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.

Tracking notes for Helmer’s recordings

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

The front cover of the Toe-Tapping Tunes album jacket

The back of the Toe-Tapping Tunes album jacket