On any trip, the destination is the reason for leaving home but, take my advice…

DON’T ignore the journey.

Google maps will get you where you’re going but…OLD school REAL maps are necessary research tools.

I got out the Rand McNally road atlas and looked at the different towns along my route. Then I Googled those towns to find out what might be in them of interest.

After that, I used Facebook to query my friends who might have traveled the same route or lived in the area to ask what THEY thought I should see.

Finally it was off to my GPS to enter addresses.

Last week, I took a quick 3 day road trip to connect with a past I never knew I had until about a dozen years ago. As an adoptee, I found my birth mom in 2001 and started piecing together my real family history. It’s been a passion full of twists and turns each more fascinating than the last.

The old family homestead was in the tiny community of Spade Texas and last week, my sister, mom and stepdad, none of which had ever been to see the old family cemetery, made the trip. My sister from Kearney Nebraska, Mom and Carl from Phoenix and me…From the Grand Canyon.

As we discovered the EXISTING Spade Texas was NOT the site of the OLD Spade Texas and had we not met some very nice but rather perplexed folks at the local EXISTING Spade COOP…We would have never known.

They clued us in on the COUNTY where the OLD Spade used to be and off we went with my sister’s ROAD ATLAS as our GPS.

We stopped in Colorado City for lunch at Mary’s Café…and as one rather local looking fellow was leaving, he looked right at me and asked how I was doing.

I beckoned him over and asked him if HE knew where the old Spade cemetery was located and sure enough…he knew. I walked outside and met a friend of his who farms right NEXT to the cemetery and got some great information from friendly strangers.

The reason for the trip was remarkable as, for the first time, we walked where they walked, stood where they stood and touched our own history.

That alone would have been more than enough as we laughed, talked, ate and drank and wondered aloud about what that place would have been like when “they” were there.

But I am not one to ignore the journey.

I packed as much into my 3 day road trip as I possibly could. On the way to Lubbock, I stopped at the Billy the Kid Museum in Ft. Sumner New Mexico where I picked up some GREAT tidbits from Tim Sweet.

Tim runs the Museum there…The one his GRANDFATHER started back in the day.

 Then, I went to see the grave of Billy the Kid and hopped the fence to walk to the site where Billy was dropped by the bullet from Pat Garrett’s gun.

I wouldn’t have known to jump the fence, as THAT site was closed due to “sequester” cutbacks but, the guy behind the desk of the Sumner County Museum, where the grave site is located, encouraged me to do so as HE…a local private citizen, fed up with government shenanigans, felt that people SHOULD be able to see the things that hold interest to them.

The history of the old west was alive in my mind for those few brief hours.

Cool. Really cool.

On the morning I left Lubbock for the long drive back to the canyon, I HAD to stop and see the Buddy Holly Statue. Holly WAS Lubbock and I couldn’t leave Lubbock without making THAT stop. Besides, while it was only a few miles from the motel, a Facebook friend had weighed in on it and thought I might enjoy it.

Later that day, I would stop to indulge another passion…Shooting photos of an old ghost town, Cuervo, and dodging rattle snakes in the process. Cuervo was a place I found on the internet as I searched for New Mexico ghost towns.

It was only a 16 mile detour from the original planned route…Just east of Santa Rosa and marked by an exit sign.

While in Cuervo, I happened on one of the VERY few remaining locals whom I asked permission for my photo foray and he warned me of the snakes…About 10 minutes AFTER my encounter. We shared a laugh and he went on his way.

Ahhh…The journey.

It was what I did between making a self-portrait with the Buddy Holly statue and the ghost town photo expedition though, that was the hidden treasure of the road trip.

I made the stop in Clovis New Mexico to see the recording studio where Buddy Holly made history.

Why?

Because another fine Facebook Friend recommended it.

The Norman Petty Studios website asks that reservations for tours be made 2 weeks in advance via email and I didn’t find out about it until 2 DAYS before my trip.

My email to Ken was replied to directly and we set the time for my tour.

I was met in the parking lot by Ken Broad and his wife Shirley. They led be NOT through a front door, rather…They led me back in time.

America was simple in the mid 1950’s and life was good then. Norman Petty and his wife Vi had a recording studio in Clovis and they were on the verge of something big. REALLY big.

Norm was a recording pioneer…Always toying with new technology and looking for new ways to reproduce sound. He and Les Paul were the ground floor of over dubbing. Recording instruments on one tape and voices on another before blending them together.

This was ANALOG…Not digital and the work was painstaking but, the sound was remarkable.

