Newly Discovered Songs from Springfield Mo.
“Doubles on Ice is a previously unheard Lou Whitney composition and I always wanted to use the image of a figure skater in a celebration of Lou.
A couple of years ago recording engineer Eric Schuchmann was doodling around The Studio, the beloved recording space on the outskirts of Springfield, Mo. He stumbled across a DAT tape marked “publishing demos 98-99.” Schuchmann had been long-time right-hand man for the brilliant bandleader-bassist-singer-producer Lou Whitney.
Whitney was also the spiritual force behind the great American rock n’ soul bands The Skeletons, The Morells, and the seminal Ozarks punk band The Symptoms.
Whitney founded The Studio in 1994 when it was at 328 South Avenue in downtown Springfield, “The Recording Capital of Greene County,” as he called it. After Whitney died in 2014, Schuchmann took over the daily operations of the business. In September 2017 Schuchmann and The Studio moved to its present location in a warehouse on Scenic Avenue, with the same historical gear in tow. While perusing the tape Schuchmann stumbled across a mystery solo track from Whitney.
It is amazing.
“Doubles on Ice” is a rhythmic Whitney ballad that counterpoints someone watching figure skating on television in North Carolina with lonely circles of drinking. It is eerie, dramatic and unique. It reminded me a bit of Lee Hazlewood. It made me feel like Whitney was back in the room with me.
You can have the Beatles “Now and Then.” I’ll have “Doubles on Ice.”
“I wish I knew more about it,” Schuchmann said in a phone conversation over Thanksgiving weekend. “I’m pretty sure Lou wrote it. It’s too snarky to be a cover. This is the only song of Lou’s or any other familiar person on the tape. I transferred it in 2018 but lost track of it for quite a while. But I don’t know where it came from or who played on it.”
Schuchmann took “Doubles on Ice” to Morells-Skeletons-Symptoms guitarist Donnie Thompson, who is the band’s archivist. Thompson didn’t know anything about the song. “I figured it had to be the usual suspects, Donnie and Lloyd (Hicks on drums),’ Schuchmann said. Hicks died in 2017.
In a separate interview, Thompson said it certainly sounded like him playing guitar and assumed Hicks was on drums and the Skeletons’ Joe Terry was on keyboards. But there is no record of the session. “Lou could really write a song,” Thompson said. “He didn’t do it too often. Of course, none of us did.”
Schuchman added, “I know Lou didn’t record it onto the computer. It would have been transferred on that. It would have had to happen sometime in the early 2000s. Listening to the other bands that Lou mixed it sounds later than his early stuff. You can hear his voice and for me it was ‘Oh wow! That’s Lou.’ In other things, you hear Lou, but it’s not quite the Lou voice. With the multi-track tapes I can just hear Lou’s voice soloed out. It is wild.”
Schuchmann explained that Whitney’s mixes in the 1990s tended to be a little dryer on reverb and effects. Some of his 2000s mixes have bigger reverb sounds and the vocals are a bit more present. Some of the bass guitar sits a bit further back in the mix.
Schuchmann added “Doubles on Ice” as the final track on the 19-song CD “Morells Outtakes (Feb. 11, 12, 13 1982)” that was compiled by mega Morells-Skeletons mega fan Glenn Steinkamp. Schuchmann transferred, mixed and mastered the original tapes that include a loyal cover of Roy Head’s “Treat Her Right,” a joyful version of the obscure Brook Brothers 1961 rave-up “Warpaint!” and two versions Whitney’s pop ballad “Waitin’ For A Slow Dance,” one with the late Jim Wunderle on vocals.
The Morells–Springfield Mo.
Steinkamp found the tapes on a visit to Thompson’s house in Springfield. Steinkamp wanted to transfer some of the tapes to see what he discovered. Schuchmann explained, “When I told him we didn’t have the masters he was interested in transferring the original 2-inch tapes and remixing them so they could have a digital copy to possibly release on Spotify or something like that. The only way to do it was to make a new mix. So we remixed the original ‘Shake and Push’ record, all the outtakes, and other stuff we’ve done. It was a big project. A lot of those songs are cool and I don’t know why they didn’t release more of them.”
Thompson said, “Glenn made this possible. I never thought to do it. I’m surprised how good it sounds 40 years later. It makes me smile.”
“Shake and Push” was released in 1982 on the Borrowed Records label out of Springfield. Rolling Stone magazine senior writer David Fricke called this record “essential.” It was re-released with a different mix in 1989 on East Side Digital. The Morells were Whitney, Thompson, Ron Gremp on drums and vocals and Whitney’s then-wife Maralie (1930-2013) on piano and vocals. The 14 tracks consisted of original songs like Whitney’s rockabilly ode to “Red’s,” the beloved hamburger stand on Route 66, Thompson and Whitney’s “Gettin’ In Shape” (a favorite of author Stephen King) and the wistful Whitney ballad “Her Kind of Guy.” The 19 tracks on Schuchmann’s project are all outtakes.
“Lonesome Joe’ (with Maralie on vocals) is a great one,” Schuchmann said. “That’s so different and Maralie’s vocal performance stands out.” The spritely hobo song was written in 1953 by Roy Acuff and recorded by the late Branson icon Boxcar Willie. “There’s also a track from 1984-85 with Joe Terry on keyboards (Ben Vaughn’s “I’m Sorry (But So Is Brenda Lee)”
Here’s Roy Acuff and Boxcar Willie absorbing the Morells’ rock n’ roll version of “Lonesome Joe.”
