We began as a three-piece group known as The Ravens in 1960 in Dumas, Texas. The group consisted of Jack Carter on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Larry Skipworth on lead guitar and Delwin Steele on drums. A short while later we added Billy Jay Walls on bass.
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| The Ravens: Left to right are: Larry Skipworth, Jack Carter and Billy Jay Walls. In front is Delwin Steele. |
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Jack Carter Recalls The Tiaras
I’m not sure of the date, but we eventually traveled to the Norman Petty Studios in Clovis, New Mexico and recorded two songs I wrote called ‘One and Only’ and ‘Truly I Love You.’ In the summer of 1961 we moved to the Denison-Sherman area and had our own weekly radio show. At this time we also changed our name to The Tiaras after learning of another group called The Ravens. Delwin, Billy Jay and I returned to Dumas later that year and played several stage shows and dances with Donnie Lanier on lead guitar. He was previously with Buddy Knox and The Rhythm Orchids. Donnie and Jimmy Bowen were both from Dumas. In 1962 Donnie left Dumas and Earl Whitt joined the group. It was at this time that we moved to Amarillo and Billy Jay left the group. Ted Barnhill played bass with us for a short time and later Gail Adams took his place.
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| The Tiaras: Delwin Steele, Earl Whitt, Jack Carter and Gail Adams |
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We recorded two instrumentals at this time at the Petty Studios and received a B+ rating in Cashbox. The songs were ‘Mexican Rock’ and ‘Red Sails In The Sunset.’ They were released on the Alliance label and featured Earl on his left-handed strat. Delwin left the group for military service in 1965 and Bobby Wood became our drummer.
In 1965 we recorded two more songs at the Petty Studios: ‘Bull Moose’ written by Bobby Darin and ‘All I Want,’ another of my compositions. ‘Bull Moose’ was the pick of the week on KIXZ Radio and was one of our most requested numbers. They were released on the Alliance label. Later we recorded a song called ‘Perfect Night.’ It was written by Eddie Reeves, but was never released. When we were recording I told Norman that I kept hearing an organ part in the song and I eventually talked him into having Vi Petty play the part. As it turned out, it made the song. A short while later I heard the identical version on the radio by an artist out of Portales. It had the identical organ part and I was a little upset at the situation.
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At this time Bobby left the group and we added Louis “Chano” Preciado on drums. Earl had previously played with Ray Ruff and The Checkmates and Ray was always after us to record at his studio. He said if we didn’t like the finished product we didn’t owe him a thing. I was pleasantly surprised at his creativity and although the recordings didn’t have the quality of the Petty Studios, both songs turned out really well. We recorded ‘Sticks and Stones’ written by Tina Turner and ‘Southern Love’ by Ronnie Hawkins. They were released on the Ruff label.
While we were in the process of recording, we met Jay Frank Wilson (‘Last Kiss’). He was a little guy with a big voice. I’m not sure of the date, but we later added Jerry Dixon to the group. He was from Guymon and was a great organist. He was very talented and played a number of other instruments. We also added Malcolm Helm and Reggie Grimes, both from Amarillo. They played trumpet, sax and trombone and carried us into our soul phase, in which we played a lot of James Brown, Sam and Dave, Wilson Pickett and other artists of the day. During the summer of 1966 I left the group for a couple of months due to marital difficulties and Calvin Judd filled in as lead singer. After I returned, Earl left the group, also because of marital difficulties, and Larry Beamgard, from Borger, became our lead guitar player. The Tiaras played our last dance at the Pampa Youth Center in May of 1968.
Throughout our time as a group we played a wide variety of music from Buddy Holly, The Fireballs, The Ventures, Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, The Beatles, Chuck Berry, Paul Revere and The Raiders and many other artists. We played all the air base clubs in the four-state area, as well as the colleges, youth centers, tarantellas, cotillions and nightclubs. We played the Texas Tech Howdy Dance and fraternity parties at The University of Texas. We had several battles of the bands and two that come to mind are battles we had with The Sparkles at West Texas State and The Music Box in Lubbock. Both battles were called a draw. We had a great time and enjoyed being with The Sparkles – they were a good group of guys.
Earl is still playing in the Amarillo area and Gail has played with several successful groups in Denver. Jerry Dixon lives in Guymon and has released an album of his own music. I have lost track of Larry Beamgard, Malcolm Helm and Reggie Grimes. Chano plays with local country and western groups and Bobby Wood moved to California. Billy Jay Walls was living in the state of Washington the last I heard and Delwin Steele died of a heart attack in the early 1980s. Malcolm Helm became a much respected high school band director and sadly passed away in 1993. After I quit the group I got into church music and was music director for several Baptist churches in Amarillo. In the ‘70s I sang with a gospel quartet called The Revelations. We produced two albums and sang with The Amarillo Symphony on three different occasions. At the present time I do some private parties and sing in church choir.
