GTTB...

GTTB... Gone To The Bend, that is.

Once again it has come that time when I make my annual trek south to that Great Bend in the Rio with my camping gang, the Brave6. Thirteen trips since Easter Weekend of 1997 and the twelfth in a row... always the same 6 gents. I look forward to beer, Kuba Kubas/La Glorias/Cohibas, talk, hikes, and multi-hour soaks down at the hot spring while staring up at the the greatest display of stars in the whole of Texas.

Here's a clip I put together back in 2008. Please forgive the choppiness and timing... it was the first time I had ever done one of these. The music is the amazing "Highways of Your Mind" by the amazing Joseph Brunelle, formerly of Midland. Not the first time it's been here...



Big Bend photos include the ruins of Terlingua Abajo, a failed attempt to make it to the top of Mesa de Anguila via the Brujeria Canyon pour offs, and finally Tuff Canyon. From there it is out of the park and down the river road to Presidio and on to Ruidosa and Candelaria and the famed Chispa Drive which took us through the most ruggedest part of Texas and our destination of Capote Falls, the highest continuous waterfall in the Lone Star state. I'd guess we were probably the last bunch to visit that spot who weren't either ranch family or drug runners. It wraps up with the "road to nowhere" past the Chinati Mountains, the breathtaking climb to the Marfa Plateau, and finally on to Marfa proper. (Marfa would be the home to Little Danny... host of the BRILLIANT 45 blog Office Naps as well as dreamy Exotica Project web site.)

Hasta...

The Roadrunners, Odessa

THE ROADRUNNERS - Mercy Mercy, Hitch Hike (unreleased, from original tape... these clips are edited)

It would seem that in just about every corner of every teen center in every city in the 1960s you could find a combo billing themselves as the Roadrunners. Some were inspired by the Bo Diddley standard. Some took their name from that speedy little bird often seen across the southwest. Others took their name from the Saturday morning cartoon ("BEEP BEEP"). No doubt some felt the name aptly described the amount of time their little group spent out on the blacktop.

The Roadrunners of Odessa, Texas first came together in 1964 and though a number of people moved in and out over the years, the core of the group included Ben Durall (guitar), Jeff Colvin (drums), Stu Bailey (guitar), Eddie Grice (keyboards), and Charlie Byford (bass). Made up mainly of Permian High School students the group focused on then current R&B and top 40 hits of the day. For a time the Roadrunners also included female vocalist Beverly Toone who joined two of her sisters in the Great Grannies and released two singles on Roland Pike's Corridor label.

The group worked a full schedule of dates across West Texas and the far eastern edge of New Mexico. The mid-60s were a different time... 14- and 15- year old kids could take off on a Friday afternoon in a van and cover 400 miles in 48 hours playing victory dances, church functions, clubs, and roadhouses while making loads of memories and pocketfuls of spending money along the way. Times have certainly changed as have the kids... I just don't think the kids of today have got it in 'em.


The Roadrunners eventually got the attention of local deejay Jon King who signed the band up with his Kingco Production company. Jon worked the airwaves for radio station KCRS in Midland while running Kingco Productions on the side booking around a half-dozen bands from the Midessa area including The Sensationals (aka the Sensations Sound), the Chessmen, and Al Nelson and the Screaming Skulls (!!!!) while also organizing events at local teen centers. On any given weekend Kingco bands could be found shakin' up local teen haunts like Snug Harbor and the Aristocrat in Odessa, Midland's Intrepid Teen Center, and Jon's own King's Castle in Big Spring. Road trips included excursions north to Lubbock's famed Music Box and on to Amarillo. To the west/east/south the towns of El Paso, Abilene, and Alpine represented the remaining boundaries of Kingco's booking.

Durall remembers King as a manager who really pushed the Roadrunners, not an easy task when dealing with high school kids that were out for kicks as much as for gigs. Jon recalled occasionally showing up for the after-hours weekly rehearsals held in an east side barber shop. With KingCo's connections the boys were able to get gigs opening for bands as big as Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels and the Beach Boys (with Glenn Campbell taking Brian Wilson's place).

The Roadrunners built a solid reputation in the region through hard work and a heavy schedule. If you booked the Roadrunners, you booked a solid three hour show. For a time the boys even emulated the fabulous Paul Revere & the Raiders by doing a set complete with tri-corner caps and dance steps.

As such, there was little need and little time for the band to focus on original material. With gigs every weekend rehearsal time was at a premium and new hits needed to be plugged into the set list. There were trips to Tommy Allsup's AOK studios, but the purpose was backing other artists rather working on a Roadrunners record. Even in the role as backing band it doesn't appear that any recordings made it past the stage of tape.

