This month’s Under-Appreciated Rock Band is a Los Angeles psychedelic rock quartet called Music Emporium. The bandmembers are Casey Cosby (organ and vocals), Dave Padwin (lead guitar, acoustic guitar and vocals), Carolyn Lee (bass guitar, acoustic bass, piano, organ and vocals), and Dora Wahl (drums and percussion). A rock band that was half men and half women was rare enough in those days; but in this case, the women represent the excellent rhythm section (bass and drums). In that respect, Music Emporium might be unique among 1960’s bands. Their eclectic background and the fact that three of the four bandmembers are classically trained musicians lend additional interest to their music.
Future Music Emporium bandleader Bill Cosby – who, due to having the same name as the famous comedian Bill Cosby, began to go by the name Casey Cosby – was fortunate to have acquired an accordion complete with eight weeks of lessons from a traveling salesman. He jumped at the chance to become a musician and eventually became one of the leading accordionists in the nation, recording four albums of classical accordion music. He won the U.S. accordion championship five years in a row and also was judged best at his instrument in a 1967 competition at UCLA that was sponsored by Frank Sinatra.
Together with Thom Wade (guitar and vocals) and Steve Rustad (vocals), Casey Cosby – by now playing the organ – formed a combo called Gentle Thursday; all three were members of the UCLA Glee Club. After changing the band’s name to Cage, and wanting to move toward a harder sound, he chose Dora Wahl as the band’s drummer; she was a percussion major at Long Beach State.
After changing the band’s name from Cage to Music Emporium, the last of the four joined up, guitarist Dave Padwin. Padwin came from a completely different background and had been in a bar band in Chicago called the Prediktors. When Casey Cosby met him, he was working at a store called the Guitar Center.
Casey Cosby knew a sound engineer at Sunset Sound named Bill Lazerus; the idea was that they would make a demo of the Music Emporium album and then re-record it at a record label’s studio. Another of Cosby’s contacts, Jack Ames of Sentinel Records – Ames had just left Liberty Records – bought the tape and decided that the music only needed to be remixed, with the vocals re-recorded.
All of the songs on the Music Emporium album are original compositions, with 8 of the 10 being written or cowritten by Casey Cosby. Four of these were composed by Cosby with Thom Wade, who had been in Gentle Thursday. Dave Padwin contributed “Sun Never Shines”. Milt Bulian – who has worked in the field of education for decades and now lives in the Jacksonville, NC area – describes himself as a “groupie” for Music Emporium; he wrote “Times Like This” and had been a member of Brass Plus.
The music by Music Emporium varies considerably and is never better than when Carolyn Lee is singing, particularly on the fantastic “Velvet Sunsets”. Casey Cosby handles most of the lead vocals, with Dave Padwin sitting in for his punky song “Sun Never Shines”. Casey Cosby’s organ defines their sound, though Dave Padwin’s guitar is also prominent.
In 1970, Casey Cosby received his draft notice but managed to avoid Vietnam by taking a job at West Point playing accordion and heading up their glee club; he spent 17 years as an Instructor of Cadet Music there. Casey Cosby and Carolyn Lee were married shortly after Music Emporium broke up.
(October 2013)
