Crispy Music Fest is Today and Tomorrow

FRIDAY Schedule
Outdoor Stage:
5:30-6 Err...,
6:15-6:45 THE MONGRELS,
7-7:30 EASY ACTION,
7:45-8:30 THE TOSSPINTS,
8:45-10 THE MEATMEN

Indoor Stage:
10:15-11 THE STICK AROUNDS,
11:15-MIDNIGHT DYNAFLO,
12:15- CHAPSTIK

SATURDAY Schedule
Outside:
1:30-2:00 Fillmore Slim
2:15-2:45 The Banana Convention
3-3:30 The Kincaids
3:45-4:15 Jehovah's Witness Protection Program
4:30-5 TBA
5:15-5:45 The Hex Bombs
6-6:30 40oz of Spite
6:45-7:15 Neighborhood Muscle
7:30-8 The Ruiners
8:15-8:45 All-Girl Boys Choir
9-10pm Tension Head

Inside:
4-4:30 Bungee Deth Fest
4:45-5:15 Mare Crisuim
5:30-6 Krawler
6:15-6:45 TBA
7-7:30 TBA
7:45-8:30 Narc Out the Reds.
10-10:45 The Usual Chaos
11-2 Sinister Footware

SRC - The Ray Goodman Interview

SRC
Ray Goodman
Penetrating the Dharma
and
The Awakening of Great Band

Ray Goodman is one of the unsung heroes of the Michigan Rock era of the late sixties and early seventies. He joined SRC in 1969 for their last great album Travelers Tale. The band was so far ahead of the curve in terms of business and technology. They built their own equipment and made PA’s for other artists. They constructed their own recording studio and promoted Rock Festivals in Saugatuck and Petoskey. Along the way Goodman had stints with Mitch Ryder & Detroit, Dick Wagner, Cub Koda, and Paul Randolph. It seems that Goodman has flexed his ample chops with just about every notable player in the Midwest and beyond. Ray worked on commercials and various sessions including work with Gladys Knight and Detroit featuring Rusty Day. He played guitar on Luther Allison’s Bad News is Coming, the last LP recorded at Motown before it shut down. He was a staff guitarist for Holland, Dozier & Holland after they left Motown and created the Invictus label. Goodman toured with such Invictus acts as the Chairmen of the Board and Ruth Copeland. They would open for Sly & the Family Stone and Three Dog Night as well as other great seventies acts. Goodman is a seasoned minstrel who’s experienced great success and lifelong friendships as well as gut wrenching disappointments. He is a seeker that never gives up his quest to divine the perfect note. Goodman is a tough businessman who has a sentimental side that forgives the past and embraces the future. He is responsible for making the SRC Reunion happen, a wonderful thing.
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What is the story around you joining SRC?
After the original Detroit Wheels broke up I was playing in a band called Blueberry Jam with Johnny Bee Badanjek. He was trying to get a record deal for us but by 1969 it seemed unlikely that the band would be signed. When I read that SRC was looking for a guitar player I contacted Alan Sussman at Pioneer Recording who arranged an audition for me through John Rhys who was their producer at the time.



How did you influence the SRC sound on Travelers Tale?
My playing was a bit more informed by Motown and Stax Volt than your average garage rocker of the day. I think that the Funk Brothers were my Beatles at the time.
Prior to working with Johnny Bee I'd been playing with an R&B band called the "Famous Brothers" with Bobby Franklin and Hubie Crawford. We used to play for teen shows hosted by Ernie Duram at the world famous 20 Grand nightclub in Detroit. I got to see some of the greats from the golden age of soul music there. It was a real musical and cultural education for this little white kid from the suburbs and I'm thankful for it to this day.

Did you technique evolve during your tenure with SRC?
Yes, and I hope it still is, I don't ever want to stop growing and improving as a musician.


What are you favorite moments on Traveler's Tale? Favorite songs?
The writing and recording process comes to mind, as well as working with Bob Boury, the amazing classical composer from U of M who orchestrated the Offering. As far as favorites, I'd have to include Midnight Fever and Street Without a Name.


Was it a good fit?
That depends on who you ask, when I first joined it was supposed to be both me and Gary as a guitar duo. When he left it put me in the position of having to emulate all of those amazing signature lines and pioneering use of feedback that he had come up with on the first two records. A daunting task indeed, controversy was inevitable because my style of playing was totally different.


Where did all those gorgeous 3 part harmonies come from. Who sang? Was there a designation of lead tenor, second tenor and so on?
As far as I can remember, Glenn and Scott did the vocal arrangements and everyone sang except me. I got to stay in the control room and run the machines, an early education in engineering that still serves me to this day. I believe that everyone sang the same part and then overdubbed the next note ala Crosby Stills and Nash.


How would you describe SRC music?
Classically based and harmonically sophisticated, very different for the time.


How did SRC's technical skills i.e. making their own equipment affect the sound? Who was the engineering genius in the band?

Not everyone knows that SRC built PA's that were among the largest in the world at that time. Kurt Andrews was the man behind that and went on to do sound at a lot of major concerts and festivals. Glenn did most of the engineering on the albums.
It was well under way by the time I came in, so I hope you pose that question to the others as well.


Did you have a communal life in SRC?

Well, we all lived in the same house but I wouldn't call it a commune, it was more of an economic arrangement...



How would you rate Scott as a singer? Frontman?

Scott was wonderful at both and also as a lyricist, (he is a poet you know).
He was absolutely fearless on stage and his live performances were one of the driving forces behind our popularity.


How would you characterize your guitar work in general? with SRC? Mitch Ryder? Dick Wagner?
Well, you're always your own worst critic, but I've always tried to do my best in any musical situation. I've never phoned in a performance in my life, ever! Hopefully, my best performance is still ahead of me...


Did you have a mentor? Who influenced your guitar style?
Chet Atkins said "be a nice guy and steal from the best". Starting with him, there's a very long list of people who have let me stand on their shoulders when I was too little to see over the wall so to speak. I've learned from everybody, particularly all of the greats in Blues, R&B and Jazz. I got my first slide lesson from Mike Bloomfield...