So was Buddy Holly.

Holly was barely more than a kid when he drove to Clovis from Lubbock but he wasn’t like the other kids. Buddy’s life was his music. Writing it, recording it and singing it.

As we look back and listen to the music of Buddy Holly, its sound is unique and unmistakable. It didn’t sound like anything else THEN and it doesn’t sound like anything else NOW.

The reason, as I found out from Ken was…Norman Petty.

As a recording producer and engineer, Norm built the Buddy Holly Sound from the ground UP. It’s really…The Norm Petty sound although  others might refer to it as the Clovis Sound.

The recording studio is EXACTLY as it was when Buddy Holly was there. EXACTLY but, it’s NOT a reproduction OR a restoration.

All the equipment, all the instruments, mics, tape decks…ARE those used when Buddy Holly recorded there.

The carpets, paint and walls ARE those that were there when Buddy was there.

The small apartment with its kitchenette, table, living room, couch, beds and coffee cups ARE those that Buddy walked on, sat in, cooked with, slept on and drank from.

But, there was a gem in the treasure chest as well.

David Bigham.

David was there too…When Buddy was there and David sang backgrounds for Buddy Holly…In that studio and on the road too.

Ken was kind enough to ask David to come in for my tour and David was kind enough to accommodate my questions and sense of wonder.

How important was Norman Petty to Buddy Holly?

Let’s put it this way.

Buddy had a song titled, “Cindy Lu” named after his niece.

Buddy’s drummer, Jerry Allison had recently had a falling out with his girl…Peggy Sue Garron and Jerry begged Buddy to retitle the song to score brownie points and win his girl back.

As they started to record the song in the Clovis New Mexico studio, it was in Cha Cha style but, drummer Allison couldn’t get the beat right. He screwed it up…Over and over again until Norm Petty told him. “Jerry, if ya can’t get it right on the next take, we’re gonna change it back to “Cindy Lu.”

Jerry Allison then excused himself and went into the lobby to get his head together and started doing a drummer’s warm up exercise…Paradiddles.

Norm heard that and so did Buddy. Buddy started changing the rhythm of his guitar to match the new beat and Norm Petty was off to the races, fading that beat in and out through his own mastered techniques and some slight of hand as an audio engineer. You couldn’t do that if the instruments and voices had all been recorded together.

Norm recorded them separately…Something that NOBODY else in the industry was doing and then, carefully, cutting and splicing reel to reel tapes back together to make them match PERFECTLY.

Jerry Allison thought the song might get his girl back.

It did. They later married.

Buddy never thought “Peggy Sue” would ever be heard outside Lubbock Texas.

Boy was HE wrong.

Buddy Holly’s “Every Day” was also the product of Norm Petty. Listen close and you’ll hear the music box…a special keyboard being played by Norm Petty and that rhythm beat…Well…That came about when Norm heard the drummer, Jerry Allison, slapping his knees in the studio’s lobby. Norm brought out a mic, placed it close and told Allison to do it again. The beat was recorded and later mixed through careful overdubbing, into the finished product.

Try to imagine that song with a harsh drum rather than the sound of Jerry Allison keeping rhythm by slapping his hands against his knees.

It was Norman Petty who gave Buddy Holly “the sound” and Buddy’s has been covered by the likes of Fiona Apple, Stevie Nicks, The Beatles, Chris Isaak, Paul McCartney and Wings, Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood played “Well Alright” at the Royal Albert Hall.

Buddy Holly recorded “Not Fade Away” on May 27th, 1957 in Clovis with Norm Petty. The Rolling Stones recorded “Not Fade Away in 1964 and it was their first release in the states. The Stones were still opening their show with the Holly song in Tokyo in 1995. Florence and The Machine gave “Not Fade Away” a distinct New Orleans jazz/blues treatment.

If Rock and Roll has a National Anthem, it just might be “Not Fade Away.”

Buddy Holly was America and David Bigham was there, standing behind the swing mic next to the little amp into which Buddy Holly’s guitar was plugged and he sang the background vocals.

There are hidden treasures all over America and gems waiting for you like Ken and Shirley Broad, David Bigham, those folks at the Spade Texas CoOp, Tim Sweet and that Colorado City local and his friends…All you have to do is look for them.

I took 3 days…Discovered my own roots, explored a town that time forgot, found a legend of the old west and stood in the studio that changed the way music was recorded forever.

I found what makes America great and I encourage you to do the same as you plan YOUR summer vacations.

© Craig Andresen

The National Patriot

Weekend Edition 5/25/13