The British Invasion swept through every hill and holler in Kentucky and dozens of teen bands emerged in the wake. The small town of Harrodsburg was not immune and several excellent garage bands popped up in the 60s. Fortunately, at least one was able to capture their sound for posterity. And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Vandells! [2023 Shawn Chambers / Lexingtunes]
Note: the earliest band photo shows the band spelling on the drumhead as the ‘Van Dels’ with the later 45 and some contemporary press opting for the more traditional ‘Vandells’. As current listeners know the band from the 45 and for sake of consistency this article will use ‘Vandells.’
So Jerry Lee pulls out this little travel case…opens it up and grabs one of the two whiskey bottles inside…turns it up. Looks over at us and says ‘Just follow me, boys!’ – David Combs
Perhaps what could have been one of the Vandells’ greatest nights was the last-minute chance to back up Jerry Lee Lewis at the Howard Theater in Crab Orchard. This was possibly from Jerry’s December 1968 show (though he played there at other times, too) and it was a wild night to say the least. The theater owner could only watch in horror as a clearly drunk Jerry Lee drifted between nearly passing out and hammering away at the piano as if it were a rental (which it actually was – trucked up from down in Corbin). The Vandells were given little direction and David Combs recalls that “it felt like we’d be almost halfway through the song before we knew which one he was singing and what key it was in!” Clearly not the night the band had hoped for, but also clearly unforgettable.
Long before opening for a rock legend, the beginning of the Vandells started humbly enough at Mercer County High School as the brainchild of lead guitarist / vocalist Alan Yeast (b. 1948) who tossed the notion of a band into the lap of fellow student and rhythm guitarist, David Combs (b. 1947). The idea became fully formed with a recruitment raid of the school’s band room. In quick succession they added Eddie Reed (b. 1948) on bass and a couple of young players in drummer Kerry Prather (b. 1950) and Roger Fuell (b. 1951) on the keys.
This early incarnation of the band found practice space at the Yeast family farm in Cornishville where they were able to cram everyone and their instruments into an old washhouse barely measuring eight-foot square, which boasted only two electrical outlets. Amid the spaghetti lines of power cords and cables and some friends always popping by, the boys worked to perfect their rock sound. These early practice sessions were still open to experiment and it seems that both Danville girl Bonnie Baker and David Adkinson made brief appearances with the boys before the Vandells cemented their first lineup.
As confined as they must have felt in the washhouse, the local rock scene was busting loose in the mid-60s and the Vandells planned to be a big part of the breakout. Despite boasting a population of just over 6000 people at the time, Harrodsburg was home to many festivals, dances, and concerts and competition for gigs was assured. Chief among the rivals was the wonderfully named Inmates led by vocalist Larry Sanders and the twin-guitar attack of the Carey brothers – Tom and Tony. These two bands more than any others would define the rock scene in Mercer County during the decade.
In a band of changing members it is difficult to say which Vandells lineup played which shows, but the band was not afraid of travel. Through the years they worked a wide circuit with dates at the infamous Club 68 in Lebanon, formal dances and sock hops in places like Bardstown, Stanford, Liberty and even drifting as far north as Dayton, Ohio, for a large family party. They also once opened for country music legend Loretta Lynn at the Harrod Theatre.
As hinted at, this initial lineup would not be the last. The first shakeup came with Alan Yeast graduating in ’66. His vocal and lead guitar would be missed, but David Combs was ready to answer the call and switched permanently to lead. Kerry Prather was also moving on from the Vandells. Details are a bit murky surrounding his departure but Prather was very involved in school activities and was also known to be drumming with Bobby Martin and the Tune Twisters at least occasionally in 1966. Perhaps he was simply spread too thin. The hunt for replacements was on and luck was on the band’s side.
Roger Fuell lived on a farm adjacent to drummer / vocalist Billy Spencer who alongside fellow Anderson County High students (guitarists Mike Bates and Bobby Cammack) had formed The Dogs around 1965. When Bates had to quit the trio for personal reasons, Cammack (b. 1951) and Spencer (b. 1950) were a couple of musical strays looking for a new home and the Vandells needed exactly what they brought to the table.
Weekly practice was convenient at the Fuell household with Spencer needing only to lug his Ringo Starr inspired set of Ludwigs a short distance. The three original members and two newcomers quickly worked up a respectable set list and by late 1966 were ready to level up. The Vandells were about to cut a record.
The band had an easy opportunity right in their backyard in the person of Allie “Lefty” Combs. Short of stature and balding the elder Combs may have seemed an unlikely ally, but he was a one-man entertainment whirlwind. His Alvic label had issued many releases since the late ‘50s (including those of first-generation rockers Darrell Speck and Gary Link) and he also ran the local Harrod Theatre where live concerts were sprinkled in between the usual film offerings. Though Alvic slanted country, Lefty was a businessman and was never above making a buck. He gave the boys the proverbial offer they couldn’t refuse as David Combs recalls:
Lefty told us a hundred dollars to press up the record. We pooled all our money together and were still around nine dollars short (laughs)… Lucky us, Eddie’s dad gave us the rest.
