Anyone remember these old west coast players?

Jerry Hayes · Post by **Jerry Hayes** » 14 Sep 2006 6:25 am

Does anyone remember these west coast players from years ago? These are some of the guys who were playing out there when I started in the early sixties. The one's with an asterisk (*) are still playing to the best of my knowlege.....

Blackie Taylor*
Billy Tonneson*
Carl Walden*
Jerry Stevens
Johnny Redd
Major Simpson
Bobby Boydd
Johnny Davis
"Bo Pete"
Don Robinson
Carl West
Rex Endicott
Art Sanchez
Gene Fields*
Skeeter Stoltz
Bill Kennedy
Vernon "Speedy" Price
Bookie Modin
James "JG" O'Rafferty

And of course the more famous players such as JayDee Maness, Red Rhodes, Tom Brumley, & Ralph Mooney.........JH in Va.

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Don't matter who's in Austin (or anywhere else) Ralph Mooney is still the king!!!

[This message was edited by Jerry Hayes on 14 September 2006 at 07:28 AM.]

Tracy Sheehan · Post by **Tracy Sheehan** » 14 Sep 2006 6:48 am

Rex Endicott and i were close friends.Last time i ever saw him was in Tx.as i recall.I was playing with the old Miller Brothers swing band.
Any one remember them?

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 14 Sep 2006 6:58 am

and Vance Terry. And Bobby Black.

John Daugherty · Post by **John Daugherty** » 14 Sep 2006 7:32 am

Gosh Jerry, Those guys must have moved in after I left in 1962. I only remember Gene Fields and Johnny Davis. I think Gene was working at the Fender factory and Johnny was playing with the Bacons.
When I was working there, I worked with Mooney, Sneaky Pete, Roy Nichols, Roy Counts,Jimmy Pierce, Dale Norris, Red Gale, Frank Arnett, Dale Bennett, Helen "Peaches" Price, Gene Davis, Clyde Griffin to mention a few musicians.
Other pickers on the scene were, Al Petty, Billy and Buddy Mize, Jerry "Jay" McDonald.

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www.home.earthlink.net/~johnd37

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 14 Sep 2006 11:37 am

I saw Blackie Taylor and Gene Fields in St. Louis a couple of weeks ago.[This message was edited by b0b on 14 September 2006 at 12:37 PM.]

Perry Hansen · Post by **Perry Hansen** » 14 Sep 2006 12:17 pm

How about Joe Byers. Bobby Brewster, John Cox Mike Young, Buck Turner, from the San Diego, Oceanside areas. Course we all know where Sneaky Pete and Bill Stafford are.

Mike Perlowin · Post by **Mike Perlowin** » 14 Sep 2006 2:27 pm

Hey Jerry, you need to add an asterisk to Johnny Davis' name.

I remember some of those guys.

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Warning: I have a Telecaster and I'm not afraid to use it.
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My web site

Wally Maples · Post by **Wally Maples** » 14 Sep 2006 2:32 pm

I worked with Art Sanchez in Riverside and San Berdoo in 1960. There was never a finer person. I think he died a little over 10 years ago. Jay Dee says he learned steel from Art. Art went to the Palamino Club after we worked together. wally

Jody Carver · Post by **Jody Carver** » 14 Sep 2006 3:05 pm

Jerry
Major Simpson worked with my group back in the late 1950's he played straight guitar and I played Steel.Often we would play twin steel's. Carl West, unfortunatly passed away
a few years back.Carl worked for Fender as well.Carl's legal name was Carl Pouncey.[This message was edited by Jody Carver on 18 September 2006 at 05:18 PM.]

Herman Visser · Post by **Herman Visser** » 14 Sep 2006 3:50 pm

There used to be a gale in south orange county in the 60s that played steel, Nancy Lee

Eric West · Post by **Eric West** » 14 Sep 2006 7:43 pm

A Carl West from Eugene Oregon in his "silver years" has graced our little Steel Guitar get togethers many times over the last twenty years. Played very well, and was/is a very nice fellow. Don't know if he's the same cat.

I haven't seen him at the last couple, and I'm getting kind of burned out on them myself.

EJL

Tracy Sheehan · Post by **Tracy Sheehan** » 14 Sep 2006 8:32 pm

Hey Jerry.You sure brought back some memories.I reember Bill Bacon and his bro was playing in Gardena last time i ever saw them.And i believe it was Roy Nichols who got me a job with a band.Roy was playing at the Hollywood on the Pike if i remember correctly.Moon was playing with Wynn Stewart at Georges Roundup on Long Beach Blvs.I sort of got to know Moon as Wynns drummer was Helen Price and our drummer went with her.
I later went on the road with Wynn a few years later.Any of these places ring a bell? I know there are many i have forgot.Oh yes,this was back in the 50s and i used to Jam with Jimmy Bryant at some club in north Hollywood.I payed fiddle as that was before i took up steel.Jimmy Bryant really played hot fiddle also.Also used to do a daily TV show at KTLA in Paramount stidios.Can't remember all of the ones i backed there.Those were the days.
BTW.By the time i played with Wynn i was a half a.... steel player.I did not like playing coutry on fiddle.
As Reece and i were talking about,back in those days you either picked it or packed it.LOL
Shorty Bacon was the other bro i was trying to think of.[This message was edited by Tracy Sheehan on 14 September 2006 at 09:33 PM.]

