Two FREE Songs from the Willie Phoenix Tribute Machine

                    Willie Phoenix Tribute Machine
          “Hey Little Girl” b/w “Strike Up the Band”

     Click here to check out the tunes!       

or click here for FREE Soundcloud link

“Willie’s skin was the color of baker’s chocolate. He sang like Wilson Pickett, wore his Telecaster upside down like Hendrix, and had Elvis Costello’s gift for cutting a pop gem. He didn’t play second to James Brown when putting on a show. He’s as good as we’ve ever seen. Who else is there? Prince? Springsteen?” – Joe Oestreich, Hitless Wonder

If you Googled the name Willie Phoenix you wouldn’t learn much.  Like another “Searching for Sugarman” it seems impossible that a musician with a career spanning thousands of songs, concerts & live gigs could still remain a virtual mystery in this day and age. 

This much we know: Willie was born in Marion, Ohio, in 1952 and has done NOTHING but play rock n roll since 1975.  He doesn’t drink or smoke.  Nobody knows where he lives.  Nobody has ever had his phone number.  Bandmates would wait by their phones for a pay phone call from Willie for practice and gig information. He plays a show or records a new song every night.  Always. 

The Willie Phoenix Tribute Machine is an attempt by Columbus, Ohio, musicians to preserve Willie’s legacy and draw attention to his enormous talents, which have inspired and entertained so many people in Central Ohio over the past forty years.  Please enjoy these free cover versions drawn from Willie’s back catalog, but more importantly, catch Willie playing live or drop him a line on Facebook and let him feel your love.  PLEASE send all Willie Phoenix stories, pictures, or discography info to williepproject@gmail.com.   

Click here to visit WilliePhoenix.com and all things Willie 

Click head to read Joel Oliphint's essential Willie Phoenix article published by Columbus Monthly January 2015 

A few words about the tunes, from Ricki C., longtime Phoenix roadie.
(For more on Willie, check out The Ballad of Willie Phoenix, on Ricki’s blog, Growing Old With Rock & Roll.) 

“Hey Little Girl” – I can’t remember the first time I heard this song.  I know it was from the first incarnation of The Buttons, circa early 1979 when Dee Hunt was still the drummer.  (The recorded version, self-released by The Buttons on a 7-inch 45 in 1980, featured Jerry Hanahan on drums.)  Willie was just putting so many new songs into the set back then, it would make your head spin.  I’m pretty sure this was from a particularly Elvis Costello-inspired period that also brought “Take My Advice” into the repertoire.

“Strike Up The Band” – This was the third song I ever heard Willie play, from when I ventured out a week after The Great Blizzard of 1978 to see Romantic Noise on February 3rd, 1978.  I have a heroically garbled tape of that show, made on one of those little dawn-of-time portable Panasonic cassette recorders, that I had brought to the show to interview Willie, for my punk fanzine, Teenage Rampage.  (see blog referenced above)  On that tape I can be heard saying – in reference to “Strike Up The Band” – “This sounds like the 1910 Fruitgum Company crossed with The Ramones.”  I stand by that statement to this day in 2015.  It was Willie’s early genius to cross classic pop with punk intensity into one of the greatest mixtures of power-pop I have ever witnessed.

Watershed Performing in Columbus August 15th. Happy Fifth of July!

Watershed will be playing a full-go, balls-out set of rock n roll music at Ace of Cups on Saturday, August 15th in Columbus, OH. This is quite likely the only Watershed show in 2015, though bigger things are planned for 2016. Save the date now.

Click here to read the complete Watershed songs rankings with videos, commentary and free nacho chips. 

WATERSHED - 5th Of July

CD102.5 and Their Declaration of Independence. Tune in July 6th and Invest in CD102.5

Columbus' own CD102.5 is one of the last independent rock radio stations still broadcasting in the USA. Starting July 6th they will be conducting a crowd-funding campaign to purchase their own broadcasting tower, allowing them to stay independent long into the future.

To mark the event, they will be hosting local musicians performing live on the air Monday July 6th. I will be playing at 11:30am sharp with more musicians continuing the rest of the day.

Nobody does more to support the Columbus music scene than CD1025. If you are interested in checking it out and chipping in, please click here to visit CD1025.com 

Or tune in Monday July 6th to learn all about it. - Colin G.

