Louder Than Love-The Grande Ballroom Story

Louder Than Love-The Grande Ballroom Story

Tony D’Annunzio Producer/Director

Louder Than Love is a film that needed to be made. It is a documentary that is both natural and stylized using film, photos and interviews with some of the major figures involved with the Grande Ballroom from 1966 - 1970. It has a gutsy realism that documents a time of upheaval in the American zeitgeist, a blip in the cheesy processed culture that relied on conformity and the ascendance of the status quo. It seemed that millions of young campus radicals across the country believed America needed a major overhaul. Music became a guiding force that seemed to influence every stratum of our society. It was a time of unrest, fueled by a burgeoning class of people from every race, creed and color who dared to challenge the idea of normalcy. The civil rights movement inspired the Black Panther Party, women’s liberation and children’s rights. John Sinclair’s White Panther radicalism created the scaffolding for the MC5 to explore new forms of industrial music and free speech.  It was a time of change when freedom of expression took on a brand new hue and cry. It was most evident in the ascendance Rock Music as an art form on par with the classical masters. Bach and Beethoven moved aside for the Beatles, Dylan and the Stones. For many the era signaled a crisis of materialism and the emptiness of the acquisition of wealth. It was a transformative era of spiritual awakening, our first experience of romantic love and beauty.

 D’Annunzio has awakened a sleeping beast, the remnants of our better selves before the rot set in. We aged but we did not forget. The release of this film is a sweet validation of our capacity to embrace life in the moment, to be free from the invisible shackles of a failed and punitive state and rediscover the soundtrack of our youth. It is louder than love.

Tony D’Annunzio is a renaissance man with a sense of honor and purpose. His commitment to the Louder Than Love project was impenetrable. D’Annunzio never for a second gave up his dream even at the worst of times when he was ignored or when he faced uncertain cross roads. He is man who can smile broadly and mean it. He can belly laugh out loud and get you laughing with him. He has been around the world but will talk to you like the guy next door cutting the grass and taking out the trash. He never gets chesty with a false sense of importance and he will never shoot you down with a bullet of bourgeois snootiness. He is a self-made man; his father’s son. He is a force of nature and that’s what it took to make this film happen

I’ve read that you have over 22 years of network TV including all the major networks and VH1, MTV, MSNBC, Fox. You have a diverse resume, music, arts, and politics. Can you tell me about some of the experiences in television that prepared you for producing and directing this massive historical project like “Louder Than Love?”

Sure. The experiences that I’ve had over the last 22 years have all kind of brought me to this point of making my own documentary. I got into this business 22 years ago. I was 20 years old, and I got in to it because of my love for music and my love for sports. I was at school, in college, and I just didn’t know where I wanted to go, and I found this career path. It instantly gave me incredible drive that I didn’t even know I had in me. My dad had always said to me If you find something you like, you’ll never work a day in your life. I can honestly say I’ve never worked a day in my life. I love what I do, and my love for my job has made me able to be part of some of the biggest productions in the world because of it. I don’t want to toot my own horn, but six of the last seven presidents I’ve worked on Super Bowls, on the NBA championships, I’ve worked with the Rolling Stones, I’ve worked with the Who, doing commercials for them, I’ve helped design the presentation and the stage that brought the Super Bowl to Detroit. We had an audience of 32 NFL owners in Atlanta, Georgia, and we brought our presentation down. We sold the NFL owners that chartered our place to have the Super Bowl. There’s a lot more productions that I’ve done over the last 22 years that have been all world class. It was at the 20 year mark that I realized how incredible my life had been because of this, because of my job. I was talking to one of my dear friends that I went to broadcasting school with. He got into radio, I got into television. He works for WIN in Detroit. He was able to meet and interview some of his biggest icons, and we shared that commonality through our lives. He said, “What haven’t you done?” At that point I finally realized, wow, I had done everything I said I would do.  So I think the answer to your question is the 22 years of experience led me to realize that I can do what I wanted to do originally, and I’m fortunate enough to have the ways and means to do it. Because of my love for music and because of the documentaries I knew it would take some time, so I wanted to find subject matter that would be interesting, and that subject ended up being the Grande Ballroom.

 Did you speak to Michael Moore at all?  He’s a Flint native.

You know, it’s funny because I worked with Michael for the last four or five years. He would request our crew to shoot this stuff for CNN, for HBO. I worked with him 20, 25 times over the last 20 years - always been very nice. You know what’s weird about that is that even while I was doing this production I was always hesitant to cross that line of my side project with my day job. It’s not until recently that I realized that this side project is pretty substantial, and it’s more than just a little film that’s going to come out. It’s going to have some power in it. Even in working with Michael, I never announced that “Hey, I’ve been doing this project. Would you be interested?” One time I gave one of his assistants a trailer and said if he had the time to look at it, please take a look at it. Within the last few months I’ve been contacted by him and the programmer from the Traverse City Film Festival.

They’ve got the finished work in front of them, and hopefully it will be submitted and shown in Traverse City. It wasn’t until I was really far down the path with the movie that I realized that he grew up in Flint with rock and roll and was a DJ there, and he knew all these people that I’m talking about. It probably would have been a really great interview for this project. It’s unfortunate I never really made the connection.

 Was there anyone  who inspired you during this time in life, during the network TV time?

Oh, gosh. Yeah. You know my entire adult life has been in production. These are people that I call friend. These are people who are not only my friends, but friends of my family, that know my kids. One thing you have to realize, Bo, is that when I got into production, this was the late ‘80s there were only three major networks, ABC, NBC, and CBS. Fox wasn’t even really a network at that point. Cable was coming on, but it wasn’t a 24-hour thing. It might be on for five or six hours and then it would have pay TV, a phone-in or something. When I came into this, I was young and cable was young, and so I was working for a network like MTV when they showed music videos.

Did you have a mentor?

Yes - Woody Robertson.  He became one of my nearest and dearest friends. Woody passed away recently. He had been in the business since 1963 and started with the ABC affiliate in Washington, DC.  He took me under his wings, and we were doing Lions football games back in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s. He was the director. He was not only a director for sports, but he did music videos, and broadcast television, and documentaries. He treated everyone as an equal. There wasn’t a hierarchy, of well, you’re just a PA. Everybody was involved. He’s one of many people that I was able to meet and that got me along the way. It was probably about five years ago when I worked on a documentary for Discovery that was called “Future Car,” and it was actually a pretty well received documentary. It was then I realized that a long format project was something I really wanted to do on my own, and some of the people that I worked with on that. It’s kind of wild because, like I said, I don’t feel I’ve ever worked a day in my life and yet I’ve done some of the most amazing productions. It takes moments like this, though, where I think back and think, wow, I could spend weeks telling you all the productions I was on and all the people because each one had an amazing story too. Twelve, fifteen, sixteen hours, maybe even more, a day doing these productions, you really become part of a family when you’re doing this. It’s been an amazing road, and I’m really blessed to have been a part of it. I’m grateful. It’s a labor of love instead of a 9 to 5 job.

The production community here in Detroit is rather large, but I’ve been fortunate enough where one company I worked for had an office in Vegas. I worked all over the world doing production and as I said, at a higher level. So I’ve always worked with the upper echelon of producers and production people other than cam operators and lighting directors and whatever. The common thread is that no one is in this business to fail and if you don’t come into it with a team mentality, things are not going to get done right. You have to be a people person, you have to be creative, and you have to be willing to put your time in to get the job done. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with some of the best in the business, and like I said, the people I work with are called friends too. To me, that is the one thing that I take out of all this. They’re not only just co-workers. They are people that I would like to call up and have a beer with. That’s how much I enjoy their company.

Is there an experience that stood out for you back in your time in television? Any one thing in particular that just blew you away? Like being part of a particular movie or show or documentary.

Wow. You know, this is how I’ll put that. I’ve been married for 13 years now to the point that when I come home, I barely even talk about work because I’m so excited to see my kids and my wife and stuff. My wife and I will be at a dinner party and someone will say, “Oh, what have you done?”  And any given week…Like for instance, this last week I interviewed Mitt Romney and Santorum; tomorrow I leave for Milwaukee for a basketball game. I did the Red Wings game last week. This is all stuff I’ve done in the last five days.

