This page is being set up to allow interested alumni from St. Albans High School to listen to digital versions of some very old audio tracks from our Opus programs. I have LPs from 1964 through 1970, apart from 1965 and 1969. (The 1969 program may not have been recorded.)
[On copyright: I make no claim as to which of the selections here, if any, are in the public domain. This is strictly a not-for-money tribute to my dad, Joseph R. Ervin (“Papa Joe” to his students at SAHS); to Mr. John Pierson (Dad’s very good friend, trumpet player, and former Vice-Principal at SAHS); and to Mr. James Keadle, our band director. These three gents were “instrumental” in our education as teens. No infringement of anyone’s creative rights is intended. Offending tracks will be removed if identified.]
A few details about the plan (and I do have one):
- The recordings in Dad’s collection end with the 1970 Opus program (“highlights,” actually). It was in July, 1970, that our family “packed up the trucks and moved to Morgan-hole … ‘town, that is: lots of cars, no movie stars.” James Keadle would continue to direct SAHS bands at least into the 1970s.
- I’ve done what I can to reduce the pops, clicks, skips, and other artifacts of more than forty years of indifferent storage, but … the LPs are what they are.
- EDIT, 3/18/18: Thanks to the efforts of Mary Holderby, Class of 1968, the missing selections from Opus 1967 will soon be posted.
- Download links are provided below each individual selection. These are now working.
- I’ve started with 1966, the first program for which I have playable discs. I’ll experiment via this page on the best way to present the individual tracks. The presentation may change as I familiarize myself with the interface.
- No warranty — express or implied — etc. etc. etc.
Joseph Ervin Jr: Synthesizer Fan 
Just FYI; James Keadle was SAHS band director through the spring of 1985. He was my band director (c/o 1971) and my collegue (I was band director at DuPont HS from 1979-86). He and your father certainly changed my life as well as many others and helped lead to a 39 year career as a band director in WV and FL. By the way I crossed paths with your dad again and your sister when I student taught at Morgantown High School with Mike Roberts.
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Hello. I knew that Mr. Keadle had passed on some years before Dad. I had forgotten that he was only 59. Much too young. You may not recall, but the little music office Dad and Mr. Keadle shared at SAHS from 1965 to 1970 was always full of cigarette smoke. Dad had long-term respiratory disease before his death in 1999 and I believe Jim Keadle died of emphysema complications.
I guess you student taught at MHS in the late 1970s? My sister Cathy graduated in 1978.
Your message got me thinking about teachers and their influences. Mr. Keadle and his former wife (who died about a year ago at age 87) had no children. Yet he touched the lives of thousands of kids as something of a surrogate dad during school hours. Not a bad legacy at all.
Scant mention of him online and no mention of him in his former wife’s obituary. I’m thinking I may start a tribute page for James R. Keadle here on my blog. If so, perhaps those who remember him fondly from our youths might leave a word or two in his memory.
JE
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Mr. Ervin was one of my heroes who led to my future in professional (tongue in cheek) music carrier (as such), a man who taught me the art of harmony, and along with my sophomore science teacher Mr. Comer who stood up against the teaching of evolution, are the two most influential teachers in my academic life and looking back I wish I had thanked them before they passed away.
Sometime between 1963-1965 your dad organized a small group of singers out of the chorus, of which I was one, and we traveled and sang for several events around town including Opus. Is there any mentioning’s of such in his archive, or, if anyone has super 8 movies of such (Mary Web) I would greatly like to have a copy or pay for such on Legacybox.
Joe Ancion
ancionclan@aol.com
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Hello. Dad’s first year at SAHS was 1963-1964. According to the Opus program, the “Small Group” sang “The Green Leaves of Summer.” I was still in junior high at the time. Regrettably, the LP for Opus 1964 ended up near a furnace register at Mom and Dad’s place and warped beyond hope of playing. I was able to salvage his remarks after conducting the William Tell Overture and before the finale (“The Exodus Song”). The rest of the LP is badly distorted. You can hear Dad’s remarks at https://josephervinjr.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/dad-speaks-before-finale.mp3. Our family has no other recordings of his voice, so far as I know.
He left no LPs for Opus 65 in his collection. According to the program, the Small Group sang selections from “Oliver,” Vive L’Amour (Small Group guys), and Granada (Small Group ladies, with band director John Pierson on trumpet). You may also recall the Swingel Singers (sp?) rom the early 1960s. The mixed chorus sang a Bach Bouree in their “doo-wop” style.
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