Sir Arthur and Company – Calhoun’s Knights of the Turntable

This is the first in my Beyond the Bluegrass series where I will occasionally feature a band outside the central KY area that are of personal importance to me. My hometown heroes Sir Arthur & Co are just such a band. Grab a cold RC Cola and enjoy! [2020 Shawn Chambers / Lexingtunes]

The sleepy riverside town of Calhoun, KY, may seem an unlikely point of origin for a local rock band signing a major record label contract during the Swinging 60s, but no matter the era or location there will always be individuals achieving the seemingly impossible.

Robert (b. 1949) and Richard Wills (b. 1950) were born into a well-educated and encouraging family. Their father, Landon Wills, was the owner/editor of the McLean County News while mother, Ilene Wills, taught first grade and did her best to maintain a household of six rambunctious boys.

The local newspaper was a true family affair and both Robert and Richard were able to witness first-hand the “power of the press” to both enrage and enlighten their fellow citizens. The small paper was often at odds with the rural population and a remarkable 1963 short film about Landon Wills and the McLean County News succinctly captures the ‘outsider’ atmosphere that sometimes surrounded the family. This certainly influenced the two brothers, but not quite as much as music.

The best opportunity to play music in a small town of roughly 800 people meant the school band where the two brothers marched with Robert on trumpet and Richard on drums. Small towns mean lifelong friends and easy company and as their talents grew so did the talent of many of their classmates. To broaden their musical horizons the boys joined friends in Pep Band where they had a chance to play more jazzy styles.

Of course, radio waves travel and records are a teenage staple. The boys were eclectic in their tastes with their school band involvement drawing them to the likes of Mancini and Al Hirt, which was balanced by the Kingston Trio and the Smothers Brothers. With the passage of time they advanced into the Beatles, the Byrds, and Dylan. Suddenly around town, guitars were being slung across shoulders and Robert was swiftly swept into the rock ‘n roll current with only a new Kay guitar as a life preserver.

In 1965 a band was born.

 

Robert and Richard formed Da Fings with good friend Steve White (on his newly purchased Gibson Melody Maker) while the Warren brothers (Mike and Greg) strummed bass and guitar, respectively. Also included were Eddie Bryant with his Farfisa organ / Fender Bassman amp combo and Larry Daws appearing occasionally on tambourine. This was a great first attempt but coordinating so many players proved difficult and after a few dances, Mike Warren dropped out followed soon after by brother Greg. Fortunately, Steve White was more than ready to answer the call on bass.

A year older than Robert, White was a gifted trumpet player, but also had talent as a multi-instrumentalist. Robert recalls that “when we lost the bass player, well Steve just picked it up in no time. He was so good like that – such an excellent musician.”  This new lineup of Robert, Richard, Steve and Eddie were to quickly become a tighter, more cohesive unit.

Lacking a garage on the Wills’ Seventh Street home, the band would have to settle for being a mostly back bedroom affair. Shows happened whenever and wherever and the band primarily worked the house party circuit in Calhoun and nearby Glenville. Better gigs did materialize, though, that brought the band out of their friends’ basements.

Their largest show to date was held in November 1966 at Calhoun’s Fall Festival. By then, the boys had adopted the name Sir Arthur and Company (a clear nod to the British Invasion sound they were pursuing). Interestingly, the same bill showcased Jim Cole and his wife Earlene. Jim was the Calhoun band director and as a duo the couple played nights in Owensboro and Evansville working clubs such as the Turf Room, Club 300, Gabe’s, the Lawndale Lounge, and the Little Brown Jug. Adept at playing trumpet and piano simultaneously while his wife played drums, Cole would be an occasional mentor to the group and Steve White (now a college freshman at Kentucky Wesleyan) would sit in with the duo on several occasions.