You know what I mean. And so I’ll start telling people about it and they’ll be like “holy shit.” The funny part about this is I’ve kept all my passes, my laminates, ticket stubs, and all this stuff. I went to school here in Southfield and I give back every once in a while. They do this thing where they’ll bring in someone who  graduated and they’ll bring me out and they’ll say, “Tony’s been in the business for 20 years,” and I don’t even say anything. I just bring out my box full of laminates, and I just dump them on the table. I’ll pull them out and I’ll go, “This is when I met President Ford, this is when I was on the field at the Super Bowl, and this is when I did a commercial for the Rolling Stones,”  - and so it’s my life - in passes and laminates. I think the one thing that sticks out for me because it’s so personal is that I met my wife there was a festival years ago called the Horn Festival which was a part of the Blues Traveler, the Black Crowes tour. I met my wife during the tour and so that changed my life. I’m happily married and I’ve two beautiful kids and a beautiful house, so that to me is the most but it isn’t glamorous or high profile.

 I was at the acceptance speech for Obama at Grant Park when he won…the first African-American president of the United States of America. I’ve been in the locker room in the World Series. I drank out of the Stanley Cup and I’ve been on the stage with the Rolling Stones. You know, I’m living’ the dream. I don’t want to make it sound like I’m bragging, but all this stuff has brought me to the point where I’m at today. If I would have tried to make a project of this nature back 20 years ago when I first started, it probably would have been a good project and fun to watch but it was all the production I’ve done and all the experiences I’ve had that have allowed me to make this movie. Although this has been a self-funded, independent project, when people see this they are going to be blow away at how beautiful it was shot, how beautiful it ended.

I’m just excited to show people because everything I’ve done to this point even has added to what I’m doing now. They were all important. But the most memorable event would be when I met my wife. That’s really changed my world.

 Love is more important than anything else.

Yeah, you know you’ve got nothing without it because I wouldn’t be able to share this with anybody, you know. My daughter’s 11 and my son’s 8. When I started doing this, I actually made a conscious effort because I saw my daughter, my son in school, you know, learning to read, learning to write, and realizing that at every point in your life you’ve got to challenge yourself. Twenty years into the business I was running out of challenges. I couldn’t have picked a worse time in the economy to make a project of this nature because nobody wanted to help fund it or help sponsor it. This was all self-funded. It was all done on my own dime, on my own time, but I challenged myself because I think that everybody, no matter where we are financially you need to challenge yourself. That in and of itself will bring about good. I saw this in my kids. I saw my son struggle with learning to read for a little bit. I saw when the light bulb when on, and he realized that, “Wow, I can do this.” So think that everybody needs to challenge themselves, even if they’ve been in the business for 10 years, 20 years because it’s important that we do that, you know. I think that’s only going to make you better.

To tackle this massive project, you must be a music lover. What music inspired you during your formative years?

Well, my memories are built around music. When I hear a song, it brings me to a point. I grew up in a big Italian family on the east side of Detroit and music was part of the day. My dad had Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Glen Miller records. He got married and had kids when he was older, so this was late ‘60s. My dad wasn’t a hippie; he was old school - World War II, Dean Martin, and that kind of stuff. My uncles all played accordion or piano or whatever, and whenever the family got together there was always music. I remember when my brother put on a Beatles album, and I’d never heard anything like this was blown away by it. I was only six years old. What really blew me was the Rolling Stones. Because for me the Beatles were great but the Stones were grittier and dirtier, and there was something about that I liked. The Rolling Stones turned me on to Aerosmith; who turned me on to Ted Nugent who turned me on to Zeppelin - then going backwards and listening to Chuck Barry and some of the blues that the Stones had done. It was just amazing. I can remember being down in the basement with my cousins and I can picture the needle going on the record - We Sold Our Souls for Rock and Roll was playing. The first time I heard Black Sabbath I almost shit my pants because I’d never heard music this heavy.

As a music lover when you find that band that you’re into, you start searching out. “Well, who influenced them?” There’s got to be some point where it originated. As I started doing that, all signs started pointing towards Detroit, you know, that Grande era with heavier rock and roll. It was a product of  Motown - that can’t be denied, a huge influence here in Detroit. There was this big influence of rock and roll that was going on that had a groove to it, you know Mitch Ryder. Maybe that’s the beginning of it all or Jack Scott, if you want to go back a little but farther.  

Oh, yeah, Jack Scott’s great

It seemed like the Grande gave people a place to do their own thing, to play their own music. I think up until that point there were a lot of people just being cover bands, doing the Rolling Stones, doing the Beatles, and whatever was coming down the pipe. I think the Grande inspired a lot of people. Russ Gibb was incredible - so open to whatever acts were happening in this time was , and it was a very tumultuous time, the strife, the riots. What really blows me away is that whenever I ask people about the Grande, I can see their eyes well up and they go back to this place in Detroit. We’re talking riots, Vietnam - nothing good yet there was this moment of happiness, this sense that it was the best time of their lives and it was all associated with music and the culture around it.

So the Grande let you do this stuff. You can have long hair; you can go to listen to this music. It was like, “Wow, there’s other people like me.”  There’s people in Flint, Traverse City, Holly  and wherever. It wasn’t just in Detroit. It was an urban Michigan thing that was happening.

Yeah, it was a time when great music, new music like the MC5. They played my senior party in high school in 1970. There was great music all over the place. The Michigan bands that played the Grande played Daniel’s Den, for instance. There were great venues all over the state. Kids had a chance to listen to music in a way that hasn’t been that readily accessible since.  I wonder why the Grande ascended to the top.

You know, I don’t think it was actually a climb to the top. I think that from what I’m seeing, it was the first of many. I think it was because it was Detroit. It was Detroit-based. I think that the other clubs you’re talking about all had their own little place. I think that what happened for the Grande, was, first of all, the one thing that really sticks out for the Grande was built was a ballroom in the ‘20s, so the sound and size of the place, from the way I understand it and the tapes that I’ve heard, it was  made for just a live, big band. I’ve met people much smarter than me think that the sound inside there was kind of like being inside of a Stradivarius or a really well-made guitar. It was acoustically perfect.

So if you were a good band in the Grande, you sounded great. If you were a great band inside the Grande, you sounded incredible. Because of that, it motivated you. Because this was the beginning of electrification, you know, a lot of these places you’re talking about were kind of clubs in their own right, you know. I can see that being a big thing as far as the sound systems back in the day where, you know, it was probably hit or miss, what you were coming up against. If you had a place that was acoustically perfect and sounded good, you know, I think that helped it quite a bit. I think the fact was that Russ was allowing bands to be so free. You know, you didn’t really book any cover bands there. They were looking for new acts that were playing their own music. I mean they didn’t mind if you did a cover song, but if you’re doing a cover song, you better do it in your own style. You know what I mean. You hear Motor City Burning from MC5, that’s Johnny Lee Humbert, too. I don’t know – two different songs as far as I’m concerned - both great; both incredible. The other clubs that you’re talking about I think are somewhat obscure today.

Did you ever feel like giving up, with all the people not invested?

There was no chance of giving up when I went into this project. I gave myself three to five years. I finished it in four, so I was on my time schedule. This was something that was going to get done, and I was going to do it. Now whether it’s well received, now that’s a whole different story. I was able to finish it. The one thing I’m very proud of is that it ended up being on my own terms. There were moments during this time when I thought that I needed money to do this, I needed grants; I needed sponsorships. When the doors were closed on those things, it was never a frustrating moment. It was more of a realization that this needs to be done, and it’s going to be done by me. It’s not supposed to be done by anybody else. There’s no supposed to be any corporate sponsorship for this. There isn’t supposed to be a grant that’s going to come down from heaven or a bag of money that I’m going to find on the street. This is just going to get done on my own terms.

