Gray Newell

Writer and Music Historian

The Joint Effort

In early 1967, three young musicians from San Antonio Texas decided to head west to Tinsel town to escape the more conservative climes of their home state and find their fortune. Dave Callens, Jeff Salisbury, and Ed Villareal had only been in Hollywood a few days when the fates conspired to bring them together with Bud Mathis, a songwriter and band manager who was hip to the trip on the Sunset Strip scene. Through Bud they connected with Wanda Watkins and Clyde Kaye and formed a group they somewhat appropriately named The Joint Effort. Bud and his business partner Barry Cantor helped get the group in to Art Laboe’s Original Sound studios where they recorded the tracks that would become their debut 45, ‘The Children’ backed by the psychedelic raga rock classic ‘The Third Eye’ at the same time as becoming house band at Gazzarri’s on the Strip, the hip hangout for all the happening people. The Joint Effort got to open for many of the big West Coast groups of the day, including The Doors, The Jefferson Airplane, the Peanut Butter Conspiracy, and the Strawberry Alarm Clock to name just a few.

Being based in Hollywood meant the band members were in demand as extras in films that required ‘far out’ freaks, with appearances in Clint Eastwood’s Coogan’s Bluff, biker movie The Angry Breed and, most notably, the ‘death of hippy’ sequence with Sky Saxon and the Seeds in Psych Out! Jeff Salisbury left the group in early 1968 (subsequently played with C K Strong, Albert Hammond and Cold Blood), with Tom Jacobson coming in to take up the drum sticks in his place. An unusual diversion occurred when the Joint Effort were booked for a series of shows in Hawaii as a bogus version of The Box Tops in order to cash in on the popularity of that group’s smash hit ‘The Letter’. Two further 45s were released over the next few months; the charming ‘Mary on a Go Round’ and the soulful ‘Loving You Could Be Magic’.

The group relocated to Santa Barbara when they landed a residency at The Hangout club in Goleta that Bud was managing. They were on the cusp of signing to a major label when Ed and Wanda decided to return to Los Angeles, leaving Dave, Clyde and Tom to carry on as a trio, although Bud occasionally stepped up to the microphone to perform a couple of numbers in his own inimitable style. With the loss of Ed and Wanda the record deal was off the table and by the fall of 1968 the Joint Effort had disbanded. Dave, Ed, and Wanda continued to work together as a song writing team, teaming up with award winning producer Mike Post, placing songs with Mark Lindsay and The Raiders, Hank Williams, Susan Rhodes and many others. Dave and Tommy later formed Instant Joy with guitarist Tony Peluso, Henry Dandini and Pierre Vigeant, a group that often backed Mark Lindsay when he wasn’t working with the Raiders, while Wanda went on to perform and record as a backing vocalist with Gary Wright of ‘Dream Weaver’ fame. Dave also branched out in to managing touring bands for 32 years, initially working with Bodine, Smith and then with Paul Revere & The Raiders and, much later, looking after the likes of Motley Crue to Coolio.

All of the Joint Effort 45s have become highly regarded by record collectors, commanding high prices for original copies, and the group featured prominently on the ‘Bud Mathis’ Sunset Trip’ CD collection released by Dionysus Records in 2012. The recent discovery of a treasure trove of previously unheard recordings made by the group at Original Sound looks set to further enhance their reputation when they hopefully see a release at some point in the near future. In the meantime you can listen to their music on the links below and be transported back to those heady, magical times on the West Coast. Get ready to open up that third eye…

Ugly Things Magazine #41 AKA Mike Stax has a complete history and a wonderful article of The Joint Effort Band written by music historian Gray Newell.