Studio reunion

CLOVIS - The most famous alumni of the Norman and Vi Petty Recording Studios are known world-round, but there are many others who recorded in the now-iconic space or worked with the producing couple.

On Saturday, the Clovis/Curry County Chamber of Commerce hosted its first alumni event to recollect on the space and people that produced the "Clovis sound" while sharing stories and reminiscing on old times.

The years have a way of "goin' faster than a roller coaster," to quote the Buddy Holly and the Crickets song, "Everyday," recording at the Petty Studio in 1957. That song was covered at the same studio in 1981 by a vocal-focused quartet "Aslan" made of siblings Craig Bogard and Dusty Neergaard and their spouses, Lynn Ann and Bill.

Craig, Lynn Ann and Dusty came in from New Jersey for the occasion, joining what Chase Gentry of the chamber estimated to be over 150 attendees from around the country and overseas.

The quartet - now missing Bill Neergaard, who died in 1995 - were at the time in their twenties, having grown up in Portales and attended Eastern New Mexico University. The trio reflected on the gravity of recording in a space that had already hosted Holly, Roy Orbison and Bobby Vee (just to name a few) and also on the support and kindness they received from Norman and Vi.

"He was like a fifth member of the group," Dusty Neergaard told The News of Petty. And when Petty died in 1984, "for us, that was really the day the music died," she added.

Craig and Dusty said they have copies of their recordings somewhere and are hoping to convey them to the Rock & Roll Museum, in the Chamber basement, where Saturday's gathering was held. That underscores one of Gentry's points in reflecting on the "alumni" event - the first of its kind for the museum - in that there is still excellent music made decades ago at the studios that remains largely undiscovered.

"Realizing that there's so much more music than we've even tapped into in this museum," Gentry said.

Some records were already behind glass at the museum Saturday, and Paul Saiz, of Clovis, came by to look fondly on the records "Saturday Night" and "Baby Come Closer" that he and his group recorded with Petty in 1979 and 1981, respectively. He was still impressed at how "down-to-earth" Petty was even then, having already worked with and supported legendary artists.

"It was kind of like, when he walked in the room we stopped breathing," said Andy Chase Cundiff, a radio disc jockey with Petty in the '70s now living in Amarillo. "He was already legendary."

Both Saiz and Cundiff continued careers in music, but they were still soft for the place where they got their start. The alumni gathering continued Saturday afternoon with a visit to the old studio on Seventh Street, where attendees anticipated taking another crack at singing some old standards.