I remember my first time recording a record onto vinyl. It was November of 1995 and best friend Erin Cooley made the hike with me to Galena, Illinois. The location of this historic town is very close to Dubuque, Iowa. We figured it to be about a 14 hour ride from Altoonie Town, and the first day we made it to Southbend, Indiana. Being a huge Notre Dame fame, this was the next thing to heaven for me. Erin and I always carry our video cameras with us and we made a video spoof of the Notre Dame movie, RUDY, which was very popular at the time. We stayed at a really nice 5 star joint, adjacent to the NCAA Football Hall of Fame. I got lots of photos of the ‘touchdown Jesus’.

 

The name of the record company I was with, at the time, was CHICAGO COUNTRY RECORDS, but they had moved their outfit away from the big, windy city to a little rural town in the northwest part of the state. We discovered Hollywood shot pieces of the movie GRUMPY OLD MEN, in Galena. And, the sequel GRUMPIER OLD MEN, had recently just hit the big screen about the time we made our journey west. President US Grant spent a lot of time in Galena and there’s a feel of old time, small town in the air.

HERE'S SOME TRAVEL INFO ON GALENA, http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-475558-galena_vacations-i

 

The record I was recording was HONEST TO GOODNESS AMIGOS, originally recorded by country western singers and good buddies of mine Bill and Crazy Roy. Erin and I made it into a singing call for Square Dancers, and a Rumba for Round Dancers. Both of us being huge fans of the movie THE THREE AMIGOS, we added a lot of ‘ole’s and arribas’ in the background, which made for a much more entertaining record. While we were in Galena, my good caller buddy Jody Serlick came to town to visit me at the studio. Jody and I had met a few years before at a caller’s school in Galena in 1991. Jody is a good caller and he resembles Rob Reiner. We did a lot of sight seeing in Galena. We were all history buffs.