Artists

It's early September 1968 in Austin, Texas, and Sonobeat is recording its first country single, by popular Austin swing band Ronnie and the West Winds. The "A" side of the West Winds' single is leader Ronnie Prellop's original tune, Can't Win For Losing, a duet with an interesting pedal steel guitar figure by Ronnie's cousin Larry Prellop and a solidly twangy rhythm guitar that Ronnie himself plays. The "B" side is an upbeat country swing instrumental, Windy Blues, written by Larry and a show-off piece for Larry's steel guitar. Both songs feature tight performances. With a runnng time under 90 seconds, Windy Blues is the shortest track Sonobeat commercially releases.

Perhaps more unusual than the fact that this is Sonobeat's first country single are these facts: first, the band is composed entirely of high school classmates – still in high school when the Sonobeat single is recorded – who attend Redeemer Lutheran School in north Austin and, second, the West Winds session is recorded at Vulcan Gas CompanyThe Vulcan is Austin's first successful hippie music hall, opening in 1967 in an old warehouse at 316 Congress Avenue and closing in 1970. on Congress Avenue in downtown Austin. The Vulcan is a psychedelic, hard rock, and blues-oriented venue featuring the likes of the 13th Floor Elevators, The Conqueroo, Shiva's Headband, and Johnny Winter and therefore is a little foreign to the West Winds, who are more accustomed to performing at the Broken Spoke, Dessau Hall, Club 195, and other Austin and Central Texas country venues. But this is not a live performance, there's no audience present, and the Vulcan has extraordinary acoustics, so it's as good a venue as any to use to record the West Winds.

Can't Win For Losing gets airplay on Austin country station KOKE and sells modestly well throughout Central Texas.

Ronnie and the West Winds breaks up shortly after the band members graduate high school and end up avoiding the draft by joining the Texas National Guard. This is the height of the Vietnam War and few young men want to risk life or limb in an unpopular southeast Asia guerrilla conflict. By 1970, Ronnie reboots (no pun intended) the band with three of the core West Winds, this time as Ronnie Prellop and the Country Road, who play country-western venues throughout Central Texas until 1977. Some backstory on Ronnie and his "real" job: in 1953, when he's just a tyke, Ronnie's father Herb opens a neighborhood grocery store in the lazy north Austin Crestview area – Crestview is bordered on the west by Burnett Road, on the east by North Lamar, on the south by Justin Lane, and on the north by Anderson Lane. Within a few years, the store moves a couple of blocks, renamed as Crestview Minimax, becoming a local legend for its ultra-friendly service. Ronnie begins working for his father at the store when he's "tall enough to look over the sacks", eventually taking over management of the store in 1991 when Herb passes away. Under Ronnie's leadership, Crestview Minimax is awarded The Austin Chronicle's Best Neighborhood Grocery Store in June 2014. Ronnie sells the store in 2016.