You’ll find Shelbyville a few hours south of Springfield on Indiana state highway 35. We’re not talking about The Simpsons here! Drive a few miles west of Shelbyville and you’ll come to Whiteland, a farm community on the southern fringe of Indianapolis, near Interstate 65, one of America’s busiest roads. Whiteland is the home of a barn that rocked out in the late 1950’s, surrounded by hot rods and pickup trucks, and filled with wild and crazy midwestern teenagers, girls in poodle skirts and farm boys with crew cuts or greaser haircuts. One of the bands that turned the Whiteland Barn upside down was Keetie And The Kats, led by Keetie, also known as Keith Phillips who, as you will soon hear, is one heck of a drummer!
Along with Keith, the band’s original lineup included Larry Lee, Dave Ellman, and Bill Rooker. By the time they cut this record in 1959 the group had replaced Bill Rooker with two new members, Norm Shafley and Jimmy Clendening, who does the vocals on this track.
Here’s That’s The Way by Keetie And The Kats on K-W 503 from 1959:
The band continued to evolve, adding Gary LeMaster from a band called Sons Of Liberty and changing their name to Keetie And The Casuals in 1963. A couple of years later you’d find Keith Phillips heading up the Keith Phillips VI.
The hits just keep on coming! There are now over 125,000 oldies from 1911 to 1973 beaming from the MusicMaster Oldies “Tower of Power” to the whole planet.
Somehow, after seeing the topic, I thought you would be leading into another song called "That's The Way" as recorded in October, 1966 by a similarly named group called the Kit Kats. One of their earlier releases on the Jamie label (#1321), it was the other side to a song they would re-record a few years later when they became known as The New Hope, "Won't Find Better Than Me".
Wow, that never occurred to me, but it's a great idea! There's a great story about the Kit Kats of Philadelphia at http://www.spectropop.com/KitKats/index.htm
Good Afternoon. My name is Keith Phillips. Yes, that Keith Phillips (Keetie). Sometime give a listen to another record of ours called Chee Wah Wah (written by Beaudlou Bryant) on Monument Records. You might like it.
Thank you so much for this! You only got one thing wrong. It was norm chafey that was added. He was my grandpa and its so good to see him up there!
Thanks for the additional info, Kristy!
I did, and I do! Thanks for checking in, Keith! You guys were awesome.
Keith, I left you a message earlier about my FB group "Indianapolis Years Ago" and I did a post about the Whiteland Barn. My question to you is, do you know when they closed the doors and when the last dance was held there? I have many members asking that question in my group….can you help please? If you could just email with some information you have on this to (debkpickett@aol.com) it would be greatly appreciated…Thx
I know you were considered the "house " band for the Whiteland Barn in Indy, I would like to know when the Barn closed it's doors….year and maybe last dance there? I have a Fb group called, "Indianapolis Years Ago" and I posted about it and people are questioning the closing date of 1965, I posted. Thank you very much Keith…:-)
WOW!!! Grandma and Gpa Phillips talked a lot about u guys when I was growing up. I never knew u rocked the drums like that…Thats awesome.