A Carpenter in Hollywood

One of the jobs I did was enclose an outdoor patio for Andy DiMartino. Among other things to his credit was his work on the Cascades album that led to the gold recording of "Rhythm of the Rain" in 1962. While this was over 7 years later, Andy could still make a living off of a gold recording. He would tell you that he could get advances for demos from major studios, based on his success and even if nothing turned out, he could make a living from just that.

While working at Andy's house, I met Kent Morrill. He was a singer/songwriter from Seattle, who had come to Hollywood to make a name for himself. He had been the lead singer of The Fabulous Wailers, or The Boys from Tacoma as they were know in the Northwest. Kent and his group were big time entertainment in Seattle. They hosted "House Parties" that were big hits in Tacoma. One of their biggest fans was a young Jimmy Hendrix a local Seattle artist. They recorded, and released, "Louie, Louie" in 1960. But it was the cover released by the Kingsman in 1963 that topped the charts and has since become the Northwest's anthem. A lot of "what ifs".

Kent Morrill in 2011

Anyway, Kent was a prolific writer and before his death in 2011 he had amassed thousands of songs. He was a Roy Orbison tribute performer in Las Vegas for about 10 years and he was invited to Wink, Texas (Roy's home town) to act as the official Roy Orbison representative. He looked and sounded so much like Roy Orbison, anyway. He had a high, pure voice and loved performing.

I would later live with Kent and his roommate Lance Wakely for a while. But that is for another time.