Amberain 70s, Buffalo, Hear Me Calling and Sandy’s Birthday with Bruce Hilliard
Hey friends, Bruce here from Better Each Day Land on February 27th, 2020. In this episode we’re going to go back in time to 1976 when I had the honor of working with Amberain, a band comprised of the guy who engineered and mixed these recordings, my brother Gary Hilliard...and Steve Tobeck, Rick Fry, Rich Tippet, brothers Dick and Sandy Murchy, and yours truly.
And this is a special Happy Birthday Hallmark card to Sandy, the best vocalist ever and my best bud since kindergarten at the University of Alexander Young Elementary School in Aberdeen Washington.
Once again, there has been an unbelievably good audience response with prior episodes that featured songs from Amberain and the 70s Aberdeen music scene. Probably because so many of my listeners were there and enjoyed a really super cool era for music….and the old photos are amber with time, and most likely taken in the rain.
The songs we’re about to hear were written largely by Dick Murchy. I use the term “largely” because the first song, Buffalo Gunn (yes two "n's"), was written and ready to go as an instrumental but younger brother Sandy said “no way man, I’ve got words and a melody to add to the beginning.”
When Sandy said he had a vocal to add, we shut up and listened, he sang, and it was all over. Steve plays some really tasty bass licks in here too. It makes me think of a road trip on a hot summer day. But I’m almost positive we recorded it on an overcast misty night. That goes to show what good actors musicians need to be sometimes.
The second song, Hear Me Calling/Jaime, correct me if I’m wrong...anyone...was again, written by Dick and enhanced by Sandy. I remember Dick and Sandy working on the second half of the song, where they bounce back and forth with the lead vocal, a cappella in a car, in the parking lot of Swanson’s Supermarket on Simpson AV.
My vocal part, throughout the entire song, was “OOOO”. I had the bottom part of a three-part two seconds of an “OOOO.” It takes place about half way through the Dick and Sandy section. Don’t miss it.
Again, Sandy took the opening section of the song and killed it. From a rental house on 2nd Street in Aberdeen...here’s Amberain with Hear Me Calling/Jaime.
Thank you all for listening. Please chime in with comments, suggestions or anything to show you’re alive.
And Sandy, I won’t mention your age but I’ve known you since we were five and that was fifty-nine years ago. I feel like I’ve known you my whole life.