I spent 45 minutes on a bus with BB King and talked to him about music and about Detroit. I spent almost an hour with Roger Daltrey backstage talking about music and about Detroit. I spent time with Alice Cooper and Ted Nugent talking about this. I was blown away that they accepted my interview but then I was even more blown away when most of them said, “We’ll give you 10 minutes; we’ll give you 15 minutes.”  I would look down at my watch, kind of off to the side and thought, “Holy shit. I’ve been here 45 minutes.” These people really wanted to talk to me about it. I’m almost to a fault honest about the project. You know, this isn’t sold to MTV, I don’t have the escrow release form while I was making it. They heard about the movie, they saw the passion that I put into the trailer, and they realized that the Grande meant enough in their lives that they were going to give me time out of their lives to talk about it. I was never discouraged.

Your passion is clear, and maybe that’s what turned on all these artists, that you could be so committed to your craft

The thing I realized through doing this was that, again, this came down from 20 years of being in the business is that I know what it takes to get these things done. I’m very meticulous when it comes to production, and I’m not going to sugarcoat anything. I know when people are touring, you have your couple of minutes of when you can do this, and so in order to get this job done right you have to talk the talk and speak the speak. If you’re not passionate about it, you know, just like any other human, you can sense fear and realize that “Maybe this guy really doesn’t want this interview.” That’s all I had to sell was the passion for this project, and so it became a lot easier once I had a trailer that I could show people because in this day and age, much like you contacting me, it doesn’t take much to get in contact with anybody today. You’re four clicks away on the computer, you know, from getting pretty much anybody, you know, their email address or their cell phone number and being able to talk to them for five to ten minutes. It’s just a matter of what are you going to do with that five or ten minutes? Is it going to be time wasted on their end, or are they going to want to talk?

Did you do cold calls?

No. I made sure that it was defined as far as what the process was, and that I’m an independent producer of a film and I’ve got a project and here is my storyline. Everything was done top-notch, professional. Because of the Internet, because of the computer and cell phones, everybody has their own printing press. So I’m finding today that some bloggers have more power than columnists from the New York Times because of the impact that they have, so you can’t take for granted what someone is going to do or say. I was going to do this project. In my opinion, John Sinclair, Russ Gibb, Roger Daltrey, Wayne Kramer, any of these individuals could have their own story told about them that would be phenomenal in its own right. 

Tony, how are you preparing yourself for the premier of Louder Than Love?

I can see myself inside the theater. It’s like not even looking at the screen, just looking at the people, at the audience and seeing their reactions because I’ve watched this movie like 400 times already. I just wanted to see what people’s reaction to it is. I’m very excited about this film.

I think they’ll freak out and love it. It just brings us back to a time when things were a little bit different and music mattered, and there was a civil liberties movement. There were some freedoms then that we don’t have now. It really resonates with me. How have people reacted to your project – were they supportive?

Yes, very supportive, though some folks were miffed. They were like, “Who do you think you are to do this? You aren’t even old enough to go to the Grande. I thought, “Really, are you old enough to go there?” It’s kind of like saying, you know, to not have a story about anything in history. I mean, why would you not want to tell a story like this. Because I wasn’t part of it doesn’t mean I can’t tell the story. That’s not even a good reason at all. I mean Ken Burns spent his career doing these incredible documentaries about stuff that I’m dying to know about. You don’t have anybody from the Civil War to talk about it. So when people are saying, “You didn’t go there, you didn’t know or anything.” “You’re right. I didn’t know, but I’m willing to find out, and I’m going to try to find out the best that I can. I’m going to tell, in my opinion, the best story I can. If you don’t like it, this gives other people an opportunity to go make their own movie.

This is such a massive project. It’s historical. It just clicks for me in every which way because I’m a music lover, and some of the best music in the world was there as you know. Did you have any trouble getting footage for the film, you know, footage of the period, time?

In the late 60s, early ‘70s, they used movie cameras, you know those big 8 mm and 16 mm cameras,  it was an event just to take one out. So that was a bit of a challenge. It was amazing once things started rolling and people started realizing what I was doing – it’s the beauty of the internet. I had great folks from the media support me with this project. I have a Facebook page that got a lot of people interested in the film and they started contacting me. “Hey, I’ve got this footage, I’ve got these pictures, hey I know so-and-so.” Things started coming together because of it. The footage I have of the Who at the Grande is incredible. They performed “Tommy”, it’s only three minutes but it has never been seen before.

 Tom Wright, the Who’s manager, ended up as the manager of the Grande! He actually recorded the original Tommy concert. He gave me a cassette of Pete Townsend explaining what they were going to hear. You know, nobody knew what Tommy was about. In the movie you hear Pete Townsend explaining what this is about. To me it’s chilling because nowadays we know what it’s about but you don’t know…this was like - what the hell is a rock opera? Today we consider almost any form of music to have something conceptual – but back then it was unheard of, especially from a band like the Who that was a three-minute pop-song kind of band that was doing great music but nothing in a long format conceptual thing. It was the first time that’s seen.

Did you use other media to capture the essence of the Grande?

 I have probably 500 archival photos, black and white, color pictures of bands like the MC5, Iron Butterfly, Led Zeppelin, Nugent, Chuck Berry, and Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green. One night John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers were playing, Cream was playing at Olympia and after the show Clapton came over and played with the Bluesbreakers - we have photos of that. I’ve got a lot of great stuff from the MC5. The daughter of the promoter and organizer for Goose Lake gave me a lot of great pictures. We worked out a licensing deal where she allowed me to use photos for the film.  A lot of that stuff has never been seen. I think people are really going to be blown away by the amount of research I’ve done, the songs that are involved with it, the licensed songs I got. I could have gone a hundred different ways. When I originally sat down with this it was a trade story -  so it’s all Detroit bands, not only MC5 but SRC, Savage Grace, Jagged Edge, as well as lesser known bands. Dick Wagner recorded a new song with Jimmy McCarty that we used for the final credits of the movie. He hadn’t written or recorded a song an original song in almost seven or eight years and he gave it to me!

Did you have much help in putting it all together?

One of the things I do want everyone to know is that as much as I’ve done for this project, I’m not an army of one. The ending was all done by Karl Rausch. He and I worked together on this project from day one. He saw my vision and I told him how I wanted some things, but he brought to life. I’ve been in production long enough where I shot most of the interviews but I had friends in the business that came out and shot some of them. I had one of my dear friends at Oakland University, Dr. Jason Schmidt do the interviews, the actual eye camera interviews while I was worried about the technical side of things, the cameras, the lighting, and things like that. I didn’t want to be overwhelmed by trying to come in with a camera and do everything myself. I knew enough because of my production background to bring in a nice-size crew for all this stuff. So inasmuch as it was my passion, other people in the production community believed in me enough to take time out of their lives. I was very straightforward. Hey, I  have no budget for this, but would you like to go meet Flash, or would you like to go meet Slash, or would you like to go meet Ted Nugent, and so that was a little carrot. I was very straightforward with people. Like I don’t know where this project is going to go, but if you’d help me out, I’d really appreciate it. I was definitely a labor of love on my own, but I had other people.

 Where will you be showing Louder than Love?

These are the dates that we have lined up so far: Thursday April 5th at the Detroit Art and Film Theater here in Detroit; Monday April 9th at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, part of Martin Van Dyke’s movie series. I’ve been accepted to do the Chicago Film Festival which is April 12-15 and then it was accepted to the Nation Film Festival on April 19-26 and the Nashville Film Festival April 21^st. I’ve been contacted by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and we’re looking at a screening date there at the beginning of May. There are some strong possibilities of the Traverse City one and a Mill Valley one in San Francisco as well as I just got sent out for Sidney’s film festival in San Francisco. So there are quite a few…once the first one gets out there, the other festivals kind of look at what’s going on. So I’m kind of setting myself up for film festivals that are music and documentary related so that I can get the audience. Different film festivals have different themes, and so you can’t just go to all the film festivals. There are some that are more for narrative; there are some that are for animation; there are some that are foreign film documentaries. There are literally thousands of festivals nowadays. People have really embraced independent film-making and taken it to a different level, so I’m really overwhelmed by the choices I have. Hopefully once the word gets out, it will kind of snowball and that’s what I’m anticipating.

