HoustonWells
Country Music Legend - Houston Wells - Then & Now: From Joe Meek To New Zealand (2 CD) Available from: www.jasmine-records.co.uk
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Lonely Street - Houston Wells
A beautiful rendition of the classic 'Lonely Street' with 3 generations involved in the singing of this song, a fulfilling thing indeed.
Honky Tonk Man - Houston Wells
A cover of the great Dwight Yoakim tune, nice and upbeat to get the blood pumping
The End Is Not In Sight - Houston Wells
A cover of the Jessie Winchester, Amazing Rhythm Aces and Russell Smith classic
Only The Heartaches (with The Marksmen)
This song made the UK #18 on 31st August 1963, and went to #7 the charts in Ireland and stayed in the Top 10 for 6 weeks 1963.
Biography by Paul Hazell (used with his permission)
The Early Years A Country Singer in the Making
Houston Wells first saw the light of day in Northumberland, England where he was born Andrew Smith, not far from Newcastle Upon Tyne. He enjoyed a happy childhood and grew to love the outdoors through his father, who nurtured in him a love of nature and took him on fishing trips. Not surprisingly, he grew up with an ambition to work in the outdoors and tried driving earth movers and logging as it turned out with a return ticket for later in life in both cases before joining the army and eventually the merchant navy.
A stint on the SS Iberia eventually saw him living for a time in Canada, where by the late 1950s he had settled in Powell River, about one hundred miles North of Vancouver. There, he worked as a logger and developed his love of country music. His inspiration as a singer came from such names as Slim Whitman, Jim Reeves, Johnny Cash and Hank Locklin. The possessor of a rapidly maturing and tuneful voice, the young ex-seaman took to singing in bars whenever the opportunity arose.
Canada, of course enjoys a long and rich tradition of country and folk music influences that has produced such esteemed names as Hank Snow, Wilf Carter, George Hamilton IV and latterly Gordon Lightfoot and Ann Murray. The young man absorbed the local music and continued to perform whenever his spare time allowed.
The life in Canada was short-lived though, as Houstons wife and children elected to stay in the UK when the Canadian period began. So, in 1959 Houston moved on, travelling around by Greyhound bus and initially stopping over with relatives in Detroit before sailing back to England on The Corinthia. The marriage did not last however and the young, newly single Andrew Smith settled in Wickford, Essex where his parents and brother were living. He took a job driving a truck for a boss based in nearby Rayleigh and listened to a lot of country music as he drove up and down the length of England. Houston recalls,
Of all the songs I heard on the radio back then two particularly made an impression on me. One was Jim Reeves Hell Have To Go and the other was Hank Locklins Please Help Me Im Falling. Little did I realise then that within a short time I would be working with both these country superstars! It makes me wonder if lifes already lined up for you
The move to Essex was fortuitous, as living not too many miles away in the Southend-On-Sea area were four young lads collectively known as The Coasters, who were soon to play a major part in Andrew Smiths life! The Coasters had been formed by guitarist Pete Willsher and featured Brian Gill on bass, Norman Hull on rhythm guitar and Peter Nye on drums. They specialised in playing instrumental pieces and were well known around the Southend and Leigh-on-Sea area, where they often invited young would-be vocalists to sing a song or two. In a way, a kind of pre-digital forerunner of karaoke!
It was one night at the Elms Hotel in Leigh-on-Sea that Andrew Smith volunteered to sing a couple of numbers with The Coasters. The boys realised immediately that here was someone who was a lot more than just another lad who could hold a tune. Here was a good looking young man who within a few bars held the audience in the palm of his hand. What is more he could hit and hold some impressively powerful notes. From that night on it was Andrew Smith & The Coasters and over the ensuing months they carved out a musical niche for themselves in a growing area spreading out from Southend and the popularity of their gigs made them wonder if there might be a chance they could record.
Brian Gill was an electrical engineer and he constructed a basic home studio so that the group could make a demo tape. Pretty soon, they had cut China Doll / This Song Is Just for You. That recording found its way to London where it landed on the desk of Terry McGrath of Southern Music. Impressed by what he heard, McGrath asked Andrew to allow him to place it and very shortly afterwards, the boys received an invitation from the much exalted producer Joe Meek to attend his famous studio at Holloway Road in North London. Houston recalls today that their first impression was that they had been unceremoniously shunted into a backroom store, ankle-deep in cables, plugs and tapes. Then it occurred to them that this was the actual studio where all the famous recordings were made!
Meek was impressed with Andrew and the boys. It later emerged that although he was renowned for his pop and rocknroll productions, he harboured a secret love for country music and was delighted to have a country act on his books. However, he already had other groups signed up and, in particular, had in mind that The Outlaws could provide perfectly good backings for Andrews voice. He broke the news to the young lead singer. He would sign up Andrew but not the group. This bombshell did not go well with Andrew who insisted that he would only record with The Coasters. The resultant compromise was that Meek would record Andrew with The Coasters but only Andrew would be under contract. Meek would pay Andrew and he would have to share his income with the band.
