Ron Carson & Janus Records

In the early 70’s, Freddie was working with various bands; “Working off my name and the past things that I had done.” I asked him how he got the opportunity to work with Janus; “The CEO of Janus used to work with Scepter/Wand.”

He hooked Freddie up with Ron Carson. “Ron Carson was an ex-policeman who used to produce The Whispers, and I met him here in Oakland, then he moved to LA. He became a big shot and had connections with Art Freeman. He was an arranger and he had a whole bunch of songs and stuff. He used to have the arrangements ready. I used to put my voice on them and then put the records out. I met Art Freeman and he was a hell of an arranger. I don’t know him personally but I was in the studio when he was there.”

He had already cut “I’ve Got My Own Mind” at Coast Recording in San Francisco; " I did that with a guy called Larry Bradford and sold the 16 track to Ron Carson and he went ahead and put it out on Janus.” He continued, ““I arranged it and produced it and wrote “I Got My Own Mind” It didn’t take that long, about 4 or 5 hours. We used Larry Bradford, Jim Bradford, Bobby Gonzales. They were guys from Oakland. Bobby Gonzales was from Sacramento. They worked with me in the clubs as the backing band. The Chevelles were 3 young ladies I ran into. Gloria Brown, and the other two ladies – I cant really think of their names, but Gloria Brown was the main female who kept them together. She was the one who did “Will you be here when I wake up?" When I did that song with Ron Carson she did the vocals with me.”

He sold 2 other songs from those sessions; “I Just Found Out” and “Will You Be Here”. However when Freddie cut the released version of “I Just Found Out” in LA Ron Carson removed his name and credited a Norris Davis; “I can’t remember which studios in LA we used. I flew down and he paid my round trip ticket. I didn’t stay more than a day or two, it took me about an hour to record. I was pretty good at recording other people’s stuff. It didn’t take me a whole lot of time because I knew what I was gonna do because they had the music and they let me use my own judgement to what style I was gonna put on it.

Ron Carson put out “Will You Be Here” twice on Janus and Happy Fox a couple of years later; “I only ever did three tracks with him, I don’t know what happened to him. After I did the three tracks I never heard from him.”

2 Unissued Mid-70's tracks with Freddie on vocal

Freddie has worked off and on with Paul Tillman Smith for over 20 years. When Freddie and I talked a few years back, he told me that he had cut sides with Paul in the mid 70's which were unissued.

Two of these unissued sides appeared on a CD in 2002 for 7 Bridges Records called "Welcome To The Newsroom".

Back Here Again

A simple funky number with sparse backing of drums, guitar and bass with Larry Bradford on piano taking the lead. Freddie lets his distinctive really go towards the end.

Ready To Live

Another funky rhythm item but with a more complex pattern with Lonnie Hewitt on piano. This is a far stronger song and we hear nore of Freddie's different vocal ranges on this number. There are 2 guitar solos from perhaps uncredited Carl Lockett.

Hip Star

This record is a bit of a mystery because when I talked to Freddie a couple of years back about the 45 he was unable to shed any light on it

Freddie said "I’d like to get a copy of that song as I would like to do it again. I don’t even remember the person I did that with. I knew it was me once I heard it."

All he could recall was that he may have done it over in Daly City and that might even have been before “Send My Baby Back”. I think it was recorded in the early 70's from the sound of the production.

The thumping beat of the record made it very popular in the mid-70's on the UK Northern Soul scene and I think it's 60's throw back sound may have been recreated in the 70's but that it is just a thought until more information turns up.

Johnny Talbot Git Sum Jasman

You can hear Freddie on another late 60's 45 Git Sum by Bay Area veteran Johnny Talbot for Jasman Records.

There is a very good article on Johnny in Issue 102 Blues & Rhythm September 1995 though there is no mention of this 45 or Freddie. You can get copies here.

The B-side of this 45 Pickin' Cotton has picked up plays on the Funk scene and you can find it on a Luv 'N Haight compilation Bay Area Funk - check out here.

Lonnie Hewitt Is It Me?

The only other work Freddie did with Wee was Lonnie’s solo 45; “He put a song out called “Is It Me?” which I co-wrote and never got credited for and me and Wylie Trass did the background vocals. It was done a bit later than the Early Bird material and was put out on his Wee label. This 45 also appeared in it's full 8min 43 sec form on Lonnie's 1977 Wee album "Keep It Together" on which Freddie is credited with vocals alongside Edie Foster, Cal Valentin and Ernie Marbray.

Freddie says; "Lonnie did accompany me in clubs in Oakland and I had 3 young ladies singing behind me – The Kisses – Wilet, Harriet and Sandra and they accompanied me on some of my records – “Send My Baby Back”, “What Am I Gonna Do Without Your Love”, “Love Can’t Be Understood”. Nor did he work on Ernie Marbray’s Wee 45 even though Ernie co-wrote “Send My Baby Back”.

