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Hooley!

Manchaca, Texas, singer-songwriter Cody Hubach recorded with Sonobeat on May 5, 1969, at Sonobeat’s home-based Western Hills Drive studio. The session yielded the first version of his original song Hooley, a generous and loving tribute to one of Cody’s Manchaca buddies. The song anchored his live performances and eventually made him a Central Texas country-folk legend.

A regular performer at The Red Lion nightclub on West 6th Street in downtown Austin, Cody not only wrote and sang country-folk and blues songs, he also created unique metal sculptures that filled his yard as well as Central Texas art galleries. His kinetic sculptures – ranging from towering to mere inches tall – depicted motion of every kind, and his favorite pieces featured wings and wheels with hidden motors that brought them to life. Commercial welder turned musician, as a favor to Sonobeat co-founder Bill Josey Sr., Cody assembled the huge metal frame for Sonobeat’s home-built steel plate reverb that added an echo effect to audio recordings. And, returning the favor, Bill Sr. recorded the aspiring singer-songwriter, but the favor was rewarded with an extraordinary album of Cody’s originals and covers.

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Born Albert Cody Hubach in Austin, Cody grew up in Manchaca (Sonobeat’s founders lived there in the early ’60s) and began writing and singing at age 14. His songs were about people, places, things, and emotions he knew personally. Because so many of Cody’s songs reflected the local people and places of his youth, Cody acquired the nickname “the Manchaca troubadour”.

In addition to Hooley, Cody’s May 1969 session included two additional original songs, Right Now Rhyme and Bringin’ That Money Home. Sonobeat intended Hooley to be the “A” side of a stereo 45 RPM single. Of the two additional songs, producer Bill Josey Sr. selected Right Now Rhyme as the “B” side, although he considered the third song, Bringin’ That Money Home, an equally strong candidate for the single. For reasons undocumented in the Sonobeat archives, Sonobeat never released Cody’s single. However, one likely reason is that during 1969 Sonobeat was focusing on Austin-area progressive rock bands and may have felt it couldn’t successfully market another country-folk flavored single (Sonobeat released its first pure country single, by Ronnie and the West Winds in 1968, years before Austin’s progressive country movement took root).

By the early ’70s, Austin’s progressive rock movement was being displaced by Austin’s progressive country movement, so Cody returned in October 1972 to record a folk-inflected eponymous demo album at Sonobeat Studios on North Lamar in Austin. The album, produced and engineered by Bill Josey Sr., featured ten songs, including a cover of The 13th Floor Elevators’ I’ve Seen Your Face Before (Splash 1) and a re-recorded version of Hoolie (spelled differently than the first version Cody recorded in 1969). Sonobeat typically shopped its album masters to national labels, preferring to release only 45 RPM singles on its own label, and by 1972 had switched from more expensive vinyl demo albums to inexpensive audiocassettes to circulate to national label A&RArtist & Repertoire (A&R) executives at record labels recruit and manage a roster of artists, connecting them to new songs and overseeing their recording and promotional activities. executives. Although the Sonobeat archives don’t indicate whether Bill Sr. submitted Cody’s demo to any of the majors, we feel he offered the album to at least one or two, including his friends at Columbia Records in Nashville, to gauge interest.

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While recording with Sonobeat in ’69, Cody introduced the Joseys to another south Austin singer/songwriter, Bill Wilson, with whom Sonobeat recorded a song demo album later in the year. Over the course of his career, Cody sang many songs written by Wilson, and vice versa. Cody and Wilson shared the stage in a folkfest that closed Austin’s Zilker Hillside Theater summer season on August 10, 1969. Wilson wrote Ballad of Cody to reflect their enduring friendship.

A tape box in the Sonobeat archives is marked “Cody and Lonnie”. The tape in the box contains dubs of the three tunes Cody recorded at Sonobeat’s studio in 1969. We believe, though we’re not sure, that “Lonnie” refers to Lonnie Wages, who at one time served as one of Willie Nelson’s roadies based out of Austin and who may have accompanied Cody on these three tracks.

Among Cody’s post-Sonobeat achievements were many self-released country-folk singles and albums, guest appearances on the albums of other influential Central Texas country artists including Willie Nelson, regular performances at honky tonks and clubs throughout Central Texas, and an appearance as himself in Willie Nelson’s 1980 feature film, Honeysuckle Rose. Austin Mayor Gus Garcia proclaimed October 24, 2002, “Cody Hubach Day” in recognition of Cody’s efforts to establish Austin as the Live Music Capital of the World. On February 6, 2003, at age 58, Cody succumbed to cancer, leaving a legacy of songs written and sung from his heart.

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