Rob Selkow Reporting
rselkow@clarksvillenow.com
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – With the release this week of a compilation album of ’60s era music, the Numero Group record label has brought an all but lost Clarksville Rock and Roll band into the digital age.
Local Customs: Cavern Sounds, is a double LP (yes, vinyl) CD and digital download that features 24 rarities from a number of regional bands including the Clarksville-based band Mulligan, which features (among others) the late Austin Peay State University Professor John Mosley.
(See a YouTube promotional clip for Local Customs: Cavern Sounds here)
(Local Customs: Cavern Sounds was just released by Numero)
The sole track by the band Mulligan, “Think Before You Leave,” was written by Mosley, who died earlier this year. Mosley was a beloved figure at Austin Peay where he taught broadcast media, production, and photo journalism for many years.
Long before his life in academia, Mosley along with guitarist Chuck Emery and bassist Tom Armistead were in a band called Rubber Duck. They took a detour from the band to tour as the Royal Guardsmen, who had a novelty hit in 1966 titled “Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron.”
When members of the Royal Guardsmen went their separate ways, original member Chris Nunley recruited Mosley, and later Emery and Armistead, to take the place of the other Guardsmen.
After that adventure, the band wanted to play their own music, changed their name to Home and came back to Clarksville to work on originals. They recorded at the historic RCA Studio B in Nashville where Elvis recorded over 200 songs.
They had an even closer brush with Elvis when they booked a session at American Studio in Memphis, only to be bumped by The King.
Undaunted, they changed plans and headed to Independence, Missouri’s Cavern Sound where they recorded 32 songs, one of which survives on Local Customs: Cavern Sounds.
The new name for the band came about when they were trying to sell their master tape recordings and discovered there was another group called Home. Emery says their new name came as a surprise to all of them. “We were playing a bar in Kansas and we had tossed around names and not come up with anything that anybody liked. As we were about to start the set Mosley said ‘Good evening, the band is called Mulligan.’” he said. “John said it was the first thing that popped in his head,” he recalls with laughter.
(Reunited one more time: Members of Mulligan in 2013 – Chuck Emery, Tom Armistead, John Mosley, Chris Nunley)
”I think he would have been about as tickled as I was,” Emery said of the release of their old recording. John Mosley passed away February 9, 2014, before work on the project began. “That last couple of years we were playing together we worked a couple of those old songs up and played them in public,” Emery said.
Local Customs: Cavern Sounds is a beautifully packaged set designed Ken Shipley, previously A&R Manager for Rykodisc (one of the best labels specializing in re-issued music). The connection to Rykodisc is apparent in the exquisite packaging.
The double album, CD, and digital release is accompanied by a booklet with extensive liner notes, band biographie,s and the history of the Cavern Sound studio.