Sonobeat Recording Company (which included the Sonobeat Records label and BMI-affiliated Sonosong Music Company) was formed at the beginning of 1967 in Austin, Texas, by Bill Josey Sr. and Bill Josey Jr.

Sonobeat is considered by many to be an integral seed of the Austin music scene. From 1967 to 1976, the small Central Texas label's prodigious output introduced Johnny Winter, Eric Johnson, Rusty Wier, and dozens of luminary Texas musicians to the world.

Sonobeat.com offers an objective history and anecdotes of Sonobeat and the artists who helped create and shape the Austin music scene.

Sonobeat.com offers insights into how Sonobeat was formed, grew, and operated. But more than that, Sonobeat.com's exclusive access to the Sonobeat archives -- including master audio tapes, photographs, and documents long thought lost -- provides a unique retrospective into the diverse and dynamic Central Texas music scene in the late '60s and early '70s, as Austin emerged to become the live music capital of the world. The Sonobeat story is really about hundreds of talented musicians who have made musical history in Austin.

Sonobeat.com is divided into history, artists, and discography sections, each presented in chronological order. The artists section presents sound bites, in Flash format, from the Sonobeat archives. In addition, Sonobeat.com now includes special features, such as Sonobeat Trivia and the KAZZ Connection. Whether you're newly initiated into Austin's rich musical heritage or were part of its '60s and '70s music scene, there are surprises, delights, and rarities sprinkled throughout Sonobeat.com.

Lavender Hill Express

At the end of 1967, Austin, Texas, rock band Lavender Hill Express began a one-year multi-record relationship with Sonobeat Records. The first Lavender Hill Express release was the up-tempo Visions, a pop-rock tour-de-force with terrific harmony vocal parts, written by guitarist Layton DePenning, now with Austin band Denim. The flip side was keyboardist Johnny Schwertner's ballad Trying to Live a Life, featuring a lead vocal hand-off from Schwertner to DePenning at the final verse. The single just barely made it out in '67, hitting Austin stores Christmas week. Read more >



New sound bites from Lavender Hill Express' three Sonobeat singles and a previously unreleased song >

April 27, 2008 -- Never-before-released recordings from Base and Cody Hubach.

May 5, 2008 -- Newly discovered solos by Sweetarts' and Fast Cotton's Tom Van Zandt.