Sonobeat Artists

HELMER DAHL

One man band.
From polka to pop and more.

Helmer Dahl
Home base: Hutto, Texas
Genre: Polka | Pop
Recorded with Sonobeat: 1976
Sonobeat release: Toe-Tapping Tunes stereo album (1976)

Surprise, surprise

In March 2014, as we were checking online to see what vinyl collectors were paying for rare copies of Sonobeat’s 1960s and ’70s 45 RPM singles, we fell upon Helmer Dahl’s Toe-Tapping Tunes album, attributed to Sonobeat. We were surprised to find this previously undocumented Sonobeat commercial album release, because we had always believed The David Flack Quorum’s 1976 album Mindbender was Sonobeat’s final release. So we bought the Dahl album on eBay. When it arrived, in its original jacket and in pretty good condition, we found it was indeed a Sonobeat release, co-produced by Helmer Dahl and Sonobeat co-founder Bill Josey Sr. and engineered by Bill and his studio sidekick Tom Penick. Although the Sonobeat archives contain the Helmer Dahl session and master tapes and Bill’s session notes, until we had the vinyl album in hand, we were unsure whether Helmer Dahl was the name of a band or an individual, much less that these Sonobeat recordings were ever commercially released. But the disc we bought on eBay told us not only that Toe-Tapping Tunes was Sonobeat’s final commercial release but that Helmer Dahl was an individual who sounded like an entire band.

Helmer’s story continues below ↓

Helmer Dahl




Sonobeat Artists


Helmer Dahl


Truly a one-man band

The Sonobeat archives tell us that Helmer Dahl’s sessions were held at Sonobeat’s Blue Hole Sounds studio on the outskirts of Liberty Hill, Texas, about 30 miles north of Austin. Recording started with an April 1, 1976, session and then resumed during the period May 11-13. According to the Sonobeat archives, along with Helmer, Michele Murphy, who recorded a final session with Sonobeat on April 17, 1976, and Al & Alec, who recorded a handful of songs sometime in May or June ’76, were the final artists Bill was able to record before becoming too weak from cancer, that had been diagnosed in 1975 and was rapidly worsening, to continue running his studio.

So, with Helmer’s album in hand, we began our online research with an actual factual starting point. Throughout the ’70s, Helmer was a busy and highly sought after Central Texas musician. His home base was Hutto, a small Central Texas town about 28 miles east-southeast of the Blue Hole Sounds studios in Liberty Hill, but Helmer performed frequently in Austin as well as throughout Central Texas. Helmer offered up a combination of pop standards, such as Release Me, and traditional northern European folk songs like Beer Barrel Polka and Westphalia Waltz, which he performed on a Baldwin electric organ with sonic enhancements via an Arp Pro-Soloist synthesizer and Wurlitzer Side Man perched atop the Baldwin. The Arp and Side Man provided sound effects, fiddles, and rhythm sounds that Helmer used to create the impression an entire band was playing. And, unless you saw Helmer perform at a VFW post, Lions Club event, nightclub, corporate event, or private party, you wouldn’t have suspected his sound was generated by just one person at the dual keyboards. Of course, today, a solo artist using a digital workstation and MIDI keyboard can sound like an entire orchestra; but Helmer – flying solo – sounded like an entire band long before such digital technology existed. He became a Central Texas celebrity because of his extraordinary keyboard talents and enjoyed a 50+ year performing career.


Session notes
Tracking notes for Helmer’s recordings
Album sequencing notes
Bill Josey Sr.’s album sequencing notes

To complete Sonobeat’s final album release, Bill brought Helmer back into the studio for an impromptu session on May 13, 1976, recording two additional songs, Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue (shorthanded in Bill’s notes simply as 5'2") and Cotton Eyed Joe. These tunes brought the total running time of the album to about the 40 minute vinyl album release standard. Helmer’s album, Toe-Tapping Tunes, indeed was Sonobeat’s final release. We were able to determine that the likely release date was the first week of September 1976 from the fact that during the week of September 6th, Helmer placed a small ad promoting the availability of the album in the Taylor [Texas] Daily Press newspaper. Bill succumbed to cancer three weeks later, likely unaware that the album had been released. Helmer’s Toe-Tapping Tunes stands as Bill’s, and Sonobeat’s, final public contribution to the Central Texas music scene. Helmer, born the sixth of seven children to Swedish immigrants to the U.S., passed away on August 6, 2023, at age 99.


