Sue Sims
COUNTRY CARAVAN, 1959. Left to right ....
Ercel Coffman (bass), Wilson Coffman (guitar), Dale Brooks (accordion, guitar), Bill Feagle (guitar), Buck Wade (fiddle).
Update
Dale is still playing rockabilly music, working with a Florida band of Del Clark and the Rythmatics. They make some major appearances at places like Universal Studios theme park in Orlando, and Cowboys, a huge Orlando rockabilly club. Dale got the Rythmatics hooked up with NBT Records and their first release, Hotrod Daddy, is getting major play on European stations. This CD features one of Dale's songs, "Momma Loves To Boogie", which is well up on the charts for European radio stations at this writing.
Dale's original recording if "Ambridge Boogie" was re-released as one of several songs on an NBT Records CD titled "Hot Guitars" last year. The CD was picked by the National Rockabilly Convention in Green Bay, Wisconsin as one of the ten best new releases of the year. Other artists on the CD include members of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame such as Keith Anderson and Hank the Cowhand. All were veteran performers on Cozy Records.
Dale's Ambridge Boogie has been re-released on Bishop Records, and again on White Label records in Holland.
American Music Magazine chose Dale Brooks and the Country Caravan for their cover story in the September 2004 issue. A variety of photos was chosen to augment the story of his career in music.
BIG BOY FROLIC TV SHOW CAST. Left to right ...
Seated: Earl Steel (steel guitar), Ronny Huffman (rhythm guitar), Shorty Brooks (bass), Billy Williams (child guest), Boogie Bill Boggs (hot guitar), Guest: Addler.
Standing, 2 row: Dale Brooks (leader, accordion, guitar), Cheryl ? (guest), Bill Huffman (hot guitar, 6' 2"), Slim Calhoun (comedian, singer, 6' 9").
Standing, rear: Guest Trio. Dale and Shorty are brothers.
Dale spent some 30 years in broadcasting, first as a deejay and sales, then management, part owner of stations, and then into full ownership. During those years he hit the books and got into engineering too. His two sons, Rick and Scott grew up in his stations, learning the business by being involved and working for him. Rick went on the air part time at age 12, when his voice changed, and is still at it. Rick is music director of "K Country", WOGK FM, a 100,000 watt station picked recently by the CMA as number one country station in America, in Ocala, Florida. He was also with K-92FM in Orlando for 10 years. How many professionals can you name that are 43 years old and have 31 years expierence in their profession? Scott went into engineering and at one time was the youngest chief engineer of a radio station in the country ... he was only 16 years old then.Tragically Dale was severely injured in a traffic accident while owning WLAB in St Pauls, N.C. He lost his left arm at the elbow, and figured his entertaining days were over. He could no longer play the dozen instruments he could play well before with only one hand. The owner of a club where played when he was hurt held his job open over a year, awaiting his return.
Dale Brooks. Johnny Lane and Estel "shorty" Brooks - 1953.
When he was finally able, he stopped in the club for lunch, and was urged to play the big double keyboard organ they had in the dining room. He didn't think he could, but the owner insisted he could, so he gave in and tried. After a few minutes experimenting he found he could compensate for his missing hand with different use of the foot pedals. Even though the organ had no automatic rhythm or anything, he kept a running bass and drums on the foot pedals and it worked. He was back to playing again!...and is still at it.
Dale sold his last radio station and retired from broadcasting and moved to Florida. He continued entertaining on organ and vocals in restaurants for developing a new style of playing. He got back to playing as a solo act in clubs, resorts, etc. He also plays trumpet and does vocals in a 5 piece band.
Now Dale has a special built electronic keyboard that lets him play the usual left-hand things with his feet, and al the lead and fill-in with his right hand. This keyboard has the actual sounds of virtually kind of instrument on it. He can play Rockytop on the 5 string banjo, fiddle a square dance, do Rockabilly songs. Or by touching a couple of buttons play the real sounds of the Big Band era. saxes, strings and all. By adding a special harmony machine, he can sing solo, or can add two part of 4 part harmony to his vocals. Whether Hess doing bluegrass tunes,. the Everly Brothers songs, or Sons of the Pioneers style westerns , or more modern styles like Confederate Railroad, he has the sound, both instrumental and vocally. In short, a one man band that sounds like several people on stage. He may well be the world's only one arm-one man band! He used absolutely no recordings when playing..He creates all you hear instantly.
Dale's records and songs, some dating back into the mid 50's, are still going strong in many countries around the world. He still gets royalty checks from BMI for performances of his songs and records from countries like Norway, Sweden, Greece, Holland, Australia, Argentina and others. One of his songs, "I'd Like To Hear My Name" has been recorded by nine different artists and groups, some of them major names.
Recently found this photo of Dale's brother Jack Brooks while playing a two year period with Tom T. Hall. Dale knew Tom several years before Dale knew he was acquainted with Jack.
Dale still makes records, has signed with a new label and new publisher. After years on Cozy, Skyline and Sterling, he is now with NBT Records, has a new CD album on their label, and at least two more in the planning stage. He also still writes songs and has recently had a dozen or so new songs published, some of which are on his new album titled The Ambridge Boogie Album, others will be on his next album.He still does personal appearances in the Daytona Beach-Orlando area, and travels as far as Ft Lauderdale to play dates. And he recently did a 2,000 mile jaunt to do show dates in West Virginia and Ohio.
Busy as he has been, he still found time to write several books, all novels, and is a published author. He publishes through Adventure Books of Alberta, Canada. He has a western novel titled "The Claypool Conspiracy" in 2001, will have a second, "The Homesteader" coming out sometime in 2002, and more to follow. These are also to be available as E-books on line.
Tony Barbetta (piano), Archie Poling (guitar), Dale Brooks (trumpet), Kenny Plumber (sax), Stan O'Dell (bass).
A Special Story
For many years Martha White Mills (the flour and cornmeal people) sponsored several radio programs...The Red Foley show, Smiley Burnette show, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, Tennessee Ernie and yes, the Dale Brooks show. One by one they dropped these programs until the only one left was the Dale Brooks show. It was the last radio show sponsored by Martha White, and was aired about 2 years after the others ceased.Dale was doing original singing commercials for Homelite Chainsaws for a local dealer in Warfordsburg, Pa. back in the 60's. An executife for Textron Corporation, owners of Homelite, was driving through the area and heard one on the radio and heard the singing commercial. He was imporessed by it, found the radio station in Berkeley Springs using it, and stopped in to see Dale about it ... he was impressed.
After listening to it several times, he asked Dale if he had done any other jingles like that about Homelite. He wanted to hear them too. After hearing them, he said he had been trying to get Homelite to go country sound on their jingles. He said that's the kind of people who actually buy chainsaws ... farmers and lumberjacks are country music people.
He asked if he could have copies of these jingles to play at their state convention..he got them. And a month later he called Dale for permission to play them at the national convention in Chicago next month ... he got it.
One morning Dick called again, wanting an appointment to see Dale at the station next morning ... he got it ... 10 AM. Next morning early three top men from Textron climbed into the company jet, flew to Charleston, W.Va., rented a car and drove to the station. They negotiated a deal with Dale ... he did all their radio singing commercials for the next year which were used at stations all over the U.S. and Canada. At the end of the year, they renewed the contract for another year.
Dale says he has one regret about it. Due to his inexperience dealing with the "big boys" in advertising, he did for a few hundred dollars what they had been paying Madison Avenue multiple thousands to do!
Dale has an email address where he can be reached ... easy to remember, too
dalebrooks1@yahoo.comDale Brooks
920 Montrose Avenue
Orange City, Florida 32763
386 775 6623
