Austin to Haight-Ashbury and back

Spring 1970 also is when Whistler came to record with Sonobeat co-founder and producer Bill Josey Sr. Although the Sonobeat archives are silent on the location of Whistler’s recording sessions, we’re reasonably certain that they were held at Sonobeat’s intimate home-based Western Hills Drive studio in northwest Austin. The sessions produced two tracks – Jean Harlow and We Crossed the Line, both composed by the band’s guitarist and lead vocalist, Roy Robinson. We’ve been unable to locate the original half-inch 4-track session masters, which the archives refer to, but we did find monaural mix-downs of the two songs, both of which are solidly performed. We assume that Bill Sr. intended to release the songs as a Sonobeat single during summer 1970. But Whistler’s single never was released, and we think we know why: the band abruptly moved to San Francisco in late spring, shortly after completing its Sonobeat sessions. That made the band’s personal appearances in Central Texas – Sonobeat’s primary market – to promote the single impossible, thus assuring a Sonobeat regional release would be a commercial failure.

The band moved to California in hopes of capitalizing on the folk-rock hippie movement that coalesced during 1967’s Summer of Love in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district, and, indeed, Whistler played gigs at The Family Dog and Fillmore West, both iconic Bay Area hippie venues, and briefly toured with Santana. But the band returned to Austin in August and immediately booked regular weeknight gigs at The New Orleans Old World Nightclub and The Chequered Flag, both in downtown Austin. Whistler was one of only three acts selected to play the grand opening – August 7, 1970 – at The Vulcan Gas Company’s successor, Armadillo World Headquarters. The band’s return to Austin rekindled Sonobeat’s interest in releasing the single, but only weeks after Whistler’s Armadillo grand opening performance, the unit fell apart. Core members reformed in September ’70 as country-boogie trio Cross Country, performing frequently at the Armadillo as well as at The Chequered Flag, but with the trio sporting a new name and new sound, once again Sonobeat abandoned plans to release Jean Harlow and We Crossed the Line, this time permanently shelving the tracks.

---

The Whistler unit that Sonobeat recorded in spring 1970 featured Roy Robinson (professionally known today as Amos Staggs), Linda Robinson (Roy’s wife), Jenkins Garrett, and Bill Dorman. In 1973, after a three year hiatus, Whistler regrouped, this time with a line-up featuring Bill Dorman, Roy and Linda Robinson, Richard “Red” Schulz (pedal steel and dobro), and George Smid (drums). This new incarnation of Whistler opened and then continued to play regular gigs at Austin’s Soap Creek Saloon, Castle Creek, and River City Inn (where the band held down a regular Sunday night spot for months). On April 18, 1973, an Austin Statesman newspaper feature by Mary Pat O’Malley warmly captured Whistler’s “homey country rock” return to Austin on the occasion of the band’s “whing-ding” performance with Willie Nelson at Armadillo World Headquarters. In 1974, the band took its final bow. Roy, taking the stage name Amos Staggs, continues a long-running career touring the U.S. with dozens of country and pop music icons and writing dozens of hit songs.

As noted above, we haven’t found Whistler’s 4-track session masters, so in 2023, to demonstrate the band’s excellent harmonies, we used AI audio tools to extract the vocals and offer below an excerpt from We Crossed the Line.

---

---

---

---

---