The second surprise was that the recordings would not be released as being backed by The Coasters as there was already a popular American group by that name. Also, it was decided that Andrew Smith did not sound much like the name of a country singer. So it was that Houston Wells And The Marksmen came into existence as a Joe Meek act! The day that Houston signed to Meek was preserved for posterity by the photograph shown in this booklet of Meek holding his gun on Houston, as if compelling him to sign!
Interestingly, a 45rpm copy of that original demo has recently surfaced and we are hoping that it might respond positively to some tender loving care by our mastering team with a view to one day sharing it with the public on a future release.
In The Limelight
The first single was a studio cut of the Hank Locklin hit that had formed one side of the demo disc. This Song Is Just For You was coupled with the Pete Willsher number Paradise and it was released in September 1962. The former track is included on CD1 of this set and showcases the power and range of Houstons voice. It did well in the UK and enjoyed even more success in Ireland. It served to gain them some much-needed publicity and before long the boys were sporting glitzy country style shirts made up by Pete Willshers mum! A similar level of success was achieved by the second single, a cover of the Jerry Wallace hit Shutters And Boards which sported Meeks own composition North Wind on the flip side.
Whilst Meeks musical brilliance is unquestioned, his choice of single A sides frequently has been! North Wind was universally acclaimed as a great song with a superb production and bound to succeed. However, Meek chose to make it the B side, which meant that it received much less airplay. Consequently both Houston and many of his followers have always believed that they missed out on a potential hit by not having North Wind as an A side. You can make up your own mind as North Wind is featured in this compilation.
Meek chose Only The Heartaches as the A side of the third single, so his taste was not so bad this was the one that made Houston Wells a really hot name. A country song with a western feel, released just as the Liverpool sound was taking off, one might not have expected the song to sell but, sell it did! It went into the pop charts in the UK and Ireland and won them many major shows, TV and radio appearances and subsequently led to concert tours. More and more the boys went out on the road and demand grew for new recorded product.
To ensure that Meek had plenty of material from which to choose future releases he had the boys record numerous tracks. That way, should the tours take the group away, Meek could still ensure a constant stream of new releases for his public. He would often move the boys on to more songs during recording sessions, promising to finish them off later.
Through all this, two things became apparent that surprised and frustrated Houston. Firstly, he noticed that as the records were released, his voice often sounded higher than it actually was. Also the backings did not sound as discussed with Meek. Houston told me,
The basic tracks would sound fine in the studio but then, when we heard them on record they didnt sound the same and my voice sounded much higher than it really was
In fact, what Houston did not realise at the time was that many of the tapes had been speeded up after recording but before the records were mastered and pressed and frequently, the productions had not been finished as Meek had promised. With this release, you can hear many of the tracks at the speed they were recorded, with the backings remixed to reflect the original intentions of Houston and Meek. This will be the first time these mixes have ever been heard outside the studios.
Secondly, Houston received no money and pretty soon was borrowing a suit from his father and a car from a friend because he could not afford to get to gigs and recording sessions on his depleted savings!
The contract I had with the Meek organisation stated that I was entitled to one penny for every record sold. I still have the contract! With all the records we moved, that should have come to a quid or two, however Ive yet to see a penny from them!
This gave rise to numerous rumours that Houston was taking full pay and keeping the group on the bread line!
We were on the bread line, he says, but it wasnt my fault. I guess I was naïve it would be different if we were going through that today. I was as green as grass back then, now Ive got all my buttons on!
A third frustration that only became apparent in later years wasHave you performed in front of an audience?Houston had played live on many occasions.
Your musical influences
Jim Reeves, Hank Locklin, Hank Williams, Marty Robbins, Vince Gill..and many others.Anything else?
Special thanks to all the people who have come out of hiding to make themselves known after all of these years, it has been a pleasure making contact after all this time.READ MORE
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Comments (63)
Thank you for sharing this song, kind of sounded like mountain yodeling music making, which I like, God bless, Rose from Texas :)
Great version of this song AWESOME vocal!
Great to see the new CD coming out old son!
cheers
Yer Partner In Wine (and those yummy crackers and cheese)
HELLO! JUST STOPPED BY TO GIVE A LISTEN. UR MUSIC IS GREAT!!! ENJOYED IT.
Hello Houston,
I listened to your song "Only The Heartaches"....what a voice, as i understand, you have had some success in your history as a musical artist..i am impressed and it doesn't take a genius to know that you have a gift...keep up the great work... I voted this song HOT To help you out in the charts, Let us know when you have new material, I would like for you to listen to my song "If You Could" sometime, thanks and much respect,
ADAD RECORDS
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