Below: Hard evidence of CD102.5 supporting local music.

Live from the CD102.5 Big Room, Colin Gawel with "Superior" on April 10, 2010.

Watershed in the CD102.5 Big Room from August 10, 2012.

THIS MONTH IN ROCK 'N ROLL HISTORY: THE KNACK / GET THE KNACK - BY SCOTT CARR

June 15, 1979 - The Knack released one of the fastest selling debut albums in history. Get The Knack sold over a million copies in just two months and would spend five weeks at the number one spot on Billboards album charts. 

The Knack are viewed as an overnight success, but in reality were one of the hardest-working bands in the business and had more than paid their dues. Singer/guitarist Doug Fieger cut his teeth with the Michigan-based power trio Sky in the early 70's.  Sky released two records for RCA, Don't Hold Back and Sailor's Delight. Rolling Stones producer Jimmy Miller signed Sky to RCA after Doug Fieger had invited him to come see the band play. Miller would also produce both records for the band. Sky did not achieve much commercial success and broke up after the release of their second record. Doug Fieger relocated to Los Angeles where he met the guy that would become his songwriting partner for the next thirty plus years: that guy was guitarist Berton Averre. Doug and Berton began writing and demoing songs in 1973. Some of these songs would make their way onto The Knack's debut album and others remained in the vaults until the release of 2012's Rock & Roll Is Good for You: The Fieger/Averre Demos. Drummer Bruce Gary and bassist Prescott Niles would eventually join the band and The Knack made their live debut on June 1st 1978 at the Whisky A Go-Go in Los Angeles.  

After having their demos rejected by dozens of record labels The Knack took to the clubs, began a relentless string of shows and quickly became one of the hottest tickets in town. Word was spreading about the band and people like Bruce Springsteen, Stephen Stills, Tom Petty and Ray Manzarek began turning out for shows. Not only were these guys coming to shows, they wanted to share the stage with The Knack and jam. All of this attention soon led to a bidding war between the labels and in the end The Knack signed with Capitol records. Doug Fieger said that one Friday night Bruce Springsteen got up on stage and jammed with the band and the following Monday morning they had 14 offers on the table. Not bad for a band that just a few months prior had seen nothing but rejection.

The Knack with Capitol A&R man Bruce Ravid.

Get The Knack features eleven original songs plus a cover of "Heartbeat," a song originally made famous by Buddy Holly. However, The Knack are actually doing a sped-up version of Humble Pie's cover of "Heartbeat."  Doug Fieger was a huge fan of Steve Marriott and loved their version of the song. Get The Knack opens with probably the best one/two punch in power pop history: "Let Me Out" is a frantic Kinks inspired opener that gives way to the gloriously melodic "Your Number Or Your Name." Other highlights on side one include "Oh Tara," "Maybe Tonight" and "(She's So) Selfish" which was intended as the third single from the album but was scrapped because Capitol wanted the band to record their follow-up album as soon as possible.

"Good Girls Don't" brings side one to an end and is a song that dates back to the early Fieger/Averre demos and would become the bands second-biggest single. Side two opens with "My Sharona" which was released as the lead single from the album and became the fastest-selling debut single for Capitol records since The Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and was the biggest selling single of 1979. "My Sharona" hit the number one spot on the Billboard singles chart and remained there for six weeks. "My Sharona" was written about a real person and the real Sharona appears on the picture sleeve of the single. Berton Averre's guitar work throughout Get The Knack is flawless and the solo he put down on "My Sharona" is one of his best. Another early Fieger/Averre demo gets a reworking with the inclusion of "It's What The Little Girls Do" on side two. Many of Fieger's lyrics on Get The Knack were inspired by the real life Sharona Alperin and the albums closer "Frustrated" is no exception, Fieger was infatuated with Sharona but she kept him at arm's length and this song is the ultimate exercise in frustration.  "Frustrated" appeared on the B-side of "My Sharona" but the band felt it was strong enough to be an A-side in it's own right. Get The Knack was produced by Mike Chapman, who is best known for his work with the band Sweet and also producing Nick Gilder and Blondie. The album was recorded in just eleven days with minimal overdubs and a budget of only $17,000. The album seems to effortlessly capture the live energy of the band and is a perfect representation of The Knack in every way .  

