Artists

It's spring 1976. After more than eight years in business, Sonobeat's master tape library is filled with reels in which unrelated one-off recordings, outtakes, and trial mixes are strung together for archival purposes, often in haphazard ways. Sometimes these are just scraps, but sometimes these hold forgotten but hidden gems. While cataloging the Sonobeat master tape library in 2008, we discover one such reel in a 7-1/2" tape box. The box previously contains White Light and Michele Murphy material, but both names are scratched out, and the names Al & Alec are scribbled in below. The handwriting is distinctively Sonobeat co-founder Bill Josey Sr.'s, and the note "Take 2 (near end of tape)" seems to indicate there's more of Al & Alec in the Sonobeat archives.

So we dig deeper into the archives, finding three more tapes containing recordings by Al & Alec, although two are marked only as "Al". All are in previously used tape boxes, with other artists' names scratched out similarly to the first box we find.

The Michele Murphy material previously stored in the Al & Alec tape boxes – and whose name is scratched out – is dated April 17, 1976, so we believe Bill records the Al & Alec material soon thereafter, most likely in May '76. This time frame places the Al & Alec recording sessions at Bill's Blue Hole Sounds studios on the outskirts of Liberty Hill, Texas, 30 miles north of Austin. And, by process of elimination as we re-catalog the master tape library still in 2014, we conclude that the Al & Alec sessions are likely the last that Bill records before he becomes too ill to continue operating the his studios. Bill succumbs to cancer in September '76. But there's a twist that we'll cover in a moment...

Because of the markings on one tape box, we originally think Rebecca Lynn is still another artist Bill has recorded and stored on the same tape with Al & Alec. But when we audition the tape, we realize Rebecca Lynn is a song, not another artist. The tape contains multiple takes of Rebecca Lynn along with a song called The Fox. On another tape, we find multiple takes of Santa Fe (or White Walls of Santa Fe), Flying Circle, Wordless Wonder, and Your Touch. These Al & Alec recordings are good indications that Bill is steering Sonobeat, whose roots mostly have been rock 'n' roll, blues, and jazz recordings, toward the Austin progressive sounds – both progressive rock and progressive country – that begin emerging as the decade clicks over from the '60s to the '70s. Indeed, Austin's progressive country music scene is approaching its zenith in '76, when the Al & Alec recordings are made, and Liberty Hill is the site of outlaw country superstar Willie Nelson's famous Fourth of July Picnic concert in 1973. While we can't be sure, we feel that Al & Alec are from the Central Texas area, if not from Austin itself, where most of the artists recording at Blue Hole Sounds are based. Or perhaps Bill has seen Al & Alec perform in local night clubs and dance halls elsewhere around Central Texas.

And here's that twist: the Al & Alec instrumental track Your Touch is the backing track for Jeannine Hoke's 1976 Sonobeat stereo 45 RPM single, Your Touch (Is Like A Whisper To Me, released in June '76. Jeannine's single is Sonobeat's final release.

We know nothing more about the Al & Alec recordings or the sessions that yielded them. We don't know Al or Alec's last name, the names of the members of the backing band, and whether any of these songs (other than Your Touch, which Jeannine wrote) were Al & Alec's original compositions.