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The Montereys - 1962 Doo-wop with Santos Cepeda · San Joaquin Sound

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  Thank you. You're listening to the San Joaquin
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  Sound Podcast, the podcast about music in Bakersfield
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  and the surrounding valley. I'm your host, AJ
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  Rodriguez. For this episode, I interviewed Santos
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  Zepeda of the doo -wop group, The Montereys.
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  So let's go back to the start. You grew up here
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  in Bakersfield, right? Exactly. And went to East
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  Bakersfield High. What type of music did your
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  parents share with you when you were growing
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  up? Well, my father was a musician and his music
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  was Hispanic music and he played with a trio.
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  And that's how I was encouraged to get into music.
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  I was around music all the time ever since I
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  was small. That's awesome. Did your mom really
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  listen to music at all? No, no, just my father.
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  Do you remember the first time you saw people
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  playing live music? The first time I heard music
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  was in the radio. When I was young, my parents
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  would wake up early in the morning and they would
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  always put the music on. And so I woke up with
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  music all the time. That's awesome. Even though
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  it was Hispanic music. Yeah, that's still good
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  music. Your dad made a record, right? Exactly.
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  He made a record. for our local priest. And there
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  was a mariachi at that time, and they asked him
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  if he would make that record and make it their
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  album cover. That's awesome. What was that one
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  called? Iglesita de Mi Barrio. That's Church
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  of My Barrio. Tell me the story of your first
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  guitar. Everyone always has a good story for
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  that. Oh, yeah. Well, you know, it wasn't hard
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  for me to get a guitar because guitars were always
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  around in my house. My father was always playing
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  music. At the age of about eight or nine, me
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  and my sister would be there. When they were
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  practicing all the time, they had a trio, so
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  they'd be always practicing. So we'd go out there
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  to hear them all the time, listen to the music.
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  So sometimes they would leave the guitars there.
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  You know, kids were so anxious to see what a
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  guitar is. So pretty soon I started playing the
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  guitar. The more practice, the better I got.
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  Then you're growing up, you have that influence
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  from your dad about music. After that, you go
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  to high school and you said you started to form
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  a group, the Monterays. Exactly. Most of the
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  members of the group that I played with were
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  from Lamont. And we would get together and practice.
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  And eventually, we got a chance to make a record,
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  which is Darling. Can you tell me about the other
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  members of the group? I was the guitar player.
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  Manuel played the lead singer, played a little
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  bit of the guitar. But mostly I was the guitar
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  player. Most of them lived in Lamont, so they
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  had to come to Bakersfield to practice with me.
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  And like I said, eventually we got together and
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  we made our record, Darling. I was 17 years old.
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  I'm the only one left of the group. that started
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  at the time. That was in 1962. I was the youngest,
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  and they gave me the privilege to be the leader
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  of the group. But even though I wasn't the main
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  singer, even so, each one of these guys in the
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  group were very, very, very, very good people.
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  They all had beautiful voices, and their harmony
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  was very intense. They're very talented, every
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  one of them, especially Tom. Tom, of course,
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  Manuel, the most beautiful voice of all as a
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  first tenor. I really appreciate that I was in
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  that group at that time. That record, Darling
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  Send Me a Letter and Darling I Love You was on
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  the B -side. So that came out on the label Trans
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  American, who was owned by Akiya Long, who was
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  a Hollywood actor. He also had some of his own
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  doo -wop groups. How did that record label notice
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  the Montereys? I'm not sure. I think he introduced
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  it to them. But also, we also recorded this same
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  song with a band called the Gay Lads. And they
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  were the number one group in Bakersfield at that
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  time. But the reason we could not put the record
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  out with them was because they turned union and
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  we weren't. So we couldn't produce the record.
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  Yeah, and the Gay Lads were another popular doo
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  -wop group in Bakersfield, right? Very popular.
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  You have Darling Send Me a Letter. That has a
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  full band. Where did you record that? It was
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  in... A studio here in Bakersfield in the east
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  side. Not the best of all studios, but it was
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  the only one we had. Yeah, it sounds good. Thank
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  you. What about concerts? Did you perform at
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  different places in town? Yes, yes, we did. We
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  performed at a lot of different functions, Fifth
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  of May and different celebrations. Did you always
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  have instruments at your concerts, or did you
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  do a lot of a cappella? Oh, no, we always had
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  instruments. Can you tell me more about some
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  of the other members of the band, like Tom Lopez
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  and Tom Ray? Tom Ray started his own band later
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  on. His band was Aslan, and it was a big band.
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  It had about nine members. And later on, I played
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  with him. I sang with him. At the end, when we
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  were getting older, we got together, me and him,
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  and we played at retirement homes as a duet.
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  Could you talk maybe about some of the other
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  bands that were active in Bakersfield at the
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  time? Yeah, I remember they had Rick Lee and
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  the Barons. Rick Lee and the Barons was a popular
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  group. And what type of music were they? They
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  were probably rock and roll. Rock and roll music.
