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So many unknowns

By spring 1976, after more than eight years in business, Sonobeat’s master tape library was clogged with reels in which unrelated one-off recordings, outtakes, false starts, and trial mixes were strung together for archival purposes, often in haphazard ways and often undocumented. As we indexed the archives, sometimes we found reels holding assorted scraps, but sometimes those reels held long forgotten but hidden gems. For example, while cataloging the Sonobeat master tape library in 2008, we discovered one such reel in a 7-1/2" tape box. The box previously contained White Light and Michele Murphy recordings, but both names were scratched out, and the names Al & Alec were scribbled in below. We recognized the handwriting as that of Sonobeat co-founder Bill Josey Sr. His note “Take 2 (near end of tape)” seemed to indicate there were more of Al & Alec elsewhere in the archives.

So we dug deeper, finding three more tapes containing recordings by Al & Alec, although two were marked only as “Al”. All were in previously used tape boxes, with other artists’ names scratched out similarly to the first box we found.

The Michele Murphy material previously stored in the Al & Alec tape boxes – and whose name is scratched out – was dated April 17, 1976, so we believe Bill recorded 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 when we re-cataloged the master tape library in 2014, we concluded that the Al & Alec sessions were likely the last that Bill recorded before he became too ill to continue operating his studio. Bill succumbed to cancer in September ’76. But there’s a twist that we”ll cover in a moment...

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

Because of the markings on one tape box, we originally thought Rebecca Lynn was still another artist Bill recorded and stored on the same tape with the Al & Alec material. But when we auditioned the tape, we realized Rebecca Lynn is a song, not another artist. In fact, the tape contains multiple takes of Rebecca Lynn along with a song called The Fox. On another Al & Alec tape, we found 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 was steering Sonobeat, whose roots mostly had been rock ’n’ roll, blues, and jazz recordings, toward the Austin progressive sounds – both progressive rock and progressive country – that began emerging as the decade clicked over from the 1960s to the ’70s. Indeed, Austin’s progressive country music scene was approaching its zenith in ’76, when the Al & Alec recordings were made, and Liberty Hill was the site of outlaw country superstar Willie Nelson’s famous Fourth of July Picnic concert in 1973. While we’re not certain, it’s a safe bet that Al & Alec were from the Central Texas area, if not from Austin itself, where most of the artists who recorded at Bill’s Blue Hole Sounds were based. Perhaps Bill caught Al & Alec performing in local nightclubs and dance halls elsewhere around Central Texas, or perhaps Jeannine Hoke introduced them to Bill.

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We know nothing more about the Al & Alec recordings or the sessions that yielded them. We don’t know Al and Alec’s last names, 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. We can’t even ask Jeannine Hoke to help identify Al & Alec, as she passed away in 2017.