To take this tour we were required to bring along a Female Vocalist as part of our group and it was pre-arranged for us to be accompanied on this tour by The Nashville Superkickers, a two girl dance team, Andie and Paula. For our commitment we were very lucky to get the lovely and super talented Sally Weisenburg from Peoria, Illinois to accompany us on what turned out to be the first of 5 tours of Mexico. Sally and Fred Scherer, The Ozone Ramblers drummer, had been band mates in The New Watermelon River Band and lucky for us Sally was able to rearrange her performance schedule in order to accompany us on our first two Mexican tours. This press release photo below shows Sally with The Ozone Ramblers and was taken right before we left for Mexico.

The Ozone Ramblers arrived in Mexico to a large press reception party at the airport in Mexico City and then actually watched ourselves getting off the plane on Mexican TV later at our Hotel rooms in downtown Mexico City overlooking Chapultapec Park. It was very much V.I.P. treatment and we had a ball enjoying every minute of it. The next morning we started rehersals for the upcoming opening night of our new "Show" which of course now included Sally singing and Andie and Paula doing their dance routines. It was a lot of fun and a whole different world from playing the bars and nightclubs around the mid and southwest where we had been touring.

The club that had actually hired us to come to Mexico the first time was The Club Broadway and was located in the Plaza Sate`lite in the suburbs of Mexico City in a big Shopping/Entertainment complex. This engagement was to be one show a night and we were the International headliners for a five act show that included a really hot Mexican house band, a Comedian, a Magician, a famous Mexican national act of some kind, and us. It was very, very cool.

Opening night the MC turned out to be none other than Tony de la Barreda, the Bass player for the group Canned Heat! Tony had left Canned Heat to become the head of International for RCA Mexico and we were told that he had been hired that night to MC for his ability to speak both fluent English and Spanish, his fame as a Musician, and his position with RCA Records. In addition to Tony there were representatives from 8 other Record Labels at this opening night performance, including Manuel Montoya with Capitol-EMI records, and before the night was over, they had each offered The Ozone Ramblers a recording contract with their label! It was quite a night and when the smoke had cleared we had chosen RCA Records and Tony de la Barreda.

Top Of Page

More about The Ozone Ramblers