Lots of Morells-Skeletons outtakes have been lost or thrown away since Whitney’s death. “There’s not much left,” Schuchmann said. “There is a box from a family member that has Skeletons and Morells stuff. And possibly some tapes someone else has that we haven’t been able to get in touch with. But other than that there’s nothing else.” Thompson does have a trove of concert cassette tapes. The Studio has digitized some of Thompson’s reel-to-reel archives.
Schuchmann met Whitney in 2003 when he was the guitarist in the Springfield punk band Walnut Street Gang. They recorded a few EPs with Whitney. “Our bass player Timmy Miano had recorded with Lou the year before,” Schuchmann said. “So when Timmy is introducing us to Lou he said Eric is really into recording. Lou said, ‘Well, if you hang around here long enough you might own the place someday.’ I thought, ‘Okay, that’s easy.’ After that I started hanging around as much as I could and soon I had keys and responsibilities.”
Schuchmann started work in The Studio in 2004 on a Honky Tonk Chateau record that was never released and that was followed by a Domino Kings record that was released. Over the years Dave Alvin, the Del Lords, Robbie Fulks, Syd Straw, and Wilco (a track from 1997’s “Being There”) were among those who recorded at The Studio.
If you want to know more about all of this, please check out our “Center of Nowhere” documentary on Whitney and the Springfield cultural and music scene.
The recording scene at The Studio has dried up since our documentary came out in 2020. “We get maybe one person a month,” Schuchmann said. “It trickled down after Lou died. I don’t know if that has anything to do with it or not. I’m mostly doing shows and corporate shows. There’s not a whole lot of studio business left. Mostly rappers, things we don’t do. There’s not a local music scene in Springfield like there used to be. People aren’t buying CDs. You’re limited to putting it out on Spotify and making half a penny. There are a couple of studios in Springfield that are busier than I am, hunting down work, but it’s hip-hop or singing to a pre-made track. Metal is recorded here and there.”
Lou (left) and Eric Schuchmann (Courtesy of Eric.)
Schuchmann connected with Whitney twenty years ago on their shared energy of the punk ethos. “Lou schooled us on what we were supposed to be doing on the bass and the drums,” Schuchmann said. “We clicked right away. He was the godfather of everything you should be doing as a musician and as a person.” After the Walnut Street Gang, Schuchmann co-founded the garage rock band The Rugs. Whitney produced The Rugs and played bass with them for nine years. “He knew all the ins and outs of punk,” Schuchmann said. “They played punk music back in the Symptoms (pre-Morells.)”
Schuchmann also recently transferred and remixed 43 tracks from the rare 1978 “Don’t Blame the Symptoms” LP. Only 500 original copies were pressed. The band recorded two sets twice during a live set in front of some friends at the long-gone Clack Trax recording studio in Springfield. The friends actually financed the record. And the Symptoms broke up before the record was released.
The Symptoms consisted of Thompson, Lou, Maralie, Jim Wunderle, and Ron Gremp on drums. Thompson and Gremp are the last two standing. The outfit began as Maralie and the Guise. As the Symptoms, they played four hours a night, six days a week at a Springfield club called The Safari Room,
The record featured a driving cover of the Swinging Medallions Beach music classic “Double Shot of My Baby’s Love” and the new outtakes include a frenetic version of the 1959 Johnny Kidd and the Pirates hit “Please Don’t Touch.” The new tracks consist of two versions of the 12 songs that are on the album and 13 new songs that were played to the small audience’s delight.
Polaroid of Lou (L) and Eric courtesy of Eric Schuchmann
The melancholy aspect of this project is that so far only four or five of us hard-core Morells-Skeletons-Symptoms fans have heard the archived material. It deserves a larger audience. And we’re still kicking the tires on a documentary soundtrack……..
Schuchmann estimated he spent 60 hours working on both restoration projects.
“I did it because of friendship with the guys,” Schuchmann said. “There was a little financial reward but I will always remember how their personalities were so great. It was great to hang out with Donnie. We remixed it over two or three weeks including mastering. You want to keep being friends with them even though some of them are gone.”
Hey Dave,
This site is cool. I live in Upstate, NY now since NYC and for some reason comedians make jokes about Missouri. They are stupid.
The East is bourgeois but has its good points too.
Happy writing and holidays. I look forward to checking out some of these bands and blogs.
Kindly,
Stacy
Thanks Stacy,
Find my story on Marlin Wallace on here—I wrote it 9 years ago but revisited it last night. I mentioned it to a friend at the Country Music Hall of Fame. It’s a long story but the last paragraph speaks volumes as to what Lou Whitney and Missouri kindness means. Dave
Hey Dave, cool article. I live in Omaha, so I got to see the Morells and Skeltons many time at the Howard St Tavern in Omaha and the just celecrated 51st anniversary Zoo Bar Blues in Lincoln Ne. Drove down to the Grand Emporium Kansas city to see them every chance I could. What an absolute Midwest treasure they were. The live sound was so clean. They were so fun. It could be a punk rock or a frat boy crowd. Didn’t matter, they would win you over withtin minutes. What I would give for a chance to see and chat with lou again. Is this newly discovered music out there anywhere? Thanks for the article.
Hi Nick,
There’s a limited edition thing coming out of Europe. There is a Facebook page for “Center of Nowhere” that I do a terrible job of updating. I’m pretty much a one-man show on all this now. Solo acoustic. But when that is out this inspires me to post something there so check that out.
There’s also been on-and-off talk about a soundtrack to our film. Thanks for checking in!