Artists

Austin, Texas, country singer/songwriter Jess DeMaine (Fred Frieling Jr.'s stage name) records at Sonobeat studios on North Lamar in Austin, Texas, beginning in November 1971 and continues, off and on, into 1973. The sessions, produced and engineered by Sonobeat co-founder Bill Josey Sr., demonstrate Jess' impressive vocal talents. Jess is a frequent spotlight performer, as front man for the Country Music Revue, at Austin's Dessau Hall and the Broken Spoke.

Although Jess's first Sonobeat sessions are in 1971, he records four more tracks at Sonobeat in 1972 and 1973. His minimalist performance – just guitar and vocal – of the Jerry Foster/Bill Rice songs Hand of Hurt and Your Kind of Man certainly show off Jess' powerful and expressive voice. In one version of Hand of Hurt (recorded with a band this time, almost certainly Tommy Hill and the Country Music Revue, with whom Jess records at Sonobeat in 1972), Jess is coached by a band member before launching into the song. Bill Sr. apparently never creates mono or stereo mix-downs of these songs; only the original half-inch 4-track session master tapes are in the Sonobeat archives.

Partially paralyzed in a motorcycle accident later in the '70s, Jess overcomes the disability and goes on to write the George Strait country hit Love Comes From The Other Side Of Town and the children's song Little Cowpoke. In 2005, Jess is inducted into the Texas Western Swing Hall of Fame, established in 1988 in the south Austin suburb of Manchaca but now located in nearby San Marcos, Texas. Jess, under his real name, Fred, presently serves as director of the Hearts In Spirit band at Christ Lutheran Church in Austin.