What is your favorite story about your time in SRC? career?
Our manager Pete Andrews was an astute business man. We produced and financed many concerts that featured some of the biggest stars of the day, including a festival in Northern Michigan where I saw Muddy Waters perform live for the first time.Career wise, I'd have to say opening the show for Gary Moore's Still Got The Blues Tour in 1990. We did 78 dates in Europe and I became close friends with Albert Collins who is one of my heroes.

In the reorganized SRC are band decisions reached by consensus or synthesis (accommodating multiple truths and a middle path)?
That's a very Zen like question and I'm tempted to give you a philosophical answer, but in reality, SRC (or most any other band) isn't a Democracy, most business decisions are discussed between Scott, Glenn and myself.

How are you utilizing the three guitar attack? Do you and Gary trade of leads? What is s Steve Lyman's role?
The secret to using 3 guitars is to lay back and play as little as possible, otherwise it can really muddy the waters so to speak. Gary and I share solos and are working out some guitar harmonies, but he's doing the lion's share of the signature guitar lines because he played them on the original recordings. Steve Lyman is a great rhythm guitarist and back-up singer, he has a near photographic memory of the arrangements and parts that most of us had long forgotten after 40 years, this is something that came in very handy during our long and brutal rehearsals.

How did you decide on a set list?
Scott and Glenn put together the original set list and it kind of evolved during rehearsals.

Are you using and modern techno or unusual instrumentation?
No, a lot of our gear is older than many of the people in the audience. I saw a marching band in New Delhi many years ago that included a bunch of guys playing their own armpits, talk about unusual instrumentation! Both Scott and Glenn steadfastly oppose that idea despite my best efforts, ditto my suggestion that we should all wear matching speedos, there's just no pleasing some people...

Back in the day SRC produced several "Rock Festivals", the most prominent being Saugatuk and Petosky . Can you talk about your efforts in putting it together, memories of the bands and the spirit of the crowd? Was it well attended?
The only festival that SRC produced during my tenure was at Petosky in 1969 and I had little to do with it as far as the planning, etc. It was most memorable to me because Muddy Waters was on the show and it was the first time I saw him live. A truly life changing experience for me! I recall that we had some electrical issues because the power company was lowering the voltage to the grid causing an intentional rolling brown out - devil's music corrupting their kids and all that sort of stuff. This was 1969 after all and a lot of people weren't ready for the vast changes that were sweeping through society at the time. I think it was our least successful festival - we had to rush back to A2 to secure the loan to buy our first used 8 track tape machine from Motown before our banker saw the losses on the books.

Can you recall your most memorable and satisfying performance with SRC?
The Black Arts Festival at Olympia Stadium on October 31 1969. We rocked as did Arthur Brown, The Frost, Savage Grace, The Stooges, The Amboy Dukes, Bob Seeger, The Pleasure Seekers, Alice Cooper, Teegarden and Van Winkle, Dr. Timothy Leary and many others who I can't recall. Tickets were a whole five dollars!

Any surprises as you put together the SRC Reunion shows?
Too many to mention and they've mostly been pleasant ones, it's been a gratifying experience for us all. We can’t wait to play Saginaw again!

SRC is Back

The Scott Richardson Interview
SRC is Back
A Legendary Band; An Unexpected Reunion

Scott Richardson in a Zen archer drawing back an arrow and sending out a message to the legion of SRC fans across the country. SRC is a legendary band that continues to garner interest around the globe, from fans of classic rock, record collectors and historians. From 1966-1972, SRC released several singles, hitting the charts with I’m So Glad, Black Sheep and Up All Night. But it was the immensely creative, soulful and psychedelic LP’s - SRC, Milestones, Travelers Tale, The Lost Masters, and the Return of the Quackenbush Brothers - that gave SRC its reputation as one of the greatest bands ever to come from Michigan. By 1970, SRC led the pack and was considered to be one of the premier bands in the Midwest along with Bob Seger, Dick Wagner & the Frost, the Amboy Dukes, the MC5 and The Stooges. Now SRC has reformed with original members Scott Richardson (vocals), Gary Quackenbush (guitar), Glen Quackenbush (organ), Ray Goodman (guitar), Steve Lyman (bass). Pete Woodman (of Bossmen fame) will pound the skins. This is a singular event that may not be repeated.
Richardson has been busy in the ensuing years following his muse as a writer and poet. He has written about twenty screenplays including Hearts Afire starring Bob Dylan and wrote episodes of Rick Springfield’s television show, Human Target. He wrote Jackie Wilson’s life story that was picked up by Warner Brothers but never produced. Richardson published a novel King of the Shadows and worked on a feature-like documentary about Chuck Berry. Scott Richardson is a renaissance man whose life is a paradox of opposites; performance versus the solitary pursuits. Scott’s favorite thing to do is the solid “seed” work of writing in a cocoon of quiet moments. As true SRC fans know well is that Scott’s introspective nature has led to some of the most enduring moments in our musical history.

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Scott, how did the SRC Reunion come about?

Actually a couple of factors. The first one is that if we had waited much longer to do it, it probably never would have happened because everybody’s getting up there. The reason it’s happening is because there’s a whole lot of interest in the era that we came up in and the band itself. That particular time period is just interesting to people all over the place. It has to do with being over forty years and the kind of way things are in the world right now, just kind of hard and gritty and grim, and people are looking back with a sense of nostalgia at that time period of innocence and also a tremendous amount of hopefulness which is kind of what our band represents.

That’s excellent. Okay, so that kind of explains the second question - why are you doing this after all this time.

