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AUDIO COMING SOON |
Saturday, October 18, 2025
The Psychedelic Sounds of Howie Thayer (La Moille)
Saturday, September 13, 2025
Michael Day's 1972 Demo Recordings For Columbia Records
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Billy Rose II, Michael Day, Kip Cohen, Paul Leka |
His introduction to the prestigious label was likely arranged by local talent agent, Irving Azoff. Now one of the most powerful men in the music business, Azoff was just starting to make a name for himself beyond the Champaign-Urbana music scene in 1972. One of Azoff's earliest discoveries, Dan Fogelberg, had recently signed with Columbia. REO Speedwagon, another of Azoff's, had their first album released on Epic, a subsidiary of Columbia, the year before. Day was hoping to be the next.
Joined by a group of mostly central Illinois musicians, Day spent six days at the Connecticut Recording Studios with producers Billy Rose II and Paul Leka (the same studio and producers REO Speedwagon had used for their first album). There they recorded five of Michael's originals to present to Kip Cohen, head of A&R for Columbia Records:
- Dr. Freedmont's Bone Elixir
- Back On My Own
- Lead Me Love
- Whiskey Woman (later renamed "Let This Good Man Be")
- I Can Feel It
Saturday, May 10, 2025
Count Demon (Champaign)
In May 1949, the Duke Jenkins sextet took up residence at the Brass Rail Club in Chicago. While in Chicago, they recorded several sides for Aristocrat Records (a direct predecessor to Chess Records) though only one single was ever released.
An article in the St. Paul Recorder from February 18, 1955 mentions that Count Demon had just finished a recording of "Slipping and Sliding" with Chance Records in Chicago. If true, it may have been one of the last sessions done for the label which had already folded by the time that article ran.
There is no evidence the track was ever released by Chance or any other label. Count Demon however recorded a live version of "Slippin and Slidin" several years later and released it on his own Po' Boy's Record Company. The flip side of the 1962 single was "Why Did You Leave Me."
#300 - My Isabella / I Don't Believe#301 - Slippin' and Slidin' / Why Did You Leave Me#302 - Take It Upstairs Pt 1 / Take It Upstairs Pt 2#303 - Wanderin' Child / Slow Train
Richard Davis, described as one of the Count's best friends, remembers him as being "tall and thin. He could eat a lot but he'd never eat right. He led that musician's life. He didn't drink that much, he didn't use drugs or anything. He just didn't need those crutches."
Regarding his place in the community, Davis adds, "He used to operate a record store across the street from Tommy's Barber Shop (at First and Church Streets in Champaign). A lot of people used to confide in Count Demon. He was not only a musician, he was also a teacher. At the same time he was helping you learn about music, he could also help you learn about all that stuff out there (in the world), because he'd been there. Lot of people that set up shop in that record store turn out to be very involved in the civil rights movements of the '60s."
Candy Foster, a Champaign-area soul and blues legend that is still active today at age 89, regards Count Demon as a mentor. In a 2015 interview, Foster said this about Demon:
"He did a whole lot for me, took me under his wing as a young man, 19, 20, and...and showed me the ropes, ‘cause he was an entertainer, he get up there and he’d sing, and dance, and do everything, people were crazy about him. And he did novelties, songs. And all kind of things to keep people laughing, and when he danced, he had long legs, well he goin’ down, had a Mexican sombrero (laughter), he was a great hit, and – and, so, he just – he just knew how to entertain."
Earlier this year Illinois Public Media produced the documentary, Candy Foster: A Musical Witness. At the 15:30 mark, Foster and others talk directly about the life and legacy of Count Demon.
Thursday, April 3, 2025
The Vanguards (Mendota)
The combo formed in 1964 and got their start playing at the local youth center, the Mendota Kanteen.
By 1966, the group was performing throughout the northern half of Illinois, including gigs in DeKalb, Dixon, Princeton, Ottawa, Streator and even Chicago.
In early 1966 the group travelled to the Universal Recording Studio in Chicago for a recording session. The end result was a single which the band self-released in the summer of that year.
The 45 included "What's Wrong With You," an original written by Martin and Fitzgerald, along with a cover of Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven" on the flip side. (The audio in the YouTube videos below was transferred directly from the master tapes not from a record.)
Fast forward to 2010, when singer Tony Martin and his wife were involved in a car accident which left him with serious spinal injuries. A benefit was planned for Martin in January 2011. The day before the event, all of the members of the Vanguards joined Martin at his bedside. It was the first time in 43 years they were all together again.
Tony Martin passed away in 2014. In the 40+ years after the Vanguards he continued to sing, performing with multiple area bands such as the Old News Band, Rum and Chowder and Lonwolf.
Guitarist John "Jack" Wagner continues to write and perform music in Texas to this day. You can listen and purchase his latest release HERE. He also writes musical stage plays. His most recent, Dream Catcher: The Ray Scott Story, is currently being produced by the Mystic Cat Society in Houston.
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
The Byrds Flock to Illinois on First U.S. Tour (July 1965)
The Byrds' trek across America was in a regular Continental Trailways excursion bus replete with standard bus seats. No bunks, bedrooms, bars, or kitchen like today's touring buses; just your normal 60-passenger bus pulling a trailer with the group's gear (including new Fender Dual Showman amplifiers boasting 100 watts - the loudest on the market at the time - courtesy of CBS, who had recently acquired the renowned instrument maker).
Along for the trip were L.A. scene-makers Vito [Paulekas] and Carl [Franzoni] and their entourage of crazed hippie dancers whose uninhibited gyrations caused quite a stir in the heartlands of America.
The Byrds wind up their Midwest tour with dates in Paris, IL (playing the Pavilion in Twin Lakes Amusement Park), and a pair of hastily arranged suburban Chicago school bookings at Morton High School, Berwyn, IL, and Arlington Heights High School, Arlington Heights, IL - the latter with The Shadows of Knight in support again.
It was amazing. I don't think the Mid-West was ready for Carl Franzoni and the whole troupe of us. We'd go into restaurants in the Mid-West and they wouldn't wait on us. They thought we were something from Outer Space. In Paris, Illinois, they actually threw us off the dance floor. I think they cancelled the gig that night."
July 1965 Tour Dates & Additional Info
Hjort claims that the Byrds failed to show up for this gig and that the Thunderbolts from nearby Carroll, IA play instead.
After the concert in Grand Haven, Michigan, a picture ran in the Muskegon Chronicle of the band's "assistant manager" which appears to be MacLean. The article, like so many in those days, seemed obsessed with the length of everyone's hair.