Danville's Midnite Sound
Danville's Midnite Sound: An Arlie & Arlie Production
The story of the Midnite Sound studio is the story of two musicians named Arlie: |
| Arlie Neaville |
 |
| Arlie Miller |
Neaville and Miller began performing and recording in the late 1950s and were some of the earliest purveyors of rock'n'roll in all of downstate Illinois. Neaville from Champaign-Urbana was performing with his Rock-N-Roll Devils and later with the Rocking Stars and released a couple singles on various labels in the early 1960s:
- Arlie Neaville - "Angel Love"/"River Of Life" Ping #8001, 1961
- Arlie Nevil - "Alone On A Star"/"The Skip" Fraternity F-900, 1962
In Danville, Arlie Miller and fellow musicians Jim Foley, Ronny Roach and Johnny Coons released a trio of singles in 1960 on Lucky Records:
- Arlie Miller and the Bullets - "Lou Ann"/"You're The Sweetest Girl"
- Jim Foley and the Big Beats - "Goodbye Train"/"Blues In The Morning"
- Ronny and Johnny - "Massacre"/"Jungle Boogie"
By 1964, tired of driving to Nashville or Chicago to record, the two Arlies purchased a townhouse on the south side of Danville and converted it into a makeshift recording studio, Midnite Sound, where they began recording themselves, their band mates and other local musicians. Soon after the two men started their own record label, Milky Way Records, which released eleven singles between 1964 and 1967:
- MW-001 June Kinney - "The Hands You're Holding"/"I'll Be A Long-Time Gone" 1964
- MW-002 Dorothy Barnes - "Baby, We're Really In Love"/"This Little World" 1964
- MW-003 Dean Carter - "Number One Girl"/"Fever" 1965
- MW-004 Dean Carter - "The Rockin Bandit"/"Care" 1965
- (MW-005) Kookie - "Ooby Dooby"/"You Took Her Love" 1965
- MW-006 The Cobras - "Try"/"Good Bye" 1965
- MW-007 Willie and the Travelaires - "The Fiery Stomp"/"I Had A Girl" 1966
- MW-008 June Kinney - "Look Out Heart"/"Good Luck and Goodbye" 1966
- MW-009 Ed Mason - "You Don't Know Me"/"Oh Lonesome Me" 1966
- MW-010 Dean Carter - "Run Rabbit Run"/"Soul Feelin" 1967
- MW-011 Dean Carter - "Jailhouse Rock"/"Rebel Woman" 1967
By 1969, Miller had started a new record label, Redd Hedd Records, producing a handful of singles into the 1970s of mostly local Danville musicians:
- #001 Danny Macklin - "Take A Stool"/"Home Of The Blues", 1969
- #002 The Fronge - "Love Is Fine"/ "It's Gone", 1970
- #003 Gene Cooper - "One Of A Kind"/"Forever", 1970
- #004 The Corps - "New York City"/"Window Room", 1970
- #005 Freddie and the Freeloaders - "Last Night"/"Freddie's Blues", 1971
- #007 Spice - "Broken Down In Tiny Pieces"/"Save It For A Rainy Day"
Around that same time, Arlie Neaville dropped the Dean Carter moniker and turned away from rock'n'roll to focus strictly on gospel music.
In 1967 I played guitar for an R&B band from CU ‘The Incrowd’. I had the privilege of recording a number of songs at at the Danville studio. Also played base for Dean Carter around that time.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment! Great info. I'd love to know more about The Incrowd. C-U had so many bands in the late 60s it is hard to keep track of all of them. Any chance you still any of those recordings?
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