Texas garage collectors from the 70s/80s

[sylvain]

Hey,
I'm currently tryin to solve a comp mystery ala Garage Kings / Acid Dreams and such. Per se, it's totally artifactual. But solving that story would help understanding the late 70s/ early 80s garage collector "scene" in Texas, and filling the blanks in the garage comp genealogy. I would need to know the names of the guys who were around back then, apart D. Shutt and D. Hanners. Who were the "other" garage collectors in Texas back then? Were there some other people with a significant collection of texan garage in their hands outside Texas at that time ?
Thanx a lot for your help, I stand by you.
sylvain

 

[MopTopMike]

Mike Buck; Ashley Johnson (he just passed away, has a legendary record bunker full of records); Peter Buesnell are the three I remember, but there were a lot more.
Lots of guys all over specialized in Texas recordings, as it was the first state to be documented. A friend from my state had a pretty decent stash of Texas garage & psych 45s, but he sold them off just before he passed away.

 

[sylvain]

Mike Buck; Ashley Johnson (he just passed away, has a legendary record bunker full of records); Peter Buesnell are the three I remember, but there were a lot more.
Lots of guys all over specialized in Texas recordings, as it was the first state to be documented. A friend from my state had a pretty decent stash of Texas garage & psych 45s, but he sold them off just before he passed away.

Thanx Mike. Gonna try to contact those who are still alive, hope it's still the case of M. Buck and P. Buesnell ? Just read a post on the old G45 forum, where Dave Baldwin says that he moved to Texas in the mid-70s and met Louie Schwartz and Michael Greisman and the rest of the "Texas mafia"... I know that Dave is still alive, as he's a subscriber to this board (Dave, I PM you shortly) but is that the case for Schwartz and Greisman as well ?

 

[MopTopMike]

Michael Greisman is in California, I think. He is the guy who put out all of the garage comps on his Cicadelic label, as you probably know. Don't know Louie Schwartz. There is another guy who was very active, he is the one who found Bill Ash, guitarist of the Stoics, in the late 1980s and obtained a few copies of the Stoics 45 for resale. He also ran ads in Goldmine magazine. I used to buy from him - David James. He's dead now. He may have been involved in some of those mystery comps. Dave Baldwin probably knows more about him. And we cannot forget (well, those of us [un] fortunate to have crossed his path - Chris Peake. Legendary record hoarder, turned Tim Warren on to many unknown garage 45s in the early '80s, and also created the Psychedelic Disaster Whirl comp from 45s he had - Chris wanted Tim to put it out on Crypt, but Tim said it was too psych!

I have old Doug Hanners & David Shutt record lists from as far back as 1980. Would love to see earlier lists, maybe Dave Baldwin, Rich Strauss or Jeff Lemlich still have some from pre-1980? I myself didn't start getting their lists by mail until 1987

 

[Laurent Bigot]

created the Psychedelic Disaster Whirl comp from 45s he had - Chris wanted Tim to put it out on Crypt, but Tim said it was too psych!

yet when I bought it from Tim round the time it came out, he said it was great (and it is indeed)

 

[gregk25]

Ashley Johnson (he just passed away, has a legendary record bunker full of records)

I remember when Cold Sun came out on Rockadelic in the early 90s and blew the collective young minds of my small psych posse to technicolor bits. Back then there was talk of Ashley and him buying the Cold Sun acetate for 10K. The stories of his record bunker sounded utterly bonkers, bizarre and surreal... next I remember were those construction pics of the bosshoss bunker...

The usual irreverant question in these cases: what happened to the bunker content?

 

[MopTopMike]

Ashley just passed away about 10-14 days ago, so nothing will happen with the records anytime soon. I've seen pictures of his stash, looks just like Bosshoss' spread, but 75% are LPs

 

[Sancho Panza]

Is it the same Ashley who brought the Pretty Things "Defecting Grey" to the Shoestring?

 

[bosshoss]

Peter Bliek was one from outside Texas (Sydney). Mike Myers I'm pretty sure was from TX, and his collection is supposedly top notch.

 

[Heitkotter77]

Is it the same Ashley who brought the Pretty Things "Defecting Grey" to the Shoestring?

Ashley was in the Stereo Shoestring, but not when they made the single.

As far as collecting, I don't know how much he had in the way of Texas 45s. His main 45s interest was in European picture sleeves.

 

[MopTopMike]

Sylvain, you should get in touch with Rich Haupt. He and his brother started the Rockadelic label in the late 1980s (world-famous for quality, top notch limited pressing reissues of Cold Sun, etc.). Rich knows most everyone from the old days and I'm sure he'd be more than happy to help.
Rich is on Facebook, tell him I sent you.

 

[sylvain]

Sylvain, you should get in touch with Rich Haupt. He and his brother started the Rockadelic label in the late 1980s (world-famous for quality, top notch limited pressing reissues of Cold Sun, etc.). Rich knows most everyone from the old days and I'm sure he'd be more than happy to help. Rich is on Facebook, tell him I sent you.

Excellent idea, thanx Mike.

 

[diggingtheslowness]

Ashley just passed away about 10-14 days ago, so nothing will happen with the records anytime soon. I've seen pictures of his stash, looks just like Bosshoss' spread, but 75% are LPs

Sad to hear this, I emailed with Ashley two months ago and then he told me about his illness. Great guy and one of the finest picture sleeves collections in the world!