What I’ve done in the last couple of years is appreciate that you can challenge yourself to do anything you want, no matter where you’re at in life. I honestly believe that

I believe it too. It was so nice talking to you. You’re so gracious.

When are we going to start this interview?

Yeah, I know. It’s just been way too much fun.

Peace

Bo White

The Banana Convention Gaining Momentum and Catching a Wave

The BC franchise has been around for almost twenty years, with various assemblages and souls, poking fun at the punks while playing bubblegum music for the masses. It was a wild ride that wasn’t totally focused or even aware that bubblegum was the new punk. It hit big in 1968 with the 1910 Fruitgum Company converting a children’s game into a bonafide top ten hit with a bullet. Frank Patrick, the owner of Daniel’s Den, booked the band while they were still bubbling under the top 100. According to the Gavin Report, this was a band to watch. On the basis of Gavin’s mystical insight, Patrick bought them dirt cheap. But when Simon Says went screaming to the top of the charts, our hapless bubblegum lads wanted to renegotiate the contract. Nope. Patrick’s contracts were ironclad. The Fruitgum Company had to settle for a grand instead of their current rate of $3000. No matter – the Kasenetz & Katz stable of acts (including the Ohio Express, Shadows of Night, and of, course early Tommy James over @ Roulette Records) continued to share the charts with the Beatles, Stones, Beach Boys, Byrds and the Who throughout the late sixties and early seventies. It seemed to suggest a very diverse lineage of musical appreciation. And it’s all good.

The Banana Convention got the message loud and clear, cutting against the grain of current trends, doing a bubblegum smack down and smiling out loud. They were poking fun at the punks, not knowing they were punks themselves. Punk and bubblegum are part of the same genetic code - the Clash meets the Ohio Express – Should I Stay or Should I Go versus Down At Lulu’s. The biggest difference was that bubblegum was more lascivious than punk – Yummy Yummy Yummy, 1, 2, 3 Red Light, and I Think Were Alone Now were all about teenage lust. It was the eroticism of youth and it’s always been a part of our culture from pre-teen beauty pageants to Disney TV depicting pre-teens romping with just a hint of G-spot frenzy; an apical ancestor to the musical culture of our times.

From their modest bubblegum beginnings in 1993 to the post-millennium girl group frenzy of the double bubble girls The Banana Convention has continued to evolve into a guitar oriented rock band, less hooks; more riffs. It started in 2007 with the addition of the phenomenally talented Ray Torres and the ascendance of vocalist Shar Molina who seemed to grow more confident with each passing year. She found her voice and developed into one of the most soulful and sexy singers in the game. 
The BC continued write compelling original material and released their first CD Dirty Negatives to critical acclaim. The setlist changed with the addition of such great original songs as Preplan, Prognosis, Grand Illusion and I Wanna Be Hans Solo. The re-energized band captured the moment with a live disc recorded @ White’s Bar. It had humor, rock-hard guitar, sensual vocals and a ton of good vibes!

Alas, Torres left the fold to be a cool rocking daddy and The BC Five moved forward with newcomer guitarist Jake Voisine. It proved to be the deal of the century; in line with bringing Sean Drysdale into the fold as the bass player, house musicologist and seeker of truth. The band got right and tight, dropped the bubblegum ruse, and rocked their asses off. 

The Sean Drysdale Interview

Sean tell me about the new CD L.E.A.P.
There are a few things I want to say about these songs as a whole. Each member of the band tore down the house to make these songs the best they could be. Jake is a modern day riff master, a true musical mind. Shar is stellar and power and took her voice to a new level. Monte's percussion and energy shines through and his vocals on New Guy are nothing to over look. Chris our drummer is one of the best rock drummers today. Listen to his drums on this EP and you will see why. As the bassist I was able to craft melody and counter melody work on this album; making it feel more than just one bass one guitar and drums.

What does the acronym L.E.A.P.  mean?
The album art is an early 1900's map of Los Angeles and the faces are old movie stars. The idea for the name was the L.A. E.P so we moved the e and the a – LEAP. It’s a perfect fit for the album itself. It is a leap in sound, song styles and performance. You have never heard us sound like this or sound this fantastic. That is not hyperbole in my opinion. It is the best we have ever been and it is a huge leap in the right direction for us. Where did you record L.E.A.P.
We recorded at Castle Oak Studios in L.A. It was a all day one day session. The most amazing thing about it was the fact that Shar woke up that morning sicker than sick could be. Barely a voice and no energy Shar struck magic in that studio. The band tracked each song while she slept on a couch in the back only getting up every little bit for tea and water. When it came to her singing we didn't think it was going to happen. Then she sang. It came out perfect. She only sang each song twice through and that was all we needed. As a band we have never seen anything like it. It was as if we were in a surrealistic movie. She was so sick, and we never thought she could to it - courageous! The best part is we had a film crew with us and they captured it all. So expect to see the documentary in the future. You simply have to see it to understand how incredible she is! I heard that Andy Reed was part of the project
Yes. For the second half of the album we had to fly in parts and mixing that was recorded at Andy Reed's Reed Recording Studio in Bay City. Andy is a true producer and engineer. He always has an idea or a way to make something better. He talks to you like a friend or even a family member. There was nothing greater or more pleasurable than working with him.Andy worked very hard and made the entire Castle Oak stuff sound perfect for us and our vibe. We are thankful to him, his talents and time for letting us do this EP there. 
Do you have any plans for the future?
We are planning several tours right now and are ready to do a full length album. We have a lot of momentum right now. Our music video for "Jessica Fletcher" has been a major hit with our fans and has had a lot of internet success as well. We have a documentary coming out within this year and now a full length album too. We need to focus on this album and the up coming tours. Right now it feels we are not upstream anymore. We are not on the crest of the wave but we are damn close and when we hit it we are not getting off.

This brings us to the new 5 track CD L.E.A.P. Can you describe each track?

Two Houses
This is kind of a modern day Romeo and Juliet. It is about a girl in love with a good guy who is viewed as the wrong boy from the wrong side of town. She wants to be with him but he splits town on the night they were supposed to run away together. I wrote the song in 2006/7 on New Years Eve after TBC played Whites Bar. After an entire bottle of Bison Wheat Vodka a demo was born but was not completed until almost four years later.
Jessica Fletcher
The song name was born while the band was goofing off at practice. None of us could think of a title until Jake and Chris came up with a name and it just stayed that way. The song itself is about the struggle to be in a rock band - pouring all of you heart and soul into something you love; something that is more than a hobby. It helps sustain you in the face of people and venues that could care less about what you do. It is an anthem for the rockers and musicians who feel the same pain and struggle every day. Jake Voisine came up with music and lyrics. The night he first played us the chorus riff we knew he took lightning out of a bottle, strung it on his guitar and created one of the freshest and hottest guitar hooks since T-Rex's Twentieth Century Boys.
New Guy
This song was written and sung by Monte. We did at least five different versions of this song. In an early version it was a ska song; there was a Weezer-like version and one reminiscent of an old local band The Rugby Mothers. It is a fun little rocker about your girl dumping you for a much "hotter" guy. He has money, good looks, been all over the world and is a really cool dude. It is about heart break set to a wonderfully crafted Weird Al sounding song. Essentially the girl left for the BBD (bigger better deal).

New Day
Is a summer pop hit sensation if you ask me! Similar to the lines and parallels that Jessica Fletcher draws, New Day is a song about wanting to be heard. It is about wanting people to see the work and the talents of the singer and the band. It's a road song, a nose to the grind stone song. The idea of not knowing where you are going while in the pursuit of musicianship on the road, on the stage and at the end of every day is the message of New Day. It was an acoustic song Shar used to do on her own. She wrote the chord structure
and all the lyrics. The first time we all heard it we knew that we had to jump on this song and make it happen. This song is a true showcase of the skills of each member of this band. 