Yeah, if you look back at the music of that time period it was a pretty amazing moment in history where basically the underground movement got out in front of pop culture. People like the Doors, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Pink Floyd, Sgt. Pepper, Dylan, The Band, and that’s what the SRC were talking with, and we were doing something that really wasn’t just like regular three chord rock. There was a psychedelic moment there in time where consciousness shifted. We were kind of like just taking dictation from our experiences and putting them down, and we weren’t trying to do something blatantly commercial. We wanted to be rock stars like everybody, but we wanted to do it on our own terms, you know? We just thought that, we really were naively sincere about wanting to change the world. We really believe that it was possible at that moment in time. Of course, we were wrong but I think that everybody that was associated with it, including myself, took a lot of pride in the fact that we really were committed to the fact that make love, not war, civil rights, and those different kind of things we had a real ideology about having a different kind of situation.
We grew up now.
What’s kind of interesting about it after all this time is that people are finally looking back on it. You know those guys that might have been naïve and all that stuff, but they, you know in the world we live in today it just seems it would be wonderful to think that people would stand up, you know, a half-million people in a field listening to Star Spangled Banner.

Yes, amazing times. In my view, SRC was one of the top bands in a era where there were a number of great bands in Michigan whether it’s the Frost, MC5, The Stooges, Seger or the Amboy Dukes, you were at the top of the game. I thought you were different.

Thank you very much. Appreciate it. There’s enough of the people that feel that way that has caused us to revisit the issue and of course I’m really looking forward to playing with those guys again, and I think the feeling is mutual. We’re just hoping that everybody is going to come and celebrate the fact that this could really happen. It’s going to be special, no matter what because it just isn’t something that could happen every day.

John Sinclair has played White’s Bar several times, poetry, jazz and blues . He believes in peace and freedom to explore alternate lifestyles.

I love John, I actually put one of his poems to music, a piece called the Rubinet. I’ve done that in my show for years.

I saw SRC several times during those halcyon days of the sixties. I thought you were great. What do you think made you so unique, so popular?

I think it was like I mentioned earlier, at that particular time people wanted a bigger experience, you know. The style of Gary’s guitar playing, and the fact that we had a great rhythm section. The fact that those guys were really, really good rock musicians and the fact that we were doing something musically that was a little bit more complex than most other people connected with people. We always managed to put on a pretty good show.
We were known for being really, really good and competent, so that was a major help and that was one of the reasons why we got such an intense following, and basically it stayed with us over the years, really.

I was talking to Al Limberg, he’s a highly regarded sound technician. He’s been providing sound for big and small events for years. He told me that so you made your own equipment, amps, monitors, mixers, and all that, to help make the sound different. Is that true?

It’s partially true, yeah. What we had going was we were one of the first groups to get a sponsorship with a major speaker company, and we were sponsored by Electro-Voice and what happened was we went to their factory. Actually we got sponsored by Electro-Voice and Crown Amplifiers and the Crown DC 300 back in those days was about the most powerful with a 300 watt per channel amplifier, and so we went and got these experimental speakers and then we had a guy construct cabinets, horned cabinets, for the speakers and so basically we built our own stuff instead of having Marshall or Sung, we had our Vulcan Sound. It’s real interesting that one of the co-founders of Microsoft Word, Alan, was a huge SRC fan and he named his company Vulcan after our song amplifiers. Not too many people know that. They got it built into the Jimi Hendrix Museum in Seattle.

I’m going to go over to your LPs. The LPs most associated with your vast popularity are. SRC and Milestones. Both are incredibly well crafted. Gary Quackenbush was a monster guitarist. Glen, his brother, was a gifted organist. The rhythm section was tight as a vise. Vocal harmonies were impeccable, and your lead vocals fit the music perfectly. Can you speak to SRC’s instrumental might? I think you’ve already done that a bit.

Yeah, pretty much. I mean, those guys… that was the concept behind the first actual incarnation of the band, the Scott Richard Case. It was really the brainchild of Ann Arbor producer and manager, Jeep Holland, who came up with the concept of taking me. The band I was with, The Chosen Few, was breaking up, and he put me together with the Fugitives. It was his idea to put a lead singer with a great Detroit area club band, a college club band. They were really good musicians and Scott Richards Case became a really good live act, a very exciting band. When we went on into the psychedelic era and everything else, we just shortened it up to SRC and took a completely radical musical approach that, like I said, you were only hearing in Sgt. Pepper or Pink Floyd or something like that… Jimi Hendrix. You were really hearing music plus, another dimension. That’s what we were going for. We really tried to set a mood that was different than commercial music or just regular pop music which we all loved. We were trying to go deeper.


The first LP, Black Sheep, was labeled psychedelic. Do you agree? How would you define psychedelic?

Proving or trying to expose other layers of consciousness. You know, the feedback and the sort of metaphysical poetry, the lyrics and everything. We are different in a unique sound structure. In that sense I would definitely say it was psychedelic. We weren’t doing long one-chord jams like the Grateful Dead, another kind of thing that started in the same time period. We weren’t really doing that. Mainly we were still working with the sound structure. The only other thing I want to say about that is that I don’t endorse at all, I never would endorse drug use of any kind. I certainly did it back in those days, in my younger days. The thing is that when you listen to that music and you were tripping out, it took on another whole spectrum. We were trippin’ out and trying to edit and define that other spectrum in our songs. In that case, I would say yeah, it was definitely influenced by psychedelic experiences.

So many people have read about Aldous Huxley taking a tab of acid on his deathbed, and I thought that was a great idea, except if it was a bad trip. I mean, what a way to go.

Yeah, you’re right. That’s exactly what happened in that time period. Not only us, but hundreds of thousands of people across the country and around the world. So it made a kind of secret society outside of the mainstream which had its own language, its own cultural reference points and everything else. If you were part of a trip or on a trip, it had to do with watching the Beatles go from “She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah” to a day in the life, to representing something on an entirely different plane and using their fame and everything else to take their entire audience out there with them to this other place where they were asking big questions and doing their best to answer them. We, in our own way, were trying to do the same thing.

Maybe I’m getting off base here but SRC music seems less psychedelic than Zenist or is it the same thing, only from a different perspective? Chemical versus spiritual?

