Artists

The Sonobeat archives hold no information about country singer Joyce Spence (née Street) beyond the fact that in February 1973 she self-finances recording sessions yielding four songs at Sonobeat's studios on North Lamar in Austin, Texas. Comparing Joyce's Sonobeat tracks to those of Johnny Lyon and Janet Lynn, we're able to conclude that Johnny's band, the Country Nu-Notes, provides the backing instrumentals for Joyce. The four songs – (I've Got) a Head on My Shoulders, Don't Make Me Cry, Tied Down, and Troubled Woman – are Joyce's original compositions. Oddly, we find only the raw vocal tracks of Troubled Woman and The Music Soft And The Lights Down Low in the the Sonobeat archives and assume these songs weren't intended as a cappella pieces but, rather, that they were extracted from the session master tapes, which were likely delivered to Joyce since she paid for the sessions.

Sonobeat producer Bill Josey Sr. mixes down monaural demos of I've Got A Head On My Shoulders and Don't Make Me Cry from the half-inch 4-track session masters. In March, as a courtesy to Joyce, he sends a dub of the songs to Ron Bledsoe, Vice President of A&RArtist & Repertoire exeutives at record labels build and manage a roster of artists, connecting them to new songs and overseeing their recording activities. at Columbia Records in Nashville. There are no documents in the Sonobeat archives indicating whether Ron ever responds to Bill, but we can assume it's a "pass", as Columbia never issues any of Joyce's material.

Joyce returns to Sonobeat a month later, in March 1973, to record five additional tracks with Glenn Proctor, mostly Joyce on vocals and Glenn on guitar, along with re-dos of I've Got A Head On My Shoulders and Don't Make Me Cry. Nothing about these songs is known except the titles and composers, which are marked on the tape box holding the mono dubs. Except for Swimming In The Bottle, which is Glenn's composition, these also are Joyce's original songs. Joyce and Glenn record two versions of Swimming In The Bottle. Glenn sings the first version, and Joyce sings the second.

Joyce's February tracks are solidly performed with a solid, straight-up band – the Country Nu-Notes – backing her, who return to back the March re-dos. But these recordings, in a more traditional country style, aren't in the zeitgeist of the progressive country movement that's taken a grip on Austin and the country music industry in the mid-'70s, so Joyce's recordings aren't sold to a major label or released by Sonobeat.

In late 2021, we're approached by The Numero Group, which under license from Joyce has been collecting her recorded output, which includes the tracks Joyce has recorded with Sonobeat and at other studios spanning a decade, and we're pleased to work with Numero to make this happen. In late 2022, Numero releases the digital version of Joyce's anthology album, Tied Down, under her maiden name, Joyce Street. Numero releases the vinyl edition on March 31, 2023.

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