Freddie continued to gig around the Oakland area during the late 60’s and early 70’s with groups such as The Ballads and Whispers before having some sporadic releases for several labels.

He also worked on several projects which were unreleased including a project with Harvey Fuqua.

Send My Baby Back Album

After the follow up 45 “My Baby Came Back” on Wee, Lonnie Hewitt cut a deal with Scepter/Wand for the Wee material and it was packaged up in an album entitled “Send My Baby Back” and 3 45’s. "Scepter solicited Lonnie through Jack Salinger, an independent distributor who was in with Scepter/Wand because he distributed for them. So we sold 60,000 records on Wee before Scepter bought in so they gave Lonnie $10,000 and Lonnie gave me $2700.” In the small print it said that the record had to sell 100,000 records before Freddie got a royalty payment. “He was giving me 2% of 98% which is nothing. The single was a big seller but they never told me how many it sold and they are still putting it out on compilation discs.”

Most of the Wee recordings were cut at Coast Recording in San Francisco in 1968; “Lonnie did the arrangements - I heard certain sounds that I asked him to play and he would try to duplicate what I heard and that was how we worked well together. I am not a musician myself but I can get the sounds and he knew how to transpose those sounds.”

“Wand paid for a couple of tours. I toured with Cliff Noble and Company but the musicians didn’t want to play behind me and there was sabotage. I did get paid by Scepter. I went to Fort Knox Kentucky, Indianapolis, Gary, St. Louis, New Jersey, Washington. A lot of it was performing live but some was just going to the distribution places in the cities. I went to the shindigs where I mimed to the song – did one of those in Houston, one in Cleveland. I was there with the O’Jays singing my song "Send My Baby Back" and "Where’s My Baby" which I didn’t sing live but mimed. I included “Send My Baby Back”, “We Got Keep On”, “I Gotta Keep My Bluff In” in the clubs”.

Wee Records

In 1968, Lonnie Hewitt set up Wee Records and Freddie joined the label as a solo artist. His first recording was “Send My Baby Back” backed with “Where Is My Baby” which was on the Billboard Chart for 10 weeks. “Lonnie booked the session and it didn’t really take a long time. I was very lucky because Lonnie was very good because he would record the music one day and I would go in and put my vocals on it the same day. I did the background on a lot of my songs – “He’s No Good” – I did all the background myself. Lonnie and me would rehearse the parts that I did. A lot of those parts were just done by God blessing me to hear myself in harmony with myself.”

He also found work doing commercials through his association with Lonnie. “I did a beer commercial. He had a deep baritone voice which was good for radio.” Though things began to wrong; "We had a kind of falling out and he went his way and I went mine. Somehow before he left here we were talking about working together. We had worked out a couple of songs together but never got chance to record.” During this time, he was regularly gigging in San Diego, LA, Oakland with groups like the Ballads; "Small things nothing on a big scale about 4 gigs a week – 2 sets a night – I would open for the Ballads who were the stars. Lonnie was my acting manager but he never really performed. Most of the time I solicited them myself. I was underbidding other people because there was a wealth of performers at that time – I tried to get in as much as I could but we didn’t get top dollars because of the underbidding - $25 a night each.”

We Got To Keep On

We talked about the recording of “We Got To Keep On” which is one of my favourite songs played on the UK Northern Soul Scene; “We recorded it Fantasy in Berkley in 1965/66”; he burst into song. “It was a lot of fun me and Wylie. We went in there and we both had gospel backgrounds so what I didn’t do Wylie would yell here. When he was singing the 2nd verse “If Only I Could Show You How It Felt” and I would do a few little highlights. Most of the high parts are Freddie Hughes and the low parts Wylie. So we did like a Sam and Dave type thing.”

“I knew that it was one of my best known records only when I came there and I found out that it had been played for 25 years. I wrote that song and never got a dime.”

I asked him who played on the Early Bird 45’s besides Lonnie, “We had some of the baddest fellows – Eddie Foster, Cal Valentine who is no longer alive who was one of the baddest guitar player that I ever heard in my life. He did the backing part on “We Got To Keep On” , he sings the backing “Gotta Keep On Loving” – he had the harmony real well.” He told me that Eddie Foster was still alive but he hadn’t seen him in years; "He had a stroke and was kind of down but he is still alive – he also played guitar. Eugene Blacknell played behind me. Johnny Heartsman played on recordings with me when I did the “Send My Baby Back” album. Curtis Moore was the drummer – we just had a good combination of musicians. I knew all these guys on a regular basis and I played in the clubs with them – I would sit in with them."

Casanova 2

Freddie and Wylie had known each other since they were teenagers; “Wylie was with the Holidays one of the groups in Bushrod Recreation Centre were we all used to meet up. He is a little older than I am – 4 or 5 years older and I was on the young kid on the block with all the groups. I was this young kid with this high voice and they all wanted me to sing with them. So I became the youngest person in the groups, which were already established in the Bay Area.”

