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The Levee Singers
The Levee Singers began as the "Levee Banjo Band"...the weeknight entertainment at the Levee. The name was changed to the Levee Singers when the group began appearing on national TV shows and across the country at conventions and concerts and in Las Vegas and Reno.
The group quickly became one of Dallas' best-known and most in-demand entertainment groups in the early 1960's. They might start a night at the Levee, play the first set and, at the break, pile into Ed Bernet's car, drive 10 minutes to downtown Dallas, run into a hotel showroom, do a 20 minute show for a convention, run back out to the Levee and resume the night...their place having been taken for an hour by a sub band, usually led by Sam Gafford.
David Sontag, an entertainment manager from LA, saw them in action one night and signed the group as manager. He was responsible for bringing in a friend of his who was a successful music writer/arranger, Colin Romoff, to help the group get ready, with some new songs and arrangements, for a shot at "the big time". Through Dave's efforts, and after a lot of rehearsing, the group appeared on four top network TV shows of the day: Danny Kaye, Hollywood Palace, Jimmy Dean and Hootenanny. They also were booked at the Mapes Hotel in Reno and at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas with Joey Bishop. They did several concerts with Henry Mancini and a great number of convention and corporate shows. They kept up their nightly shows at the Levee, except when they were out of town.
The group always felt they might have become even more successful...with the start they had and the "inside" relationship their manager had with many people in the entertainment world. But they decided they didn't want to gamble what they had going at the Levee and with the recording studio business Ed had begun. The idea of being "on the road" didn't seem like the best option at the time, in view of business and family responsibilites.
After about eight years, Ronnie Dawson left the group to go on his own, specializing in the "rock-a-billy" genre, becoming one the world's best-known artists in that field. His place was taken by Ralph Sanford, who had been the groups' first sub since the earliest days. He started as a 13-year old at the Big D Jamboree and later played with the Lightcrust Dougboys. At the same time, he began working at the Levee as "first sub". He also joined a very successful, similar group of musicians/singers, Freddie Powers' Powerhouse Four, in Arlington, TX. When Ronnie left, Ralph was able to move in and take up the slack quickly...and has been the Levee Singers' lead singer since that time.
Smokey left the group to devote all his time to the Lightcrust Doughboys and several other groups he had in 1990. Several men, among them Brent Van Sickle, Mike O'Daniel and Bill Hudson were with the group for awhile. Ed's brother, Dick, ultimately became the regular fourth member of the band, playing plectrum banjo and keyboards.
Bob Christopher retired from music for awhile in the late 1960's and was replaced by Grady Owen. When Grady moved from Dallas, Bob came back and was the group's bass player/singer/arranger until August of 2005. Ralph Lindsey is currently the bass player, third lead singer and high harmony singer.
Ralph Sanford and Ed share most of the lead singing chores, Ralph Lindsey usually takes the all-important high harmony part while the other two trade off singing the lower harmony part.
The Levee Singers have been active through all the years since the beginning, playing company and corporate events, business meetings, society parties and other special events of all kinds. Since the Levee closed at the end of the 60's, public club/restaurant performances have been rare. At one point, during the early 90's, they were asked to work regularly at a new club, named after and made to look like the original Levee, adjacent to the Ponchartrain Restaurant on Preston Road. That lasted only a short while. They worked for awhile at a restaurant on McKinney Avenue in Dallas. Neither of those efforts seemed to be able to recreate the essence of the original Levee. It was so unique in time and was a combination of many different ingredients that can't...like so many things in life...be exactly duplicated or recaptured.
During the last couple of years, however, in addition to its many private functions, the group has been appearing publically about once or twice every other month at the Pocket Sandwich Theatre, a small venue just down the street on Mockingbird Lane from where the Levee used to be. The atmosphere and feel of the room is so similar to the Levee, it's almost unbelieveable. If the "feel" of the Levee could ever be duplicated...this is it!
The Levee Singers' upcoming dates at the Pocket Sandwich Theatre are:
Tuesday, Oct 17, 2006
Friday, Nov 17, 2006
Due to a great demand for tickets...a happy situation for the LS...most of the last 11 or 12 shows at the Pocket have sold out at least 4-6 weeks in advance. Hope you'll call early and try to come on the next available date!
Admission is $16. Call the Pocket at 214-821-1860 for reservations and tickets. The theater is located just east of Central Expressway, 5400 East Mockingbird Lane in Dallas.
The Levee Singers are happy and excited to have the privilege to perform a public show in Galveston, Texas, at the Grand 1894 Opera House, 2020 Postoffice Street, in the Strand area of Galveston, on Sunday, November 12, 2006, at 2:00PM in the afternoon. This is one of the most wonderful, historic theaters in the country and they schedule many of the biggest "names" in entertainment. For more details and to purchase tickets, go to the website...www.thegrand.com.
Having seen a good demand for the CD's they've made from the 5 LP's they recorded in the 60's, and having had many requests for a current recording, the group made its' first new recording in many years in 2005. It's called "Finally, a New CD"...and was chosen to be a contender in two categories for the prestigious Grammy Award.
A second, new CD has recently been released...called, appropriately, "The NEXT One". It was recorded in July, 2006, and is a collection of more of the group's most requested songs.
For info on the group's CD's, a CD made from the 2 LP's the Levee Dixieland Seven made during the 60's and a CD, "Zip'a de do dah", made by the Levee Four at the Houston Levee durng the mid-60's visit www.edbernet.com
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