Murry's pet project AFTER the Sunrays - The Parade / Snow mystery group

[kwan_dk]

Hi

In the ongoing Desper thread I've asked Stephen Desper a question about a recording project of Murry's from the late 60s. Read my question and his reponse below:

Quote from: kwan_dk on March 04, 2013, 01:12:14 AM

Dear Stephen

I have a question for you.

I'm currently reading a bunch of old California Music Beach Boys & related fanzines from the 80s and 90s. Two of the issues include a two-part interview with Rick Henn of the Sunrays where he brings something up that I haven't heard about before - and a quick search on the message board here doesn't bring anything up either. Here's a direct excerpt from the interview (talking about the period shortly after the Sunrays disbanded):

"One other interesting project Murry gave me was a band from Omaha, Nebraska. I've forgotten how he found them, but he flew me out to Omaha to cut a bunch of demos with them. I guess he was going to try and do another Sunrays'-type thing again. There was one guy in the group who wrote really good songs and since I was going to school, learning how to notate, write charts and so forth, I was more or less gives the job of arranger. So I went into the studio with them and worked on the arrangements and the production. We cut some demos in Omaha and then we brought them back to Hollywood and cut a bunch of tracks at Sunset Sound. (... short passage about Sunset having a real good sound)
Anyway, we produced the group, but I'm not sure if Murry ever made a record deal for them. I do remember going over and doing some vocals at Brian's house on Bellagio with Steve Desper as the engineer. However, Brian was NOT involved in the production at all. I do remember taking them out onto the roof, which I think Steve did with the Beach Boys quite a bit for that out-doors natural sound. It was crazy, but we did it and shortly after that, the entire project ended."

As found in California Music issue 74, 1988. Stephen McParland who interviewed Rick adds afterwards that this Nebraska group was originally called the Parade (not the same group that had a top 20 hit with 'Sunshine Girl' in 1967) - apparently they changed their name to Snow while being involved with Murry.

Do you remember anything about this project Stephen? Would be interesting in hearing anything you might like to add?

By the way, did you engineer the vocals for Soulful Old Man Sunshine? Rick mentions that he cut the track at Sunset Sound but that the vocals were recorded at Bellagio?

COMMENT from Stephen:
Rick Henn married my ex-girlfriend -- and that's OK since they went on to raise a fine family of three children, I believe. Rick is an excellent arranger. I don't know how he did it, but Rick was able to work with Murry Wilson certainly much better then Murry's sons. Sometimes projects would come into the studio like the one you cite. Undoubtedly, we recorded on the back deck because the studio was full of other stuff for other projects. I don't remember specifically, but that's usually how it went.
Soulful Old Man Sunshine was one of those on-again, off-again projects. I remember recording vocals, then re-recording vocals and again. We also sweetened the track at Bellagio, but I can't remember what it was we added.  That song has seen several versions. Brian would move it one way, then Alan would move it another direction, then Brian would change it again to another sound. Did we ever finish that song? I don't remember, but I do remember working on it over and over.    ~swd

Now, the only other mention of this project that I've been able to locate is a little bit of info from Fred Vail here:
http://prayforsurfblog.blogspot.dk/2008/12/fred-vail-on-break-away-and-murry.html

I'm quite fond of the sound on some of the Sunrays songs and the thought of a bunch of Parade / Snow recordings with Henn & Murry involvement intrigues me. Does anybody here know more about this? Has any additional info ever surfaced? I wonder where those tapes ended up if Henn's story is to be believed? In the possession of Murry perhaps?

[bgas]

Hi

In the ongoing Desper thread I've asked Stephen Desper a question about a recording project of Murry's from the late 60s. Read my question and his reponse below:

Quote from: kwan_dk on March 04, 2013, 01:12:14 AM

Dear Stephen

I have a question for you.

I'm currently reading a bunch of old California Music Beach Boys & related fanzines from the 80s and 90s. Two of the issues include a two-part interview with Rick Henn of the Sunrays where he brings something up that I haven't heard about before - and a quick search on the message board here doesn't bring anything up either. Here's a direct excerpt from the interview (talking about the period shortly after the Sunrays disbanded):

"One other interesting project Murry gave me was a band from Omaha, Nebraska. I've forgotten how he found them, but he flew me out to Omaha to cut a bunch of demos with them. I guess he was going to try and do another Sunrays'-type thing again. There was one guy in the group who wrote really good songs and since I was going to school, learning how to notate, write charts and so forth, I was more or less gives the job of arranger. So I went into the studio with them and worked on the arrangements and the production. We cut some demos in Omaha and then we brought them back to Hollywood and cut a bunch of tracks at Sunset Sound. (... short passage about Sunset having a real good sound)
Anyway, we produced the group, but I'm not sure if Murry ever made a record deal for them. I do remember going over and doing some vocals at Brian's house on Bellagio with Steve Desper as the engineer. However, Brian was NOT involved in the production at all. I do remember taking them out onto the roof, which I think Steve did with the Beach Boys quite a bit for that out-doors natural sound. It was crazy, but we did it and shortly after that, the entire project ended."

