The end approaches

Sonobeat’s worst and final year was 1976. What made 1976 such a downer was that Sonobeat co-founder Bill Josey Sr. had been diagnosed with cancer, had already been hospitalized twice, and was continuing chemotherapy that began in autumn 1975. But 1976 was not without a couple of highs: first, with the financial backing of composer-musician David Flack, Mindbender, The David Flack Quorum album that had been sitting “in the can” for three years, finally was released. Then, in June, Bill received an unusual plea from a “starved” music lover in then-communist Hungary who was desperate to hear some American jazz, rock, and country music. Bill sent the correspondent, an aspiring avant-garde artist named Gábor Attalai, a selection of Sonobeat singles and albums. Gábor, unable to send money out of Hungary, offered his works of art in exchange for the phonograph records. We don’t know whether Bill took Gábor up on the offer but, if not, he should have: Gábor went on to become a leading conceptual and graphic artist in the Hungarian artistic nomadism movement. The release of Mindbender and Gábor’s letter each perked Bill up and seemed to give him renewed energy, if only temporarily.

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In March, the Austin Blues-Rockers returned for another round of recording sessions – the band first recorded with Sonobeat in 1975 – at Bill’s Blue Hole Sounds studio on the outskirts of Liberty Hill, Texas. Soon thereafter country singer Jeannine Hoke recorded Your Touch Is Like a Whisper and Let’s Get to Houston Today at Blue Hole Sounds. In spring ’76, Jeannine’s was the final single issued on the Sonobeat label. Al & Alec recorded in late spring or early summer, but their material sat on the shelf unreleased. Michele Murphy recorded a handful of tracks on May 17th, and sometime in the month or two after that, Al & Alec returned to record the last sessions Bill conducted. Bill’s struggle with cancer hospitalized him again and finally depleted his energy, cutting off his opportunities to release an Austin Blues-Rockers’ single or shop it and Al & Alec’s material to major labels. But, with Helmer Dahl’s financial assistance, Bill was able to release Toe-Tapping Tunes, Helmer’s album of polka, pop, and rock tunes performed entirely on a Baldwin electric organ and Arp Pro-Soloist synthesizer. Notably, for Sonobeat’s three 1976 vinyl releases, Bill moved mastering and pressing away from Nashville Records, which he had used for only one release, in 1975, to a mastering and pressing facility that is unidentified in the Sonobeat archives but believed to be Wakefield Manufacturing in Phoenix, Arizona.

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The end arrives

Bill continued chemotherapy, which he received through the Veterans Administration (During World War II, Bill served in the Navy as a Patrol Torpedo boat skipper in the South Pacific, and it was one of his old Navy colleagues, Dr. Hal Gaddy of Georgetown, Texas, who first diagnosed Bill’s cancer in 1975). In August ’76, he was hospitalized still again, and this time the prognosis was terminal. But his doctor gave him clearance to take a short day trip, so his son Jack took him back to Liberty Hill for a last visit to Bill’s Blue Hole Sounds studio and mobile home on the Blue Hole grounds. Jack recalled never seeing his father as serene and content as during that final drive through the beautiful rolling hills of Central Texas.

There, in the tiny and close-knit community of Liberty Hill, Sonobeat co-founder Bill Josey Sr. found what he most needed just when he needed it most: a place to live unpretentiously and inexpensively, a peaceful setting, and fellowship with people who cared about him. In September 1976, Bill succumbed to lympho carcinoma at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Temple, Texas, leaving family, friends, and the Central Texas music community at a loss. On the now-defunct but archived Cold Sun web site, Bill Miller remembers Bill fondly: “I lost track of Bill Sr. news around the time I began to help Roky [Erickson, of The 13th Floor Elevators] develop his songs ... circa 1974 ... I regret not visiting [Bill Sr.] again. He was a great man, gave a lot to the Texas scene.” Austin songwriter Herman Nelson reflected, “Bill was not only a good friend, he was a bright light with a lot of good ideas. His head swam with them. He was a man truly ahead of his time.” Paul New wrote “what a wonderful man”, and Bob Trenchard, who worked with Sonobeat on multiple recording projects including Mariani and Pall Rabbit, called Bill “ahead of his time – a real pioneer in the Austin music scene.” Concluding his 1977 Sonobeat retrospective in his Texas music fanzine Not Fade Away, Doug Hanners wrote, “Success is measured in many ways but in the record business at least, the music speaks for itself.” Bill did not intend to leave a legacy in the Central Texas music community. He and son Bill Jr., who together co-founded Sonobeat, simply took their record company one day at a time, meeting and recording singers, songwriters, and musicians who they recognized as talented and worthy of reaching a larger audience. Sonobeat’s simple and singular goal was to help those artists find that larger audience.

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