enterprises record label (4105N10--no year), which was known for releasing numerous local Christian recordings throughout the 1970s. Since the songs were recorded at the church, the production is pretty dismal, and obviously best experienced live.

Michael Harp is the stand out performer, as the lead tenor in the Children of Truth. He's backed by Denise Waldon, lead soprano; Eddie Philon, barritone; Deborah Vaughn, 1st alto; Metta Huff, 2nd alto, and Demitta Clausell, 2nd soprano. Musicians include Fred Huff, drummer (and album producer); Beverly Harp, piano; David Vaughn, lead guitar, and Paul Jackson, bass.

Elma Howze left Colorado Springs in 2001 to form the House of Prayer in Mcintosh, Alabama.

Mozart Festival 1972

 Johann Friedrich Reichart - Te Deum

Mozart Festival 1972

PSO 8125 (no label name)

Pueblo, Colorado

Side One:
Overture and "Te Deum Landamus"
Terzetto: "Te ergo quaesummus"
"Salvum Fac Populum Tuum"

Side Two:
"Dignare Domine"
In te Domine speravi"
March from The Magic Flute
Chorale and Fuge

Performed on January 23, 1972, Memorial Hall, Pueblo.

Listen to a sample of "Te ergo quaesumus"   Lori Von Gundy - soprano
Charlene Vecchio - mezzo soprano
Kathie Marcum - alto
John Pinner - tenor
Jerry Matthew - bass

Gerhard Track and Sid Rosen - conductors

The festival, which was started in Pueblo in 1971 by former Pueblo Symphony director Gerhard Track, returned the following year with a performance of "Te Deum," by Johann Friedrich Reichart (1752-1814).

The concert featured a 300 voice choir, made up of high school students from Crowley (Ordway), Fountain, Lamar, Las Animas, Lake County (Leadville), La Junta and Rye.  The Pueblo Youth Symphony accompanied the performance.