It’s a really good question, okay, because basically that’s the point that’s so important to recognize and that’s what the band stood for. It was exactly half and half. It was a chemical inducement and a spiritual inspiration. I’ve never said that before. It’s never come out like that before, but it’s really the main point. If you really want to understand what we were trying to achieve, you know, we took the psychedelic into the altered state and then as a result of it, we tried to capture the spiritual experience that we were having that transcended the drug. I really want to make sure that people understand that, you. The things that we did back in those days I would never recommend that anybody try, but we were young and foolish and completely dedicated to make it outside of the commercial mainstream, something that we thought would have a chance to stand for a while. In order to do that, you go way out on that limb. What we discovered in doing that was that we had a profound spiritual experience and that that spiritual experience was not able to translate except in very rare instances to the mass audience but the culture itself. This is the thing I’m talking about, why this whole reunion is happening and why there’s so much interest in the whole country now. People are just incredibly hungering for something that’s not up-to-date.What you’ve got now is, you know, a media circus where everybody knows going in what the drill is going to be, and it’s just a bunch of people trying to become famous, either on variable talent or not having any talent at all and not having it matter and having everybody kind of participating in the joke. I mean, that’s the way the political thing is, that’s the way the music is of today, and kind of TV series, the movie thing, where nothing lasts and the people in them don’t last or stand for anything.
You felt disposable.
You know, people want something more than that. That’s not really enough to sustain and nourish anybody’s spirit. People will go and they’ll do the club thing and everything else, but they want something more that’s not been given to them.


I really like Milestones. That was one of my favorite albums of all time. It’s really successful musically. Great instrumentals such as In the Hall of the Mountain King, and stellar songs like Checkmate, Up All Night and the dream-like Angel Song, which is really cool. What’s your opinion of Milestones?

Well, I think it’s one of the rare times where the sophomore album, the second album, rarely was as good as or in some ways surpassed the first one. Usually it’s the opposite of most experiences with most bands. If they have a decent first album, you know, they’ve got to come up with something better than we do. That album, I really can’t explain it. I don’t have any reason why it came together as well as it did, except for the fact that we got a lot of competence playing live and that went into putting the thing together.
Milestones was really the peak of the whole SRC thing. Steve was still in it for at least the first half of that whole thing, and then the original line-up and everything. We did have Al Wilmot on base, and he was just so good on that record. Everything just came together for us. We didn’t stress or strain; it was there.


What are your favorite SRC songs?

Checkmate, Black Sheep, Up All Night, Eye of the Storm, The Operator, Midnight Fever.
I like early songs like “Who’s that Girl” too, the song Steve and I wrote on the B side of “I’m So Glad.” We’re going to be doing both songs in our show.

Some of your songs contain knock-out, soulful arrangements as well as Motown harmonies. Who was singing back-drop? There are some weird harmonies that could have been the Vogues or something, these high harmonies. Who sang the high harmonies?

Glen Quackenbush, Steve Lyman, and he had a couple of actual Motown background singers talent-hawking. There were a few singers who were singers with Tony Orlando and Dawn. They used to gig around with us. We recorded something, but I don’t think it’s ever been released. It would mainly have been Steve Lyman, Glen Quackenbush, and then the first album, Rob and Dale also sang background.

Traveler’s Tale is really a great LP. Do you consider it to be one of your finest moments? You had an orchestration and then of course guitarist extraordinaire Ray Goodman who also performed with Mitch Ryder and Dick Wagner. Was this the primary difference or was the band changing. I mean I know there are several questions here, but what’s your opinion of Traveler’s Tale?

Well, first of all Ray Goodman and Dick Wagner are two of my favorite guitar players of all time. One of the reasons I agreed to do this reunion was because of the fact that Ray
was going to be involved and that I was going to present an opportunity for Gary and Steve Lyman and Ray to work together for the first time, all three of them, and that’s one of the main things that induced me to do it because I love Gary’s original style. Steve Lyman always contributed tons of stuff to the first three albums and probably didn’t get the credit for it that he deserved and was such a great player and singer. Ray Goodman is just fantastic, and so I wanted people to have a chance to see, you know kind of combine what we were trying to do with Traveler’s Tale, which really didn’t get the recognition of the first two albums. That’s what I’m kind of hoping to have. Like a guy made a comment the other day that he can’t wait to see the kind of what he called the Moby Gray version of SRC, and then he laughed because Moby Gray has had three guitar players and so did Buffalo Springfield. and Neil Young, Steven Lyman still manage a pretty fine rhythm, and reaching the plane. The album was kind of self-produced, and there was something balanced that really came out cool, like the string stuff and everything and some things that didn’t succeed so well. We didn’t take the amount of time that we should’ve with it, so that’s that. Then the other missing SRC album is The Lost Masters which came out a few years ago


The song structure was more concise and there was a pop feel to it, but also there was still like the Motown stuff on there, that you get a Motown song on Lost Masters.

Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. Those girls that I was talking about, they are on Lost Masters. They are coming back on. We are also doing three songs off Lost Masters. We’re doing After Your Heart, we’re doing Gypsy Eyes, and Alive and Green, so we’re kind of paying attention to that too. So that’s four different records that we’re doing material from.


Do you have ties to mid-Michigan?
I’m so looking forward to returning to Saginaw I spent a lot of time in Saginaw when I was a kid, Too.
We had relatives that lived there, and we went up to Higgin’s Lake every summer, so the whole area up there is just like a Cedars of Lebanon for some people. I love just it up there. I love that part of Michigan.


How did you hook up with Capitol Records
John Reese, our producer, introduced us to a big A&R guy here named Herb Hendler, and he came out to Michigan from California and really liked the band.
You know we mainly did it because we really liked John Reese and also it was the Beatle’s label, and we thought that was a big deal at the time.


SRC was really popular beyond Michigan. I thought I heard that you did an airplay in Europe and so on. Did you ever get paid. Did you have sales statements and resultant royalties?

Yeah, but not to the level that we should have, unfortunately. We were just pretty much like everybody else in that era with a plantation system and everybody getting ripped off. The best thing that we did was invest in our own home studio situation. We were making a lot of money playing live, and we sort of piled it back into the band.

Was there a sense of community in the Michigan Rock era? When I’ve talked to members of bands like the Rationals, MC5, Bob Seger, The Frost seem to suggest a brotherhood of musicians. Did you feel that in Detroit/Ann Arbor?