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  Of course, I mentioned the Gay Lads. Outstanding
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  group. Very outstanding. Also, they had the Latin
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  Ears. The Latin Ears, actually, they were the
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  ones that backed us up in our record. How cool.
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  The Latin Ears. I don't know what name they went
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  under on the record, but they were called the
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  Latin Ears. And, of course, a lot of Hispanic
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  bands also were here, too. Awesome. Like who
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  was that? My dad's group was actually my dad's
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  group was was performing at the same time. We
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  actually performed in the same place in certain
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  places, festivals where they were at. We were
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  playing there at the same time. That's cool.
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  That's awesome. A father son festival. Yes, exactly.
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  There's some bad information on the Internet
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  about the Montereys. And there's information
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  like that I want to clear up. Like it says that
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  there was a band called the Four Escorts that
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  turned into your band. Is that true? That is
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  not true. All right. And there's about four other
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  records that are called the Montereys that are
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  attributed to your group, the Bakersfield Montereys.
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  Did you ever make any other records? No, I believe
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  there's different groups. maybe a couple of groups
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  by the name of Monterey's too. Yeah. So the only
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  record that the Bakersfield Monterey's released
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  was Darling. I believe so, but the other members
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  could have made... Oh yeah, it's possible. It's
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  possible they could have made other records.
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  I know Tom did. Tom Ray. Do you want to talk
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  about any of the other bands you were in? I hooked
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  up with my cousin, Joe, Joe Loco, a very extremely
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  good keyboard player. I learned a lot of Hispanic
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  songs, but we also played English songs. We played
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  at a lot of different functions together. We
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  also played at Golden State Mall. Played there
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  for a long time. I really enjoyed learning a
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  lot of Mexican music. He taught me a lot of it.
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  That's awesome. Of course, I was the lead singer.
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  Yeah, that's cool. That's fun. Do you play keyboards,
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  too? Yes. Okay. I learned to play a keyboard
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  after playing with my cousin Joe. He was a tremendous,
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  tremendous musician. His name was Joe Loco, and
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  he's been known in Bakersfield for a long time
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  because he impressed a lot of people. And he
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  impressed me, too. That's why I started learning.
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  to play that that's cool and it's also easier
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  on your hands you don't have to the guitar the
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  guitar you know it it makes calluses on your
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  on your fingers yeah the keyboard you know you
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  you don't have to you don't have to uh work your
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  fingers too much Yeah, there's something cool
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  about the direct. Once you press it down, you
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  get a note. On the guitar, you press it with
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  one finger down with a string, and you pluck
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  it with your other hand. So it's two things.
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  There's only one step for the piano, which is
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  interesting. Also, these keyboards and all that
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  you have, I have background music. Oh, yeah,
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  you can start a little jam session. Instruments,
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  different instruments. Very cool. So you grew
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  up in Bakersfield. You've lived in Bakersfield
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  for decades. And how do you feel about the Bakersfield
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  music scene? Of course, country and western music
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  put Bakersfield on the map. Yeah. You know, Buck
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  Owens, of course, Buck Owens. I was very happy
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  about that. Not only Buck Owens, Merle Haggard
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  and a bunch of other... country western music
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  stars. I really love that because it gave Bakersfield
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  a lot of attention in music and I love music
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  and it kind of brought on Bakersfield as a music
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  town. It's cool to be known as Nashville West.
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  There's so many types of music here that are
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  awesome and no matter what type of music you
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  like, you can find some local music that sounds
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  like what you want. Yeah, very diversified. Looking
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  back on your music career, Do you have a favorite
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  moment that just sticks out to you that you think
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  back on? Actually, there's a lot of them. A lot
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  of good moments I had. Music, it warms the heart.
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  It just makes you feel good, especially when
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  you can accomplish something in music. It was
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  an honor and a privilege to meet talented people.
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  that I was associated with, and I learned a lot
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  from them, and grew more musically inclined.
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  I'm tremendously fortunate to be with a lot of
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  good musicians. Not only my father and my uncle
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  and all my relatives, but also friends, friends
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  who are good musicians. I have a lot of cousins
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  who were in the mariachi field and stuff like
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  that also. A lot of music in my family. A good
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  family tradition. To end every episode, we give
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  shout -outs to other Bakersfield musicians, whether
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  it's past or present musicians. Well, you know,
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  I really like country and western music here,
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  too. Merle Haggard was a very good musician.
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  I really appreciated his music. I like Buck Owens'
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  music, too, also. They were very good. And also,
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  listen to the Monterey's Darling record. One
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  last thing. Do you have any advice for musicians
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  from Bakersfield? Yes. Never stop. Always keep
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  going. Keep going. Always continue to practice.
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  Make yourself better. Learn more about music.
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  Someday you'll get there. Thank you.