Helmer Dahl's master tape
Helmer Dahl’s master tape
Toe-Tapping Tunes front cover
The front cover of the Toe-Tapping Tunes album jacket
Toe-Tapping Tunes back cover
The back of the Toe-Tapping Tunes album jacket

Toe-Tapping Tunes
Recording and release details
33-1/3 RPM stereo album

Toe-Tapping Tunes

Catalog number: S7976

Four-color (front) and black and white (back) jacket

Released week of September 7, 1976*

*Release date is approximated using best information available from the Sonobeat archives and public records



Side I:

  • In The Mood (Garland-Razaf) • 2:30
  • Westphalia Waltz (Collins) • 3:12
  • Just One More Dance (R.L. Bryant) • 2:32
  • Beer Barrel Polka (Brown-Timm-Vejvoda) • 2:30
  • Hawaiian Sunset (public domain) • 2:39
  • Spanish Eyes (Kaempfert-Snyder-Singleton) • 2:30
  • Somewhere My Love (Webster-Jarre) • 2:53

Side II:

  • The Wanderer (Maresca) • 2:58
  • Release Me (Miller-Stevenson) • 2:26
  • Cotton Eyed Joe (public domain) • 1:59
  • Rock Medley (arranged and adapted by Helmer Dahl) • 1:54
  • Quintin's Theme (Cobert) • 2:06
  • Julida Polka (public domain) • 1:26
  • Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue (Henderson-Lewis-Young) • 1:42
  • Blue Skirt Waltz (Blaha-Parish) • 2:17
  • Oh Susannah Schottische (pubic domain) • 1:49


Producers (uncredited): Helmer Dahl and Bill Josey

Engineers: Bill Josey and Tom Penick

Liner photo: Eugene Hebbe

Liner notes (uncredited): Bill Josey

Recorded at The Club Seville at the Crest Motor Inn, Austin, Texas, on July 26 and 27, 1967

Recorded using...

  • ElectroVoice Slimair 636 dynamic and Sony ECM-22 electret condenser microphones
  • Dokorder 7140 quarter-inch 4-track and Ampex 2100 quarter-inch 2-track tape decks
  • Custom 16-input 4-channel mixing console
  • Fairchild Lumiten 663ST stereo optical compressor
  • Blonder-Tongue Audio Baton 9-band graphic equalizer
  • Custom steel plate stereo reverb
  • TDK L-1800 tape stock


Unknown number of copies manufactured

Lacquers mastered and vinyl copies pressed by Wakefield Manufacturing in Phoenix, Arizona

Four-color (front) and black & white (back) jacket

Labels and jackets printed by Wakefield Manufacturing in Phoenix, Arizona

  • Side I: S-7976A WMEMI-S
  • Side II: S-7976B WMEMI-S
  • “WMEMI” identifies Wakefield Manufacturing as as the lacquer mastering and pressing plant. The W appears over the M.


Unreleased recording
  • My Happiness (Blasco-Bergantine)

Listen!
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Helmer Dahl
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Toe-Tapping Tunes
Album Liner Notes

This album carries you through a happy, toe-tapping, dancing and listening adventure.

The songs recorded in this album were especially arranged by the artist, and are the answer to many requests for an album of music “just like you’re playing now”.

The exciting and delightful stereo sounds created were produced with a Baldwin organ married to an Arp Pro-Soloist Synthesizer. With skillful talent and “doing things his way”, you will hear sounds ranging from a steam locomotive to twin fiddles, with rhythms from waltz to rock. This album has the sound of a complete band.

We think you will be delighted as you listen, and be looking for future releases.

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