Safe and Sound
Similar to Two Houses this was an old demo I wrote many years ago. I found the original demo of this on Type 2 tape in an old Tascam 4 track recorder dated "2006 Safe Home Demo". Last year I brought a rough music idea and lyrics to a practice session and after a few times trying it out the song hit. It was ready; it was lean, powerful and anyone and everyone could/should love it. It is a ballad. When things go astray, when you feel at your darkest and lowest someone is there for you. It could be the person you love, your family or your favorite band. You fill in the blank with your life and this song sings you the message that it will all be ok. I worked the hardest on this song from playing the string section you hear to the final mixing. It is my baby and the band really let me take over. We also think that this is one of Shar's greatest vocal performances ever recorded. Her soul is in those vocals. 

Not Only Women Bleed

Not Only Women Bleed

By Dick Wagner

Let me start by way of disclaimer. I am not a disinterested observer of Dick Wagner’s career. We’ve known each other for several years and in that time we’ve spun the karmic wheel and embraced some level of acceptance for each other’s foibles. I have a gut feeling whenever he’s hydroplaning sincerity, “I love you brother.” At times I Imagine Wagner sees me as a rabid fan that squeezes him into a corner just to say “I really like you work with Alice Cooper – what’s he like?” But there’s no avenue of escape and he averts his eyes, and shifts his weight from one foot to the other until he spies another annoying fan and makes his exit by introducing us. It is clever and protective especially when you are the mystery man.

 The book is carved into vignettes that contain several short paragraphs with cohesive themes. It creates a sense that it’s a quick read – it is. But it also leaves me with a feeling that Wagner is sometimes skimming surfaces and leaving things out, cocking the bow but not releasing the arrow.  This is somewhat true in the vignettes about the Bossmen and the Frost. From 1964-1972, Wagner’s learning curve was incredibly high. He was a quick study who seemed to grasp and assimilate more sophisticated into his various projects whether it was the Frost, The Cherry Slush, Count & the Colony or the Pack. He was all over the map with a boundless source of creative energy. These were formative years for Wagner and his cohorts. Like a smithy bending hot iron with a hammer and anvil, Wagner pounded out sturdy little ditties that were both charming and durable. Listen to Here’s Congratulations,  I Cannot Stop You, Say What You Think, Wide Trackin’ and you might agree. They have stood the test of time. These early garage masterpieces were the building blocks of his craft. The caterpillar spins the cocoon and the butterfly emerges.

Wagner opened the book with a brief statement about his birth on December 14^th, 1942. The first vignette skips over six decades to Wagner’s 60^th birthday celebration at the State Theater in Bay City Michigan. I was there. I walked into the theatre late, near the end of the show; as I passed through the first set of doors I noticed Edgar Winter furtively gliding up the stairs to the balcony. I was happy for Dick. The place was packed. 

The book really started to cook when he wrote about meeting and performing with several of his rock & roll heroes. He recalled when his first band, the Invictas, backed Jerry Lee Lewis at a roller rink on Ortonville, Michigan. He drove up in an emerald green Cadillac, a fifth of Jack in his hands and yells out “The Killer has arrived.” Wagner was only seventeen years old. It wasn’t too long after that when he backed Roy Orbison at a gig at Devils Lake Pavilion near Adrian Michigan and accompanied him back to the hotel. Orbison asked young Wagner if he’d like to listen to a couple of new songs he was working on. He proceeded to play Candy Man and Crying. In the late sixties Wagner played with his rock & roll idol Little Richard at the Grande Ballroom. It was an unexpected appearance that also included Johnny Winter, Mitch Ryder and the Frost. Little Richard was in full camp wearing a suit made of mirrors.

 It was a baptism.

Wagner described his first live performance in Union Lake Michigan during a Paul Bunyan Days celebration. He was just a freshman in high school but had the pluck and courage to sing a current radio hit Sugaree in front of 500 people and pull it off without a hitch. It was the moment when he found his voice.

Wagner described an incredible cauldron of characters that seemed to emerge from a cloud, an ancient time when a person’s quirks were embraced instead of medicated. Teep Wicker was a huge Elvis fan, perhaps the first Elvis impersonator - though he couldn’t sing worth a hoot and bore no resemblance to his idol. Wild Bill Emerson was an extraordinary guitarist in the Mac Vickery and the Driving Band. He played left handed and had to turn his guitar upside down to play it. He would attach a little monkey on a string to his guitar and set it on fire, years before Hendrix became a pyromaniac. Emerson taught Wagner about using banjo strings on his guitar so he could bend the strings more easily.Wagner continued working with Vickery in a travelling gypsy caravan called Dr. Silkini’s Magic and Horror show. It’s a great story, a definite hoot.

In 1962 Wagner joined the Eldorados, a great Detroit show band that included Warren Keith on piano. This was a fortuitous event that created the opportunity for Wagner to enter the next phase of his musical journey.

The Playboys were the first rock band in Saginaw, Michigan. Butch White was the lead singer and guitarist, an enormous talent and unsung hero of the early rock & roll scene. The other members included Pete Woodman (drums), Lanny Roenicke (bass) and the aforementioned Warren Keith. As circumstances would have it, White was married and needed a day job to provide for his family. He was a weekend warrior. He left the Playboys at the request of his wife, leaving a gaping hole in the band’s lineup. Warren Keith had been impressed by Wagner’s skills in the Eldorados and recommended him. So Lanny and Pete fetched Wagner from his home in Waterford and brought him up to Saginaw. Under Wagner’s leadership a good band became a great band that set attendance records at the Village Pump in Bridgeport. This was only the beginning.

Wagner gave full credit to the Bossmen in helping to establish his rock & roll credentials. He also gave credit to Bob Dyer and Dick Fabian, starmaker Deejays who championed the Bossmen and were instrumental in advancing their career. Each of the Bossmen 45’s reached #1 on the Saginaw charts. They were our Beatles. Massive crowds followed them from Daniel’s Den to The Y  A- Go-Go, the Village Pump,  and Mt. Holly. They had a fan club that issued Christmas cards and “Bossmania” buttons as well as regular newsletters. Wagner’s future business manager, Mary Anne Reynolds-Burtt was a member.

The vignettes that detail Wagner’s influence in Saginaw provide a road map of memories for any of those early fans who came under the spell of his musical adventures.  The Frost expanded Wagner’s vision. Each stage of his career involved an evolution to greater artistry and a broader perspective. The Frost sounded like the Beatles on steroids but by their last LP, Through the Eyes of Love, they had developed a hard rocking sound that set the stage for Wagner’s next project.

Wagner described Ursa Major as a milestone in his songwriting, production and arranging. The band hit the road opening for Jeff Beck and Alice Cooper. Wagner acknowledges that though the music was a huge step forward Ursa Major “was destined to be a single, great, seminal rock album”

 Bob Ezrin’s influence on Wagner’s career cannot be overestimated. He was responsible for linking Dick to Lou Reed and helping to re-establish his relationship with Steve Hunter. The vignettes that cover this stage of Wagner’s career are an excellent read. It takes you on a high speed chase with hairpin turns. It’s exciting, almost breathtaking. It leads the reader step by step to the upper stratosphere of rock & roll – the music, fame, money, adulation and all the excess – culminating with the Welcome to My Nightmare Tour.  By all accounts it was a landmark event that was well conceived and executed - the biggest grossing tour ’75. The music was superb, fantastic. They were “the best band in the land.” They were Hollywood Vampires. All this glory set the stage for the next phase of Wagner’s life.

The Richard Wagner album was a great showcase for Wagner’s skills and could have been a springboard to a successful solo career. But things started to go wrong almost immediately. It started with a battle over the title. Wagner wanted Dick Wagner: Nights in The Heartland but Atlantic Records insisted on Richard Wagner.  It flopped.

Wagner had a tendency to go down a few side roads in the book as when he mentioned his IQ score, The Girl Rule or having six partners in one night of Dionysian excess. I felt that the details his sexual experiences were mostly unnecessary. I’m less interested in those adventures than what underlies them – the root cause, the core wound. He reveals his early abuse and the invalidating family environment that caused him to internalize negative messages such as “you will never amount to anything” or “you are worthless.” Later, as a young aspiring musician, he was sexually assaulted by the Invictas manager. He kept this toxic event secret, hidden away in a compartment of his mind where it festered and quietly undermined his capacity to trust and to love. It appears that these early wounds set stage for Wagner’s later sexual behavior that, by his description, contained elements of hostility and exploitation e.g., having sex with a woman and pushing a slice of blueberry pie in her face. His insistent numbing through the use of drugs, his high level of arousal, and buried anger were symptoms associated with those early experiences. This is the perfect storm of shame and doubt that led to a spiral of failed relationships, addiction and a stalled out career. This book could be titled “The Healing” because Wagner brought these memories back up to the surface after years in hiding. It’s called exposure - revealing dark secrets and past trauma by writing (talking and thinking) about them. It is the substance and process of recovery.