The Knack wanted their debut to be a double album but this idea was nixed by the label and the only song not used was an unreleased Bruce Springsteen track "Don't Look Back." Everyone was pleased with The Knack's take of "Don't Look Back" but the Springsteen camp decided that they didn't want the song on the market at that time,  so the track remained unreleased for many years. While The Knack wore their influences firmly on their sleeve and were equal parts Beatles, Kinks, Beach Boys and Buddy Holly, they presented it in a way that had never been done before and delivered a sound that was completely original and clearly The Knack.

Bruce Springsteen on stage with The Knack.

Bruce backstage with The Knack.

Doug Fieger and The Knack created one of the best debut albums of all time and thirty six years later Get The Knack sounds as fresh, exciting and important as the day it was released. The Knack would release several more fantastic records over the years including 1981's Round Trip, 1991's comeback album Serious Fun and 1998's Zoom.  Although the band never quite matched the commercial success of their debut album, Doug Fieger summed things up quite nicely with this quote...

“We’ve already had the success you dream about.  But we’ve never played our music for that. We play it because this is the only worthwhile pop music to make – fun and sad, silly and smart, explosive but sweet, snide but vulnerable. It’s not about being cool but about being goofy and having a great time. We didn’t invent this, but it’s what we do.” – Doug Fieger

"My Sharona" picture sleeve featuring the real Sharona.

Sadly drummer Bruce Gary passed away in August of 2002 after a long battle with lymphoma and Doug Fieger was diagnosed with two brain tumors shortly after Gary's death. Fieger lost his battle with cancer on Valentine's Day 2010. Fieger's passing was a huge blow to the power pop music community and to all that knew him.

Recently Omnivore Records released expanded versions The Knack's last two studio records, Zoom and Normal As The Next Guy both featuring several bonus tracks and in July they will also be re-issuing Live From The Rock ‘n’ Roll Fun House. It seems that after all these years people are still getting The Knack......

Scott Carr is a guitarist who plays in the Columbus, OH  bands Radio Tramps and Returning April. Scott is also an avid collector of vinyl records and works at Lost Weekend Records. So...if you are looking for Scott....you'll either find him in a dimly lit bar playing his guitar or in a record store digging for the holy grail.

Clip from 1975 of Doug Fieger and Berton Averre performing "(Here On This) Lonely Night." Taken from the Omnivore Recordings release by The Knack - Rock & Roll Is Good For You: The Fieger/Averre Demos. Available on CD / Digital & LP on September 11, 2012

Provided to YouTube by Warner Music Group Good Girls Don't (Demo) · The Knack ℗ 2012 Zen Records, under exclusive license to Omnivore Recordings ℗ 2012 Zen Records. All rights reserved. Released on: 2012-09-11 Auto-generated by YouTube.

Provided to YouTube by Warner Music Group That's What The Little Girls Do (Demo) · The Knack ℗ 2012 Zen Records, under exclusive license to Omnivore Recordings ℗ 2012 Zen Records. All rights reserved. Released on: 2012-09-11 Auto-generated by YouTube.

Live performance by The Knack taken from the Zen Records/Omnivore Recordings release of Havin' A Rave-Up! Live In Los Angeles, 1978. Available on CD and Digital Download May 22, 2012.

FROM CARNEGIE HALL , NYC ON 3-18-79. WHERE WERE YOU ?

They were one of the world's most beloved and hated rock bands. Celebrating the 25th anniversary release of their international smash hit, "My Sharona," "Getting The Knack" explores the group's dynamic and often controversial career via candid interviews with the original band, producers Mike Chapman and Jack Douglas, Sharona Alperin, (the inspiration behind their biggest hit), Steve Jones of The Sex Pistols, Rick Springfield, Elliot Easton of The Cars, Devo's Bob Mothersbaugh, comedian Weird Al Yankovic and many more.

Uploaded by Doug Fieger on 2011-06-07.

http://omnivorerecordings.com/artist/the-knack/

From a long lost German TV recording... 1980 Bremen.

Thank You Chris Squire by Wal Ozello

Many of my friends would tout Rush as the greatest Prog Rock band ever, but I would argue Yes every day of the week and twice on Sunday.  The constant of Yes is none other than Chris Squire who passed away Saturday night.  Squire, who was 67, was suffering from a rare form of leukemia.

