"The Fraternity Years"
(Big Beat Records/Ace Records CDWIKD 171- CD-1997)

14. You Don't Love Me (You Don't Care) *
15. Promises Promises
16. I Satisfy
17. Requiem For Sarah
18. L.O.V.E. Love
19. Ya Ya
20. Good Times
21. Hand In Hand *
22. You Are My Sunshine *
23. I Wonder Where The Birds Fly *
24. Mohair Sam *
25. As Far As The Sea **

* Prev. unissued
** As Chris St. John

Musicians
Ronnie "Mouse" Weiss - guitars, b.vocals
Bugs Henderson - guitars, b.vocals, banjo
Doug Rhone - guitars
David Stanley - bass
Randy Fouts - keyboards
Robin Hood Bryans - keyboards, b.vocals, string arrangements
Tim Gillespie - keyboards
Don "Levi" Garrett - drums
Ken Murray - drums

This is a USA single sleeve courtesy of Barry Wickham.

Here you have Robin Hood Brians today!

If you're interested you can visit Mr. Brians' studio at http://www.robinhoodstudios.com.

I have managed to find some rare items by Mouse & The Traps on internet. The singles below are not from my own collection.

TRACKS
A Public Execution/All For You
(Canada REO 8912X - 1966)

This single was described on the internet as an obscure Canadian release of this Bob Dylan inspired, 60's Punk Nugget from Tyler, Texas. It actually made the charts, and was covered by local bands in the Ottawa region (unfortunately, it tanked ever- where else!).

TRACKS
Would You Believe/Like I Know You Do
(Fraternity Records 971 - 1966)

Very cool and little-seen 1966 45" by Texas garage wunderkinds Mouse & the Traps,"Would You Believe?" backed with "Like I Know You Do". Released a few months after their classic "A Public Execution", this particular a-side is not included on the otherwise fab BigBeat compilation of their Fraternity material. This is a white label radio station copy credited soley to "Mouse" with nary a mention of the Traps. So is this considered a solo release?

Henderson's releases

Compilation and archive research by Alec Palao. Transferred from original analogue master tapes. Post production by Nick Robbins at Sound Mastering Ltd.

The copyrights in these sound recordings are owned Robin Hood Brians.

All songs recorded at Robin Hood Studios, Tyler, Texas, 1965-1968.

The front cover photograph from early '67.

From bottom left: David Stanley, Jerry Howell, Mouse, Buggs Henderson and Ken Murray.
(Courtesy of Alec Palao)

Bugs Henderson is marked in blue by me.

Bugs is in the cover written with "Buggs". I suppose he later on changed it to Bugs...

Sump'N Else TV Show - Dallas, 1968

L/r: Ken Murray, Dave Stanley, Ron Chapman, Bobby Delk and Mouse.
(Courtesy of Robin Hood Brians)

Sump'N Else TV Show - Dallas, 1968

L/r: Dave Stanley, Ken Murray, Mouse and Bobby Delk.
(Courtesy of Robin Hood Brians)

This is a really well done CD containing a booklet with lots of information about the band's history.

Words from the booklet:

"Mouse (Ron Weiss) was the younger brother of two brothers. Terry, his older brother, was into cars. Fast cars! So, it was natural that he would make his little brother Ronnie's car one of the fastest in East Texas. Ronnie also liked motor- cycles. And you guessed it...he had one of the fastest in East Texas. That fact would cost him most of the skin on his hands and knees, but it didn't slow him down. Add a guitar, some songwriting buddies, some girls and you have the beginning of MOUSE & THE TRAPS.

While playing his shiny new red Gibson 335 guitar for other groups, Mouse and Knox Henderson (in family with Bugs?) co-wrote a song called "A Public Execution", as an answer to a girl named Debbie who had broken up with Mouse after accusing him of being with another girl. When they brought the song to me, I was excited about it, and so we assembled a few players in my studio in Tyler and made the first cut of the tune. Mouse played 12-string guitar, David Stanley was on bass, Buggs Henderson on guitar, Don "Levi" Garrett on drums, Randy Fouts on piano, and I played Farfisa organ. We were cutting on 2-track; recording all the instruments IN mono on one track and overdubbing the vocals on the other. Sessions in those days were long and tiring. I don't know if we got what we wanted or just gave up from sheer exhaustion, but the session finalley ended and we agreed to come back the next afternoon to listen...

Mouse played on "Lucky Lips" by Steve Wright & The Catalinas, a medium sized local hit leased nationally to Dot, and worked around the Tyler-Dallas area with the Catalinas band, rubbing shoulders with several other groups, most notably The Sensors, featuring the incredible talent of Buddy "Buggs" Henderson on lead guitar. The Sensors also worked at Robin Hood's, recording a total of four Freddie KIng- influenced singles, and unsurprisingly the pair became pals. "Buggs worked at a record shop, and I was still working at an auto parts house until 1965 when I quit and it was the band full time. We used to eat lunch together all the time and he called me one day and said "Man, there is this group from England and they are gonna be huge. Everybody is talking about them in the trades. They've got a record 'I Want To Hold Your Hand'. It's out of tune and it's horrible!". I went by there at lunch and he played it for me. God, we hated it - it was terrible! But it just changed music so drastically with the vocals and all. We were all playing kind of R&B stuf, B.B. King, that sort of thing, but people got into that and boy, we had to start doing the British invasion material. We played Beatles' tunes, but we did not have vocals like they did. I was never in a band that had real strong vocals. We were mostly musicians more than we were singers."...

...All the members of the Traps have remained in music since those days (excepting Jerry Howell, who is now an ordained Baptist minister), performing mostly in a country vein. Nevertheless, the core of Mouse, Ken, Dave and Buggs have gotten together at regular intervalls over the years to relive their former glories as Mouse & The Traps, cognisant of both the special magic of the band, and its enduring appeal to younger generations of fans all over the world who take the music for what it is: solid mid-1960's Texan rock 'n' roll at its finest."
-- Robin Hood Brians - Producer, March 1997