  It is courageous

The book is a must read for anyone who has followed Dick Wagner’s career, especially for people who came of age in Michigan during the sixties and seventies The casual fan may not know about Dick Wagner so the link to Lou Reed and Alice Cooper is critical to the overall success and sales of Not Only Women Bleed. The book is as entertaining as it is revealing. Some may wince at the graphic detail of Wagner’s Dionysian fall from grace but will also applaud his honesty and willingness to take ownership of his wrongdoing and to seek forgiveness.

Not Only Women Bleed is available @ Amazon.com. It is only $9.99 but you need to download a Kindle in order to format the book so you can read it. It’s a good read, accessible, hilarious and graphic. Any fan of classic rock & roll would love this book. Pass the word brothers and sisters.

Peace

Bo White

Kansas - Numinous Mind and Music for the Soul

Rich Williams, the extraordinary riff-meister of Kansas, sat down for a deep collar interview with Review Magazine.  Kansas is preparing for another extended tour in 2012 that will include a stop at the historic Temple Theatre in Saginaw.

Kansas has been a musical force of nature since the mid-seventies with such enduring hits as Carry on Wayward Son, Point of No Return, and Dust in the Wind. The music is incredible with ornate and complex arrangements, unusual signature changes, and poetic lyricism. They have underwent enough lineup changes that rock writers sometimes refer to that various incarnations as  Kansas I, II, III - though founding members Rich Williams (guitar), Phil Ehart (drums), and Steve Walsh (keyboards, vocals) have remained a strong stabilizing presence.

Kansas has released over 65 recordings (including compilations) in various formats - vinyl, CD, and DVD. They have toured relentlessly with only a few down moments in the past 38 years. They have grit and creativity to keep it going as long as love and oxygen wash over their spirit.   Kansas music is a strange and wonderful brew of folk, hard rock, and orchestral, almost operatic music. The musicians embrace a stubborn eclecticism that follows its own shadow and frustrates the critics. They have been criticized as overwrought and pretentious but the critics be damned, Kansas has survived and flourished despite their mixed reception. The band has retained a legion of loyal fans that are more than happy to sing songs of praise in the name of Kansas!

Kansas recently released a DVD Kansas: There is No Place like Home and a Special Edition 35^th Anniversary Dust in the Wind Book.  2011 was a big year for the band and the energy is building for more concerts and recordings in 2012. The momentum is strong and Kansas is on the move. Come to the Temple Theatre and witness a great band that paints grand canvases with heavenly baroque music.

The concert is at the historic Temple Theatre on Thursday February 16^th 2012 @ 8pm. Tickets are priced @ $79, $59, $39, $29. Call 877-754-SHOW 10am-6pm to purchase tickets. There isn’t a bad seat in the house!

You recently completed the 2011 Collegiate Symphony Tour to raise money and awareness of college music programs. It sounded like a fantastic project. How many concerts did you put on? Did you reach your goal?

We are still doing those events actually. We did them last year and the year before and we have dates set for this upcoming year too. It’s an ongoing process. We’ll do it until no more colleges will want to do it anymore (laughs).  Ever since we did the DVD There No Place Like Home, we wanted to do more orchestral work so we did an album with the London Symphony Orchestra and we wanted to get it filmed and we eventually did it with the Washburn University Symphony in Topeka Kansas. Once that came out we could present it to colleges and they could see it – that this is what we do. It answered a lot of questions for them. One thing led to another and we got a sponsorship from D’Addario  and it took on a life of its own. Now we’ve done over 40 colleges. The doors been kicked in and it’s a lot easier now. It’s been very successful; it’s in part a benefit for the music departments at the colleges. D’Addario has also donated a lot of equipment, funds and scholarships for students. It’s been a lot of fun so we hope we can continue doing it.

It seems like a massive commitment. Was it difficult to teach the orchestra musicians?

Some songs we do only with the symphony because they seem to fit well with that genre. We’ve always been very symphonic by nature, it’s not a shoehorn, and it works really well. Scores are advanced to the colleges so they have plenty of time to learn the music. It becomes part of the curriculum and they have an opportunity to work on it long before we get there. Larry Baird, our conductor, scored the music and he shows up and does a rehearsal with the musicians, sometimes the day before, sometimes just the morning of, or even in the afternoon. It’s really more of a sound check, get the levels set, smooth out the rough spots and then it’s show time.

 It seems your actions match the poetic and spiritual lyricism in many of your songs. Your music seems to reflect a message of hope, is that how you see it?

Well, yeah, a lot of the lyrics Kerry wrote (Kerry Livgren composed the biggest Kansas hits. He left to form AD, and focus his writing on a Christian worldview) were ambiguous and hopeful- inspirational and seemed to mean something different to the individual. Inspirational is a good word.

Kansas seems very active as far is touring. How do you prepare for the emotional strain and physical crunch of touring?  How is it that you are able to keep it up without becoming depleted in some way?

Well, we figured it out a while ago. To continue to do it we have to keep it fun. Riding in a bus, playing five nights a week stops being fun in a hurry. The hope that we aim for and never quite reach - it is sort of what we do…basically I leave on a Friday morning and come back on a Sunday afternoon. That’s basically how we work throughout the year. That’s the rough framework of it. It works very well for us; everyone has a home life and a family life. We are rarely in a bus, we fly to gig and stay in a nice hotel. It keeps everyone healthy and happy.

Right now I’m going stir crazy because we took January off - we’ve been off since the first of December and we don’t start up again until the middle of February so these are the confusing times for me. It took me a long time to figure out what to do with myself. The rest of the year I’ve got the weekend to prepare for and it works very well for us. Once you make peace with the travel and just kind of relax it’s actually fun. It’s just not tough…I had a real job once and it’s just not like that. We do eighty shows a year

You have released several albums and CDs since 1974. That is an incredible body of music. What sparks your creativity?

Some of it is the record company decides to re-wrap something, slap a different cover and then they put it out. The last thing we did was the DVD. It was a hands-on experience in our control. The decisions of the record company are beyond our control like re-mastering of old product. Recently I saw they did something with the early Kansas stuff when we were on CBS.  They did a real nice package of that. What our focus has been on since we did our DVD There’s No Place like Home, artistically, has been college dates - reinventing ourselves in that way. Playing with the college kids - they bring an enthusiasm to the table that you don’t necessarily get when you are playing with a professional city orchestra. It’s new to them, they are not getting paid and they really appreciate it. There is nothing planned at this time to go back into the studio to record new material.

It is said that your progressive music -complex orchestral arrangements and heavy rock & roll guitar riffs were inspired by groups such as King Crimson, Yes…Emerson, Lake and Palmer – even Frank Zappa. I can hear it. But what do you say, who inspired Kansas?

All of those – King Crimson, Jethro Tull Gentle Giant…early Genesis. They were all an inspiration to us. We grew up playing the hits of the day. We listened to Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels and a lot of soul music so we grew up as a rock & roll band. As we grew up we began to take it in another direction so underneath it all, this is what helped give us a heavier sound. We are pretty heavy handed; we don’t have a light touch

Rich, you are a brilliant guitarist that can rip and soar and yet play very melodically. Did you learn from a master? Who inspired you as a guitarist?

No. I just took a few lessons when I first started playing in high school. I loved Eric Clapton - early Eric Clapton. I was influenced by his work with John Mayall. Before that I played a lot of soul music, Ike & Tina Turner stuff. I liked Ike’s style. But Eric Clapton with the Bluesbreakers…that Les Paul through the Marshall really cranked. I heard blues before but not with that tone and intensity. It was really eye-opening to me to hear such a strong voice coming from a guitar…and all the early Yardbirds stuff was incredible - Jimmy Page was in the Yardbirds, Jeff Beck was in the Yardbirds… Eric Clapton. They influenced everybody.

