1. 20th Century pt.1
2. Pony Race
3. I Got A Girl
4. Ebony Shuffle
5. Saffire
6. Summer Time
7. Betty Jo
8. Just A Moment
9. 20th Century pt.2
10. Black Cherry
11. Sweet Meat

2nd Time Around   "In The Beginning"
EBONETTE RECORDS

As early as 1955 Spot Barnett was recording with Big Walter Price and Punty Guitar doing "Calling Margie".
And all that crazy 50's shit. Suddenly they took off to Houston to become Super Stars and left me at Club Ebony to fend for myself. The Club Ebony had been called "The Big Apple", so Montay J. Johnson changed the name to Club Ebony and made me the Band Leader at the tender age of 21 and that was the beginning of a truly AMAZING career for a young green Saxophonist who had no idea that this would be the start of GREAT and WONDERFUL venture into this Dog Eat Dog World of RECORDING.

Surrounded by the Best Musicians I could find at the time, I formed the Spot Barnett Combo:

• Joel C. Simmons was a student at Sam Houston College in Austin, TX. And would commute daily in order to make the gigs at night.
• Johnny Leftridge was a talented bassist who had been with Ivory Joe Hunter and probably the most experienced musician on the set. He was moonlighting as a musician, because he was a RN Registered Nurse and beautician. Johnny had a medical problem that always kept us on the alert, he had a bleeding ulcer that could not be found, so Johnny was always undergoing exploratory surgery. (Deceased 1998)
• Mr. Clarence Henderson "The Sheriff" was a policeman and U.S. Marshall and a great drummer from the Kansas City Area who had played with Benny Moten and all the great Kansas City musicians. We all called him "Lil Daddy". He was barely 5 ft. tall.
• Rawlins A. "Datty" White. He was the final piece of the FIRST band. He was the pianist. Datty was with the touring Johnny Ace & the Willie Mac Thornton Show the night of his tragic suicide occurred playing Russian Roulette. I was raised in Wheatly Courts along with Datty White where he earned a football scholarship to Sam Houston College in Austin. (Deceased in 1977)

Datty could sing like Charles Brown and play by ear. It was in Austin that he met Joel Simmons who was playin' on 11th St. at Charlie's Playhouse or the Victory Grill where Bobby Bland would sit-in on weekends with Leodis Duffy drums - Earl Jackson piano - Joel Simmons guitar - ?? trumpet - T.D. Bell guitar and Wimp on saxophone. With all the pieces in place the Club Ebony began to rock 7 nights a week, Sunday Matinees, Blue Mondays, Friday night Record Hops with Joe Anthony etc. etc.

Within three years we had worked ourselves into a very good group. Hence: Our first recording contract with Tanner "N" Texas - TNT label on W. Popular St. very near where the Old Key Hole came to be. The first record we produced was "The Ebony Shuffle" using only 5 pieces. It sounded like a piano solo, but all of the licks were played by Joel on guitar and myself on tenor saxophone. Our version of "Summer Time" has stood the test of time and is still one of my greatest performances. As we ventured into lots of music areas we started churning out tunes as a regular routine. All of these tunes were tested nightly at the Ebony Club and were well received. Doug Sahm became a regular at the Ebony Club along with JR Moore from Nixon, TX.

Garland Davis became one of the many singers with the group so we recorded "Betty Jo" & "I Got A Girl" with him. Doug Sahm and I collaborated on a couple of these recordings. My band began to grow and change add-ins horns and a new rhythm sections for tunes like "Pony Race" and "20th Century". The group name changed a few times: SPOT BARNETT ORCHESTRA, the MAGNIFICENT "7" ORCHESTRA and the NEW BREED and at this time we were traveling all over Texas and even up to Chicago.

I had the usual musician problems like getting high on marijuana and then the bust - enough said. Three years in Huntsville killed my groove to record in Texas. All these tunes were cut in the 45rpm days. So in undated with request to release these golden oldies on one CD sounded like a good idea, I hope you enjoy what we have tried to do.
Spot Barnett