Harvey Connell (The Efics, Cash T. Woodson)

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Mt. Vernon, 1959-1970

Harvey Connell was the scenemaker in Mt. Vernon during the 1960s. He sang on several records (including one almost hit), wrote songs, started a record label,  and ran a recording studio. 

Harvey started his career as a rocker, releasing a 45 on his own Harvey label under the name of Cash T. Woodson. The label stated the record was from Mansfield, as Harvey had some business interests there.

Around 1960 he had a group, the Efics, that included Frank Queen on guitar. They cut a couple of teen rockers and ballads that were released on Fraternity records. The song "Autumn Heart", a smoothie makeout ballad,  got a lot of regional airplay and almost broke on a wider scale. Frank Queen joined Bill Strickland.

In 1965 Harvey tried to get onto the teen garage bandwagon with the recording "Little Girl" which was a vocal duet with Joe Parsons, with whom he operated a couple bars including the one in Mansfield. The record has a scream and guitar break that is right from the early British Invasion. The had a remake of "Autumn Heart" on the other side. This was the last 45 recorded by Harvey, who was in his mid 20s by now. 

He kept the Vernon label active for one more record by Fred Gartner and the Ferraris, although he was not a member of the group.

In the late 1960s he opened a small recording studio in Columbus called Reverb LTD. There are no known records that were recorded there, and the only thing that seems to have survived was a tape that ended up at Musicol credited to Harvey Connell Reverb LTD. The sound on the tape is soulish lounge-rock but the ID of the actual band is still unknown. The studio was only active for a year or two. 

The studio was the last known musical endeavor for Harvey, who passed away in 2012.

Discography:

Maxine / Shirley - Harvey 201, 1959/60
Autumn Heart / Sentimental Journey - Fraternity 891, 1961
A Million Hearts / Darling - Vernon 3, 1963
Autumn Heart / Little Girl - Tri City no #, c. June 1966