The Rockets, featuring founding members guitarist Jim McCarty (Mystery Train) and drummer Johnny "Bee" Badanjek (Howling Diablos), will open for Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band on Tuesday (May 17) at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Many years ago, McCarty and Badanjek were members of Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels.
To see Gary Graff's previous story about The Rockets reuniting, click here.
To send info to JB Blues, please email Joe.ballor@dailytribune.com.
Anyone who doubts the power of music should have been at Callahan’s Music Hall Saturday for the Mudpuppy reunion that doubled as a benefit for ailing band percussionist Lorenzo Spoons Brown.
Spoons needed a cane and assistance from a friend just to make it up on the bandstand, but played the entire lengthy set that earned the band rousing applause at the end of the evening.
“He didn’t want it to stop, I don’t think any of us did, for obvious reasons,” said Mudpuppy guitarist Mark “Pazman” Pasman. “I know that he felt 20 years younger leaving than when he came in. I know that he was truly humbled the way everybody rallied around him and how much joy we had.”
Mark "Pazman" Pasman and Paul Randolph
In addition to Spoons and Pazman, the reunion concert featured Paul Randolph (Jazzanova) on vocals and bass and Darryl Pierce (Betty LaVette)on drums. Also joining in on the fun were “unofficial” Mudpuppy members Jimmy “Pickles” Nicholls on vocals and harmonica and Barb Davis on percussion.
Darryl Pierce
Pazman said that the band members used to have a standing bet on how long it would take Spoons to get up in front of the crowd and dance.
“Sure enough, by the second song he was up there with his slap sticks,” Pazman said.
The event raised money for medical expenses for Spoons, who has kidney failure and must undergo dialysis treatments three times a week.
“The money, obviously, was wonderful,” Pazman said. “But for a cat like Zo, the event itself was really magic. Not to mention, the music was pretty dang good.”
Laurent Vanhoenackere and Cyrille Bourgogne of the French acoustic duo !What The Folk? have a deep love of American roots music. Their new CD, “Living Roots,” features elements of blues, African-American spirituals, and country music.
You could call their trip to America a fact-finding mission.
“It’s very interesting,” Vanhoenackere said. “I tried to come with no expectations. We’ve been listening to American music for years and years, so we already had an idea of American history and the way people are and where it comes from. Some things appear to be so, and some things were very different than what we had in mind.” The duo played several dates in Georgia and Kentucky. Their home city, Mâcon in France’s Burgundy region, is the sister city to Macon, Ga. While in Macon, they were able to attend a local Gospel church service.
“I realized the importance of the churches and religion as the roots of black music, soul and funk, which I didn’t expect really,” Vanhoenackere said. “I know James Brown as James Brown, who is very sexual in a way and quite a way from the teachings of Sunday morning.”
The duo were also surprised at the racial segregation they’ve witnessed in our country.
“It’s the fact that the communities don’t mix (racially) at all, even in big cities,” Vanhoenackere said. “There’s some segregation in the South, definitely. The segregation is on both sides. We noticed that black people wouldn’t mix with white people either. It’s very different than European culture.
“France is in the center of Europe, so we have Spanish, Portuguese, Italians, and Algerian people who came to France to work. It’s very different. There are obviously language and religion differences, but we talk to everyone. We do a concert and Portuguese people will come to the concert and share a drink with the French people. All the people (here) are American, obviously, but it’s very different.”
The new release by !What The Folk? has three traditional American songs – “Pick a Bale (of Cotton),” “Western Plain” and “Black Betty” – and 10 originals inspired by American roots music. In another era, these guys would have been comfortable jamming with Jimmie Rodgers, Leadbelly or the Carter Family.
Like many Americans, the Frenchmen were initially exposed to the blues through the music of British rockers of the 1960s.
“In Europe, as everywhere in the world, we listen to The Beatles and the Rolling Stones,” Vanhoenackere said. “They are very popular in France. They themselves say that they are very much influenced by black American blues people. By listening to all these kinds of music, we went to the roots afterward. So, we wanted to come across the ocean and do some research, basically.”
Vanhoenackere and Bourgogne initially established an online friendship with Miles. That led to Miles touring Europe and performing in France with !What The Folk?.
“We made a connection, not just as musicians, but as people,” Miles said. “That adds to it and they are very, very versed in the traditions of the music.”
Miles sees musical collaborations as a way to bridge the gap between nations.
“ That’s how we get to know other people and that’s how we have a chance to have world peace,” Miles said. “Musically, if I can bring some people together and have a good time, then other musicians can go, ‘Wow, maybe I can play with a guy from Spain, or play with some African drummers, or a guy from Ireland.’ That’s the power of music.”
!What The Folk? and Paul Miles will perform at 8 p.m. Wednesday at AJ’s Music Cafe, 240 W. Nine Mile Road, Ferndale. There will be a $5 cover charge to raise travel money for the group. The event will also be livestreamed at www.ustream.tv/channel/aj-s-cafe-open-mic-with-ted-berlinghof.
