Frank Gutch Jr: Jim Colegrove… Death, Chicago, and Nixon… Plus Notes

When last we heard from Mr. Colegrove, he was headed back to Ohio with drummer N.D. Smart II for Christmas.  When he got back, the first person he called was his old buddy Phil.  They talked over old times with Phil’s brother, Bruce, and as Jim told them of the happenings in the Big Apple, Bruce became enraptured.  He had a week before classes were to start up again so he volunteered to drive Jim back.  When it was time, they piled Jim’s belongings into Bruce’s VW and headed back.  Two days later, they were in New York.

Pat Blythe: The Women of Blues Part Four – Maggie Bell

Pat Blythe continues her series The Women of Blues with this fourth installment on a Legendary Scottish singer….

Frank Gutch Jr: The Saga of Jim Colegrove, Chapter Six: Plus Notes…..

Having given you five chances to look behind the curtains of a life of a rock ‘n’ roller of more stature than most people these days could possibly know— that of Fort Worth’s Jim Colegrove— I have decided to give you a sixth.  Call I a bonus, if you will— a chance to experience second-hand an era of music most of you could not possibly know.  A chance to see the machinations of an industry, for that is what it became, in its growth stages.  So far it has involved a string of names many would recognize— Felix Pappalardi and Gene Pitney and Lou Adler and so many more.  Let us add a few more as the band he is in at this point of his career, Bo Grumpus, prepares to spark a major label career.

Frank Gutch Jr: The Saga of a Rock Pioneer: Jim Colegrove— Chapter Five

The music business has always been such that the stars become super and the rest pretty much stay in the background.  A case in point would be The Funk Brothers and The Wrecking Crew and the many session men (and women) who do the grunt work while the headliners reaps the profits.  Not that the stars want it that way.  That is just the way it is.  And maybe that’s the way it is supposed to be.  The people within the music industry sure know the supporting cast by name, if the public doesn’t: the session men and the opening acts and the bands which didn’t get the chance or got the chance and didn’t make it for one odd reason or another.