The late spring of ’67 found Sir Arthur & Company thinking big. Tired of small shows, the boys organized a memorable concert at the Victory Theatre with the popular Owensboro band the Nomads. The Victory’s wide, narrow stage made owner Darrell Moseley especially nervous and he did little to put the musicians’ minds at ease.

So Moseley comes around. We thought maybe he was going to give us a pep talk or something. He just says ‘Don’t rip my movie screen!’   –  Steve White

Spurred on by the successful packed show at the Victory the band was looking for the next challenge. For months Robert had polished his original songs and now with several in hand and a notion to make a record, the hunt was on for a suitable studio in the region.

With Calhoun essentially equidistant between Owensboro and Central City it would seem the much larger city on the Ohio River would have been an easy choice. Certainly, Leroy Woodard’s Twin-Spin label was releasing 45s from garage bands like The Tempos, The Rogues, and Casuals Incorporated, but the reality is that many of the top bands in that town were recording in Nashville. At a tenth Owensboro’s size Central City would seem the underdog to anyone unfamiliar with the musical heritage of the coal-country town, but the boys had word-of-mouth on Raymond Rich and turned South instead of North on Hwy 81.

Muhlenberg County in the 1940s, 50s and 60s boasted as much musical talent per capita as any county in the state. Beyond native superstars such as Merle Travis and Don Everly, there were enough regional players to allow WMTA’s Bobby Anderson to record and release more than a dozen offerings on his Summit and Royce labels amongst others. When furtherance of his own career caused Anderson to move on he left a void that Raymond Rich was well-positioned to fill.

Raymond was a songwriter and performer for years with brother James “Spider” Rich, but now in his 50s he had stepped back from performing. For 1967 Kentucky, his studio was reasonably state-of-the-art with several pieces purchased as RCA castoffs as the Nashville studio upgraded. His focus had grown well beyond the initial purpose of making demos for Spider and younger brother Dave Rich to finding new talent. The trio from McLean County was such a talent.

 

The summer taping of 1967 with Rich wasn’t without a few glitches. Keyboardist Eddie Bryant dropped out on the eve of the session leaving Robert scrambling to learn the songs on his mother’s Lowrey organ and arranging for a loan of a Baldwin portable to take to the studio. Once there (and with teenage heads full of big ideas) the Sir Arthur & Company session proved to test the limitations of both Raymond Rich’s equipment and patience.

I could play guitar, then organ, then sing. The overdubbing process drove Raymond Rich bonkers, and he frequently ‘accidentally’ forgot to engage the Sel-Sync [Ampex’s Self-Synchronous recording] device, which made the tracks aligned in time, so we had to redo the tracks. Some of the songs drove him bonkers, too. They were way too far out for him…  Robert Wills

 

The session successfully yielded “Julie” and “Next Time”, which the boys would self-release in early  August 1967. Robert astutely calculated not many locals would be familiar with the California-based band Love and tweaked their band logo slightly for the Sir Arthur & Company label design. The July pressing by the QCA plant in Cincinnati was 500 copies.

The ‘sweet and unruly’ namesake A-side is a soft love ballad meant to have foot-in-the-door appeal as a hopeful launching point to garner some label interest for the boys beyond the region. It is a nice example of the vocal sound the boys had developed and offers a preview of the type of emotive vocalizing that they would explore again both on and off the record.

Filtered through modern ears and fifty years, it is the B-side “Next Time” that now grabs the modern collector’s interest. Richard’s drum intro leads into a classic garage rocker with Robert delivering a mix of exasperation and desperation on vocals:

I thought that I loved you
with the patience of Job
I couldn’t meet up to
the bargain you drove
You should be one to brag
you made love a total drag
Now don’t cry
you’re only forcing tears from your eyes

This gives way to tight harmonies and a stern warning:

There’s not gonna be a next time for you and me – no, no, no, no, no, no…

The songs could have died on the vine. Copies were sold at the local Calhoun Drug Center and at Wax Works in Owensboro. The 45 garnered a few spins on the radio, but stood the chance of being nothing more than a treasured memento for family and friends; however, Raymond Rich heard something marketable even if the actual market didn’t.

