A promising start to 1973

In January 1973, Sonobeat began a string of recordings with promising artists: the first was Adobie Flatz from El Paso, Texas, whose sessions yielded three original songs, and Austin’s Gary York & Evelyn, whose sessions produced just one track.

In February, Sonobeat producer Bill Josey Sr. recorded two songs with country singer Joyce Spence and mixed a mono demo tape that he shopped to Nashville-based country labels. Also in February, Bill recorded an extremely promising Latin-flavored rock group, Vita; he recorded the group in quad, a surrounding sound format he’d been experimenting with for a couple of years. When Bill sent the Vita demo tape to Columbia Records for consideration, he noted that the group had enough original material to record two albums. But nothing came of any of these recordings, which put more financial strain on Sonobeat, so Bill began considering alternatives to an upcoming lease renewal of his studio space at the KVET Building on North Lamar in Austin. In March, Bill recorded another country duo, Johnny Lyon and Janet Lynn, who headlined Johnny’s band, the Country Nu-Notes. Finally, in June, Bill reassembled the studio band Base that he initially formed in 1972, this time with singer-songwriter Ernie Gammage, formerly of the Sweetarts and Fast Cotton, as its headliner to continue Sonobeat’s quad recording experiments. This time, though, Bill Sr. had commercial aspirations for the Base tracks.

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Moving out... literally

Singer-songwriter Michele Murphy, while recording sessions for a potential Sonobeat release and knowing Bill was searching for a new location for the Sonobeat studios, suggested that he relocate to Liberty Hill, a tiny community in the idyllic Central Texas Hill CountryThe Texas ”Hill Country” is that portion of Central Texas sitting on the Edwards Plateau that features rolling hills and grasslands. The 31,000 square mile region is considered the geographic border between the American Southeast and Southwest., about 30 miles north of Austin. Property was still inexpensive there. Michele pointed Bill to an old stone A.M.E. church off Bagdad Road on the outskirts of Liberty Hill. The church property offered a secluded setting and included enough acreage for Bill to bring in a mobile home to serve as his office. The church itself, which Bill rented from the church congregation that met there only two Sundays a month, was sprawling, 30 feet wide by 40 feet long, providing 1200 square feet of open floor space, with walls 13-1/2 feet high and a vaulted ceiling peaking at over 24 feet. It was the largest studio facility Sonobeat ever had. Bill moved onto the property in August and began outfitting the old church as Sonobeat’s new recording studio, which he named “Blue Hole Sounds” after a popular nearby natural swimming hole on the south fork of the San Gabriel River.

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Refurbishing the old church into a recording studio – which included wiring the building for sound, soundproofing doors and window coverings, and adding year-’round air conditioning – took months longer and cost more than Bill had anticipated. But while he outfitted the studio, Bill made many friends in the Liberty Hill area, including Tom Penick, an aspiring country singer-songwriter who lived in nearby Leander. At the time, Tom was an electrician who needed a job. Bill engaged him to help rewire and finish refurbishing the church. To help defray the costs of the move and retrofitting of the church, Bill needed to continue offering out the recording studio facilities on an hourly fee basis to make ends meet. One of the first tasks he asked Tom to assist with, when the studio was ready, was publicity. Tom circulated hundreds of “Blue Hole Sounds” fliers around Austin and the Hill Country, alerting musicians who’d recorded with Bill in Sonobeat’s Western Hills Drive and KVET Building studio eras to Sonobeat’s new location and attracting artists who had never recorded at Sonobeat before.

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Getting back in the groove

During fall ’73, Bill recorded the third and final Herman Nelson original song demo album for Sonobeat’s sister company, Sonosong Music; however, instead of pressing vinyl albums as he’d done for Herman’s two prior song demo albums, he made inexpensive audiocassette dubs of the album to circulate to A&RArtist & Repertoire (A&R) executives at record labels recruit and manage a roster of artists, connecting them to new songs and overseeing their recording and promotional activities. executives at national record labels that he believed would be most interested in Herman’s folk and country tunes, hoping to attract cover recordings by established artists.

Bill gave Blue Hole Sounds a warm and welcome feel. He set up the recording console and equipment rack on the raised floor at the front of the church, but because the church was still actively used by the A.M.E. congregation, he couldn’t erect a full height wall to separate the “control room” from the rest of the studio space; instead, he left the half-rail that divided the pulpit, altar, and choir area from the sanctuary. His recording equipment rack and mixing console occupied the pulpit and altar area, and the sanctuary served as the recording floor. Bill sprinkled comfortable chairs and couches around the interior walls, hung loudspeakers in each corner, and spread area rugs across the floor. When the congregation met on alternate Sundays, Bill covered the equipment and mixing console with canvas tarps. Outside, he set up picnic tables under the live oak trees that filled the church property. In all, Blue Hole Sounds delivered on its promise as a unique, rustic environment, a recording studio trend far ahead of its time. By October ’73, Bill has the studio largely in order and began accepting custom “work for hire” assignments to help defray his moving and studio retrofitting costs. Although there were few recording sessions rounding out the final months of 1973, Bill intended to continue promoting the studio’s availability, particularly to musicians in the Austin-area, which was experiencing a musical explosion, particularly with new acts getting in on the progressive (or “outlaw”) country movement that had started in Austin two years earlier.

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The relocation of Sonobeat’s studio from Austin to Liberty Hill and the months of retrofitting required to prepare the old stone A.M.E. church to serve as a recording studio were so time consuming that Sonobeat released no singles during 1973.