The recording session would take place in the old Opera House – the home of legendary WHBN and DJ Bobby Martin. The Vandells were glad to have the experienced Martin manning the console. Only in his thirties, Martin was a local legend with his group (the previously mentioned Tune Twisters) and their 1958 releases of “Back to School Rock” and “Jo Jo Rock & Roll” on Bel-Kay paved the way for rock n’ roll in the area. As the local jock of the airwaves he obviously had his pulse on the current scene and had some ideas on making the boys’ record unique.
No small town 60s band would be worth their salt if they didn’t have a number of Paul Revere & the Raiders cuts in their repertoire and the Vandells were no exception. Their take on “Louie Go Home” has emerged as a central Kentucky classic. They boys played it pretty straight with David Combs nailing the distinctive guitar riff and Spencer leaning heavily into his best Mark Lindsay vocal. Bob Martin had some post-production plans up his sleeve and opted to go the “live” recording route and it is his booming voice on the introduction. Each crescendo has thunderous “applause” added over the track (an old DJ hack Martin achieved by crinkling cellophane into a mic). Of the handful of faux live recordings attempted in the area this stands among the best. The band was pleased.
Well, when we finally heard what Bob Martin had done… I thought it was the best thing I ever heard in my life! (laughs) – David Combs
Any good rock band knows a set must include time for a cool down and cuddle and the Vandells opted to slow it down with their B-side cover of “Stand By Me.” Spencer takes some liberties with the lyrics, but lays them nicely over heavy echo. Their version is Farfisa Fuell’ed with the mood much darker than the original. It is certainly not a throwaway side.
Pressed by Rite Records in small quantities, some fifty plus years on it falls squarely into the ‘good luck finding one’ category with copies seldom surfacing. Little is known about distribution, but certainly it managed some spins on WHBN. Spencer recalls that he doesn’t “remember Lefty really doing anything with them. Maybe we sold some at shows. Mostly we just gave them away to our friends.”
The demise of the Vandells was just natural causes – boys become men and need to take on adult responsibilities. Billy Spencer left to attend Centre College in the Fall of 1968 and dropped out of the band. Any replacement drummer is unknown at this time and It is hard to pinpoint the clear end date for the band. There is a least one newspaper clipping from October 1970, which notes the “Vandells from Harrodsburg” played a post-football game dance. If this was indeed the right band and not the Vandells that operated out of Nicholasville at that time, it certainly would have been at the very end and likely just a couple of the original members.
Original guitarist / vocalist Alan Wayne Yeast left the Air Force as a Staff Sergeant after serving a stint in Vietnam. Back home, he purchased a farm in the early 1970s, got married and enjoyed country living. He passed away in 2000 in Lawrenceburg.
First drummer Kerry Prather and bassist Eddie Reed both had careers in in the Dept of Fish and Wildlife. Reed passed away in Harrodsburg in 2007 and Prather in Georgetown in 2018.
Keyboardist Roger Fuell drifted around the state and appears to have been in California at one point in the 1980s. His rock and roll lifestyle from those early years seems to have carried into his adult years. What little surfaces in the newspaper archives tend to be, unfortunately, snippets of him on the wrong side of the law. He is believed to have passed away in 2000 in Perryville, KY.
David Combs has remained musically active in Mercer County for the past fifty plus years. After a brief period working in Tennessee and South Carolina, Combs returned to Mercer County and played with such area greats as Kendall Hayes and Tommy Dinsmore. He later played in Midnight Express and the Revenuers. His love of gospel has been nurtured by roughly a quarter century playing with the Patriot Quartet and in recent years he even reunited with his old Inmates rival Larry Sanders in Larry’s band Borderline.
Like Combs, William Spencer has also enjoyed a long career in music with great success as a songwriter and seems to have a knack for surrounding himself with creative people. At Centre College, Spencer met Owensboro, Kentucky native Joe Hardy and formed the Voice of Cheese who subsequently crashed the Memphis music scene in the early 70s. Hardy stayed and became a legendary engineer and producer for the likes of ZZ Top, The Replacements and tons of other bands, but Spencer took a musical hiatus and returned to Anderson County for a stint of farm life. The pull of music was strong and around 1985, Spencer landed in Nashville writing for Warner Chappell and other publishing houses. His compositions can be found on dozens of albums from artists like Conway Twitty, Daron Norwood, Tracy Lawrence, David Ball and many others. His biggest success was co-writing Shenandoah’s smash “Rock My Baby,” which peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot Country Chart in 1992. The corporatization of country music in Nashville finally proved more than Spencer cared to deal with and after nearly two decades spent in Music City he left for good. He currently resides in Arizona.
Bobby Cammack lives in Kentucky but was unable to be contacted for this article.
Discography:
Alvic 18433/4 Louie Go Home / Stand By Me 1967*
*pressed by Rite the matrix is from the hazy period of late 1966 or early 1967. Spencer remembers it being released in 1967.