Rhythm and blues, which is to say rock, music has no better friend in the Kansas City area than Chuck Haddix.
If he were only the director of the Marr Sound Archives in the Miller Nichols Library on the University of Missouri-Kansas City campus, that would be a significant achievement in preserving our area’s music history.
But since 1985, Haddix has devoted his Friday and Saturday nights to playing “the finest in blues, soul, rhythm and blues, jumping jive and zydeco” on the “Saturday Night Fish Fry” on KCUR-FM 89.3, providing Kaycee with a swinging weekend soundtrack. He does the club calendar, interviews visiting artists and locals alike, spins their records and drops knowledge gained from a life spent selling, promoting, chronicling and loving music.
I hope the Kansas City Rock History Project – this website and the book I hope to publish – have their place, and I hope you will share with me your memorabilia – posters, photos, matchbooks, etc. – to make the book the best it can be.
But I’m just one guy and not an institution that can offer care in perpetuity for any donations of papers, records, photos, etc., you might make. Chuck would like to expand the Marr’s holdings of local rock-era artifacts to add to its already awesome collection ranging from wax cylinders to jazz LPs to the personal effects of local music legends like Claude “Fiddler” Williams.
If you have locally made records, tapes or CDs, correspondence, fanzines, legal documents, notebooks, business cards, etc., that relate to Kansas City rock history, the Marr and its sister institution, the LaBudde Special Collections of the Miller Nichols Library, would like you to consider donating such items to enrich their collections.
I’d love it if you’d let me scan your stuff first before donating it to Marr/LaBudde. Hit me up at rick [at] kcrockhistory [dot] com. Once your donation becomes part of the archive, would-be authors like me are are charged reproduction fees, and I’d like to avoid those whenever possible.
So, if you’re interested in seeing local rock history preserved, placed in context and made available to future historians, consider donating your items or collection to the Marr Sound Archives and/or LaBudde Special Collections.
Here’s a link for details on donations:
Hi Rick,
I hope this note finds your happy and fit as a fiddle. I was reading about the Marr Sound and LeBudde Archives. I have quite a bit of 60’s and 70’s memorabilia that I’d like to send to be added to the archives. How do I do that? You can email me at chet [at] chetnichols [dot] net. Send me your email and phone number, OK?
Also, you can visit my website, which is new and one that I am working to be a historical scrapbook to share. MY site is http://www.chetnichols.net.
Look forward to hearing back from you and anyone else associated with this project..
My Best,
Chet Nichols
Hey Rick,
Sorry for the double contact.
I forgot to inform you that I just released a new CD, “The Ice Cream Man Review”. This is a collection of songs I wrote in 1962-1967 when I was just beginning songwriting. They were the backbone of first successful rock and roll and blues band. I had an old tape of the songs and was able to have them transferred to digital format before the tape dissolved. I had a VERY dear friend who was dying from ALS and one of his wishes was to hear those old songs again. I was working on another album at the time (“I Was Dreaming”), but I put it on hold and went to work re-producing those old tracks and did my best to stay true to the vibe, sound and style of the songs. It took quite a bit of painstaking work, but I got it done for me before he passed away. I entitled the album, “Band In The Basement”.
In the past several months, I spent hours on re-mixing, and re-recording parts of that original CD (“Band In The Basement”) and re-mastered the songs and I have just released the final efforts and entitled it, “The Ice Cream Man Review”. It is a collection of classic 1960’s rock ‘n’ roll and blues songs that maybe Chuck Haddix might like to share with his radio audience.
I had released the collection a few days ago and got an email from a radio station in Paris and they flipped for the record.
I entitled the collection, “The Ice Cream Man Review”, because it contains a the very early version of my song, “I’m The Ice Cream Man”, which I wrote back in 1962. I composed the song because I had just gotten my first solo gig playing at an ice cream parlor where I worked as a dishwasher/busboy and had convinced the owner to let me perform as a solo artist on Sunday afternoons to entertain the patrons. After which, I went back to cleaning tables and washing dishes.
Anyway, it is a VERY nice collection of songs that stand the test of time….and the songs are getting some airplay and positive feedback. These songs are VERY different than the outside-loner-acid-folk songs that I wrote later in the 60’s and 70’s.
I am adding the songs to my website site AND the HD Hi-Res versions are up at my Bandcamp site: https://chetnichols.bandcamp.com. You can download the tracks there. I am ordering CD copies soon. If you need me to send you WAV files …. let me know.
Thanks….hope you enjoy these tunes.
Best,
Chet Nichols
PS I am NOT on Facebook any longer after all the clandestine data gathering expose hit the news. Don’t want to support people like the Facebook owners…… so, I am using other means to reach out to people.
Thank you for the vote of confidence. I’m not sure I’m worthy of such lavish praise. Here at the Marr Sound Archives/LaBudde Special Collections, we are delighted to add local music history to the collections at UMKC. We have a good start with the Trucker, Cowtown Ballroom…Sweet Jesus, Grand Emporium, Parody Hall, The Pitch, Allan Bell and hundreds of other collections https://library.umkc.edu/archival-collections we have acquired over the years. On a personal note, I am delighted to add the Trucker collection to our holdings. During the early 1970s, I eagerly looked forward to each issue. The Trucker and Hunter S. Thompson inspired me to become a writer. However, there are major gaps in the Trucker collection, so if you have some Truckers or other rock and roll history or would like to come by and do some research, you can contact me at: Marr Sound Archives, Miller Nichols library, UMKC, 800 E. 51st Street, Kansas City, MO 64110 (816) 235-2798 haddixc [at] umkc [dot] edu