Miss Holly King & Rockabiily & Beyond
This Saturday at 11am on Deep Oldies and Sunday at 1pm on Radio Free Phoenix, join Miss Holly King for 2 brand new hours of Rockabilly & Beyond. Here’s Holly with more…….
Howdy RFP and Deep Oldies.com listeners…
It’s been a while since I have done a show and I wanted the first ones to be about dear friends and fond memories. The first two in the series are about my favorite records stores. Hour 1 is for brothers Dennis and Don Chiesa of “Tracks In Wax.” Hour 2 is about Brad Singer “The Sun God” and Zia Records.
Dennis was the owner and operator of Trax In Wax and passed away in May 2011. His brother, Don, passed away several years prior to this. Dennis was a big fan of Radio Free Phoenix and Deep Oldies.
Dennis Chiesa
RFP could be heard playing on a regular basis in the store. Trax In Wax on Central Avenue in Phoenix is still open and operating with the same vision that Dennis left us with.
Hour 2 will be in tribute to Brad Singer, the founder of Zia Records. Brad died on May 3rd 1998 and himself left quite a legacy…..
Hope you all can tune in this weekend Nov. 2nd and 3rd for a rockin’ good time on Radio Free Phoenix and Deep Oldies!
I worked with Brad Singer at Odyssey Records on Camelback. He was the head of the 8-track and cassette inventory. He talked about starting his own place a lot. On his way to ZIA’s, he and a couple other local record folks created WORLD RECORDS, not far away from Odyssey. Budget Records was close by, too. I moved on to CIRCLES and ASSOCIATED DISTRIBUTORS, and I was moved to their store TAPE DECK near I-17 and Camelback. During college at UC Santa Cruz (UCSC), in the summers, I came back and worked in the Associated Distributors warehouse, loading shopping carts and pulling records, 8-tracks and cassettes for ma and pa record stores throughout the southwest. I once accidentally provide numbers that created a huge order for STEVIE WONDER’S SONG IN THE KEY OF LIFE. My flirtation with the record business has gone on for a while. I’m now sole proprietor of Surfview Records.
Wow. This hits home double (or triple) for me. As a budding music geek in my early teens–starting around 1984 or so–ZIA and Tracks in Wacks were both crucial, essential stops, for used treasures, rare imports, and other hard to find stuff. Dennis was always very cool and very fair, but Don went out of his way to find cool stuff for me, hold it, gave me breaks, etc. It’s been a long time since I’ve stopped into the original store (I go into the TRX 2 location regularly), but it will always be a permanent landmark in the mental map of my adolescence and young adulthood.
Brad Singer is a whole other thing. I never met him. But I spent most of the 90s working in music/video retail during the time when ZIA’s was ascending, and while Brad was still around. There were stories about him, of course…and I’m sure there still are. (The pink walls for example.) Anyone who was a music listener/buyer or who worked in that industry in the Valley at that time could not help but be in his shadow. He definitely passed before his time.
I’m glad you did this show. I’m sorry I missed it. Is it going to be available online to listen to.
Dennis nearly forced me to listen to your stations, he was so jazzed on you guys, that it was contagious, it turns out I am the same way, I tell everybody I meet, nearly, about RFP and DO
I cannot believe he is gone either. I remember him well as a kid, and knew his specialty was 1950s 45s which I didn’t really get into until 20 years later when I found Deep Oldies.
He was able to spread his love for an entire genre once Deep Oldies came along.
I once came upon some photos of him online,in some sort of Oldies or Doo Wop record group, with a bunch of old timers, I didn’t know any of the other guys, all phoenix guys, maybe the guy who ran Memory Lane, or whatever that record store was.
I am glad so many enjoyed the show! I could not have done it without friends like Andy Olson and John P. Dixon (Johnny “D”). I was lucky enough to sell my jewelry, T-Shirts and other creations to the Zia Stores for over 18 years. Life long friends were made and good memories are in my head. I am working on a tribute show for LONG WONGS. It should be finished any day now….