The only recordings the Roadrunners made bear out the influence of what was popular at the time.

In 1965 the Rolling Stones released Out of Our Heads. As had happened with the previous release, combos across the US of A again took notice of the material the Stones had chosen, a mix of remakes and band originals including the classics "The Last Time" and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction". People have overlooked and even misstated the influence R&B had on American combos of the 1960s. The popular notion is that the Brits survived on a diet of American black music, while America itself ignored its own musical history, a notion held by the same school of folks that really do believe rock n' roll did not exist in years between Buddy Holly and the Beatles. But that's hardly the case. Americans weren't ignoring any part of their music legacy... they were just coming at it from a different direction. The Roadrunners, like 100s of other combos, played long sets that needed to be filled and padded with not only pop hits but the R&B hits of the day as well. The kids came to dance and bands served up familiar tunes to their shuffling and swinging clientele. If you wanted to survive as a band you gave the patrons what they wanted: the songs they new from the radio or the big selling lps. But while U.S. teens kept their eyes largely on the charts, their British counterparts were watching the hits and pilfering the used racks of vinyl shops looking for overlooked and forgotten gems. Combos like the Yardbirds and Rolling Stones had a knack for taking more obscure American blues and r&b tracks and stamping them with their own flavor. On their previous two albums the Stones made Americans take notice of songs like "I'm A King Bee" and "Time Is On My Side" and "Route 66", songs that might have otherwise been largely forgotten by popular culture. But instead of slipping into obscurity Mick Jagger and company turn the songs into set list staples for garage bands across the country. With Out of Our Heads the Rolling Stones did the same with Don Covay's "Mercy Mercy" and Marvin Gay's "Hitch Hike".

In 1966 the Roadrunners entered Tommy Allsup's AOK studio in North Odessa where they cut their own versions of "Mercy Mercy" and "Hitch Hike". Though neither side was ever released, the recordings would have made a fine addition to the brief catalog of KingCo 45s. "Hitch Hike" is a bit funky, but receives a fairly straight reading... no doubt sweaty palmed and nervous 13 year olds in attendance at Odessa's Aristocrat teen club would have recognized the first few notes of the number and jumped to the floor to jerk and swing, or as is more likely the case with teens... just plain ol' spazz out. On the other hand "Mercy Mercy" absolutely pops with the Roadrunners turning in a rather spirited version of the song. It is the sound of a group of seasoned performers rather than high school kids... the vocals are tight and Colvin's drumming is great. How much of a Stones influence would have been present had the Roadrunners ever made it back to AOK to lay down original tracks?

By 1967 the Roadrunners were beginning to shift directions. Charlie Byford and Stu Bailey joined Bob Bailey and Donnie Butler in a Houston-bound version of the Shades (soon to be Shayde and under contract with International Artists). Drummer Jeff Colvin joined the New Image along with guitar/steel guitar virtuoso Al Perkins (formerly of the Mystics and the Shades and futurely in Foxx and Manassas) and was doing the Midessa hop for weekly gigs at the Pussycat A-Go Go. Jeff would eventually go on to keep time for the locally (in)famous American Embassy as well as Foxx, Sweet Briar, and Blazed Glory which also included Steve Smith, formerly of the Knight's Bridge.

With the original Roadrunners splitting and a handful of bookings still on the Roadrunner calender Ben called on the recently relocated Bob Simonetti and His Agents for assistance and once those bookings were fulfilled Ben moved on to other projects, including the locally famous Roxgarden. Bob Simonetti, seeing the value of an established local name, dropped the Agents moniker and continued to take bookings as the Roadrunners.

These new Roadrunners eventually became the New Roadrunners who recorded one sole 45 for the AOK label.

Their story is coming shortly...
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Thanks to Scott Schenkel- a wealth of information on the post-'66 Odessa music scene. It was Scott who put me in contact with Brett Bates of the New Roadrunners and then Brett's contacts with other members of the New Roadrunners eventually led me to Jeff Colvin and Ben Durall, of the original Roadrunners. Big thanks to Ben for sharing memories and the clips of "Mercy Mercy" and "Hitch Hike" Thanks also to Jeff for the pictures of the original Roadrunners and New Image and putting up with a storm of emails.

In the next month or two I'll pick up where I left off and cover the New Roadrunners.

I'm still working on Scott's old band, the Knight's Bridge, as well.