CdA’s Souvenir Records left musical mementos
In the modern era of amazing interwebs and electronic thingyboxes, it’s no big deal for local musicians to commit their songs to history and promote their gigs.
For both amateurs and professionals, it’s as easy as downloading some recording software and using social networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook to get the word out about the undeniable brilliance of your musical endeavors and make a bit of noise on the Spokane-North Idaho music scene.
It’s not even necessary to press up any old-fashioned CDs as long as you’ve got a good handle on the Internet thing. Yet it wasn’t always so effortless. In the dark ages of the record industry, songs actually had to be recorded on the fly in a studio and pressed onto circular slabs of vinyl in order to capture the attention of local dance halls and radio stations.
In the mid-1950s there weren’t a lot of options when it came to finding a recording studio in the Inland Northwest. Spokane’s Sound Recording Co. was pretty much it, and as mainly a country label, it had little interest in capturing the sound of the burgeoning rock ’n’ roll scene. Recognizing an opportunity to take up a new hobby and make a few bucks, rockabilly music fan Chester D. Adkins set up some recording gear in a small space in the back of his wife’s downtown Coeur d’Alene record shop.
Genevieve Adkins had opened Souvenir Records at 215 Sherman Ave. a few years earlier but relocated to a larger space across the street, in the plaza of the Greyhound bus station, where the Third and Sherman entrance of the Resort Shops is now. This gave Chester some space to tinker around with his new recording toys. It didn’t take long for him to recognize that once a recording was in the can, someone needed to press up some records and promote it.
In 1957, after Spokane’s Charlie Ryan laid down an early version of his tune “Hot Rod Lincoln,” inspired by a road race on the “spiral highway” of U.S. Highway 95 near Lewiston, Chester Adkins heard its hit potential, and the idea for the Souvenir Records label was born. SOUV-101 was the first of a short series of 45 rpm singles released by the imprint and was backed with another Ryan original, “Hank Williams Goodbye.”
The record started to catch on locally, but Souvenir didn’t have the means to handle the demand or to properly promote it, so Ryan and his band The Timberline Riders performed a new version of the song in a different studio and took it to Hollywood’s 4 Star Records. Played on radio stations across the U.S., “Hot Rod Lincoln” didn’t bother the Billboard pop charts, although Commander Cody managed to dent the Top 10 with his version in 1972.
Perhaps to repay Adkins for giving him his big break, Charlie Ryan recorded another single for Souvenir in 1959, “Glittering Steel” backed with “Mountains of Montana,” but his star had already faded and the record sank into obscurity. The next Souvenir release fared a bit better with the listening public. The Playboys released “Believe It Or Not” coupled with “Hawaiian War Chant,” and Adkins bought a small ad in Billboard to generate excitement about the popular Coeur d’Alene act’s debut release.
Billboard also ran a blurb about Souvenir having joined its “label parade.” My mother remembers Playboys singer Johnny Clark as “the closest thing we had to Elvis – all the girls adored him.” Alas, like the other bands that eventually released records on Souvenir, neither fame nor fortune would come for the Playboys. The label released two 45s in 1960, the first being the Presley-esque “Blue Moon of Kentucky” by Cheney’s The Stompers, whose brief career ended when singer Perry Buster joined the Army. “Kathy Jo” by Kayo & the Trinities probably didn’t cause a stir back then, although, like some other Souvenir titles, copies have changed hands between rockabilly collectors on eBay for upward of $100.
Two singles by Spokane’s The Blue Jeans followed in 1961, containing four rather eerie sides. With its wordless vocals from Candy Schumaker and its moody saxophone, “Moon Mist” is a standout of the label’s releases and can be heard in full on YouTube. The recording is accompanied by an image of the blue Souvenir record label listing “CDA Publishing Co.” as the rights holder of the composition.
The Trebletones released “Guitar Movement” backed with “Little Laurie” in 1963, which began and ended the band’s recording career and would be the final chapter in the Souvenir story. The record shop closed a few years later, and Chester Adkins became a maintenance man at the newly opened North Shore Hotel.
The hotel would eventually morph into the Coeur d’Alene Resort, which would finally bring Coeur d’Alene the national attention that Souvenir Records couldn’t muster.