You are excellent musicians but the vocalists are integral to the Kansas sound as well – they sing their asses off – the lead and harmony vocals are exquisite. Who arranges the vocal parts?

Steve Walsh is the main vocalist, always. Billy Greer is the new guy on bass and vocals. He does a lot of the singing. He’s the new guy but it’s his 26^th or 27^th year with us. And then on violin Dave Ragsdale does a lot of backup singing. He’s been with us since the nineties. The new guys aren’t even new. We’ve been with them forever. They’ve been with us longer than some of the original members.

I read that in the early “broke and starving” days of Kansas,  Phil Ehart told an interviewer, “We were going to play this style of music and not compromise, even if we had to f***ing starve.” It seems like an inspired comment. How do you view that comment now, does it still resonate with you?

Well, that is the exuberance of youth, when your life is all ahead of you and you stand firm on a principle -   all for all; one for one. You live in a stinking band house and make decisions. You know, I’m glad we did. That type of a determination is a young man’s game

When did you get your lucky break?

As a group we were kind of the last man standing in the area (in our age group, anyway) that wanted to play music professionally. We did not want to play the hits of the day in a Holiday Inn. We did not want a day job and we wanted to do original material. For a lot of people it’s too risky. If we do that we can’t play the prom. Well, fuck the prom. Even more than that we wanted to do stuff that’s outside the box. We made a demo tape – we mailed out four reel to reel tapes and one ended up on Don Kirshner’s desk. He was our benefactor. He listened to part of the tape not knowing there were six or seven songs on the other side, so basically he liked one song on the tape, What Can I Tell You…it ended up on our first album.  So he sent a scout out to see us. We were playing in a small town in western Kansas. The gig was at the Ellenwood Opera House. We played there a lot. We wanted to impress this guy - he didn’t know it but it was free to get in and the beer was free. It was packed and people we standing in line waiting to get inside. So the scout reports back to Kirshner – “There’ something going here.” When we got the record deal we asked Kerry Livgren if he would join. Once we had a great songwriter onboard we started to gain momentum. The rest is history.

Kansas has created several classic songs/albums that stand then test of time. Can you describe the creative process – writing, arranging, producing?

It was not always the same. Steve would come in with a song a lot of times or Kerry would show up with a song. Sometimes it would be written completely, other times it might be an idea. Then what happened is that everyone would put their own little twist on it. It was kind of painful. I think that is why Kerry would like to do things on his own now, like Steve did. They would create this thing which is their child and then they’d bring it to band practice where we would just rip it to fucking shreds.  We would tear it down, reassemble it, and put it back together and then change it again. We self-produced all the early songs. It wasn’t until later that we worked with Bob Ezrin on In the Spirit of Things on MCI. It was the second LP with Steve Morse. It was the first time we ever allowed a producer to come in -in that capacity. He was a cool, guy. Bob was a great guy to work with. We got to trust someone outside of the group. He was kind of the seventh member of Kansas. It was hard but he really got a lot out of us – he had so many great ideas.  It made a big difference in the outcome of the album. It was one of my favorite recording processes we ever did working with Bob Ezrin!

Can you talk about each of your stone classic megahits:

Carry On Wayward Son

The album before we recorded in Bogalusa Louisiana and we found that going to this remote spot was just what we needed - the album before that was done in Los Angeles – too many distractions – and so we found this great studio in Bogalusa so we went there and did the Masque LP. We planned on going back to the same studio for Leftoverture. We we’ve been in rehearsals working on the new material for several months and we were winding down. It was the last day or next to the last day before we were going to pack up the truck and head south. And then Kerry walks in and says, “No, no, I’ve got another song” and we go …”oh fuck.”   We just weren’t in the mood. We had enough but we said,” Ok let’s see what you got.”  We listened and we knew it was a pretty cool song so we worked it out. We finally made it down to the studio and started laying down basic instrumental tracks. The songs are generally assembled in the studio. Then we started working on that new song - Wayward Son. Basically we learned the song in the studio. We had never played it live before. We really didn’t know it well in rehearsals. It came down to the first time that we did it right – take 20 was good. It was just a cool song with the great guitar riffs, from half time to double time, in out between a straight beat and a shuffle. It was interesting to listen to and fun to play. We had a great song. Of course I had no idea that I’d be talking about it thirty some years later.

Dust in the Wind

Next album; same situation. Kerry comes in with a reel to reel tape. But the story of this song goes back several years ago. We were playing at this small club and Kerry and I met a guitarist who was older than us and more accomplished. He was showing us a finger picking style but neither one of us had done any acoustic playing or finger picking. A few years later Kerry wanted to remember how to do it a few years later so he wrote a finger picking exercise, just a pattern just to practice it and it became the chord pattern for Dust in the Wind. As the story goes his wife heard it and said “that’s really pretty – you need to do something with that.” He was reading a book on Indian philosophy which is where the lyric came from. We knew instantly that it was a great song. It was odd as we’d never done anything without drums. At the time there was nothing on the radio that sounded like it.

Point of No Return

The only thing I can relate to it is that we were out on the road, the album was out everything is going great. Our manager wanted us to do a video for markets in Australia and parts of Europe. They sold more music by featuring these commercial videos. They would play it on television and I was thinking. “Like that’s going to catch on.” So we did these videos – a cutting edge, psychedelic attempt at using modern technology. I was stunned when I saw the Point of No Return video. It seemed like it was just a parody.  I couldn’t watch it for years. Now in retrospect I think it’s funnier than shit, it really captures that era.

There seems to be a lot of energy around Kansas. Do you feel it? Can this be another big year for Kansas?

Oh yeah, we have a lot of symphony dates coming up, we have concert, casino dates, fairs and festivals. In the Midwest I love the fair atmosphere and the smell of funnel cake in the air. I’ve always enjoyed that. We are working on 20-30 dates with a solo act called That One Guy. He’s a cross between Frank Zappa and Weird Al. It’s very strange to watch this guy. He’s a trained oboe player - funny but serious. We will do another eighty shows this year. I’m really looking forward to being up there in Saginaw. We are all restless and ready to play!

Gutbucket is Back

Ten Years in the Making The Original Gutbucket is Back Dave Kellan, Brett Mitchell, Jake Krull

I’ve known Dave Kellan since Hector was a pup. First time we talked on the phone he was a 19 year old upstart practicing a deep cigarette voice and sounding like he was rode hard and put up wet. I hired him on the spot. But when I finally met him during his first show @ White’s imagine my surprise when I see this skinny young upstart with a moist face, a smooth smile and smelling like milk. Damn. But he won us all over that night. All I heard was “This kid can play.” Sure enough. This was the beginning of my affection for all things Gutbucket. I remember Kellan celebrating his 21st birthday @ White’s – eleven years ago. I bought him a shot and dared him not to drink it. I was mean that way. After a few years passed Kellan hosted a regular Wednesday Night jam that featured some of the best musicians on the planet. We recorded several of then performances – pure magic. I was able to talk with Dave recently as he was driving back to Saginaw with Mitchell and Krull. It was a great interview…

The Gutbucket CD is ten years in the making. What took so long?

The geographical distance was a big factor especially after I moved to New York 5 years ago. We essentially went our separate ways in 2002 when we pursued different forms of music. It’s funny that after all the changes we went through, 10 years later we are still doing the same groove. It was a natural progression. I started coming home for the holidays or during the summer and we’d jam or do a few shows. The passion was still there and it all came together so we contacted Andy Reed and got him involved. I had already put together PK (Paula Kellan) studios as a tribute to my mother. She passed away 7 years ago

What did you want to convey with the more blues-based material?

Well, we are a blues band, that’s what we always wanted since our high school days. I was influenced by Jimi Hendrix and his use of sound. I heard an interview with Hendrix’s drummer Buddy Miles and he talked about the Gutbucket style. We really see ourselves as a blues-based band with all those early influences like Hendrix, and Stevie ray Vaughn

You've picked up some jazz riffs as well. Do you see it as a natural progression in your craft?

