THE FRIENDS OF MIND- Moving Through Your Mind / Not Much Lovin' (InSounds 111)
Wendell Gregory and Ken Tumlin became friends as upperclassmen on the south side of Odessa at Ector High School in 1960 singing together in choirs at school and at church. Though there was an impressive rock n' roll scene around them made up of the likes of the Starfires, Ronny Smith and the Poorboys, Peanuts Wilson, Ken Cook (a classmate at EHS), and Montie Mead, both Ken and Wendell were more in tune with the folk scene coming to the nation's attention, a scene normally associated with coffee houses and college campuses rather than high schools. Both Ken and Wendell went to North Texas State in Denton after finishing high school and both eventually returned to Odessa.
"In August of 1965, I auditioned for a local group of singers called the Rhythm Folk, which was formerly called the WD Singers, led by Walter Dixon Bowles," Ken told Danny Shiman of the late, great Office Naps. "I became a part of the group and in June of 1966, we moved to Hollywood, CA, and became associated with Dan Blocker of Bonanza fame. He let our group use his name and we became The Dan Blocker Singers, performed on three Milton Berle Shows on ABC, and performed in Reno, Nevada for 2 weeks with Ray Bolger. I had a great, fun experience with the Singers."
Dan Blocker, of course, played the rather large character Hoss from the Bonanza tv show. Born on the other side of Texas, Blocker enrolled at Sul Ross College down in Alpine where he played football and studied to become a teacher, a profession he worked at in various locales in both Texas and eastern New Mexico.
In 1968 Walter Dixon called together the Dan Blocker singers and announced a move to a commune setting along the Big Piney River in Arkansas (a 1971 article about the commune can be read HERE). Ken had no interest in moving to Arkansas so he returned to Odessa where he joined back up with Wendell and participated in the theater at Odessa's Permian Playhouse.
While working at the Permian Playhouse they drew the attention of a local eye doctor named John Sheets whose wife Carroll was a member of the Playhouse actors group. Sheets invited Ken and Wendell to come to his home in far east Odessa where he had set up a small studio. In exchange for backing his wife on a few tracks (1) the duo would be given access to his home studio(2).
Ken and Wendell recorded two of Ken's own compositions, "Moving Through Your Mind" and "Not Much Loving". "Moving Through Your Mind" is almost entirely the duo's voices as well as Wendell's tambourine and Ken's guitar with the addition of a synthesizer for bass and percussion. Friends of Mind sometimes included an upright bassist named Phil Crouse and it is Phil who can be heard adding a soft bass rhythm to "Moving Through Your Mind" though he did not play on the flip. In Los Angeles Bill Cheatwood (formerly of Oklahoma folk trio The Wayfarers) added a layer of effects to "Not Much Loving". Neither Wendell nor Ken were happy with what had happened to their song, but Dr. Sheets would not change it. Luckily "Moving" escaped the same attention leaving Ken and Wendell with a nice folk number with a psychedelic feel.
Wendell Gregory and Ken Tumlin became friends as upperclassmen on the south side of Odessa at Ector High School in 1960 singing together in choirs at school and at church. Though there was an impressive rock n' roll scene around them made up of the likes of the Starfires, Ronny Smith and the Poorboys, Peanuts Wilson, Ken Cook (a classmate at EHS), and Montie Mead, both Ken and Wendell were more in tune with the folk scene coming to the nation's attention, a scene normally associated with coffee houses and college campuses rather than high schools. Both Ken and Wendell went to North Texas State in Denton after finishing high school and both eventually returned to Odessa.
"In August of 1965, I auditioned for a local group of singers called the Rhythm Folk, which was formerly called the WD Singers, led by Walter Dixon Bowles," Ken told Danny Shiman of the late, great Office Naps. "I became a part of the group and in June of 1966, we moved to Hollywood, CA, and became associated with Dan Blocker of Bonanza fame. He let our group use his name and we became The Dan Blocker Singers, performed on three Milton Berle Shows on ABC, and performed in Reno, Nevada for 2 weeks with Ray Bolger. I had a great, fun experience with the Singers."
Dan Blocker, of course, played the rather large character Hoss from the Bonanza tv show. Born on the other side of Texas, Blocker enrolled at Sul Ross College down in Alpine where he played football and studied to become a teacher, a profession he worked at in various locales in both Texas and eastern New Mexico.
In 1968 Walter Dixon called together the Dan Blocker singers and announced a move to a commune setting along the Big Piney River in Arkansas (a 1971 article about the commune can be read HERE). Ken had no interest in moving to Arkansas so he returned to Odessa where he joined back up with Wendell and participated in the theater at Odessa's Permian Playhouse.
While working at the Permian Playhouse they drew the attention of a local eye doctor named John Sheets whose wife Carroll was a member of the Playhouse actors group. Sheets invited Ken and Wendell to come to his home in far east Odessa where he had set up a small studio. In exchange for backing his wife on a few tracks (1) the duo would be given access to his home studio(2).
