Sonobeat Artists
Genesee
Second time around
In mid January 1971 Sonobeat co-founder and producer Bill Josey Sr. began working with progressive rock band Genesee, recording the group at Sonobeat Records’ Western Hills Drive studio in northwest Austin. The first incarnation of the band had collapsed a few months earlier and, after the departure of two founding members, the band dropped down to a quartet and was ready to give it a second shot. Genesee’s second line-up featured original members Layton DePenning, Chuck Rogers, and Gary P. Nunn and added John Inmon (formerly of South Canadian Overflow and Plymouth Rock, both of which Sonobeat previously recorded). In the first incarnation of the band, Gary played keyboards, but when the band restructured after bassist Jerry Potter’s departure, Gary took over bass. Drummer Tommy Taylor, who has worked with dozens of well-known Austin musicians and bands, recalled that Genesee’s roadies were Jack Borders and Danny Gibson, who drove a green and white Ford van. The band was managed by Sonobeat friend Mike Lucas, program director and afternoon deejay at Austin’s then top rock ’n’ roll radio station, KNOW.
This [second] group also succumbed to financial deprivation after about a year. [It] was intended to be a hard rock four piece [playing] some of The Who, Blue Cheer, The Rolling Stones, etc. True to form, however, our folk, country, and country-rock roots caused us to write and perform all types of styles prevalent at the time.”
The Genesee sessions – which yielded three tracks – were recorded on Sonobeat’s half-inch 4-track Scully 280 and half-inch 4-track Stemco 500-4. Producer Bill Josey Sr.’s session notes for the third track the band recorded indicate he bounced four tracks on the Scully down to a two track stereo mix on the Stemco in order to open up the two remaining tracks for vocal overdubs. That third song, written by John Inmon, is titled Littlefield Fountain, a reference to the Littlefield Memorial Fountain, a University of Texas landmark on the 21st Street entrance to the campus. The fountain and its massive bronze sculpture mark the entrance to the long South Mall on the campus. Layton recalled in a Sonobeat Historical Archives interview that John’s inspiration for the song was likely his heartbreaking split from his long time childhood sweetheart.
The band was plagued with constant misspellings of its unusual name. In the dozens of Austin newspaper ads for the band’s nightclubs gigs, Genesee was sometimes referred to as “Genesse” but more often as “Genessee”. It was rare that it was referred to correctly as “Genesee”, but the misspellings likely had no affect on attendance at its gigs.
Although every member of both versions of Genesee made their mark in Austin music, notably Gary P. Nunn was inducted into the Austin Music Awards Hall of Fame in 2001. In 1985 he was named the State of Texas’ Official Ambassador to the World by Texas Governor Mark White. Ironically, also in 1985, Gary moved to his native Oklahoma, where he founded the annual Terlingua North Chili Cook-Off and Music Festival. He moved back to Austin in 2003 and in 2007 was named Musical Ambassador for Texas by governor Rick Perry. Layton DePenning operates a recording studio in Buda, Texas, a few miles south of Austin, and is a long-time member of venerable Austin country-rock band Denim.
Who was who
First version
- Richard Dean (rhythm guitar and vocals)
- Layton DePenning (lead guitar and vocals)
- Jerry Potter (bass and vocals)
- Chuck Rogers (drums)
- Gary P. Nunn (keyboards and vocals)
Second version (recorded with Sonobeat)
- Layton DePenning (lead guitar and vocals)
- John Inmon (rhythm guitar and vocals)
- Chuck Rogers (drums)
- Gary P. Nunn (bass and vocals)
Recording details
Unreleased recording
- Littlefield Fountain (John Inmon)
- Unidentified song #1
- Unidentified song #2
Produced and engineered by Bill Josey Sr.
Recorded at Sonobeat’s Western Hills Drive studio, Austin, Texas, January 19-20, 1971, and February 4, 11, and 14, 1971
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-input 4-channel mixing console
- Fairchild Lumiten 663ST stereo optical compressor
- Blonder-Tongue Audio Baton 9-band graphic equalizer
- Custom steel plate stereo reverb
- 3M (Scotch) 202 and Ampex 681 tape stock
Listen!
Trivia
Genesee is the name of several small towns across the U.S., a street in Los Angeles (and in a lot of other cities and towns), and a major river flowing from Pennysylvania through New York to Lake Ontario. But Genesee, the band, was named for none of these. Band co-founder Richard Dean, before relocating to Austin in 1969 or ’70, worked the folk music circuit across the mountain states with fellow Dallasites B.W. Stevenson and Michael Martin Murphy (who became seminal figures in Austin’s progressive country movement in the mid-’70s). It was in Colorado that Richard found love, not once but twice: first, he was smitten with the sheer beauty of the state and, second, he married a Native American woman – they were introduced by Townes Van Zandt – from the Denver area. Richard particularly loved the beauty of Genesee Mountain Park, just outside Golden, Colorado, which covers almost 2,500 acres of mountains and valleys. A couple of years later, in Austin, Richard suggested the name to his bandmates as the band was forming, and the name stuck. “Genesee” is a Native American word for “shining valley”.
Our thanks to Tommy Taylor, Layton DePenning, John Inmon, and Ernie Gammage for their recollections of Genesee, which Tommy declares to be “the best progressive rock band that ever played Austin.”
And special thanks to Shaun Kucera for providing the photos of individual band members that appear above.