1. DON'T GO SAMPLE
2. COUNTRY OF THE GOOSE SAMPLE
3. IT'S TOO HEAVY SAMPLE
4. MAD RAPPER
5. . SCISSOR-TAILED SWALLOW
6. DON'T SAY I DON'T KNOW LOVE
7. I'M JUST A CHILD
8. MAYBE
9. TO MEET MY DREAMS
10. I'M RUNNING OVERHEAD
In El Paso in the late 60”s and the early 70’s there was a small group of musicians that refused to bow to the calling of the top- forty radio. These bands worked obscure venues with a core of avid fans that followed them everywhere. One of these excellent bands was Wailing Wall. This unlikely foursome consisted of Doug and Darrell Adams: Mike Cancellari and David Rutledge.
Doug Adams was the lead singer and rhythm guitar player and was one of the two poets in the band. He had a rough raw vocal sound with the soul of a poet. His voice would jump all over the place. He had been a folk singer and acoustic guitar player which added a different sound to this West Texas string band .
David Rutledge was the drummer and the other writer for Wailing Wall. This guy was outstanding. He was a schooled musician and recently I talked to Ty Grimes, the loud, heavy and notorious drummer of El Paso' who played drums for Ricky Nelson, said to me how amazed he was when he heard David Rutledge. David was somewhere between jazz and rock, always tastey. Most of the environmental songs this band created were David’s songs. His formal music training had a lot to do with the complicated songs Wailing Wall recorded. You will notice some of the unusual rhythms in “Scissor Tailed Swallow” and “Country of the Goose”, both written by David. He manages to sing a little in some of the tunes having gone to the Bob Dillon School for VoiceTraining.
Doug’s brother, Darrell Adams, was the intellectual bass player of the group. His bass was hard to record because it was one of those Gibson type basses that had no definite top or bottom to it so the bass is more felt that heard in their sound. In my opinion, he was one of the better bass players around El Paso. He also did some of the background vocals. I always felt that he was the businessman of the group.
Next came Mike Cancellari, the lead guitarist and background singer. I could never understand why the band didn’t let him sing more lead vocals because this guy had one of the best voices around. If you were to ask him though, he would say he was the worst singer and worst guitar player in the world. I went to a high school reunion in ’91 in El Paso and heard Mike in his own band and he was phenomenal. Last I heard, he bases out of Austin, Texas fronting his own blues band, I would love to have his current stuff on my label. He had been in lower valley bands playing rhythm guitar behind one of the best guitar players around, Mike Ciccerelli when he joined Wailing Wall. Yes there were a bunch of good Italian pickers in El Paso in the 60’s and 70’s.
The recordings here were done about 1970 at our upper valley studio, which consisted of an Ampex 3 track recorder and an Ampex 6 channel mixer. Most of these two track masters were recorded at 15ips but a few were at 7 ˝ ips. All I had for sound re-enforcement was a Fisher reverb and a cheap reel-to-reel tape deck to create slap back.
I hope you enjoy this unique band; they are one of my all time favorites. They seem to be heavy in one moment and soft and melodic in the next. No one outside of: Wailing Wall, Taylor Sparks, Rich Haupt of Rockadelic Records and myself have ever heard this band’s recordings so this is a premiere of sorts for this jewel of a band from El Paso, Texas. Enjoy
Kenny Smith
wailing wall
David Rutledge
The Adams Brother Doug and Darrell
Wailing Wall- the original trio
Mike Cancellari; David Rutledge; Darrell Adams
"WAILING WALL"
"COMING SOON"
Wailing Wall's vinyl release on:
ROCKADELIC RECORDS
P.O. Box 154473, Irving, Texas 75015
