Just-Us-Four, Big Spring

This will make for the third go 'round on Just Us Four. The first time up a few years back I was just fishing for information. A trawl through the interwebs produced a Myspace page for Curtis R. Compton who had written both songs on the EMCO 45, which led to a sorta re-write. A few weeks back I received a great email from former Big Springer and Just Us Four fan Eddie C. and then a week later an email from Curtis R. Compton himself. Third time's the charm, and for the first time... the Just Us Four story.


JUST US FOUR - Take A Walk / Magic In Your Eyes (E-M-C-O 1005/1006

Brothers Greg and Curtis Rand Compton were Air Force kids, which is what brought them back to West Texas in the early 1960s. The Comptons brought with them the Dimensions combo name. Though the Delaware based group never released any material, they did make a trip into Baltimore, Maryland for one recording session.

Not too long after moving back to Abilene Randy(bass) and Greg (lead guitar) added drummer Bobby Orr and Kenneth Hains on rhythm guitar. Randy also met and became friends with Bobby Clark who began to act as the Dimensions manager. The Abilene days for the Compton brothers were short-lived, however, as they moved west to Big Spring in the summer of 1962. Soon thereafter the Dimensions were no more.

"When Greg and I moved to Big Spring, we found Danny Lane (drums) and Kyle McAlister (rhythm guitar) .... We couldn't think of a cool name for the band, so we called it 'Just Us Four'," said Randy. It was in 1963 that Randy wrote both 'Take A Walk' and 'Magic In Your Eyes'. "The band was a hit so we decided to make the record in '64 to boost our shows and actually recorded in the summer of '65. I was 18. Greg, Danny, and Kyle were 17 years old."

It was Randy himself who contacted Odessa's Tommy Allsup, who had just opened his Tommy Allsup Recording Studio on the north side of town. At the time the Westex Publishing Company was up and running and Tommy was also involved with the E-M-C-O (Ector Music Company?) label. The handful of releases I've seen on the label are all country, making the Just Us Four the oddball of the bunch. Like AOK a short time later, E-M-C-O seemed to have worked primarily as a custom press operation. Artists who recorded with Tommy were offered a label if they didn't have one (E-M-C-O, Westex, AOK) and/or publishing if that didn't have that (Westex). The recording session itself took place in the summer of 1965 with Bobby Clark, who had pulled out of Abilene with the Comptons when they headed west, being given a production credit as a 'thank you' for his work as band agent.

The E-M-C-O single, released in late '65 or early '66, was a calling card which helped the busy band acquire more dates. Local to Big Spring the band played school affairs, Webb Air Force Base, and Crosden Country Club. The band ranged as far south as teen hangouts near Lake Travis and Lake LBJ and as far north as Red River's Black Mountain Playhouse in the mountains of northern New Mexico. West Texas stops included Colorado City and Sweetwater to the east, south to San Angelo, and Midland and Odessa out to the west. The band stayed busy, working every weekend.

Not too long after the release of "Take A Walk" the band changed:
"Kyle left shortly after the record was out in '66. Jay Boy (Adams, of Colorado City) replaced him right away. He was kind of in the wings as Jay Boy and I became good friends and we practiced a lot together. Don Densmore (keyboards) was an acquaintance of Jay Boy and I contacted him in Sweetwater where his dad was a dentist. He came on board shortly after Jay Boy in '66. That was the rub... we were the Just Us Four, but there were 5 of us. (We) had to much of a rep to change the name at that point."

Jay Boy Adams, teen guitarist extraordinaire, came from Colorado City just a few miles east of Big Spring. Like the Comptons, Jay Boy too came from a home where his musical endeavors were actively supported. Heck... the parental units presented the kid with a Fender Jaguar. After witnessing the spectacle of Jeff Beck and the Yardbirds on t.v. Jay Boy bought a blue '55 telecaster from Hoyle Nix's fiddler Don Tolle at a music store in Big Spring. He also picked up a violin bow from Anderson Music in Big Spring to complete the Beck effect. Jay Boy admitted to receiving more than a few free lessons from Tolle who went so far as to get Adams and Don Densmore an "endorsement deal" of sorts, which allowed for the half-price purchase of guitars, amps, and a harpsichord from the Baldwin dealership he was employed at. Tolle also seemed to have been okay with the changing sound of the young 60s.

An event near the close of 1967 brought the hardworking combo to a close. "I was going to Howard College and was involved in a very serious accident," says Randy. "A drunk driver in Big Spring ran a stop sign and nailed me on my motorcyle. I was out of commission for about 6 months and the band just fizzed out. Greg went on to play for different bands in New Mexico, Danny went to California to do session work and eventually wound up in Nashville. Jay Boy went to Tech In Lubbock and got into country music and now does Americana in south Texas while running a tour bus company for bands on the road. Kyle had moved to Austin to go to UT. Don Densmore moved to the Dallas area."

"I toured with the Bedlam Band out of Fort Worth, and kept playing as a drummer doing session work on recordings for several other bands until my move to Canada where I now write and produce music. There was never another Just Us Four. "

"Jay boy actually did some country recording at the same studio we used to do 'Magic In Your Eyes' and 'Take A Walk.' By then he and my youngest brother Gary were working together." (Jay Boy would also spend a short stretch at the tail end of the 60s and the beginning of the 70s working steadily at the Chateau Club in Midland and recording for club owner D.M. Williamson's Chateau Permian record label.) "Gary now has the band Shark Attack and has played the Hard Rock in Dallas. Greg died when he was 39 years old, and Danny died very young as well. Myself and Kyle McAlister and Jay Boy are the only survivors of the original band."

I remember the surprise of the moment when I found the E-M-C-O 45. Here was this local country label with a release I wasn't aware of from a band I had never heard of. And it was was obviously not country. Neither was it the 'garage' sound of '66 which would have been expected. Rather the two sides of the 45 played out in a post-frat, pre-Invasion style... pure teen beat, in my opinion. Who were these guys and where were they from? A mistaken identification as Coleman's Wry Catchers on an AOK compilation years ago added to the mystery. The '63-era photo of the group on Randy's Myspace page certainly gave the band an edge as well. Thanks, Randy, for finally clearing up the Just Us Four story. Your patience with the little questions is greatly appreciated. All photos, except the label scan and Jay Adams photo belong to Randy...thanks for the use.

Curtis 'Randy' Compton's current and past musical works can be heard via his Myspace page HERE. Thanks again Randy.

Also a big thanks to Jay Boy Adams for trading a few emails back and forth and for granting me permission to use the "Jeff Beck" photo above. Check Jay's website at http://www.jayboyadams.com/... a lot to read and see regarding the eary to mid-70s Texas music scene, as well as information about Jay's current music. Jay Boy is on Myspace as well and can be found HERE.