Twin Cities

Double Nickels

In 1976 we discovered that there was a huge, untapped market for mixed-genre entertainment that was mostly country but included a variety of music from the older (50s) pop charts.  Double Nickels jumped on that vehicle and gave it a good, hard ride for about 4 years. 

I played keys, guitar, and fiddle in that group.  Our bassist doubled on banjo; when he played banjo the guitarist switched to bass.  That gave us the flexibility to at least simulate electric "newgrass" music. 

Incidently, "Double Nickels" was CB slang for "55 mph".  Our first gig was an extended stay at a bar on US 12 between St. Paul and Hudson, WI, fairly close to 3M.  This is before I-94 was completed so the road was open access and there was a LOT of semi truck traffic.  The Hitchin' Rail was a favorite trucker hangout... it wasn't unusual to see 25 semis parked in the lot on a Friday night. 

From the left....

Me.  I don't remember what I was laughing at but the photographer we used was good at getting people to react.  Jim VanBuskirk, bass & banjo.  Jim is the original founder of "Play It Again Sports", a national used sporting goods franchise that has been an amazing success.  There are a couple of them right around here.  Dan Latham, guitar, bass, & mandolin.  The last I knew of Dan he was in business with his father selling and installing indoor air purification equipment for commercial, home, and industrial applications.  Bob Talbot, drums.  You may know the "7 degrees to Kevin Bacon" game.  Bob worked in a Minneapolis band called "Star" that featured Dez Dickerson (Prince's guitarist) before Double Nickels. Last I heard of Bob's whereabouts he was in the food distribution business.   

Pony Express 

Double Nickels began to get stale in our 4th year due to natural forces in the life of a band.  I wanted to expand the repertoire with the many hits sung by female artists and always missed having a steel guitar in the band.  So I left Double Nickels and formed Pony Express, the original lineup pictured to the right.

This band took off like a rocket and soon developed a huge fan base in the Twin Cities.  Barbie Burke was immensely popular and the band as a whole had a compelling stage presence, albeit a bit on the weird side.  Jim Dahl's drumming was not coming from country in the slightest.  Symphonic funk/rock might be a better description.  Rick Vail, guitar, steel guitar, and banjo, worked great with what I did on keys, guitar, and fiddle to cover the middle of the rhythm section and create a great variety of musical textures.  Toby Travis on bass was our warm-and-fuzzy hippie guy.  We covered a lot of ground with our playlist, hitting the best of Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Karla Bonoff,  Charlie Daniels, Waylon Jennings, The Eagles, and a host of current radio hits.

This is a later iteration of our staff about 2 and a half years into it.  As you may notice, there was a complete changeover.  In the interim we had one group that was all male, but I think this combination was my personal favorite, except for the drummer. (Nothing personal, Dave).  In this promo shot we were doing our homespun/bluegrass thing, which was an important part of our show but not the extent of it by any means.  We were just as comfortable covering Jefferson Airplane or Cream as playing bluegrass.

On the left is Kenny Wilson, a fantastic technical and musical wizard on 3 instruments (at least) including steel guitar, guitar, and banjo.  Debbie Nienow covered most of our lead vocals and I alway admired her voice and delivery.  Bruce Bailey played bass and sang.  The washboardist was our drummer Dave Prall who was with PE for a short time.

This is the group I took to Europe and was the final version of PE, minus our bassist Bruce Bailey.  Bruce's wife became ill with cancer right before we left so he had to stay home and take care of her. I tapped Jim VanBuskirk (formerly from Double Nickels) to fill in for the tour.  On the right is my friend Gary DuPre, a fine drummer who now owns Evans Music store in White Bear Lake.  I've lost track, unfortunately, of the rest of the band. 

While in Europe, we spent 1 month playing American and Canadian airbases in West Germany.  We played at two different clubs in downtown Oslo, Norway for 2 months.  It was a great experience although it really wasn't career-building. 

This photo to the left is late in the game and one of my favorites.  At the right is Joe Perrault, who drummed with us for several months before we went to Europe.  After Pony Express disbanded, some of these members reformed as the band Wheels, which did all original material.  They sent me a tape which I enjoy.  It's a noble effort, but hard to do in night clubs.  Better to write the songs and then try to get other (famous) people to play them, I think.  People in clubs mostly want to hear dance music that they know how to dance to.  I really love these guys (and Debbie), hope they're all well.  

Clutch Cargo

Clutch Cargo was my last full time band in Minneapolis.  We tried to tread the line between a 60s revival band and a "new country" band.  Quite a bit of blues thrown in, too.  These are some of the best musicians I've ever worked with and the playlist was a lot of fun.  They were too tall, though. 

From the left, "Grover" Tate, who previously was a founding member of Steamboat Willie, a wildly successful "Urban Cowboy" band in Minneapolis that featured Donna Proctor on fiddle.  On my left is "Gino" Sherseth, probably the best guitar player I ever worked with.  Gino is a self-taught musician with an excellent ear and a gift for copping anybody's style from J. J. Cale to Jimi Hendrix to Stevie Ray Vaughn.  It used to amaze me how easy he made it look.  To the far right is Charlie Merideth, who is a seasoned drummer with an amazing repertoire and really good chops.  He could play anything.  Hey Charlie... if you ever read this, give me a call. I somehow ended up with your Springsteen LP.    

EARZ

This was probably the most efficient band I ever worked with.  Pictured at left are Tom Hanson and John Keene, both fellow music teachers at Music+ in Minneapolis in 1986.  They needed a keyboardist/bassist for their wedding trio and I was the perfect fit.  This band played everything and anything, from Prince to Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie polka. We tapped into the lucrative wedding market and played some rather posh gigs at country clubs as well as the VFW circuit.  Tom and John are excellent musicians and teachers and they really know how to run a business.  Our typical setup time was 30 minutes and teardown and loadout took as little as 15 minutes.  That, friends, is a high-efficiency band! 

John bought Roland's first MIDI guitar when it became available.  (Music+ was a Roland dealer; that's where I bought my Juno-106).  The guitar was interesting; it had electronics in it that would sample the electrical signal generated by the pickups and then calculate the pitch and output that note number.  In order to calculate the pitch, it required one full cycle of the note, so since the wavelength gets longer for lower notes, the sample time increased as you played lower pitches on the guitar.  This introduced latency on the lower pitches that made it difficult to use as a lead instrument, but it worked fine for pads (synth term for programs that are long, slow attack, and sustained).