fast cotton
Fast rise, fast fall.
Rockin’ R&B.
Cooling down a hot Austin band
From 1965 to 1969, the Sweetarts was one of the hottest nightclub and University of Texas fraternity party bands in Austin, Texas. The band played a mixture of top 40 covers and originals and happened also to record Sonobeat’ first commercial 45 RPM release, A Picture of Me, in 1967. In 1969, while still the “Sweetarts”, its founding members Ernie Gammage, Dwight Dow, Tom Van Zandt, and Pat Whitefield were joined by lead guitarist Johnny Richardson (formerly of Georgetown Medical Band), vocalist Misty Browning, and saxophonist Cato T. Walker in a revamp of the band and its musical direction. By 1970, the band had morphed into Fast Cotton. When Sonobeat co-founder and producer Bill Josey Sr. recorded Fast Cotton in November 1970, Danny Galindo, formerly of The 13th Floor Elevators, had replaced Pat Whitefield on bass guitar. The arrival of Johnny, Misty, and Cato thickened up the old Sweetarts sound (which was real good by any standard), and, in its new incarnation as Fast Cotton with Danny’s addition, the band shifted its focus away from top 40-style frat rock to a synthesis of blues-rock, R&B, and experimental rock material.
Sonobeat Artists
Fast Cotton
courtesy Ernie Gammage
A new mix, a new sound
In November 1970, Fast Cotton recorded five songs for producer Bill Josey Sr. at Sonobeat’s Western Hills Drive studio in northwest Austin. All were solid, tight performances of original material. The only complete mixes we’ve found in the Sonobeat archives are monaural trial mixes made from the original half-inch 4-track session masters. From the five song, Bill Sr. and Ernie selected two for final mix downs as a potential Sonobeat 45 RPM stereo single release, but Fast Cotton unexpectedly broke up when Tom left to join the Peace Corps and Ernie moved to England, both within a month after wrapping the Sonobeat sessions. Without a band to support a release, Bill was forced to scrap plans for the single and shelve the tapes.
Ernie returned to Sonobeat in 1973 to record with Base, an experimental studio band that Sonobeat co-founder Bill Josey Sr. assembled in 1972 specifically to record in the then-new quadraphonic audio format. Over the decades, Ernie has headlined many Austin-based bands, such as Ernie Sky and the K-Tels, The Good Earth, and Plum Nelly, and today regularly performs throughout Texas as a founding member of The Lost Austin Band. Danny Galindo passed away in 2001 and Cato T. Walker in March 2012. Pat Whitefield left Fast Cotton to play bass in Austin’s developing jazz/blues scene, eventually joining The Fabulous Thunderbirds. In 2001, Pat reunited with Tom Van Zandt and Misty Browning to form Austin rhythm and blues-pop band Smokehouse, which then became the Leghounds when Misty departed. Pat died in Austin, Texas, at age 72 on August 5, 2019, following brain surgery on July 3rd to remove a glioblastoma. Misty relocated to Sonoma, California, in 2008 and, after a years’ long battle with cancer, died in January 2022 at age 71.
Cato [Walker] always told us he was B.B. King’s cousin. We never believed him, but he actually is! Instead of the top 40 cover tunes the ’Tarts had concentrated on early in their career, Fast Cotton did obscure album cuts and much more interesting material, including the originals we cut for Sonobeat. Before Fast Cotton could really get rolling, Tom joined the Peace Corps and left for Ethiopia and I moved to England.”
Fast Cotton was...
- Misty Browning (vocals)
- Dwight Dow (drums)
- Danny Galindo (bass)
- Ernie Gammage (rhythm guitar and vocals)
- Johnny Richadson (lead guitar)
- Tom Van Zandt (keyboards)
- Cato T. Walker (tenor sax)
- Pat Whitefield (bass; didn’t record on the Sonobeat sessions)
Recording details
Unreleased recordings
- I’m Not the Fool You Made Me
- Lady
- Out Like a Light
- That’s What My Man Is For
- There’s Something About a Fifteen Year Old Girl
All songs composed by Ernie Gammage
Produced and engineered by Bill Josey Sr.
Basic instrumental tracks recorded on November 11, 1970; vocal overdubs recorded on November 12, 1970; and sax overdubs recorded on November 22, 1970
Recorded using...
- AKG D707E dynamic, ElectroVoice Slimair 636 dynamic, and Sony ECM-22 electret condenser microphones
- Scully 280 half-inch 4-track, Stemco 500-4 half-inch 4-track, and Ampex AG-350 quarter-inch 2-track tape decks
- Custom 16-channel 4-bus mixing console
- Fairchild Lumiten 663ST stereo optical compressor
- Blonder-Tongue Audio Baton 9-band graphic equalizer
- Custom steel plate stereo reverb
- Ampex 681 tape stock
Listen!
Trivia
Fast Cotton was named for a greyhound dog that drummer Dwight Dow saw at a race track in Corpus Christi, Texas. Not sure whether Dwight bet on that dog, though.
There are very few surviving photos of the interior of Sonobeat’s Western Hills Drive studio, which occupied a converted bedroom suite on the lower level of the split level Josey home in northwest Austin. Ernie Gammage’s personal website offers some rare photographic glimpses into Fast Cotton’s Sonobeat sessions and is definitely worth a visit.