I'll be forever indebted to the late, great Hank Penny who invited me and my wife to his home in Chatsworth, California, in August 1987 : we spent one unforgettable month there, surrounded by Legends such as Speedy West and some of his longtime cohorts - Billy Liebert, Harold Hensley, Roy Lanham and many more. While in San Diego that same year, we stayed at Tom Sims's house and picked up some amazing stuff, like the Capitol acetate shown above. In case you didn't know, Tom Sims is one of the top US record collectors/dealers - friendly, funny, honest and vastly knowledgeable.

The interviews with Speedy West took place in Hank's living room ; at the time, I was a DJ on the Radio France Network, having both daily (pre-recorded) and weekly (live) shows. Part of those interviews were later broadcast on my Saturday night show, 'Honky Tonk'.

Copyright PAUL VIDAL * France * April 2003