Ken and Wendell recorded two of Ken's own compositions, "Moving Through Your Mind" and "Not Much Loving". "Moving Through Your Mind" is almost entirely the duo's voices as well as Wendell's tambourine and Ken's guitar with the addition of a synthesizer for bass and percussion. Friends of Mind sometimes included an upright bassist named Phil Crouse and it is Phil who can be heard adding a soft bass rhythm to "Moving Through Your Mind" though he did not play on the flip. In Los Angeles Bill Cheatwood (formerly of Oklahoma folk trio The Wayfarers) added a layer of effects to "Not Much Loving". Neither Wendell nor Ken were happy with what had happened to their song, but Dr. Sheets would not change it. Luckily "Moving" escaped the same attention leaving Ken and Wendell with a nice folk number with a psychedelic feel.
Sheets found financial backing from a fellow doctor and owner of a local beer distributorship who helped defray the cost of producing the InSounds single. It is not clear how an eye doctor from Odessa, Texas came to have a partnership with the West Coast InSounds label. Insounds was a subsidiary of the Accent label which is best known chiefly for its country releases and two sought after 45s by the Human Expression."They made quite a few records, " said Ken. "I carried some down to Houston, dropped them off at some radio stations. It got some radio play in Seattle, Washington and
somewhere in Virginia. Of course when all of our relatives and friends got finished calling in to KOSA radio we got up to number 12 on the charts here in Odessa." Wendell himself personally delivered records as far away as Oklahoma City, including the famed and powerful KOMA."That was the most exciting thing to hear that on the radio," proudly remembered Wendell in Ken's living room on a summer afternoon. "It was like 'Yeah!' We thought we were, well... we were good. We were really good."
Despite having a small hit in a few regional markets Wendell and Gregory were not at a place where they were able to capitalize and the radio life of the record was rather short lived.Wendell and Ken eventually added a third member, Marietta Weaver, who came from Up With People. As a trio the group entered the former AOK studios and recorded a handful of songs that have so far remained unreleased.
Aside from sporadic gigs outside of Odessa and continued work at the Playhouse, the group never really moved beyond the local stage. At around the time of the single's release Wendell and Ken had married sisters and turned their attention to family matters. The two always remained friends. even working for the same company for many years. Ken performs occasionally with local band leader Cindy Ward.Wendell passed away on November 5, 2011. God Bless.
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(1) I have no idea what ever became of the work done with Dr. Sheets' wife, but there is a 45 on InSounds by an Angie Carroll with scribbles from the late Keith Ward noting that she was a local housewife. Weird record.
(2) Dr. Sheets would go feet first into running his own studio, Trans Global, around 1970. Bill Cheatwood was brought into work in the studio as well as Larry Tamblyn of the Standells! Actual releases on the Trans-Global label are few and far between as are examples of works produced by the studio. It seems the best known production is the album for Colorado's Cedar Creek Society. With no real direction the studio closed within a few years of opening.
I would like to thank Ken and Wendell for their time, and Ken for the use of the KOSA chart and the photo as well as the constant badgering via email. And a thanks as big as a Marfa sunset to Little Danny for putting me in touch with Ken in the first place and the label scan and MP3s. Though Office Naps seems to be done, Danny has a new site in the works which looks and sounds t-riff and Danny can also be heard over the West Texas airwaves at the coolest radio station in the area, KRTS (93.5) out of Marfa. Thanks also to Brett Bates and Scott Schenkel who both provided information regarding Trans Global Studios (which is not associated with Odessa production company TransGlobal Media). Stories on Brett and Scott's bands are coming up soon...
5 comments:
Thank you for the writing the article. It certainly brought back old times.
I grew up with Ken and Wendell, my cousin, in Odessa. It was such great fun sitting around in the living room, listening to them play and sing.
This is the Bass Player, Phil Crouse, aka Philip C Crouse. I actually was on the recording as the bass player, and I also for a short while played when M Weaver was playing. I picked up with the group while still in high school. The group really had a fresh sound folowing the end of the MaMas and PaPas era. I opted to break from the group to attend U of Texas at Austin in 69, and subsequently degreed in 73 in petro engr. and MBA in 73. The post script here is that I continued to "pick around" with guitar over the years, and about 3 yrs ago went back to my roots! A 64 Kay bass (with friends of mind played a black fiberglass Roth bass). I reside in Dallas now, and northwest Arkansas as second home.
P.S. comment - I played only on the A side. We all were concerned by the synthesizer addition. Side B dragged, they needed me to keep a better tempo! :) Also Dr. Sheets tried Capitol Records without success. Back then, no one wanted to put up their money unless you were already famous. Dr. Sheets really took on the financial effort for the group. I do think if we stayed together - Weaver, Tumlin, Gregory, and Crouse - that was a foundation for something special. Ken and Wendell were great harmonizers and Ken was/is a very good writer.
Phillip,
If you don't mind could you shoot me an email at lonestarstomp@gmail.com ? Thanks...
Both sides get the EXPO67 seal of approval. Solid 'loner' folk rock tunes with excelent information from group members....great post.
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