Selling a Sound in the Hometown - Stephen Conrad visits Winston-Salem

Selling a Sound in the Hometown

             By BILL EAST              
Sentinel Staff Reporter

Twin City Sentinel

Aug 19, 1974

Musician Returns

     Stephen Conrad,  the West  Coast musician who was born in Winston-Salem, is in town for a vacation and to try to sell his “Winston-Salem Sound” to the home folks.

     Conrad said that “selling your hometown is one of the toughest jobs you can have because the people there always remember you …”

     Some 200 relatives and friends greeted Conrad when he flew into the regional airport Thursday night.  “I guess I can claim kin some way to just about every Conrad there is,” he said.

      He said he hoped while he was here to get invitations to appear on radio record shows to talk and play his music.  He is staying at the Howard Johnson Motor Inn.

      

Conrad left the Winston-Salem area some 30 years ago (he won’t tell his age) because he felt the Far West offered the best opportunities for musicians to move ahead rapidly.

      In the years since, he has had eight bands. They played hotels, cocktail lounges and one-nighters for special occasions.

     Last year Conrad organized a new 10-piece musical group and labeled their musical group and labeled their music  “The Winston-Salem Sound.”    

     “There are a heck of a lot of people on the West Coast who have never heard of the city of Winston-Salem and they associate the name of the group instead with the two cigarettes,” he said.

     Conrad, who looks and talks somewhat like Johnny Cash, said there is no generation gap between him (whatever his age is) and his musicians, all under 23 years of age.

        “We communicate greatly,” he said.

        Conrad writes most of the music, arranges it and rehearses the band. His own company, Speerhead Productions, Inc., of Hollywood, records the music and distributes it in albums and single records.

        Currently he has a new stereo album, “The Good Life- Winston-Salem Sound,” on the market with 10 songs, all of which he wrote. One of them is called “Mom and Dad” and the album cover includes his parents’ picture.

        Conrad said he can’t always keep his 10 musicians together for engagements.

        “Then I split them into groups and get engagements at motels,” he said.

        Conrad at first envisioned making up the “Winston-Salem Sound” entirely of musicians from the Winston-Salem area.

         I made nine trips to Winston-Salem to try to get enough people to do it,” he said. “But they couldn’t cut it. Out there you just can’t get good. You must be great. But even now half of the musicians are Southerners.”

        Conrad said he originally went west to play music and to try to be another John Wayne in the movies. “I didn’t know John Wayne was going to live forever,” he said.

        He said he’s still trying to break into the big-time. “I’ll never give up,” he said.