Sonobeat Artists
Gary York and Evelyn
A shot in the spotlight
Almost nothing is known about the January 1973 session that Sonobeat co-founder Bill Josey Sr. conducted with Gary Willard York and Evelyn (whose last name is not listed in the Sonobeat archives). The entire output of the session, recorded at Sonobeat Studios at 705 North Lamar just west of downtown Austin, is a monaural demo of Gary’s original song People. We caught up with Gary in 2008, but he remembered little about the session or even writing the song. However, he did recall spending a lot of time around the Sonobeat studios, assisting Bill with microphone set-ups and “learning the ropes” of operating a recording studio. During that era, Gary was enrolled in the radio-TV-film and music programs at The University of Texas, so hanging around the Sonobeat studio gave him an opportunity to put into actual practice what he was studying. His Sonobeat recording session feels a little like extra credit.
Musicians on the demo include then 21-year-old Gary, Evelyn (the vocalist), and backing musicians Russ, Ken, and Rex. Gary recalled that when the recording was made, Evelyn attended Concordia CollegeFounded in 1926 in Austin, Texas, as a high school affiliate of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. In 1951, the high school upgraded to Concordia College, granting 2-year Associate in Arts degrees. In 1980, Concordia became Concordia University, granting 4-year Bachelor of Arts degrees. It’s now known as Concordia University Texas. in Austin. He also recalled that Russ, Ken, and Rex (whose last names are not listed in the Sonobeat archives and that Gary couldn’t recall) also were in blues band Rocking Horse that regularly played Austin’s Armadillo World Headquarters, the Backroom Club, and the I.L. Club; however, we’ve been unable to confirm that Russ, Ken, and Rex were members of the band. Gary moved on and years later built and operated Mellow Morning Music Productions in Tyler, Texas, but eventually moved 35 miles northeast to Longview, Texas. Born on September 12, 1951, Gary succumbed on June 20, 2016, to congestive heart failure.
There’s nothing more in the Sonobeat archives about the mysterious session with Gary and Evelyn or what Bill did with the demo. We’ve surmised that the session was a gift from Bill Sr. to Gary in appreciation for Gary’s help around the studio, which also may explain why there are no session notes in the Sonobeat archives; Bill didn’t intend to release a single by the duo, so there was no need to keep a record of the session. This seems to be supported by the fact that Bill recorded only one song with Gary and Evelyn.
The players
- Gary York (acoustic guitar)
- Evelyn (last name unknown) (vocals)
- Ken (last name unknown) (bass)
- Rex (last name unknown) (organ)
- Russ (last name unknown) (guitar)
Recording details
Unreleased recording
- People (Gary York) • 3:20
Produced and engineered by Bill Josey Sr.
Recorded at Sonobeat Studios, 705 North Lamar, Austin, Texas, in January 1973
Recorded using...
- ElectroVoice Slimair 636 dynamic and Sony ECM22 electret condenser microphones
- Scully 280 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
- 3M (Scotch) 202 tape stock
Who’s Evelyn?
“Evelyn” is listed on the back of the Sonobeat master tape box as the vocalist on Gary York’s song People. There are no session notes in the Sonobeat archives that provide additional clues to Evelyn’s identity. In 2008, Gary told us that at the time of the recording session – January 1973 – Evelyn was a divinity student at Concordia College in Austin and intended to become a nun. Concordia College, now Concordia University Texas, was founded in 1926 by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and, yes, the Lutheran Church does have monastic orders populated by friars and nuns, so we trust this aspect of Gary’s recollection about Evelyn. In the 1970s Concordia was a two-year junior college, and, therefore, Evelyn would have been either a freshman or sophomore, so our educated guess puts her age at 18 to 20 years when she recorded People. Gary couldn’t recall how he knew Evelyn or how she came to be the vocalist on the recording. The fact that producer Bill Josey Sr. called the act “Gary York and Evelyn” on the master tape box adds to the mystery, as it seems to indicate that the pair performed together, though we can find no evidence that they did. Our newspaper research – primarily the Austin American-Statesman and University of Texas Daily Texan archives – has turned up no clues to help us unravel the Evelyn mystery. We even searched the internet for any Concordia College graduate in the mid-1970s named Evelyn and came up empty. Seems we’ll never know Evelyn’s last name or what became of her.
Listen!
Our posthumous thanks to Gary York for his 2008 recollections of his Sonobeat session with Evelyn and for general background about Rocking Horse.