Absolutely. We just loved Bob and the Rationals and Stooges and MC5 and everybody. We all played on the same stages. We were real close. We were really great friends, and everybody used to come out to our place and hang out. You know that was one thing that was unique about that team level. Wish it would’ve lasted. We had a 19-room Victorian farmhouse divided up into apartments on five acres of land bordering on 500 acres, and we had a Quonset hut studio and a swimming pool and five-car garage, and we used to have parties with like 300 to 500 people up there. Some of the most famous rock and roll parties of that era took place out at our farm.
We recorded an entire jam album with Procul Harum who were staying with us for a week, and I don’t know what happened to those tapes. Traffic came out and stayed with us, and we recorded with them, too. I don’t know if those things are ever going to surface or not.


Do you hope to keep SRC going further than this?

We’ll see what happens. I mean we don’t have any false expectations like trying to become rock stars again in our 60s. You know we’re basically doing this for the people who care about the group and to be reunited and everything. However if everything works out really good and everything, I’m sure everybody would love to get together, you know, and play a few times a year at least. It would be great. It’d be fantastic if we could do that, and possibly also in other cities and other states. It would be wonderful.

Do you have any last comments, Scott?

Nothing, except that I’m very much looking forward to playing your club and seeing people up there and we’re really grateful that the response to doing this has been so wonderful. I’m particularly grateful to Ray Goodman for all the work he’s done, getting this together

SRC Tickets Are Now Available

Legendary Michigan Rock Band SRC will be playing at White's Bar on July 30th. Tickets are now available at White's Bar, The Red Eye and Records and Tapes Galore. Or you can order tickets online HERE

Opening for SRC will be The Seatbelts. Rustbucket will be playing after SRC.
Tickets are only $18.

Steepwater Interview

Steepwater

Life on the Road

Big festivals

Striptease Acts and Riding the Mule


Steepwater is Chicago born and bred. They have seen what the Windy City can do to talented aspiring musicians. It can fool you into thinking you are on your way and then before you realize, the mean streets have gobbled you up and spit you out, more fodder for the machine. This three piece monster rock & roll band knows all about the empty promises of the man and have broken away from the shackles of major labels and high powered management to forge an identity as a gifted touring band that lives by its own muse. By insisting on doing it their way they have toured with some of the greats in the business from Buddy Guy and Gov’t Mule to Bon Jovi and Cheap Trick. It’s a dream without boundaries.




You are a great live band, everything is right in the pocket - great songs, singing, music - the whole package. How long did it take to "find" your voice, your own distinct style?

Jeff Massey: Well thank you.........I really feel like we had a distinct sound since day one. Obviously we have influences and you can hear it in our music, but we put our own stamp on it. To be honest with ya, I'm not really sure how that happens. To really answer your question though, it's been a continual process of writing songs, recording and touring ....hard to really pinpoint exactly when and how we found our own voice, but I think it's there for sure. If ya stick together and play music, you believe in that whole idea of having your own voice evolves over the years.


You've toured all over the states and overseas to huge crowds. What brings you to White's Bar? Is there a certain charm in playing an intimate club

Jeff Massey: Well, sure. We do all types of shows ranging from big festivals to small clubs. The people that come to WHITE'S appreciate what we do, so of course we are going to have a good time and continue to come back – that’s the great thing about performing.....there is such a variety of circumstances as far as where you might be playing from one day to the next..I think it keeps the whole deal more interesting.

What is your favorite Steepwater CD? Why?

Jeff Massey: Hmmm....well if I had to pick probably LIVE AT DOUBLE DOOR. As much as we love making studio records, the live record really captures what we are about....touring and playing. I think we really captured a great performance with this one...

FROM Joe winters: ~ I dig REVELATION SUNDAY the most, solely because of the memories of actually recording it. My father had recently passed away, and the band convened at my brother Jim's house on Lake Michigan in Indiana, where we set up a studio and took a shot at producing an independent record (along with my bro) that would see release all over the world a year later. My brother and I had been through a lot together around that time, and I think it was a great creative outlet for us to be able to do something together like record a Steepwater disc. We had talked about doing something like that for years. Not to mention, my brother's living had an incredible sound and vibe to play drums in ~ hard wood floors, high ceilings, brick wall. I felt comfortable there. Although, I will say that our new CD that's coming out later this year is my favorite disc musically that we have recorded yet. Gonna be a monster of a record!


Massey's guitar work is both powerful and sensitive. It seems that you go beyond technique to develop your own craft, using harmony and melody as well as your great slide work. Did you have a mentor? Who inspired you?

Jeff Massey: Well I could make a list a mile long! JIMMY PAGE was my first inspiration,...I’ve always admired the ''jack of all trades''guitar players. I like dabbling in different styles and blending it all into your own thing. He is the master of that concept, as well as being able to write good songs. Hearing FREDDY KING for the first time was a big eye opener,..DUANE ALLMAN, ROBERT JOHNSON etc...the list goes on. Also, I had a couple really great teachers when I first started out that shared a lot of great info that I still use today.......it's endless. Gotta absorb whatever you can, whenever you can.

The rhythm section is so strategic in a three piece and yours is rock solid, hammer of the gods tight as a vise. Do you use any prompts to signify changes e.g., hand or arm signals, a look, a sharp drum roll etc

FROM Joe Winters: ~ Thank you for the nice compliment. I think that because Tod and I have been playing together so long, we just sort know what each other are going to do quite often, and it sort of just happens naturally. It's like instinct with us. We basically learned how to play together pretty young, so a lot of the phrasing that we use to form fills, etc is often the same. Of course it's not always fool-proof, but that's beauty of playing live music and leaving it open to some interpretive playing - you never know what's going to happen! Sometimes it's like magical, and other times not quite as perfect, but we try to stay in the moment with it, so each gig is original to itself, for better or worse...


You've toured or performed with many legendary performers such as Buddy Guy, Gov't Mule, Cheap Trick. Do you prefer playing with blues bands or rock bands, pop bands...Bon Jovi?