This file photo shows the members of the band Mudpuppy. Pictured are, from left, Darryl Pierce, Paul Randolph, Mark "Pazman" Pasman, Amp Fiddler and Lorenzo Spoons Brown.
For nearly a decade, starting in 1994, Mudpuppy was one of the top bands in the Detroit area. The group played an eclectic mix of blues, soul, New Orleans jazz and Latin music that defied categorization.
The band, which will perform at a reunion show on Saturday at Callahan’s Music Hall, featured Paul Randolph on vocals and bass, Mark “Pazman” Pasman on guitar, Lorenzo Spoons Brown on percussion, Darryl Pierce on drums and a variety of keyboard players. It was not only multi-racial, but multi-generational as well.
Paul Randolph, from left, Mark "Pazman" Pasman and Darryl Pierce are looking forward to a Mudpuppy reunion concert Saturday at Callahan's Music Hall. The concert will benefit their ailing band mate Lorenzo Spoons Brown.
“We were different on all kinds of levels,” Pazman said. “We didn’t look like every band, we didn’t sound like every band and we didn’t fit into a little pocket too easy, like most other bands. That’s why most of our fans liked us. We didn’t care. As long as it made us feel good and people liked it, we thought we were on the right track.”
The band had plenty of career highlights. Mudpuppy was on Dan Aykroyd’s “House of Blues” radio show, appeared on the TV show “Emeril Live!” in New York, played at the original Buddy Guy’s Legends club in Chicago, and opened for War and Eddie Money. A particularly memorable gig was a show at Meadow Brook Music Festival with the Brian Setzer Orchestra and the Robert Cray Band.
Mudpuppy’s origins trace back to 1993 and a stint as the house band at the Holly Hotel in Holly, backing up touring blues musicians including singer Big Time Sarah and singer-guitarist Larry McCray.
“We noticed, from driving up there and listening to music together, that the place where we all crossed over together was this area that included the New Orleans thing, but also included bands like War and Los Lobos,” Pazman said. “All of our favorite bands were bands that didn’t believe in names or boxes. They made great American music and then let everyone else worry about what to call it. Now, that’s wonderful, but it also turned out to be, if not our demise, certainly the thing that kept holding us back.
“The blues labels would hear it and say, ‘You’re awfully good but you’re not a blues band.’ Then, we would send our stuff to the other labels and they would go, ‘Oh, you’re a blues band, we don’t want anything to do with you.’ So we boxed ourselves out of a corner. Looking back, we wouldn’t change a damn thing, because that’s what we were.”
“The audience’s got it,” Pierce said. “They dug it.”
Mudpuppy never had a farewell show. Band members became involved in other projects and the group just sort of faded into the background. Randolph is known internationally for his work with the group Jazzanova as well as collaborations with producers from around the world. He’ll be performingwith the Dusseldorf Orchestra in July. Pierce tours with soul singer Bettye LaVette and also plays in the new soul/party band Jeanne & the Dreams with Pazman, whohas hosted his "Motor City Blues Project" radio show on WCSX (94.7 FM) on Sunday evenings for 22 years and leads the popular Pazman’s Supersessions performances.
“There wasn’t a ‘last show.’ That’s one of the reason s we’re doing this,” Pazman said. “We just kind of fizzled out. Everybody got busy and part of the reason we didn’t just shut the door is because we all loved this thing. It was truly a labor of love. And we grew to love each other.”
“We never saw it ending,” Pierce said. “It just had its own engine.”
Saturday’s reunion show is also a fundraiser for Brown, who is suffering from kidney failure and must receive dialysis treatments three times a week. Brown hopes to perform at Saturday’s show if he’s physically capable. Also scheduled to perform Saturday are keyboardist Sean McDonald and the unofficial “sixth Mudpuppy,” singer-harmonica player Jimmy “Pickles” Nicholls.
Mudpuppy’s live shows back in the day were known for improvisational jams. Brown would roam among the crowd, whipping fans into a frenzied state. Randolph recalled a particularly memorable gig at the old Memphis Smoke in West Bloomfield.
“Basically anything that made a noise and he could bang on he would bring (to the gig) and would bring music out of it,” Randolph said. “One night, he brought out a kitchen sink. He had somebody in the audience carry it around for him.”
The crowd went wild, following him around in a pseudo conga line.
“It was amazing,” Randolph said. “Then, the next time we saw him, we said, ‘Where’s the kitchen sink?’ (Brown said), ‘I lost it.’”
Pasman, Pierce and Randolph recently visited Brown at his Detroit home.Despite his physical ailments, Brown remained the same happy fellow the band members call “Mr. Positive.”
“He had that same wonderful, bright, shiny smile,” Pierce said. “He knows he has some problems, but he was so positive. I feed off that.”
The Mudpuppy reunion/benefit will be Saturday, April 30 at Callahan’s Music Hall, 2105 South Blvd., in Auburn Hills. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door.Jeanne & the Dreams opens. For information, call (248) 858-9508 or click www.atcallahans.com.
To contact JB Blues, please email Joe.ballor@dailytribune.com