What differentiates Yes from Rush and specifically Squire from Geddy Lee is while Rush's members have elite technical musical prowess, Yes is much more melodic in every sense of the word.  Though Squire isn't singing lead vocals and playing keyboards with his feet while playing bass like Mr. Lee, his bass lines are soothing, inviting, and song-worthy - not just a bunch of interesting notes. It's like the difference between jazz and blues. Good jazz is interesting and otherworldly, Blues is human.  And listening to Squire's bass is like listening to his soul dance out of his Rickenbacker. Otherworldly.

I've seen Yes three times in concert and each time I was duly impressed and always blown away by Squire. He also influenced many bass players who came after him, including Billy Sheehan,  Steve Harris of Iron Maiden, Les Claypool of Primus, John Myung of Dream Theater, Robert DeLeo of Stone Temple Pilots and of course Geddy himself.

Squire will be missed by many and I will forever be grateful for his music.

If you're unfamiliar with Squire's work, check out a couple of the video clips below.

Long Distance Runaround

Starship Trooper

Heart of The Sunrise (My favorite)

Wal Ozello is the former singer of the Columbus hairband Armada. He's the author of the science fiction time travel books , Revolution 1990 and Sacrifice 2086 and a frequent customer at Colin's Coffee.

Guitarist Freddie Free Talks Haynes Boys with Colin G.

The mid-nineties were an exciting time in the Columbus music scene. I'm not going to bore you with a long history lesson, except to say my favorite band from that period was the Haynes Boys. This Comfest weekend, the self-titled Haynes Boys debut record is finally being re-released on vinyl and on I-Tunes. Not being a music critic, my best description would be it sounds something like Keith Richards producing Gram Parsons in his basement at Nellcote. I LOVE THIS RECORD.   Pick up a copy here or better yet catch them at Lost Weekend Records Thursday, June 25th, at 7 pm; Ace of Cups Friday, June 26th, at 10pm; or the Off Ramp Stage at 1:55 pm, Sunday, June 27th for Comfest.

Haynes Boys guitarist Freddie Free (listed as Phillip Park on HB credits) was kind enough to answer a couple of my questions. 

Colin - Do you remember your first practice with the entire original line-up of the Haynes Boys? Did it click from the start or did it take a while to jell? What was the first song you worked on?

Freddie - Yes, I remember my first HBs practice because I had a huge, swollen black eye from being punched in the face the day before, while ill-advisedly riding my bike through a crowd during "Heritage" weekend on OSU campus, almost immediately post-Rodney King LA race riots. It was my first real, direct experience of racial violence, and it was a real eye-opener... pun intended. So, that would put my first practice at around May or June 1992.

Colin - Where did you guys rehearse back in the day? 

Freddie - Funny you should ask, because those first practices were actually held in the basement of the place where Tim Scholl, who I was in the process of replacing on guitar at the time, was living. Luckily for all of us, Tim Scholl seemed to have a remarkably tolerant attitude about that, despite the fact that he was understandably a little disenchanted with the band that point. But my understanding was that he had chosen to leave the band, and he and I have been friends ever since. And that place is about two blocks from where I live right now.

Colin - Did you frequent a certain bar before or after practice?

Freddie - I seem to remember that we did hang out a little bit at Dow's On High, as well as at nearby Staches, of course. Both of which places we would be come to play on a fairly regular basis

Colin - What was your first gig like? 

Freddie - The first gig I played with Haynes Boys was at a well-respected restaurant and music bar called The Dell in Old Town East, where Carabar is now located, I believe. One memorable feature of The Dell was that a large stuffed Blue Marlin was prominently mounted above the stage, and was always a potential hazard to anyone playing that particular venue. I always had the feeling I was going to get an eye gouged out, or a limb gored by proximity to that thing...

I remember that Dan Dow of Used Kids Records and, I believe, Don Howland, both of whom were also in The Gibson Brothers (an important early influence on our band) were both present for that show, and that I sang the lead vocal on a cover of Big Star's "Way Out West" for the first time that night. Unusual, because Tim Easton was, by that point, lead vocalist on nearly every song we would play, many of which would be his original songs.

Colin - What was your favorite cover tune to slip in the set?

Freddie - Along with the aforementioned Big Star cover, we did things like "Cigarettes and Whiskey and Wild, Wild Women" and some really odd stuff too, like Ivor Cutler's song "Bugs." (I'm going to attach a long list here of cover songs that Aaron Rice recently compiled and posted on the HBs Facebook page.)

