Joe Buxton, Paul Stanton, John Dalrymple, and Larry Poulsen
The Southmen
Portland, Oregon
1964 - 1967

Members
 

Joe Buxton ~ Drums
Bill Covell ~ Drums
John Dalrymple ~ Bass, Vocals
Gary Emmerson ~ Organ
Ron Hansch ~ Organ
Larry Poulsen ~ Guitar
John Ryan ~ Drums, Vocals
Dan Schilling ~ Organ
Paul Stanton ~ Guitar, Vocals
 

The above photo came from the 1966 Jefferson High School yearbook.  The  event was The Senior Class Party, "Timberline Trail"

Jim, March 2005

The Southmen Left to RIght:   Paul Stanton, John Dalrymple, John Ryan, Gary Emmerson. The Southmen at  the 1967 Teen-Age Fair, Portland Memorial Coliseum Photo Courtesy of  John Dalrymple

The Southmen had several configurations in the 1964-1967 time frame.

Paul Stanton and John "J.D." Dalrymple (that's me) were in all of them.  I played bass and did most of the lead singing, and Paul played the lead guitar.  The first group (c. 1964) was a 4-piece with Joe Buxton on drums and Larry Poulsen on rhythm guitar.  In '65 or thereabouts, we added Ron Hansch on organ.  Joe was replaced by Bill Covell  who was replaced by John Ryan later that year.

The picture above shows John Ryan, Paul, J.D., and Larry.  Ron was probably out of the frame in that particular shot.

Larry left the band in 1966 or thereabouts, at which time we went back to being a 4-piece and replaced Ron with Gary Emmerson on organ.  In 1967 Gary was replaced by Dan Schilling, previously the organist of the Tikis and Fabulons.

We played a lot of high school gigs around the Portland area and a lot of dates at Olin Clark's Headless Horseman club in downtown Portland -- and also made quite a few trips to Pacific City, OR during summers when we were out of school to do gigs at Ink Koeber's Dunes By The Sea club.

We were kind of the 2nd-tier guys, and often opened for "bigger local acts" like the Gamblers, Redcoats, Gentlemen Wild etc. -- we did a live show on KGAR radio from some department store downtown (maybe Olds & King) one time, but never made a real record of our own, although the Gentlemen Wild did do one of my tunes ("Come and See") on a 45 rpm single they made.

The reunion of Mr. Lucky and the Gamblers in 2001, a photo of which you have posted on their page of your site, took place at an annual Oaks Park picnic thrown by our current band, "Seymour," which started out as a hippie band in the 1970-71 time frame and reformed in the early 90's.  Paul and I more or less instigated that Gambler reunion deal.  In fact, they rehearsed for it in my basement.

Paul and I were also in various other Portland-based bands of the period, such as the Music Box, put together and managed by Bud Garrison after the other Gamblers formed Sound Vendor in late '67 or so.  Paul and I were in Seymour, Sunflower, and Smoke in the 70's.

John Dalrymple, May 2005

The last Southmen configuration, with Dan Schilling.  Left to right: J.R., J.D., Dan, Paul. Photo Courtesy of  John Dalrymple

The  audio  is  low quality.  It was recorded from a radio speaker. It is a recording in, I think, the Summer of 1967.  The song is “Cleo’s Mood”, a very popular song of the time and done very well by the band.

As described  in the  earlier  post by John D., the band was playing live at a Portland, OR department store on radio station KGAR.

Jim Brownell   July 2014