The first trip to Central City was on Sir Arthur’s dime, but Rich arranged for follow up sessions for the boys to record more demos. Including the original session, the cuts numbered roughly a dozen with the majority of them written by Robert. As the weather cooled, interest in the trio was heating up.

Both Raymond and Spider Rich had strong friendships with Chet Atkins. In the late 60s Atkins’ ear was a direct pipeline to RCA and Chet trusted the brothers. After all, Spider had delivered RCA their talented brother Dave Rich in ’55 (who ultimately gave up his contract for the ministry) and Boots Randolph and an early version of “Yakety Sax” (co-written by Spider) back in ’58. With a clear focus on shifting into more pop and rock, Chet agreed to an audition and RCA penned the trio to a three-record contract on April 24, 1968.

Richard Wills vividly recalls that first May session:

Our dad took us down and we arrived at Studio A, a large room somewhat similar to the one the Beatles recorded in at Abbey Road. We met Chet and got to watch sessions underway by Waylon Jennings and Skeeter Davis, and listen to playbacks of Floyd Cramer and Junior Samples in the control room.

At our session the next morning, we met our producer, Felton Jarvis, a very unassuming guy who let it slip that he had a session with Elvis the next day. I didn’t let it slip that I thought he was bullshitting me. Later we learned that he was producing all of Elvis’ sessions in those years. When our time came, we played the instrumental tracks in the big studio, and then added our vocals. We listened to the playback, and went on our way.

The Sir Arthur and Company audition was obviously a success, because within a couple months the band received a call back for the actual recording session. What should have been a triumphant return to Nashville for the conquering heroes felt more like death by a thousand cuts. Much had changed and more changes were coming.

We were no longer being produced by Felton Jarvis, but had been assigned to Danny Davis, who had just transferred to Nashville from New York, where he had been producing artists like Connie Francis. We were not surprised when he announced to us that he didn’t like rock ’n’ roll. The feeling was mutual—we didn’t like him. 

RCA had also decided that we would not be recording one of Robert’s original songs. We spent an afternoon in the office of Danny Davis, listening to demo records by major songwriters such as John D. Loudermilk and others. We hated everything we heard, but we finally settled on a song by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, who had written “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feelin,” “On Broadway,” “We Gotta Get Out of This Place,” and “Blame it on the Bossa Nova.” What could possibly go wrong? Well, apparently Barry and Cynthia were having an off day when they wrote “Listen to the Music.” Not to be confused with the [later] Doobie Brothers hit, this song was a forgettable song for an equally forgettable movie called Wild in the Streets.  Richard Wills.

Another cut came when the band was told that they would only be singing and all instrumentation would be supplied by seasoned session players. Again, Richard:

At the time we were disappointed. In retrospect, however, we should have been overjoyed. The musicians they booked for the session were also unknown to us, but only because we had not done our homework. Guitarist Wayne Moss had played the iconic opening riff on “Oh, Pretty Women” with Roy Orbison. He and drummer Kenny Buttrey had just recently played on Blonde on Blonde with Bob Dylan, and Buttrey went on to play on several of Neil Young’s most successful albums. Bassist Norbert Putnam and Pianist David Briggs rounded out the group. Had we known their reputation, we would have likely been too nervous to sing.

For the release, RCA let them know that a name change from Sir Arthur and Company was expected, but the New Dawn moniker was not the boys’ first choice. The whole affair slowly became David versus Goliath. Despite Steve’s steely-eyes and two determined wills (pun intended), when Goliath controls the purse strings the fight is over before it begins.

Still, RCA pressed “Listen to the Music” and in a small victory it was coupled with Robert’s original song “Someday” from the band’s first ‘practice’ session at RCA under Jarvis.  It seems the “Listen to the Music” session ran long and the studio musicians never got around to recording another of Robert’s tunes. It also seemed RCA was ready to wash their hands of the trio.