Herbie Meeks · Post by **Herbie Meeks** » 14 Sep 2006 8:51 pm

Go back a few years, there was ,Pee Wee Whitewing, Bobby Wooten, Bob White, Joe Meeks, my Bro, I played with all these Boys.Bobby Black, Leroy Jones, Rusty Root, Joe Bob, Big Jim DeNoon, Norm Hamlett, Leon Mcaluff, Dusty Rhodes, Monroe Delk, John Sanborn, I'm sure there is several I can't remember their names, These Boys all knew eachother, up and down the west coast

Herbie

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Gary Spaeth · Post by **Gary Spaeth** » 15 Sep 2006 6:11 am

anyone hear of Henry Kapuki? he ran the Hawaiin Conservatory of Music in san francisco and played on boat trips to hawaii and upscale luaus for hollywood stars. this was during the 50's.

Jerry Hayes · Post by **Jerry Hayes** » 15 Sep 2006 6:31 am

I saw Blackie and Gene Fields at Scotty's this year as well as another "old" LA player, Herb Steiner! Last October when I went to LA on vacation I went to see Sammy Masters on a Friday night and to my surprise he had two of these guys playing with him that night. Billy Tonneson on steel and Carl Walden on guitar. Blackie told me that Billy had quit now and he was playing steel for a while.

Johnny Redd.....a pretty good player who played a Fender 400 and sang very well. I remember him from Leonard's Chit Chat club in Bell Gardens. Probably one of the ugliest players out there but he played pretty........

Johnny Davis......Also a very accomplished lead guitarist. Johnny could get more out of a Fender 400 that most of the other players got out of their double 10's....

Bo Pete......Does anyone know his real name? He was playing at the Hitching Post in Gardena when I met him in the sixties.

Don Robinson....A very good player mostly on the C6th neck. I met him when I was playing in Ventura at the King of the Bass. He was at the Crow's Nest in Oxnard. The last time I saw him he'd just ordered a single 12 ZB guitar. I've always wondered how he did with that. He said that he was having a pedal next to his volume pedal that he'd hold down with his right foot to do the other sounds. He said he'd be able to use the volume pedal along with it...........

Rex Endicott.....I knew him from his days with Jack Laux and later ran into him by accident while visiting Oklahoma City. We went to a club one night and there he was....

Art Sanchez.....I met him when he was working with Rose Maddox and I was working with her brother Fred. Later in the seventies we worked together at the Swizzle Stik in Huntington Beach. When I went to my first convention in St. Louis in '87 I ran into Jim Bob Sedgwick who was a coroner in San Bernadino County who told me he was checking new bodies that had arrived and saw a toe tag that said Arturo Sanchez and he looked and it was ol' Artie. He'd died while taking a shower and was found by his son, dead in the stall.........

Skeeter Stoltz......A very good player who worked at Bonnie Price's Foothill Club. I've always wondered what ever happened to him.....

Vernon "Speedy" Price.....I met him while I was in Ventura County also. He was working at the Club Vegas in Oxnard with Bobby Wayne.

Bookie Modin.....A very good but unorthodox player as he played his pedals with his right foot and his volume pedal with the left. I got to know him pretty good as he worked in Blackie's store for a while.

Gene Fields.........A super player and builder. Gene used to work around town playing both steel and lead guitar and was hot on both. He was the very first person I ever saw who used and Echoplex to play some effects. He did a version of "Little Rock Getaway" in which the machine played every other note. It was mind blowing. Gene's one of the "High Guru's" of steel guitar in my opinion.....

A couple of other players I forgot to put on the list were....

Dave Knight....probably one of the best "unknown" players I've ever heard. He played anything anyone else could and as well as they could but for some reason he's always remained an "unknown". I don't know why as if you'd ever heard him play you'd remember him for sure.....

Zed Dixon....Played for Jack Tucker for a good while at the Pioneer Room in Norwalk. Zed always had a day job as well as playing six nights a week. I could never do that....JH in Va.

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Don't matter who's in Austin (or anywhere else) Ralph Mooney is still the king!!!

