This is from the San Marcos Daily Record, Sept. 28, edition. Roy Head & The Traits began their career while at San Marcos High School in the late 1950s, then continued on to achieve several nationwide hits, including “Treat Her Right.”

By Anita Miller, News Editor, San Marcos Daily Record

San Marcos — In October 1965, the number one hit in America belonged to a shaggy quartet hailing from Liverpool. Nipping at its heels was a group of kids just a few years out of San Marcos High School.

“Yesterday” hit Billboard Magazine’s top spot just in time to deny “Treat Her Right” by Roy Head and The Traits, which hung in at number two for weeks that long-ago fall.

This year marks 50 since The Trait’s piano player Dan Buie and bassist Bill Pennington graduated from SMHS and they, plus former Rattlers Jerry Gibson on drums and Bill York and Clyde Causey on guitar, along with new addition Matt Maldonado on tenor sax, will revisit their heyday performing two shows during Rattler Roundup homecoming activities this week.

Roy Head and the Traits enjoyed a good deal of success in the late 1950s and early 1960 until members went on to pursue careers.

Buie, for example, became a distinguished economist, while Pennington followed his father into the funeral home business. Roy Head and the Traits were inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 2007.

Band leader Head is no longer with the group and longtime guitarist Tommy Bolton passed away in 2003. Another bandmember, guitarist George Frazier from Luling, died in 1996.

The Traits initially reunited to play a San Marcos High School reunion show in 2001, returning to do the same in 2007. Their show on Friday has been long sold out, and at the time of this interview, tickets were going fast for the second on Oct. 2.

“We told them we didn’t know if we could stay up that late,” Pennington joked about the performances planned to last until 10:30 p.m. “It’s way past Bill and my bedtimes,” Buie added.

Their passion for the music has survived the years, and when they take the stage you know it’s for love — 45 years after their Billboard number two hit the surviving members have yet to see any royalties.

“We wrote the stuff, composed the stuff and recorded the stuff,” Buie said. “For a period of 45 to 50 years we never received any royalties at all, although we knew it sold all over the United States, Europe, Japan and parts of Asia.”

That nagged at Buie over the years, and he wasn’t alone.

“We all (wondered about the royalties) because we matched notes,” he said. “When we got together in 2001 we talked about where were the royalties. After our 2007 reunion we talked about it again.”

After that, Buie turned more attention to finding out, assisted by Pennington, Gibson and Britney Richie, daughter of late band member Bolton.

First, he had to find out who had the original master tapes, a quest he undertook online.

“Thanks to the Internet,” Buie said, he was able to contact a number of companies that had released the music in the U.S. and overseas. One, in California, gave him a name.

“So I called this fellow and asked him and he said he owned them.” Buie said he thought at that moment he’d “struck gold,” only to later realize “how costly it would be” to get those tapes back in the hands of the Traits.

They pooled their money and hired Austin entertainment attorney Craig Barker, who was “able to convince this man” to let go of the masters without the matter going to civil court. “There was only one way, to put the fear of God in him,” Buie recalls. “Fortunately, through my dumb luck, I found an attorney who knew how to do just that.”

The Traits now have a new release of some of that material, out on CD and vinyl, which Buie said is enjoying a resurgence in Europe.

Buie says he hopes the rock lives on.

“It’s unlikely we’ll ever get back what we’re putting into this,” Buie said of the new release, “Live It Up! Our children will benefit.”

Though most of the group drifted away from performing, Gibson is a notable exception.

“He truly is the most important musician in the band. He’s probably one of the best drummers to ever come out of the state of Texas. He went on to play with Sly and the Family Stone and he had a lot to do with the percussion on ‘There’s a Riot Going On,’ the album that debuted at number one in 1971. He played with Linda Ronstadt, he played with Canned Heat. He was a studio drummer out in L.A.,” Buie said of Gibson, who now lives in Nashville.

Copies of the band’s release will be available at their two Rattler Reunion shows this week. “Live It Up!” is also available online at www.nortonrecords.com.

San Marcos Daily Record:  www.sanmarcosrecord.com

Related article in San Marcos Daily Record:  “Treat Her Right”