The end is not always the end

On Sonobeat co-founder Bill Josey Sr.’s death in September 1976, Sonobeat ceased doing business, and the Sonobeat master tape library – about 200 quarter-inch and half-inch boxed reels – were stored away, first in the back of Bill’s old station wagon (parked outside his mobile home office next to Sonobeat’s Blue Hole Sounds studio on the outskirts of Liberty Hill, Texas) and then variously in relatives’ attics, garages, and closets in and around Austin, Texas. In the mid-1980s, Bill Sr.’s son Jack catalogued and packed the library in sealed containers for storage in a climate-controlled environment. Since then, the tapes rarely have been touched except to scan the tape reel boxes and make digital transfers of the tapes themselves.

During the years since Sonobeat shuttered in 1976, copies of Sonobeat singles and albums, including ultra-rare vinyl test pressings and “white jacket” limited editions, have regularly changed hands at record collector conventions (especially at the world-famous Austin Record Convention) and over the internet on sites like eBay. Sonobeat gems, such as the Mariani, The David Flack Quorum, Wali and the Afro-Caravan, Johnny Winter, and Cold Sun albums; vinyl singles by Lavender Hill Express, Sweetarts, The Conqueroo, The Thingies, Wali and The Afro-Caravan, and Plymouth Rock; and Sonobeat’s song demo albums by Herman Nelson and Bill Wilson, bring extraordinary prices among collectors. Even today, in 2025, Sonobeat’s stereo singles are avidly sought out by Texas music aficionados around the world.

The earliest Sonobeat tapes, now 58 years old, were recorded on fragile 3M (Scotch) 201 acetate tape stock, which deteriorates over time. In 1968, Sonobeat switched to Mylar-based Scotch and Ampex tape stock, which have a long shelf-life. Surprisingly, given the haphazard conditions in which the tapes were stored until the mid-’80s, most masters survived with little damage, although a few recordings on the 3M (Scotch) 201 acetate stock already had deteriorated beyond salvage. In the early 2000s, Jack Josey began the tedious and delicate tasks of inspecting, repairing, and restoring the tapes. In 2004, the Josey family formed a collective, Sonobeat Historical Archives – operated by Josey brothers Bill Jr. and Jack – to create SonobeatRecords.com for the dual purposes of celebrating the singers, songwriters, and musicians, most from Austin and Central Texas, who Sonobeat recorded from the mid-’60s through the mid-’70s, and memorializing Sonobeat’s history, accomplishments, and contributions to the Central Texas music scene. Our Who’s Who provides a comprehensive listing of all acts and individuals who we know recorded with Sonobeat, including an indication of those we know have passed away in the intervening years, and our Songbook catalogues all songs known to exist in the Sonobeat archives.

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Over the years we’ve reconnected with dozens of former Sonobeat artists. We’ve rekindled old friendships and recounted the stories of singers, songwriters, and musicians who built Austin’s iconic music heritage and who helped make Austin The Live Music Capital of the World. Many of them have also helped “Keep Austin Weird” as well. We owe a deep debt of gratitude and give heartfelt thanks to all who have contributed recollections, documents, and photos to make SonobeatRecords.com more robust and complete.

In January 2014, History Press published Austin musician Ricky Stein’s Sonobeat Records: Pioneering the Austin Sound in the ’60s, an expanded and enhanced version of his 2013 University of Texas American Studies thesis. The Sweetarts, who recorded Sonobeat’s first single in 1967, performed for only the second time in over 40 years at Ricky’s book signing party at Antone’s Records in Austin.

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Breaking open the catalog

In March 2014, Sonobeat Historical Archives began a series of digital reissues of select material from the Sonobeat catalog. The reissue process dates from 2008, when Jack embarked on a two year project to make high resolution digital transfers of every playable tape in the Sonobeat archives, acquiring Otari quarter-inch 2-track and half-inch 4-track tape decks specifically for that purpose. The Sweetarts’ 1967 A Picture of Me backed with Without You, which comprised the first Sonobeat vinyl release, fittingly also were first to be reissued digitally via iTunes, Apple Music, and Amazon Music. Sonobeat’s second vinyl single, the jazzy There Will Never Be Another You backed with Meditation by the Lee Arlano Trio, and an album collecting the three Lavender Hill Express Sonobeat singles plus a previously-unreleased bonus track, Trouble, were digitally reissued in July 2014 and supported by live reunion performances in Austin by the Lavender Hill Express and Sweetarts. On September 18, 2015, Sonobeat Historical Archives reissued Plymouth Rock’s 1969 single Memorandum backed with Just a Start in a new stereo version never before available.

In October 2015, Sonobeat Historical Archives digitally remastered and reissued Sonobeat’s first album release, 1968’s Jazz to the Third Power by the Lee Arlano Trio, available worldwide on iTunes, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and other digital download and streaming platforms. The digital reissue includes two previously unreleased bonus tracks pulled from Sonobeat’s archives, both recorded in 1967.

In 2017, Sonobeat celebrated it’s 50th anniversary with major enhancements to its website, and in September reissued a newly-remastered 50th anniversary edition of the Sweetarts’ A Picture of Me, followed in December by a freshly-remastered 50th anniversary edition of Lavender Hill Express’ Visions, making them available on all major digital download and streaming platforms worldwide.

Celebrating the beginning of Sonobeat’s 51st anniversary, Sonobeat Historical Archives issued the 50th anniversary digital remaster of Lavender Hill Express’ Watch Out! in June 2018, and, in December 2019, the 50th anniversary remixed and remastered edition of Plymouth Rock’s Memorandum. Notably, A Picture of Me, Visions, Watch Out!, and Memorandum are Apple Digital Masters, the highest quality digital format offered on iTunes and Apple Music, all spectacularly remastered by Colin Leonard of SING Mastering in Atlanta using patented SING Technology^®.

On October 30, 2020, Sonobeat Historical Archives reissued the highly-anticipated restored and remastered digital edition of The Conqueroo’s 1968 Sonobeat single 1 to 3 backed with I’ve Got Time, favorably reviewed in the January 2021 issue (#111) of Shindig Magazine. The June 11, 2021, issue of the online It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine published an interview with Sonobeat co-founder Bill Josey Jr. exploring the Sonobeat story.

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The (Sono)beat goes on

November 27, 2024, marked the 20th anniversary of Sonobeat Historical Archives’ launch of SonobeatRecords.com. To celebrate, we relaunched our website with a new look, including new and enhanced photos and sound bites from the archives, to which we continue adding. There’s still more to come...

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