Bob Tuttle · Post by **Bob Tuttle** » 15 Sep 2006 2:02 pm

I worked the West Coast from 1962 to 1965. Some of the places I played were: Walt's Place in Bell, The Roundhouse in Norwalk with Jack Tucker, the Blue Room in La Puente with Eddie Drake, The Hitchin' Post in Gardena with Danny Michaels and later with Bill Bacon, and George's Roundup in Long Beach with Danny Michaels. I used to go down to Pomona to the Never Again Club and jam after hours on the weekends with Phil Baugh, Vern Stovall, Bobby George and some others. Rex Endecott used to come down occasionally. I met Rex in Odessa, Texas backin the late 50's while I was still in high school. He showed me a pedal steel he was building. It was pretty crude, but it worked.[This message was edited by Bob Tuttle on 15 September 2006 at 03:02 PM.]

Alan Harrison · Post by **Alan Harrison** » 15 Sep 2006 5:14 pm

For Jerry Hayes, I met Don Robinson somewhere around 1971, he was playing at the Crows Nest in Oxnard. He had the ZB 12 string and he also had a keyboard set up in front of it and played both very well. Also a really nice guy. I had just gotten my first seel and he helped me with the tuning.
Do you remember Barney Horne who played a lot in the Oxnard, Ventura area about that same time? Barney played a Black Sho Bud double 10. He moved to Las Vegas around 1973 and played in that area until his untimely death to lukemia in December of 2004.

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Emmons LeGrande II D-10, 8 & 5, Keyless Willy "400" D-10, 8 & 8 two Peavey 112's, Profex II and Hilton Pedal.

Andy Hinton · Post by **Andy Hinton** » 15 Sep 2006 5:40 pm

Someone asked this about a year aggo. I think I replied then but here it is again. Major Simpson is living in Haughton, La.,a suburb of Shreveport; Home of the Louisiana Hayride. He is still playing occasionally, like me. mostlly local Jams. He's 81 yrs. old but still has some good licks. I enjoy jamming with him. Andy H.

Jim Bob Sedgwick · Post by **Jim Bob Sedgwick** » 15 Sep 2006 7:01 pm

Jerry... Skeeter Stultz (not Stoltz) retired from playing about 1979 and went to work as an auto parts salesman. I still correspond with him occasionally. Dave Knight was with me at the convention this year. I guess he didn't recongnize you (you old f##t). Boy, the years slide by so fast, you wonder where they went. Dave still plays well and lives about two miles from me in Clinton, MO. Drop me a line sometime when you have nothing better to do.

Jason Odd · Post by **Jason Odd** » 15 Sep 2006 10:47 pm

weird, I was about to make a post in regards to Barney Horn and then I saw this topic.
Essentially I was going to ask if anyone knew if Barney definately played at the Palomino with Tony Booth's band in late '69 when Tony and the boys took over the band spot.
He would have been replaced in early 1970 by Jay Dee Maness.

Sorry to hear that Barney has passed on.

Joe Casey · Post by **Joe Casey** » 16 Sep 2006 2:55 am

When Billy Bacon and Shorty were together it was at the Hitching post on Western Ave in Gardena.(62) Actually it was Shortys band also with the infamous Ed Bacon on Bass.Then Billy took over for four nights and on Sundays it was special guest bands Bob Regan Lucille Starr, Chris Hilman and Golden State Boys ect. Tues night it was the Shamrock out on 101 PCH in Torrance.

Danny Kuykendall · Post by **Danny Kuykendall** » 16 Sep 2006 5:34 am

In the 70s Bill Bergren was one of the better players around. Obviously not an old-timer. He stopped playing a few years ago.
Danny K

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 16 Sep 2006 5:47 am

Barney Horn replaced me in Jimmy Lawton's band when I moved to TX in June of 72. He'd occasionally come to the TSGA Jamboree during the last few years of his life and we'd reminisce awhile. Sad loss.

I'm still in touch with Jimmy Lawton, who's lived in Belgium for the last 33 years.

And of course we remember Al Petty playing at Evelyn's Panama Club in Long Beach, right?

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Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association

[This message was edited by Herb Steiner on 16 September 2006 at 06:48 AM.]

John Bresler · Post by **John Bresler** » 16 Sep 2006 8:05 am

Anyone remember Billy Cooper (Coop)? Played in the Coos Bay, Oregon & Portland areas. What a great C6th player!!!!

I believe he was with Ferlin Husky for a few years, too.

Alan Harrison · Post by **Alan Harrison** » 17 Sep 2006 5:29 am

How about my ole friend Larry Petree in Bakersfield, He was always one of my favoite pickers. He really helped me a lot when I first started playing around 1972 or so. Bought a ZB and an MSA from him. Larry was also a close friend of Barney Horn. We went to Vegas to hear Barney play at the Golden Nugget with The Durham Brothers out of Bakersfield around 1973 or so. Barney was also a fine lead player and vocalist. He would sing a song like Night Life and put in all the riffs and fills on steel as he was singing.