As I wrote earlier, my two best friends were Del and Chris. They had been recording some cover songs on Chris's four-track at his house. We started talking about doing some original songs. I had written songs since the fourth grade, and Chris was very good in writing music, as well as lyrics on his own. Del was a very good singer. The three of us decided to form a group.
There were a few names that we considered including Rave On and Eastside Project. The one that stuck was The Cobbwebs. It kind of had a double meaning. We were writing songs that were inspired by groups from the 1960's, so the meaning of "cobwebs" made sense for old sounding songs. Del had relatives in Georgia named Cobb. One had been a Southern general during the Civil War, so we settled on The Cobbwebs. Also, there was a group called The Cobwebs, so we had to add the other "B".
Chris played lead guitar and drums. Del was the lead singer, and he also played bass guitar and keyboards. Chris also mixed the tracks, as he majored in technical recording at Memphis State. On a trip out there, Del and I joined Chris to record two songs on a professional soundboard in a real studio. I learned how to work the board and produce the songs. Even with Chris's four-track, he made the two of them sound like a full band.
We heard of a project that a local radio station was producing featuring bands from the Columbia area. We submitted a song and was accepted for a CD and cassette tape release called "The Burning of Columbia". We went to a guy, who had us sign a contract. It said that they would record our song at their studio, and we would have to pay them to get promotional photos made. We pooled our money, and got that done. They never used the pictures. When we got into the studio, Chris wanted to work their soundboard, but they told him no. The recording lasted almost all of a Sunday afternoon. The radio station released a cassette. We never saw a CD. We were the last song on side two of the tape. The song was called "Cry Baby Cry", but when it was listed on the tape, it listed "Cobbwebs-Cry Baby". We weren't pleased with that either, but we had signed a contract. We did get the radio station to play our song a couple of times, and another radio station in town played it, and we were interviewed about it.
After Del and Chris moved to Nashville, they continued recording songs. I continued to write lyrics and send to them. We were looking for a record label to sign us. They would send out sample tapes to labels along with sheet music. The labels would return the tapes because of unsolicited material, but they would keep the sheet music. I sent one to Elton John, but the tape was returned. I also sent one to Yoko Ono. She kept it. We gave a tape to Gary Lewis. He listened to it, and said he liked it. We sent one to Peter Noone, and he said he liked to play it while driving in his car. We started getting some buzz that our music was good. One independent label wanted to represent us. We put a cd together of 20 original songs and called it "Magic Boat".
I wrote six songs that were included on the CD. In 2001, the label sent copies to mostly college radio stations and some foreign stations in Europe. We sold a few copies in Oregon, but mostly in Europe. At the end of 2001, we were rated in several top-ten lists in Italy, Bosnia, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, and other countries. Two of my songs got a lot of airplay in Europe--"She Said No" and "She Said Yes". The first was a song about a guy asking a girl for a date, but she said no. The second was a song about a guy asking a girl for a date and expecting her to say no, but she says yes, and then he doesn't know what to do next. These two songs in effect became our single release.
In regards to labels keeping our sheet music, we were concerned that they would steal our songs, so everything was copyrighted. The law basically says that two songs have to have eight measures the same in order before it can be said that the two songs are the same. We listened to a lot of radio after submitting our songs. One song had six measures the same but not eight. Too bad. We could have made a gazillion dollars had it been eight.
Our independent label wanted us to perform at a oldies festival in California. We wanted to go, but it became almost impossible, since two guys played all the instruments and did all of the vocals. The promoter said that he could provide a backing band for us, but we only would have two weeks to get that all together, so we passed on the festival. Soon thereafter, we had some creative and marketing differences within the band, so we split up. Chris and I were still writing songs. In 2007, Del and Chris got back together and recorded another CD. In 2008, the three of us got back together in Nashville and recorded a third CD. Those last two have not been released formally, but you can find some of the songs on social media, if you look hard enough.
