1973 - 1975 Calico

Audio Engineer/Road Manager/Booking

Ye - Ha !!! the heyday of Progressive Country

Linda Waring ( formerly with Nitzinger ) asked me to come hear the band at Whisky River in Dallas.

I was a rock and roll, long hair, t-shirt and jeans guy.

Man, I felt way out of place. The band was phenomenal !

Larry Heath, Jerry Oates and Keith Impelletir fronted the band with great vocal harmonies and good original songs.

Dave Ferguson on fiddle, Joe Copeland on guitar, Tom Morrell on steel, Dave Stanley on bass and Linda on drums.

The first two weeks we did six nights in Dallas and four nights in Fort Worth and packed the house every night!

Then, unbelievably, Jerry and Keith ganged up and fired Larry and everybody else quit except Morrell.

WHAT? NOT AGAIN! The same scenario as my first two weeks with Nitzinger .

When the dust settled it was still a great band, only six piece instead of eight.

More money, of course.

Bill Miner was on the drums, Michael Redden on bass, and John McClure on piano
along with Tom Morrell and Jerry and Keith.

They recorded for United Artists with Larry Butler as producer.

Havasupai Indian Reservation

We played two weeks at the Grand Canyon Lodge and had time to camp out in the bottom of the canyon at the Havasupai Indian Reservation.

It was an eight mile hike to the reservation and then two miles to the camp (whew), downhill.

Hey what about going back????? Uphill!!!!

Our keyboard player sprained his ankle. Great! Well, one of the guys from the lodge was with us and he knew the Helicopter pilot for their tours.

After flying thru the Canyon in a Bell Jet Ranger ( very cool ) we were back at the van in about 10 minutes.

Drummer Bill Miner and wife Brenda

Jerry Oates and wife Jan

Redden and McClure, should we jump?

Gigs....

Onstage at Faces in Dallas with Larry White AND Tom Morrell on steel guitars.

After Calico finally dissolved completely, Michael Redden and Friends did some gigs.

I started recording at Pantego Sound, mostly helping Abbott on rhythm tracks and his Acoustic overdubs, etc. on recordings he was producing and playing on.

I continued working around town handling House Audio chores for both Faces and Whisky River.