Colin - Did you guys get along personally while touring?

Freddie - We did all generally get along pretty well on the road, at least until we did our longest and most intense tour in 1994, when we spent a good part of that summer playing just about every club, pub and/or hole in the wall that the South of England, to some degree unwittingly, had to offer. The cracks began to show there, but I should also point out that was also the tour that made us into a "real" rock 'n' roll band, a band ready to make a solid first album a year or so down the road. When we came back to Ohio off that tour, we were a completely different animal, and ready to take on just about anything that would stand in the way.

Colin - Who did most of the driving? 

Freddie - Jovan did almost ALL of the driving, most notably on the gruelingly-long English tour, where he was apparently the only one capable of driving consistently on the "wrong side of the road." as you do over there. That, however, did not prevent us from being pulled over once or twice by a curious Bobby or two, who wondered aloud what the hand-rolled cigarette in Jovan's shirt-front pocket really might be. "What's all this, then...?"

Colin - What music would you guys listen to while traveling?

Freddie - We would listen to all manner of music in the touring van or car, but one memorable, if otherwise uncharacteristic, ritual we developed specifically for that English trip was that, as a way of remembering our American roots and "grounding" ourselves to some extent, we took to listening to Springsteen's Darkness on the Edge of Town and Nebraska albums back to back, and in their entirety every morning, over our usual Weetabix and tea breakfasts.

Colin - What shows/cities do you remember fondly?

Freddie - There are many memorable shows, but, among the most notable are: the first show we played at Stache's right after returning from England as, essentially, a whole "new" band compared to what we were before that tour; a show we played in Austin for SXSW in 1995 which more or less landed us a record deal; and a show we played in D.C. while on tour with Cracker, sometime around '97 or '98, which probably showed us at about the peak of our live performing capabilities.

Colin - Where did you guys stay while recording in Nashville?

Freddie - The recording studio there is Alex The Great, owned and operated by Brad Jones and Robin Eaton, who co-produced the record with the band. The studio had a large apartment attached to it, as well as, now, a large mastering facility, Club Roar, and other very useful spaces, like the big room with the ping-pong table where Club Roar is now. So we basically lived in the studio during those frantic seven days in which we recorded all the basic tracks and overdubs, and oversaw the mixing for what would become our debut record.

Colin - Did you tinker with the arrangements in the studio or pretty much lay them down as you had been performing them live?

Freddie - We had the arrangements before going in, and we worked closely with Brad Jones and Robin Eaton to see that the songs were basically recorded the way we were envisioned them, but we also incorporated some of their ideas too. It was a shotgun wedding that seemed to work.

Colin - What guitars and amps were you using to record?

Freddie - I'd fallen in love with Vox AC 30 amps, and it just so happened that they had a really sweet one at Alex The Great. I remember that Brad had a cool way of routing the Vox's amp signal back into itself in a loop from one in-jack to the other channel.

I played my trusty old 1972 Fender Telecaster and a mid-60s Fender Mustang I'd recently got. Tim, I believe, plugged his electric guitars into mostly Fender amps, or maybe a few odds and ends they had around. We may have occasionally amped an acoustic guitar as well, but Tim used a clean acoustic guitar on several songs.

Colin - Do you have an idea how many people are already familiar with the record or does it feel like a new release? 

Freddie - There were a good number of people that liked the record when it first came out, and more so after we toured it for some time and were starting some radio airplay, particularly on the East Coast. Some people, like Joe Carver at Re-Vinyl records, obviously held it close enough that the record is coming out again now and is available on vinyl for first time also. 

The remastering for vinyl and iTunes, plus the corrected sleeve art make it much closer to our original vision, so that does make it feel a little bit like a new record to me.

Colin Gawel's band Watershed played many shows with the Haynes Boys. He would also often show up at their gigs loaded and scream "Play Maryhaven Family!" He founded Pencilstorm.com and owns Colin's Coffee in Columbus, OH.

ThePopcornTrick.com presents Concerts at the Cline Compound featuring Tim Easton. On 7/27/09, Tim entertained a crowd of current and future fans for nearly 2 hours. This is one of the numbers he did. The Cline Compound is a fancy way of saying "my house", and is located in Media, PA.