This Week In Texas Music History is supported by Brane Audio.
On Jan. 18, 1968, Vietnamese singer Bach Yen cut a 45 single for Sonobeat Records in Austin. Formed by father and son team Bill Josey Sr. and Bill Josey Jr., Sonobeat was one of Austin’s earliest successful indie labels, capturing such late ’60s local acts as the Sweetarts, Lavender Hill Express, and the Conqueroo.
The Joseys struck it big with their only major LP, Beaumont-born Johnny Winter’s 1968 debut album “Progressive Blues Experiment.” Bill Josey Jr., under the name Rim Kelley, recorded the album in the Austin venue the Vulcan Gas Company. The Sonobeat team licensed the LP to Imperial Records, launching Winter’s storied career.
The path that brought Bach Yen to Sonobeat was a bit more circuitous. 1968, of course, was the height of the Vietnam War, and Austin’s connections to President Lyndon B. Johnson meant that the conflict’s fault lines often ran through the heart of the city.
Bach Yen was a popular singer who had gotten her start in Saigon for a cosmopolitan audience, learning nightclub standards in English, French, Spanish and Italian, in addition to Vietnamese. In 1961, she headed to Paris, inspired by her hero Édith Piaf.
In 1965, just as the U.S. phase of the Vietnam conflict intensified, Bach Yen appeared on the “The Ed Sullivan Show” in New York. Bookings on “The Bob Hope Show,” “The Joey Bishop Show” and “Shindig!” soon followed, and Bach Yen stayed in the U.S. for the next 12 years.
