Wildfire

Based in Southern California during the 60’s, this trio’s main venue was Finnegan’s Rainbow, a nightclub in Orange County where crowds lined up for blocks to hear and see the group perform. Using nothing but word-of-mouth advertising, the band’s popularity grew and they were soon playing outdoor festivals for thousands of fans.

From 1969 until 1972, when the band broke up, Wildfire made Austin its home three quarters of the year during the University of Texas fall and spring semesters, and returned to Southern California for the summers. After laying down partial tracks at the Beach Boys’ recording studio (Wildfire’s guitarist Randy Love is The Beach Boys’ Mike Love’s cousin) the trio returned to Austin and ended up at Sonobeat Records Western Hills recording studio.

Sonobeat owner Bill Josey, Sr. produced and engineered Wildfire’s 8-song demo album. Wildfire paid for the session time and the master tapes, and self-released the demo album Smokin. The album, like Sonobeat’s classic demo LPs, was released in a white jacket bearing hand-numbered stickers. The demo was never promoted. It was distributed by hand and sold only at the Sound Spectrum in Laguna Beach, California, where it surpassed all-time records for sales.

The original Wildfire reunited in 2005 (Danny Jamison - bass and lead vocals, Randy Love - guitar and vocals, Donny Martin - drums). The 2006 re-release of the original 8-song demo album has been digitally remastered from an open reel dub of the master tapes (the master tapes were lost years ago, and there’s no «protection» dub in Sonobeat’s archives).