I’ve seen so many world class jazz players in New York – it’s like the Mecca for Jazz musicians. I would sit close to the station and watch their hands and their fingering techniques – John Scofield was one influence. Bryan Rombalski is a big influence

What was it like to perform with your old mates again?

It’s all about friendship. We’ve actually been playing together on a fairly regular basis for the past three years or so. I’ve played with Jake since we were 14 years old. We had a cool Nirvana inspired punk band in high school called Everslacking. As juniors and seniors we gravitated away from punk and got into the blues. We would go out to see Larry McCray and Matt Besey. They inspired us. It’s great to have Brett back. He’s a great drummer with good instincts plus he is an excellent songwriter. He contributed several tracks to our new disc. After all is said and done, we grew up together – it’s natural.

You recorded at PK studios in Woodside, New York and Reed studios in Bay City. What was the advantage in recording at both studios? What was it like working with Andy Reed?

Andy is a mellow guy, nothing ruffles his feathers. He has a great ear for sound and he works fast. He gives concise instructions and advice – I could tell he had a lot of experience. He just set everything up and we went for it. We did everything live. The CD has a great natural sound – it’s really like hearing our stage show.

It's been a few years since I've last seen you perform. How would you rate your guitar playing now? In what way have you evolved? any New York influences?

It has been a few years since you've seen me. I am definitely more comfortable now than I ever was taking risks harmonically speaking with the instrument. I think my chops are a bit more refined and I'd like to think that when I make a mistake it just opens up another door to be more creative. I read the book "The Music Lesson" by Victor Wooten and it changed my life. Not to say that I'm making that many mistakes, but it’s fun to have the freedom not to care if you're in the groove improvisationally speaking. New York has obviously changed me because I am now surrounded by world class musicians that I have the opportunity to hear any time and in some cases now play with. It is an incredible city to live in and I continually embrace the culture. If you are bored in New York you have issues. At this point in my life I can't see myself living anywhere else You've always had a unique soulful syncopated vocal style, often singing in unison with the notes you are playing. How was it that you discovered that style? How would you rate your singing?

The Band of Gypsies influenced me to sing in unison with the guitar. Hendrix and Buddy Miles changed history by the simplicity of a pentatonic phrase being repeated in a soulful unison manner. I noticed that it really thickened the groove when in a trio situation. The vibrations of the string and voice can have a very strong impact of the note being played. George Benson's "Masquerade" also blew me away. The album Breezing' is also a huge inspiration as far as listening to Benson's amazing legato technique.

You are more thematically concise with the lyrics on this disc. What inspired you?

These songs are all over ten years old. I was really in a spiritual place back when I was 20 and I was heavily influenced by Hendrix at that time, and always will be. Also, Robert Johnson was painting pictures with his lyrics and I was trying to incorporate both, to somehow create a visual aspect to my music.

Do you remember the first time you played Whites? It was an older crowd - you were 19 years old. You won them over. Was it at this point that you realized you had something special going on?

When I played at your bar, we loved the crowd’s reaction and could feel the energy in the room. We were getting similar reactions back in Midland but it was cool to feel inspired in a real music bar with a crowd we were unfamiliar with. In my Mother's living room (who was my biggest fan), Brett, Jake and I knew we were getting good and we just needed to get in front of an audience. We were hungry to play for an appreciative music loving crowd. Your bar was that crowd.

How long have you lived in New York. Can you contrast the scene in NY with Saginaw in terms of original music and opportunities to perform?

Come August, I will have been a resident in New York for 5 years. Man, time flies. Exponentially speaking New York has limitless possibilities as far as venues to both play at and meet and hear other artists perform. It seems like one gig eventually leads me to another. It's kind of a mecca for the cultural renaissance of art and music. It's funny to think that in a two week span I went to see Sting, Chick Corea and John Scofield on the nights I wasn't playing. If you are a jazz fan, New York is your city.

Saginaw, being the historical city that it is, still has an old soul and I still feel it is a breeding ground for talent to blossom. I mean come on, Stevie Wonder is no slouch. You also have to factor in that Motown is not far from Saginaw and that seems to be in everyone’s musical subconscious. When hosting the jam sessions at Whites Bar I learned a lot from guys like Bruce Crawley, Mark Miller, Matt Besey, and countless others who were either living there or passing through. Working with Noel Howland also was a huge influence. If Michigan can get out of its economic slump soon I see Saginaw being on the forefront of its own renaissance.

Gutbucket opens the disc with Everything to Me, a Funk Brothers-inspired blues workout. It has a jazzy groove with an economy of expression and enough space between the notes that gives the music an unexpected punch. It has a guitar riff that is reminiscent of Peter Green’s Oh Well. Kellan sketches out an extended jam near the coda with a brief chord progression that channels Radar Love

Down in the Delta is an up-tempo blues with heavy syncopated beats. Kellan sings in unison to each note in the verses giving the lyrics an emotional valence that resonates like an electrical shock. Gutbucket pays homage to the black artists that inspired them to play the blues and go ”down to the Delta and get a gutbucket mop.”

Find your Soul is a spectacular tour de Force for Gutbucket. Kellan’s soulful singing is simply brilliant and the rhythm section of Krull and Mitchell carve out a rock solid framework for Kellan to stretch out and show his stuff. He’s all over the map with powerful yet nuanced vocals and nimble guitar work. He can punch out more notes in 12 bars than most cats pick in an entire set

St Mary’s River is a mid-tempo tone poem with some gorgeous country blues licks. Kellan delivers tasty full bodied notes that carry the message forward. Kellan’s guitar work is exquisite – perfect tone, phrasing and execution. His guitar is like another voice being heard. He’s smooth as silk and twice as soulful

Kellan hits the e-string with a vengeance on the fourth track, Gutbucket. Like the title suggests this is the bands calling card, straight up 12 bar blues with an echoed call and response between Kellan and Mitchell. As a drummer, Mitchell’s a bull, tough and durable. He pounds the skins like a heated up teen, holding his own and loving it. He’s not tricky, jazzed up or complex, he’s just rock solid – along with Jake Krull, the rhythm section gives Kellan plenty of space to stretch out with his trademark funky grooves, electrifying speeded up guitar workouts. Kellan is an expert in singing with each note he picks, hits, bends or stretches.

Cinema is a hard-edged funked up groove that is the perfect platform for the message in the lyrics. Gutbucket is giving the sermon. We are the flock. They are rocking their asses off on this track

No relief is a punk rock at its speeded up best. This is a tribute to their high school band Everslacking and they take no prisoners. Mitchell pounds out a frantic 4/4 beat like a heat seeking missile looking for a place to land. The frantic vocal performance is perfect. Gravitational insecurity sets in and the song ends like a crash. In the context of a disc that reveres 12-bar blues, Gutbucket sure took a chance. It was reassuring to me that these three great musicians could add-in an early influence even if it doesn’t seem to fit the format. It was a refreshing and honest.

.End of the Tunnel has a raucous rock & roll intro that segues into another Kellan funk fest. The band is tight as a vise, the timing is impeccable and they stop and start on a dime. Lyrically dark, Tunnel seems to be speaking to the general malaise in our country, our world. It’s a powerful statement

Sea of Jealousy is down home John Lee Hooker 12 bar blues. You just need to pound your foot in time, keeping it simple with sophisticated notions. Kellan’s guitar is ringing with an ancient sound like Robert Johnson at the crossroads. It feels like a clarion call to calm the fight, the inner turmoil.

FIAA is an acronym for Funk is all around. Kellan unleashes a supernaturally charged guitar trill that takes you into another dimension, a twilight zone of pyrotechnical sound, music and rhythm. The big beat nearly explodes in the grooves until Gutbucket transforms it with a stylish syncopated beat. The quiet chemistry between Krull and Mitchell is perfect foil for Kellan’s excursions. Their musical economy is brilliant. This is great stuff. I hope to hear more following this unexpected resurrection of one of my favorite bands

Peace

Bo White