About this user
The Story of the El Caminos - By T.V.
My friend George Fox had moved to Berwick, PA about a year ago. It was 1960.
There was Elvis, Jerry Lee, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, etc. George said they were auditioning guitar players and asked if I wanted to try out. I had been playing in a number of local groups from Kingston, PA.
Though Berwick was an hour away, I took a chance and made the group and George Fox, piano, Steve Bond, drums, me on guitar. We had various sax players and rhythm guitarists. Finally, Carl Syracuse became the solid fourth member on guitar with Jim Schrader on sax.
1963-1964 The Beatles hit and brought The British Invasion. George went off to Berkley in Boston. Jim switched to bass, Carl added keyboards and we were able to reproduce Beatle songs with the best of them. Our popularity spread throughout the Northeast. We went to New York City and Bell Sound Studio and recorded We Stand Alone and Storm Warning. Then, tragedy, Steve was on his way to one of our shows and died in a car accident on a back road in June town, PA. Rick Richards replaced Steve and stayed with me until I retired in 1976. Jim went off to music school and was replaced by Augie Christiano. Augie picked up the bass quickly. We went to NYC and recorded Got to Have Her, It Could Be, and others. Our live shows were going well. We opened for many of the top acts of the day.
Finally, in 1968 we began work on The Edgar Allan Poe project. Word spread to producer Gene Weiss and Mort Lewis. Mort managed Simon and Garfunkle, B,S&t, Dave Bruback, and now us. The name change to The Glass Prism suited the concept and the album "Poe Through The Glass Prism" was born. RCA signed us immediately. Les Paul was hired as our engineer and the album was recorded in three days and released weeks later in 1969. Billboard, Cashbox, and Record World charter the album and the single "The Raven". However, since our promised tour with B,S&t was cancelled RCA backed off on the "push". Our manager, Mort Lewis, and RCA broke down and the light dimmed.
Since our contract called for a second album, we were called by our producer Gere Weiss who notified us just a few days before studio time. "On Joy and Sorrow" our second album was written and recorded in just 3-4 days.
1971 we broke up and Rick, Augie, and I became Shenandoah. Louie Cossa replaced Augie on bass and added keyboards. We recorded a self-titled album with producer Seth Greenkey. However, this album was not released. We disbanded in 1976.