Jeff Massey: It doesn't matter to us as long as the band is good people...nothing worse than dealing with assholes when your trying to do a show. And, truthfully, that doesn't happen very often. We've met a lot great people on the road and we love playing with other groups.

FROM Joe Winters: ~ it's always more fun when you play with bands that you dig, no matter what the genre. If we could play with AC/DC or The Rolling Stones, I would be all about it, because they are a couple of my favorites. Maybe someday? In the meantime there are a bunch of cool "undiscovered" independent bands that are some of my favorite bands to play with too, like Super 400 from Albany, NY ~ Healing Sixes from Indianapolis, IN ~ and The Muggs from Detroit. We run into so many cool bands, it's insane!


Do you have a particular touring story/memory that stands out for you?


Jeff Massey: Oh man which one....The most recent crazy road story would be the guy that lost control of his car on a major expressway and managed to ram right into us, knocking our trailer on its side and sending us across three lanes of oncoming traffic! We all survived without a scratch.....amazing! There wasn’t very much damage to our musical gear either, although we did have to get a new vehicle. We felt lucky to be a live after that one. Hmm…what else. Oh yeah...how about the festival we played in northern SPAIN with a live sex/striptease show between bands, right on the stage! Don't see that everyday. There's a million stories....


You had several songs placed on television (My Name is Earl, Friday Night Lights) and in the Disney Film Invincible. How difficult is it to get a song placed or purchased?

Jeff Massey: Well, we got lucky enough to have a manager at the time that had publishing ties. Like anything else, it's about who you know when it comes to these matters. Without a publisher helping out, it can be very difficult to get a song used for anything.


You have all the goods, Steepwater is a great band. Why haven't you hit the big time?

Jeff Massey: Well thanks again. I wouldn't know how to answer that. What's the big time? Selling a million records? Playing stadiums......oh wait...I guess that would be the big time! As long as we have a fan base and places to do our thing, we are content. We are happy to be able to do perform music for a living.......not everyone can say that. It takes a lotta work on any level and we are happy to be able to do what we do.

FROM Joe Winters: ~ Good Question! If we knew the answer, maybe we might have by now . Like everything in life, the music biz is all about timing. When the stars align just right, it might be your time. Until then, just gotta keep on keepin' on...


You've been hard at it since '99. What do you attribute to your longevity? Your popularity?

Jeff Massey: It comes from a love for playing music. We feel like we get better every record, every show, there's a new experience around the corner at all times in this business. None of us want to give that up. We still like making music together. If we weren't enjoying ourselves, we would call it quits...


A Musician's life, especially when you are in a touring band, can be very hard. What keeps you going?

Jeff Massey: Again, it’s the music. If you don't like traveling you'll never last - that's a given. It takes a certain breed to be a touring musician, but the payoff is being able to go on a stage and express yourself and let off some steam. .I couldn't imagine not being able to do that. I think my head would explode!!!


Any last comments?

Jeff Massey: Thank you for the interview! And thanks to everybody who supports the band. We will have a new studio record this summer and then it's more gigs! WWW.STEEPWATER.COM

FROM Joe Winters: ~ Thank you for writing about & supporting independent bands like ours! Your help & cooperation is vital in the success of what we do, and we certainly appreciate it. CHEERS!

--Steepwater will perform @ White’s Bar on Thursday July 14th wsg Brody & the Busch Road Trio and Tony B & The Couch Band. Show starts at 9pm.

Steepwater

Life on the Road

Big festivals

Striptease Acts and Riding the Mule

Steepwater is Chicago born and bred. They have seen what the Windy City can do to talented aspiring musicians. It can fool you into thinking you are on your way and then before you realize, the mean streets have gobbled you up and spit you out, more fodder for the machine. This three piece monster rock & roll band knows all about the empty promises of the man and have broken away from the shackles of major labels and high powered management to forge an identity as a gifted touring band that lives by its own muse. By insisting on doing it their way they have toured with some of the greats in the business from Buddy Guy and Gov’t Mule to Bon Jovi and Cheap Trick. It’s a dream without boundaries.




You are a great live band, everything is right in the pocket - great songs, singing, music - the whole package. How long did it take to "find" your voice, your own distinct style?

Jeff Massey: Well thank you.........I really feel like we had a distinct sound since day one. Obviously we have influences and you can hear it in our music, but we put our own stamp on it. To be honest with ya, I'm not really sure how that happens. To really answer your question though, it's been a continual process of writing songs, recording and touring ....hard to really pinpoint exactly when and how we found our own voice, but I think it's there for sure. If ya stick together and play music, you believe in that whole idea of having your own voice evolves over the years.


You've toured all over the states and overseas to huge crowds. What brings you to White's Bar? Is there a certain charm in playing an intimate club?

Jeff Massey: Well, sure. We do all types of shows ranging from big festivals to small clubs. The people that come to WHITE'S appreciate what we do, so of course we are going to have a good time and continue to come back – that’s the great thing about performing.....there is such a variety of circumstances as far as where you might be playing from one day to the next..I think it keeps the whole deal more interesting.

What is your favorite Steepwater CD? Why?

Jeff Massey: Hmmm....well if I had to pick probably LIVE AT DOUBLE DOOR. As much as we love making studio records, the live record really captures what we are about....touring and playing. I think we really captured a great performance with this one...

FROM Joe winters: ~ I dig REVELATION SUNDAY the most, solely because of the memories of actually recording it. My father had recently passed away, and the band convened at my brother Jim's house on Lake Michigan in Indiana, where we set up a studio and took a shot at producing an independent record (along with my bro) that would see release all over the world a year later. My brother and I had been through a lot together around that time, and I think it was a great creative outlet for us to be able to do something together like record a Steepwater disc. We had talked about doing something like that for years. Not to mention, my brother's living had an incredible sound and vibe to play drums in ~ hard wood floors, high ceilings, brick wall. I felt comfortable there. Although, I will say that our new CD that's coming out later this year is my favorite disc musically that we have recorded yet. Gonna be a monster of a record!