The label seemingly did nothing in the way of promotion despite pressing numerous promotional and a much more limited number of stock copies of the single. There were no splashy ads in trade magazines, no opening slots on road shows under established acts, and a quick cancellation of the remaining two records on their contract.

Any radio play was likely minimal and not the fault of the New Dawn. The studio musicians certainly had talent and the boys’ voices were on point, but except for a bit of fuzz in the guitar and a few hand claps, there is little to distinguish the New Dawn’s cover from the original cut of “Listen to the Music” by Second Time already on the market.

The flip boasting Robert’s original “Someday” showcases the mixing and melding of their voices wonderfully over a sparse arrangement. Robert recalls that during the original Jarvis session “there was supposed to be a harpsichord bit in the middle, and they wheeled in a harpsichord, which I had never touched before. I attempted to play it in, but it never worked and they called it off.” Still, the music works well and compliments the psychedelic-tinged love lyrics:

…in my mind I visualize
the foggy skies, your starry eyes

By fall of ’68, the whole RCA affair was largely forgotten in favor of academics and local shows. Robert transferred his sophomore year from Centre College in Danville to his parent’s alma mater joining incoming freshman Richard and junior Steve White at Kentucky Wesleyan.

The three ultimately rented a house together thinking that it would be a practice space but it never happened. The Wills brothers drifted into a more counter-culture lifestyle and the much more conservative White headed in a different direction.

Steve White graduated in 1970 and did not give up music immediately. He married and became the Band Director at Calhoun High School. His ability to play trumpet, saxophone, piano, organ and guitar made him an invaluable asset to the school, but his heart wasn’t in it.

Instead, White moved into a lifelong career in law enforcement. In 1971 he did a brief stint working for the FBI before returning to Kentucky and the State Police Academy. A decorated officer, he was the Henderson’s post Trooper of the Year in 1977. He rose through the ranks and ultimately became a detective in 1985 while earning another award as Detective of the Year in 1988.  He left the KSP after more than twenty years to assume a position as a Commonwealth detective for Daviess County where he would finish his career. Steve White remains near the Owensboro area.

The Wills brothers left for Canada in the early 70s and continued to carry on a strong musical partnership. Finding a new cast of musicians came easy to the brothers and led to another 45 RPM release in 1976 as Robert Wills and Ironwood. In various combinations they played up and down the Ottawa Valley doing folk/rock and both original tunes and covers from the Beatles to Bob Marley and everything in between.

Beyond music, both Robert and Richard immersed themselves into their community. Richard followed in his father’s footstep and had a lengthy career in journalism as a writer/editor for a weekly newspaper in Shawville, Quebec, and for the last two decades he has worked for an independent boy’s school most recently as Publications Editor.

In between music gigs, Robert Wills has become a regional history buff and a close follower and participant in local politics. He has served as President of the Pontiac history museum, as a member of the Thorne Municipal Council and as a volunteer and organizer for numerous causes. He remains very active on the music scene by most recently promoting an evening of traditional music and dance with his “Hooley in the Hall”, which on any given Friday night may see two dozen musicians performing for an appreciative audience in Shawville, Quebec. Robert maintains an active youtube presence and continues to write and record material.

 

Discography:
45s:
Love 
70741   Julie  /  Next Time      1967

 

RCA
47-9569  Listen To the Music  /  Someday    1968

Sara Ellen’s Homemade Records
S-1   Randy the Lad / Rodeo Clown         1976

Unreleased Tracks – 1967 recorded in Central City:
She’s Still On My Mind
Miriam
The Betrayal
Beneath the River of My Mind – Steve White performance

2021 update – Gear Fab’s new 2 CD compilation Psychedelic States – Kentucky in the 60s features Next Time, Listen to the Music, and the previously unreleased She’s Still On My Mind