White Summer: the Red Album

White Summer has been the name of my band since 1973. I previously published Hubs entitled White Summer, White Summer II, and White Summer III that included short stories about my band with links to videos of original rock n roll music from our 5th and final album, as well as live remakes my band did of rock n roll music by Jimi Hendrix. More recently, I published the Hub My First Album of Original Rock Music, released in 1976, with links to videos of a three-song sample of the earliest original rock n roll music recorded by my band.

White Summer recorded a six-song EP in 1978 of rock n roll music with a revamped lineup and that master tape has recently been found. Someday I may do a Hub about that collection of rock n roll music by my band, after I have the tapes digitally remastered.

White Summer relocated its home base from Michigan to Florida in 1980 after the drinking age went up from 18 to 21, killing the Michigan live rock n roll music scene, which had earlier been crippled by disco and disc jockeys. Whereas in the mid-1970s my band had forty live rock n roll music clubs in which to play just in my home county, including some running live bands 5 or 6 nights per week; by 1980 there was hardly any work at all for my band there.

White Summer recorded the Red Album in 1982 featuring 12 songs we created. I have links to four videos on this page. This first song was written and sung by Danny Misch. It is called "Dream for You."

White Summer was a little three-piece band at this time, with Jimmy Schrader on guitar; Danny Misch on bass and vocals; and yours truly, James Watkins, on drums and vocals. We recorded this album in the living room of our band house and released it ourselves. The next piece was written and sung by your correspondent. It's a bit bluesier and named "One Thing."

White Summer soon had a well-connected agent working on a deal to sign us with Warner Brothers in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, within days of a verbal commitment that they would do something with us, we had a Yoko Ono experience—a woman broke up the band. I'll spare you the details. Our third selection is an up-tempo rocker I wrote and sang titled "Shine Again."

White Summer was dropped like a hot potato by Warner and the agent because at that time record companies had recently experienced a rash of groups that had disbanded before (or shortly after) their first record was released—after they had invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in them to produce their material and provide professional people of all sorts to "make them over" into what company executives considered marketable. So, stability was high on the list of what Artists & Repertoire personnel were looking for. We had been together a long time and that was part of our attractiveness—until it wasn't. Our final cut is "More and More." It is a ballad written and sung by Danny Misch.