Massey's guitar work is both powerful and sensitive. It seems that you go beyond technique to develop your own craft, using harmony and melody as well as your great slide work. Did you have a mentor? Who inspired you?

Jeff Massey: Well I could make a list a mile long! JIMMY PAGE was my first inspiration,...I’ve always admired the ''jack of all trades''guitar players. I like dabbling in different styles and blending it all into your own thing. He is the master of that concept, as well as being able to write good songs. Hearing FREDDY KING for the first time was a big eye opener,..DUANE ALLMAN, ROBERT JOHNSON etc...the list goes on. Also, I had a couple really great teachers when I first started out that shared a lot of great info that I still use today.......it's endless. Gotta absorb whatever you can, whenever you can.

The rhythm section is so strategic in a three piece and yours is rock solid, hammer of the gods tight as a vise. Do you use any prompts to signify changes e.g., hand or arm signals, a look, a sharp drum roll etc

FROM Joe Winters: ~ Thank you for the nice compliment. I think that because Tod and I have been playing together so long, we just sort know what each other are going to do quite often, and it sort of just happens naturally. It's like instinct with us. We basically learned how to play together pretty young, so a lot of the phrasing that we use to form fills, etc is often the same. Of course it's not always fool-proof, but that's beauty of playing live music and leaving it open to some interpretive playing - you never know what's going to happen! Sometimes it's like magical, and other times not quite as perfect, but we try to stay in the moment with it, so each gig is original to itself, for better or worse...


You've toured or performed with many legendary performers such as Buddy Guy, Gov't Mule, Cheap Trick. Do you prefer playing with blues bands or rock bands, pop bands...Bon Jovi?

Jeff Massey: It doesn't matter to us as long as the band is good people...nothing worse than dealing with assholes when your trying to do a show. And, truthfully, that doesn't happen very often. We've met a lot great people on the road and we love playing with other groups.

FROM Joe Winters: ~ it's always more fun when you play with bands that you dig, no matter what the genre. If we could play with AC/DC or The Rolling Stones, I would be all about it, because they are a couple of my favorites. Maybe someday? In the meantime there are a bunch of cool "undiscovered" independent bands that are some of my favorite bands to play with too, like Super 400 from Albany, NY ~ Healing Sixes from Indianapolis, IN ~ and The Muggs from Detroit. We run into so many cool bands, it's insane!


Do you have a particular touring story/memory that stands out for you?

Jeff Massey: Oh man which one....The most recent crazy road story would be the guy that lost control of his car on a major expressway and managed to ram right into us, knocking our trailer on its side and sending us across three lanes of oncoming traffic! We all survived without a scratch.....amazing! There wasn’t very much damage to our musical gear either, although we did have to get a new vehicle. We felt lucky to be a live after that one. Hmm…what else. Oh yeah...how about the festival we played in northern SPAIN with a live sex/striptease show between bands, right on the stage! Don't see that everyday. There's a million stories....


You had several songs placed on television (My Name is Earl, Friday Night Lights) and in the Disney Film Invincible. How difficult is it to get a song placed or purchased?

Jeff Massey: Well, we got lucky enough to have a manager at the time that had publishing ties. Like anything else, it's about who you know when it comes to these matters. Without a publisher helping out, it can be very difficult to get a song used for anything.


You have all the goods, Steepwater is a great band. Why haven't you hit the big time?

Jeff Massey: Well thanks again. I wouldn't know how to answer that. What's the big time? Selling a million records? Playing stadiums......oh wait...I guess that would be the big time! As long as we have a fan base and places to do our thing, we are content. We are happy to be able to do perform music for a living.......not everyone can say that. It takes a lotta work on any level and we are happy to be able to do what we do.

FROM Joe Winters: ~ Good Question! If we knew the answer, maybe we might have by now . Like everything in life, the music biz is all about timing. When the stars align just right, it might be your time. Until then, just gotta keep on keepin' on...


You've been hard at it since '99. What do you attribute to your longevity? Your popularity?

Jeff Massey: It comes from a love for playing music. We feel like we get better every record, every show, there's a new experience around the corner at all times in this business. None of us want to give that up. We still like making music together. If we weren't enjoying ourselves, we would call it quits...


A Musician's life, especially when you are in a touring band, can be very hard. What keeps you going?

Jeff Massey: Again, it’s the music. If you don't like traveling you'll never last - that's a given. It takes a certain breed to be a touring musician, but the payoff is being able to go on a stage and express yourself and let off some steam. .I couldn't imagine not being able to do that. I think my head would explode!!!


Any last comments?

Jeff Massey: Thank you for the interview! And thanks to everybody who supports the band. We will have a new studio record this summer and then it's more gigs! WWW.STEEPWATER.COM

FROM Joe Winters: ~ Thank you for writing about & supporting independent bands like ours! Your help & cooperation is vital in the success of what we do, and we certainly appreciate it. CHEERS!

--Steepwater will perform @ White’s Bar on Thursday July 14th wsg Brody & the Busch Road Trio and Tony B & The Couch Band. Show starts at 9pm.

Peace
Bo White

Ben Cohen & the Free Music Fest

The FreeMusic Fest

Beautiful Sounds
&
Good Vibrations

Ben Cohen is a Music Freak who talks the talk and backs it up with action. Cohen is not content to sit on his laurels while popular music is co-opted and recycled by evil empires such as Disney or anyone who owns a piece of Justin Bieber. Music and the Arts are relegated to dumps and landfills of our broken dreams and recycled to an indifferent and uninformed public. It’s as if all that is original and truly creative is lost in space and imploding like a bright star disappearing into black hole. It’s people like Ben Cohen and the folks at DStreet Entertainment that care enough to preserve our cultural heritage and pass it down to our children. Cohen and his tribe are like Zen warriors pulling back the arrow that cannot be sent, ego-less free spirits giving away music. It’s a labor of love.


This is the 4rh Annual Free Music Fest. Have you been part of this event since its inception?
How did you get involved?
I’ve been a part of FreeMusic since 2007, the very beginning.
Basically, the original idea behind FreeMusic Fest was just to get a bunch of our friend’s bands together on a stage for one day. We had no idea it was going to turn into the event that we have now!