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| The Tiaras, L-R: Earl Whitt, Jack Carter and Gail Adams |
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Gail Adams Recalls The Tiaras
Earl Witt was one of the strongest guitar players of the early sixties rock scene when he joined The Tiaras, first because of his amazing ability and versatility. Second, he not only played left-handed but upside down as well. He had been schooled as a violin player but when he first picked up a guitar, it was a right-hand model so he just flipped it over and learned to play with the small strings on top. By the time anyone pointed out to him that such a style was not normal, he had gotten so used to his flipped over style that there was no going back. He was such a dominant guitar player and we could always tell the local guitar players everywhere we went because they were the ones standing on their heads – trying to figure out what it was that Earl was doing.
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| The Tiaras, L-R: Earl Whitt, Delwin Steel and Jack Carter (Gail Adams is seated in front) |
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While I realize that the term “garage band” is used somewhat generically on this website, we hasten to add that The Tiaras were no garage band. We never were quite a national act but we were an extremely busy and well-known regional group. We played at least two nights a week and often more, year round for most of the six to eight years that we were together. Earl was a tireless booker and we also used several booking agents and we almost never took a weekend off. During the time that Earl was not with us, Jack and I took over the booking duties. By then, the group was so well established; booking gigs was almost on cruise control.
The band played anything from high school hops of 200 to 500 people to huge parties at Texas Tech, West Texas State and the University of Texas sometimes for thousands of people. Many of the gigs we won out over other (sometimes nationally known) bands because of the quality of our sound. Earl worked for an Altec-Lansing and J.B. Lansing distributor and we supplemented our top-notch Fender guitar and bass rigs with several huge theater speakers known as Altec A-7s for our PA system. We had enough equipment to justifiably call ourselves "America’s Best Equipped Band."
The other facet of the band that allowed us to be a very professional group was the quality of the lead vocals—provided by Jackie “Dallas” Carter. (Dallas was actually his middle name, his nickname may have been Houston or Ft Worth, but I digress.) The Tiaras had been around for two or three years before The Beatles, Stones, etc. came on the scene. During that pre-English Invasion period, our repertoire included a great number of songs by Elvis, The Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, Ricky Nelson, Eddie Cochran, and The Righteous Brothers, to name just a few.
Jack could sing them all with equal ease and ability. Anyone who is a devotee of Roy Orbison knows that he had a range of three to four octaves, an asset especially on his hit songs like ‘Crying,’ ‘Pretty Woman,’ ‘In Dreams,’ etc. Jack could sing Roy’s material note for note. When a song called for a falsetto vocal, Jack’s range may well have been beyond four octaves.
Probably the biggest drawback of being the lead vocalist in “Americas Best Equipped Band” was that Jack had to sing loud enough to hear himself over volume mad Earl Whitt and me. I was amazed that some nights Jack didn’t leave his vocal cords hanging on his EV664 microphone. This was in the day when stage monitors and side fill monitors weren’t being used and all Jack had to hear himself was the PA main speakers, which were set up in front of and pointed away from him.
If he complained about having to trash his voice some nights because of the volume of the band, I would show my capacity for compassion by calling him a “big whiner” or by telling him to “cowboy up” and deal with it. Apologies, Jack. And, of course, Jack was also an excellent rhythm guitar player while he was performing his extraordinary vocals.
Over the years, we played with some other remarkable musicians. One of the most notable was our first keyboard player, Al Campbell, who played with us during the period when Jack was out of the band trying to resolve his “marital problems.” Al joined us and showed me what a Hammond B-3 and a couple of Leslie cabinets could add to a band (and to the weight of the band trailer). Al could play everyone from Jimmy Smith to Booker T. Washington and he had us doing James Brown songs before most of Middle America had ever heard of the “Godfather of Soul.”
In retrospect, I feel humbled to have been allowed to play with the likes of Earl, Jack and Al because they were all ‘the real deal.’
Gail ‘Zeke’ Adams – Denver, Colorado, July 2010 (When I go, I want to do it on stage with my Alembic bass in my hands and a smile on my lips.)
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| The Tiaras, Back Row, Left to Right: Earl Whitt, Gail Adams, Malcolm Helm and Reggie Grimes; Front Row, Left to Right - Jerry Dixon, Jack Carter and Chano Preciado |
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One And Only / Truly I Love You (?)
Mexican Rock / Red Sails In The Sunset (Alliance R-1934, 1964)
Lorraine / You Told A Lie (as Jackie Dallas & The Tiaras, Fawn 6002, ?)*#
Bull Moose / All I Want (as Jackie Dallas & The Tiaras, Alliance 664A-1690, 1965)*
Perfect Night (Unreleased, 1965)
Sticks And Stones / Southern Love (Ruff Records 45-1019, 1966)
*My full name is Jackie Dallas Carter and it was Norman Petty's idea to release 'Bull Moose' and 'All I Want' as "Jackie Dallas and The Tiaras."
#'Lorraine' and 'You Told A Lie' I think may have been some of Ray Ruff's doing. I've come across other sites where we had supposedly relocated to Louisiana and some of our recordings were on a compilation album called Gator Rock. This was all new to me. No such thing ever happened.
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