As found in California Music issue 74, 1988. Stephen McParland who interviewed Rick adds afterwards that this Nebraska group was originally called the Parade (not the same group that had a top 20 hit with 'Sunshine Girl' in 1967) - apparently they changed their name to Snow while being involved with Murry.

Do you remember anything about this project Stephen? Would be interesting in hearing anything you might like to add?

By the way, did you engineer the vocals for Soulful Old Man Sunshine? Rick mentions that he cut the track at Sunset Sound but that the vocals were recorded at Bellagio?

COMMENT from Stephen:
Rick Henn married my ex-girlfriend -- and that's OK since they went on to raise a fine family of three children, I believe. Rick is an excellent arranger. I don't know how he did it, but Rick was able to work with Murry Wilson certainly much better then Murry's sons. Sometimes projects would come into the studio like the one you cite. Undoubtedly, we recorded on the back deck because the studio was full of other stuff for other projects. I don't remember specifically, but that's usually how it went.
Soulful Old Man Sunshine was one of those on-again, off-again projects. I remember recording vocals, then re-recording vocals and again. We also sweetened the track at Bellagio, but I can't remember what it was we added.  That song has seen several versions. Brian would move it one way, then Alan would move it another direction, then Brian would change it again to another sound. Did we ever finish that song? I don't remember, but I do remember working on it over and over.    ~swd

Now, the only other mention of this project that I've been able to locate is a little bit of info from Fred Vail here:
http://prayforsurfblog.blogspot.dk/2008/12/fred-vail-on-break-away-and-murry.html

I'm quite fond of the sound on some of the Sunrays songs and the thought of a bunch of Parade / Snow recordings with Henn & Murry involvement intrigues me. Does anybody here know more about this? Has any additional info ever surfaced? I wonder where those tapes ended up if Henn's story is to be believed? In the possession of Murry perhaps?

  If you read down thru Fred's comments, you see he says they were from Durant Oklahoma. So which is it, Oklahoma or Nebraska? 
Trying to track Gail Ferrell I spoke to Michael Redman, who played with  her. I sent Michael an email, which he promised to forward on to Gail, asking about her involvement, but she evidently couldn't be bothered to answer my questions. Which is OK with me, as if you check her bio, there's no way she was in a group named the Parade, or Snow, or involved at all with Murry at this time. 
  If I can find his ## again( DAMN SPRINT ALL TO HECK!!)  , I suppose I could ask Rick Henn , if he  has the tapes;Rick, by the way,  married one of Daryl Dragon's sisters. 

[kwan_dk]

Thansk for the info bgas

Rick is on Facebook. Could be interesting to ask him more about this mystery group. It's interesting that he claims they did vocal sessions at Bellagio.

I wonder if the Snow group in question could be these guys?
http://www.redtelephone66.com/2010/11/snow-snow-vinyl-1968/

[Don Malcolm]

Extremely unlikely that the band Snow with the '68 LP on Epic had anything to do with Rick and Murry. This band was definitely into an edgier psych sound, though several of their numbers on that LP are more pop-psych (in particular "Golden Oldie Show," a very tightly arranged retro-rocker with plenty of room for McCartneyesque bass and some witty, virtuosic drumming). This group hailed from Cleveland, not Omaha, and their LP has some CBS honchos credited as producers. Here's a little further info about them as they faded away over time after the '68 LP's release, from a website that specializes in vintage bands from Ohio:

Snow was one of the lucky few bands that released an LP for a major record label, releasing one eponymous LP for Epic that included an interesting and often excellent mix of Beatles influenced psychedelica.

Snow was formed from the demise of Muthers Oats. MO members Jim Sikela and Dan Mahoney hooked up with Will Ryan and started writing and peforming original songs. The group got an audition with CBS who suggested they add a female singer. The group became Snow and recorded the LP for Epic. For some reason, live performances of this group were infrequent.

Around 1970, members of the group, minus the female singer, started performing around town using their surnames. Sometimes all four of them (Sikela, Morris, Ryan, and Mahoney), sometimes three, and sometimes solo. Sounds a bit like CSNY? Probably not accidental. The sound was folk/rock. In the mid 70s Will Ryan formed a duo with Phil Baron called Willio and Phillio.

Over at Amazon, the Cypriot "psych expert" Alexy Golovanov is not a fan, but he does have more info about the production team involved in making the LP (including the fact that Charlie Calello, long-time arranger for the Four Seasons, was involved in the arrangements. As Alexy notes, he does better with some songs than others. "Golden Oldie Show" is a real keeper, though (IMHO).

A number of you may find their LP interesting and enjoyable, though it does get pretty damn trippy, particularly on what back in the day was "Side Two." But it's in no way connected to Rick and Murry.