Freddie recorded two 45’s with Wylie for Early Bird, “We Got To Keep On”, “I Was A Fool”, “Love’s Philosophy” and “Maybe They’re Right”; “We also recorded “Every Nite I See Your Face” which I wrote and had gone to No 4 on the charts with Music City Soul Brothers but Ray Dobard stopped Fantasy from releasing it because he said that he owned the song. I wrote it but I never got compensation. I never realised how important publishing was at the time. I only recorded 6 six songs with Wylie.” “I changed the lyrics on “Maybe They’re Right” to “I’ll treat you right if you are dynamite”. I changed that around because of my association with Lonnie – it was the only way I was going to get compensated for my work was to change the lyrics and copyright my own stuff because I had let Lonnie copyright my stuff – he never gave me the real deal – I put my life in his hands.”


He continued; “We were really cool for a while until Wylie felt that he should be the one. If he had my voice he wouldn’t need me but I never felt like that. He was just a person who was very good musician and he wasn’t compensated for his words he thought and I was green after coming out of church and I didn’t know about the business things and I just wanted to sing and be happy and be seen. But I eventually wanted to make money but the money part didn’t matter at the beginning. At that time it was only paying $25 a man.

Freddie and Wylie stayed together for about 4 years; “ Our stage act was very exciting – we walked through the audience and we had some very good bands that played behind us – Wylie was short and I was tall and we wore “processes”. We had “Superfly” hairstyles – hair all down my neck. We were very young and energetic. We had beautiful suits and dressed alike. We always bought outfits that matched. If we had suits he would have one colour and I another but the same material. We tried to compliment each other on stage and vocally.”

“Wylie and I travelled around as the Casanova Two we did a whole lot of things. We did things in Oregon, in Seattle and in the Northern States. We travelled for a couple of years before we decided to go solo. He is now working with the Bay Area Blues Society band and he is one of the vocalists with them. We are still good friends and on my latest CD he sings background vocals. We have always been thinking of having a reunion of the Casanova Two but we never got round to doing it.”

Lonnie Hewitt & Early Bird Records

“Lonnie Hewitt was the arranger with Cal Tjader and he was a very accomplished piano player. He played with Cal Tjader for about 12 years. He decided to break from Cal when he didn’t get credits for some of the things he wrote. I met him in Oakland through some people who introduced me to him. I got hooked up with Lonnie Hewitt before I went solo in 1964. He had heard about me and he knew that I had done some things with Music City and he liked it so he thought he could do a better job on the arrangements. He approached me about recording because he had his own label. He asked me would I be interested in recording. It was helluva situation because he was a helluva keyboard player. He had been playing Latin and jazz and when I got hold of him I showed him how to play gospel because of my gospel background. It was a good marriage because of the way we communicated.”

Lonnie Hewitt knew Sol Vance, the President of Fantasy records from his days with Cal Tjader and Fantasy who helped him set up the Early Bird label. “ He used the royalties he was owed by Fantasy to set up the sessions. They must have had money but they moved into movies and they cut loose people. I had a contract with Lonnie but at that time in the 60’s you would get 3% of 98% and I didn’t get anything in the mail!!!.

Music City Soul Brothers

Music City Soul Brothers

Freddie said; “When the Four Rivers weren’t successful as a quartet we kind of split up and Wylie started singing with Connie and I started with Kenneth and we were the Music City Soul Brothers and they became Wylie & Connie.” Freddie and Ken recorded two 45’s for the Music City label “Looking For My Baby”, “Something In My Eye”, “Every Nite I See Your Face” and “Let Our Love Go On”. While talking about this period he breaks into song singing lines from “Let Our Love Go On” which was a song he had fond memories of singing. He said they gigged regularly around the Bay Area but in 1965 he was drafted into the military.

Drafted!!

Freddie told me about his brief stay in the military; “I was drafted into the armed forces in 1965 when I was 26 and I was a little bit older than most folks on the draft who were mostly 20/21. They had made a mistake – it was a typographical error but I was still drafted. I went through the first phase of it and I was performing and I didn’t really want to go – they cut my “process” off and called me "Goldilocks" and all kind of names. They gave me an honourable discharge because I couldn’t adjust to military life in general. I didn’t want to go to Vietnam because that’s where they wanted to send me because it was in the heat of the conflict. I went AWOL and they put me in the stockade and they court marshalled me and they decided to give me an honourable discharge. The thought of going there was very horrifying to me but somebody had to do it. I regret the way I got out of the military like I did. But not everyone has the disciplinary thing and some people are made for this and some people are made for that.

He briefly hooked up with Ken after his military service as part of the Music City All Stars recording “The Philly”; “When Kenneth stopped singing and had his calling back in to the church me and Wylie hooked up and we became the Casanova Two.”