Let it Roll

Hindsight is supposed to be 20/20. After 30 years, I have to say that Addison Grace was my favorite band to be a part of. In Central Illinois, 1971, we still felt that we could experiment and make our own music. When Ken and I first got together, with Gary and Ed, we would jam freeform. We were listening to Pink Floyd - pre Dark Side; Alice Cooper; Black Sabbath; Spooky Tooth; Deep Purple; and Uriah Heep.
We called ourselves Cerdes; from the song by Procul Harum. I don't recall exactly how, but Ed Eslinger left and was replaced by Dan Mitchell, a friend of Ken's. We continued to progress. Jamming once or twice a week in the basement and playing the very occasional High school dance.

Morton, at the time, had several venues where the local musicians could get together to play. I was able to sit in or get up to take my turn. We would jam on rock and blues progressions. "Soul Sacrifice" and "You Don't Love Me" were some of the favorites. Chris and Gary Curtis were the local town heroes at the time. There was one guy in Peoria who was doing a mean Jeff Beck, but we knew better than to try that stuff. So we played "Funk #49" and "Communication Breakdown".

After about a year and a half, Ken was asked by Bill von Brethorst to join a group he was putting together with Mike Gibson. I went along with Ken and auditioned as a singer! I think I sang(?) 'Dazed and Confused' and 'Gypsy Woman's Passion'. Mike Grimm was playing drums. Bill told us that he had been to Chicago and seen the cross streets Addison and Grace. This would be a good name for our new band.

After the audition at Mike Gibson's parents' house, we returned to the basement of my parents' house on Illinois Street for twice a week rehearsals. We still hadn't learned anything about only playing "what the people wanted". "Southern Man" was a 10 minute jam. We had started experimenting with "Cage" which shifted from 11/4 to 4. Ken and I also had written several rock 'n roll songs together trying to exploit the double guitar attack we had going on. We were definitely listening to the Allman Brothers and Wishbone Ash.

The loss of Duane and Berry was profound, Duane's lyricism and fire ignited the "Live at the Fillmore" album. Melody is far more important than the squeezing 72 notes into one measure. Check out George Barnes, Jeff Beck and of course, B.B. King....I, myself was as guilty as many, of trying to squeeze those 72 notes in.

In spite of the above, we did play "Colour My World" for a few years.

more to come

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