The group also recorded and self-released an album in 1969, Assorted Shrubbery, before calling it quits after just two years together.
Ron Stockert, the talented keyboardist, was from Havana, Illinois. While in high school, Stockert played organ in A.J. & The Savages along with Jerry "Pork" Armstrong. The teenagers released one single on Deleware Records, a Chicago-area label. It included a cover of "Farmer John" and the original "Long Long Time," which was credited to Stockert. A January 1968 article in the Knox Student mentions that the Bushes were hoping to record a version of "Cold Rain and Snow," previously done by the Grateful Dead. It is unclear if that ever happened. Instead, their first available recording was a cover of the Foundations' "Baby, Now That I've Found You." 
Most of the songs on the album were soul covers originally done by the Temptations, the Impressions, the Miracles and others.
Back in the fall of 1967, the Bushes started out as a quintet. Two of the members, Joel Wilson and Ron Stockert, were students at Knox College at the time. The other three members, John Zefo, Al Johnson and Gary Owen, all lived in Galesburg, Illinois.
 |
| The Bushes -Dec 1968: Al Johnson, John Zefo, Joel Wilson, Ron Stockert. Gary Owen had left the group by then. |
Wilson, the lead singer and drummer for the group, was from Upstate New York originally. According to an article in the Knox Student, Wilson had previously been a member of a group called the In Crowd.
In 1968, Stockert would also sit in on a recording session with Armstrong's new group, Yellow Bird. One of the songs they recorded was a cover of "Function At The Junction," a song that the Bushes would also record for their album. Both recordings were done at the Golden Voice Recording Company in South Pekin, Illinois.
The song was included on a double 7" compilation that came with the Knox College literary magazine, Siwasher, in 1968. The recording was likely done on campus during one of the group's live performances. The records were "mastered" and pressed by the Fredlo Recording Studios in Davenport, IA.
Sometime in late 1968 or early 1969, the Bushes traveled to the Golden Voice studio in South Pekin to record their only album. By this point, Gary Owen had left the group and they were performing as a quartet.
The three originals on the album were "The Hopes, The Dreams, The Tears" (music by Stockert, words by Johnson & Wilson), "Most Girls" (music by Stockert, words by Wilson) and the brief instrumental, "Polphony" (credited simply to Bushes).
The album was released on Growth Records (LP S 200-08) in the spring of 1969. Listen to the FULL ALBUM:
In April the LP was listed as a top seller in several Galesburg record stores. Despite their local popularity, the Bushes did not last.
Stockert eventually got back together with Jerry "Pork" Armstrong to form a new group, the Light Brigade, in Decatur, Illinois.
The group featured Steve Hunter on guitar as well as Bruce Horn and Randy Luckenbill (Darwin's Theory, Heavy Gun). The group went on to be part of the thriving Champaign-Urbana music scene. They even recorded at Golden Voice but the recordings were never released.
After the Light Brigade, Stockert joined up with some fellow Champaign musicians and eventually moved to Chicago to form the band Rufus. Stockert would go on to write and sing about half of the band's debut album which was released on ABC Records in 1973.
The band's second album, Rags To Rufus, which prominently featured Chaka Kahn's vocals, went gold and earned Stockert and the group a Grammy. Stockert left soon after. He eventally went on to play with Three Dog Night and many others.
For more on Ron Stockert's musical journey:
No comments:
Post a Comment