You are part of D Street Entertainment Foundation. Can you tell me about it?
Joining Dstreet was probably one of the best things I’ve ever done. I’ve really learned a lot working with them. Dstreet’s mission is to improve the quality of life through the support of the musical arts. We focus on education, community service, and the art of entertainment. You can find us backstage at the Pig Gig, Relay for Life, plus we organize our own community events, such as Parkapalooza.


What was the inspiration for the Free Music Fest?
Free music. Original music. There really aren’t a lot of events in our area that celebrate original music on the scale that we hope to reach. It’s amazing to me just how many talented musicians are in our area, and it seems like they only have opportunities to perform in a bar or club. I’m hoping that through FreeMusic Fest we can help these musicians reach a wider audience than they would be able to reach under other circumstances.



What is your mission? Your purpose?
My mission and the mission of Phoenix Productions is to provide Mid-Michigan with the finest in live entertainment available. Through FreeMusic Fest we’re able to provide the community with an all age’s original music event unlike anything else our area has to offer. We provide the bands a venue that exposes them to hundreds of potential new fans, plus we’re able to structure the event in a way that allows us to give back to the community, this year through the Just for Kids Foundation.





Is anything really free?
Absolutely! Some of the best things in life are free, right? A warm summer day, a great park, spending time with your friends or family…and at FreeMusic Fest you get all of that plus some of the best live music around!



You have some great support for the event - State Farm Insurance , Graff Chevrolet , 360 Mainstreet, Pats Food Center in Freeland, The Joe 97.3 and Phoenix Productions - how were you able to get such a great team of sponsors?
Don’t forget about Magic Bean Café and Family First Credit Union!
We’ve been really lucky to get all the support that we have. The concept of FreeMusic is something that’s pretty easy to get behind and as a team we’re able to offer an event on a much larger level than I would be able to do on my own. Over the years some of our sponsors have changed but they all have had one thing in common, community awareness. We all understand that FreeMusic Fest is more than just a concert, it’s an opportunity. Its an opportunity to be a part of something bigger than all of us. To give back to the community that has given so much to us



The event will raise funds through Disc Golf Tournament. How did you choose the Just for Kids Foundation?
The Disc Golf Tournament has added a whole new dimension to the festival. Its two rounds of 18 holes and the prize packages we’ve assembled this year are just amazing! Tittabawassee Park has one of the best courses in the area and you can hear the bands throughout the entire park so you don’t miss a minute of the music! Being involved with a couple non-profit organizations myself (Dstreet Entertainment and Creative 360), I always keep an eye on what other organizations are doing for the community. I stumbled upon Just for Kids online one day and thought, “I really like what these guys are doing!” I attended one of their events, met members of their board and made my decision. Last year’s tournament raised funds and food for both The Shelterhouse and Open Door of Midland. Through the Just for Kids Foundation we will be able to impact children and their families from all over the Great Lakes Bay Region!


This is such a well organized event. Whio is on the Free Music Fest Board? When do you start planning? How many volunteers are involved?
FMF is mainly organized by Phoenix Productions. I handle most aspects of the event and my wife Heather manages the website and any design work. She also doubles as the fest photographer. Raymond Benaway directs the “Making Change through Chains” disc golf tournament. Ray has become an invaluable part of the FreeMusic team! The MCTC tournament gives us a great opportunity to utilize the entire park, and a fun and interactive way to raise money for charity!
The art fair is new to FreeMusic Fest and that’s run by Rodney Whittcopp of Michigan Crafts and Shows. And we’ve been lucky enough to get some great support from members of our community. Tim Boychuck, Lisa Kusey-Rechsteiner, Kimberly Megoran, Jeanne Lesinski…I could go on and on…
When do we start planning? I’ve already got some things in the works for 2012! FreeMusic Fest is an all year thing for me.



How difficult is it to get the community involved? Freeland seems to be pretty progressive in terms of supporting artistic events for the public
The local community has been amazing! In the last couple of years, they’ve really gotten behind what we’re trying to do. Freeland’s grocery store, Pat’s Food Center, even hosts a coloring contest for the kids...it’s a lot of fun seeing the kids come up on stage to get their prizes!
And Family First Credit Union joined the team this year too. I think the community supports what we’re doing because, in a way, what we’re doing supports the community.


You have a great afternoon lineup for the event from singer/songwriters such as Amelia Jo, Jeff Yantz, Dan Vaillancourt and Bob Hausler to great bands that pop and rock such as the Banana Convention, The Hand-Me-Downs,Jimmy & the Growlers and Empty Canvas and those ever lovin' jazzmasters the Chromatic Effect. And the evening lineup is “take me home and make me like it” outstanding - Finding Clyde, Dave Kellan Galactic Sherpas and the incredible Maybe August. This represents a world class body of music for the people. How did you choose the acts? Did you get on bended knee and offer alms to Chad Cunningham?

We’ve had some great bands on the FreeMusic stage over the years, and this year is no different! I actually get a lot of emails from bands interested in playing and it’s pretty difficult to narrow it down to the 10-15 that that we have each year. Michigan really has a lot of great original music to choose from! I’m amazed every year by the caliber of talent that we’re able to get together for the festival and it seems like it just keeps getting better and better! This year’s lineup is non-stop awesome from start to finish! I encourage everyone to make it out to FreeMusic Fest early this year so they don’t miss a minute of these great performances



Besides 15 musical performances, the event includes over 50 vendors with food, an Art Fair and a Kids Corner. This gives the event an exciting cultural diversity that is also family friendly. Is this your intent? Is it any wonder that Billboard Magazine listed the Fest as one of the top 5 free music events in Michigan?
We want to be sure that FreeMusic Fest offers something for everyone. We also want to make sure that there’s enough for everyone to do all day! There are plenty of things to keep the kids busy, from bounce houses to face painters plus the great playground the park has. For the adults, there’s an art fair to stroll through, disc golf to play, plenty of vendors to visit, Joe FM is hosting some games and, of course, great live music too!

Peace
Bo White