Wildfire at a Brownwood, Texas, performance
courtesy Barbara Light Lacy

Southern California to Central Texas (and back and forth)

From 1969 until the band broke up in 1972, Wildfire made Austin its home during The University of Texas’ fall and spring semesters, returning to Southern California during the summers. After laying down partial tracks at The Beach Boys’ California recording studio in summer 1970 – Wildfire guitarist Randy Love is Beach Boy Mike Love’s cousin and played with The Beach Boys in the late ’90s – the trio returned to Austin and eventually ended up, toward the end of the year, at Sonobeat’s Western Hills Drive studio in northwest Austin. There they cut a demo of original material. Sonobeat co-founder Bill Josey Sr. produced and engineered Wildfire’s eight-song album demo in what was likely the first of Sonobeat’s “work for hire” sessions – those in which Sonobeat simply provided studio facilities and engineering services in exchange for hourly fees. Since Wildfire payed for its sessions, it owned its master tapes and, with Bill’s assistance, self-released the resulting album entitled Smokin’. The album, following the style of Sonobeat’s classic demo LPs, was released in a plain white jacket bearing hand numbered stickers. The album’s initial pressing (band members recollect variously from 100 to 1,000 copies, but the actual number is likely only around 500) rapidly sold out. The band distributed in unknown number of copies in Austin and took the remaining copies back to Southern California, where they were sold at Sound Spectrum in Laguna Beach. The band reportedly gave Sound Spectrum 100 copies, which sold out in two days, and another 100 copies that sold out just as quickly. Today an ultra-rare copy of one of those original vinyl pressings is a “must have” for devoted hard rock garage band collectors. A bootleg of the album circulated in the 1990s but was of poor quality because it was made from a cassette tape copy of the original masters. Sadly, the session master tapes – except for one track, Down to Earth – have been lost for decades, and there isn’t a backup copy in the Sonobeat archives. But, happily, in 2006, the band released a CD of the album, followed by a limited vinyl edition, and now a digital edition on Apple Music and other music download and streaming services, all re-mastered from an open reel copy of the master tape that Barbara Light Lacy, the band’s long-time friend and present producer, had held onto for more than 35 years. And, by the way, Barbara is co-author of the Austintatious quartet of music-based historical novels set, of course, in Austin, Texas, beginning with 19th and University: A Tale of 1968 Austin and concluding with, of course, Austintatious, all available on Amazon.

The trio finally broke up in 1972 with Danny’s departure (he returned to Southern California to join The Blitz Brothers rock band), but Randy stayed in Austin, playing Texas venues as “Wildfire” on his own in the years that followed, eventually relocating to Houston, Texas, and co-founding rock cover bands Teaser followed by Jonny B and the Bad Boys. In 1997, Randy returned to Southern California, playing gigs with The Beach Boys during the two years following Carl Wilson’s death. Randy then joined the Immigration and Naturalization Service, a dramatic career change that lasted 20 years. Following Wildfire’s break-up, Donny relocated to Seattle, Washington, where he joined the mildly successful Black Diamond, later touring with former members of the Native American band Redbone. Donny eventually settled in Placerville, California, where he retired soon after marrying and the birth of his first child, but retirement didn’t last long and in the late 1990s he joined a favorite Placerville band, Jelly Side Down. Danny Jamison passed away in 2014. The band’s retrospective web site features lyrics and sound clips from all eight songs on the highly prized Smokin’ album along with other interesting tidbits about the band and its members. Wildfire’s site also offers the remastered album for purchase on CD. Sonobeat friend Klemen Breznikar offers an illuminating interview with Wildfire drummer Donnie Martin at It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine. We can assure you that where there’s smoke, there’s fire... Wildfire, that is.

Danny Jamison on stage
courtesy Barbara Light Lacy

The only Wildfire tape in the Sonobeat archives

New Orleans Club ad for Wildfire’s “going away party” and performance in May 1971