FTV: The THHMC Show
To celebrate our 46th anniversary in mid-July 2025, my wife and I traveled to Crystal Falls, Michigan to see The Traveling Musical Hillbilly Hippie Commune Show (or TMHHC). Never heard of them? They have been around since 1971 so perhaps you knew them by one of their previous names: Family Tree? Burlap Socks? Emergency Band? No? Surely you will recognize them from a name they were inspired to take as a nod to Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen: Cosmic Corn Cob & His Amazing Ozark Mountain Daredevils (which they mercifully shortened to The Ozark Mountain Daredevils). My previous knowledge of the band was limited to two songs that got the most airplay (If You Wanna Get To Heaven and Jackie Blue). They are currently on the last leg of a two year odyssey they are calling their farewell tour. The band had been at the Crystal Theater in 2022 and liked it so much they decided to make it a stop on their When It Shines – The Final Tour jaunt.
My wife had spied the announcement for this show back in April so she snagged two tickets and made reservations so we could do an overnight stay. At the time, she did not realize this show was being held the same weekend as the big Iron River Rodeo. The annual rodeo is an event so large it snaps up most of the available rooms for the weekend so we were fortunate to get our lodging ahead of the curve. We had no other formal plans for our own celebration on tap and figured we would wing it. With the Rodeo and the normal Friday night TGIF crowds packing most eateries, we had to make a snap decision about where to dine before the show. We discovered a terrific little hole-in-the-wall deli / ice cream shop two blocks down the hill from the theater. We basked in the funky 1960’s hippy vibe there and enjoyed perhaps one of the best fish and chips meals we have ever had. If you are in the neighborhood, stop by Logan’s Place on the main drag of Crystal Falls and you can see exactly what I am talking about.
After our dinner, we realized there were no parking spots on either side of the main street so we decided to leave our buggy on a side street and hike to the theater. One forgets that Crystal Falls is built on a hill and though we only had to go two blocks, we were feeling it. The doors were already open so we got our ‘will-call’ tickets and directions to our seats. Crystal has an interesting set up – all of the seats at the left of the house are odd numbers and all of the seats on the right are even. We were on the end of Row O but our seats were numbered 25 and 27. The theater was not lacking for volunteers as every other person we saw when we found our seats seemed to be wearing the official red volunteer shirts.
You will never find me saying anything negative about volunteer groups that make it their mission to renovate old theaters in their communities. We have seen it in Calumet, Ironwood, and Ontonagon. Each of these renovated theaters share similar stories yet they maintain their own charming characteristics. With that said, I will point out one amenity I am grateful for when attending shows at the Ontonagon Theater of Performing Arts: comfortable seating! Occupying seat O-23 (to my wife’s right) was a rather large gentleman. He was respectful of my wife’s ‘space’ in the same manner that one tries to employ when flying economy class on their favorite airline. When two women deeper in the row decided they needed a restroom break before the show started, we all had to vacate our seats to let them by. This is when I noticed that not only were we sardined into our row, the seats were so low they were actually difficult to get out of (we called them ‘low riders’). Let me retroactively say ‘thank you’ to the wise people who planned the new seats and comfortable spacing employed at the Ontonagon Theater.
The Crystal Theater is a beautiful, old time vaudeville venue. According to the theater’s fact sheet, “E.J. Bregger began construction in 1926. It featured an orchestra pit, ventilation system, and a large house with a seating capacity of 820 on the main floor and 200 more in the balcony. When the original EJAY (marquee) sign was put up on the new theater, it was the talk of the town. It was an upright flashing sign made up of 60 lights with a chaser all around it containing 200 more lights. There were chaser lights around the three sides of the marquee which ran in a channel with a couple rows of nine inch gold beveled letters used for announcing the coming shows. (taken from a 1926 issue of The Diamond Drill).” The only notable change in the marquee since then are the electronic displays that replaced the nine inch gold letters. She was a grand old lady then and has been restored to her former luster by today’s volunteers.
As for the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, I had to dig back for some information as it was hard for me to pick up all of the stage chatter. My hearing is not what it used to be and combined with our location on the main floor well under the balcony, much of what was said on stage was difficult for me to understand. The music they presented was well received and it was only my unfamiliarity with their catalog that prevents me from identifying all of the songs they performed. I am looking forward to pulling up some of their albums so I can connect what we heard at the Crystal with their recorded output.
The OMDs have been together for 53 years and in that time, 35 different musicians have passed through their ranks. Original members still with the band include multi-instrumentalist John Dillon and bassist Michael ‘Supe’ Granda. The current touring ensemble puts TEN musicians on the stage. With a backline of keyboards, drums, and sax, the other seven players were arranged across the front of the stage. From left to right, they were Nick Sibley (guitar and harmonica), Ruel Chappel (vocals and hand percussion), Dillon (guitar, mouth bow, fiddle), Molly Healey (fiddle and vocals), Granda (bass and vocals), Dave Painter (lead guitar, slide guitar and vocals), and a young man whose name I did not hear (and cannot find) alternating between acoustic guitar and mandolin. I did not envy whoever was running the sound board because when the whole band was playing, it was difficult to keep the sound levels balanced. Most of the harmonies came through in the mix, but too often the keyboard, sax and mandolin went unheard.
The crowded stage led to some interesting moments. When Kelly Brown took some of his keyboard solos, the guys at stage left would move aside so he could be seen. The same thing happened at stage right when the sax player (Bill Jones also in the back line) was featured. Dillon, Healey, and Granda performed some interesting choreography so the fiddle player could step forward and solo without poking out the bass player’s eyes. The drummer (Ron ‘Rongo’ Gremp) and keyboard player Brown spent a lot of time exchanging looks and gestures during the performance. During the third number, Gremp was playing multiple cymbal splashes to accent the chorus and twice he missed his smallest crash cymbal completely. The second time it happened, he made eye contact with Brown and they both broke out laughing.
Things looked to be going south during the fourth tune when Painter’s guitar signal disappeared. He went to his amp and fiddled around with the connections up until his solo was supposed to start. He pointed to Brown who took up the task on his keyboard. Painter began unplugging and replugging cords. By the end of the song, he got his guitar back in play. He looked at the mandolin player to his left, gave a bit of a shrug, smiled, and that was it. There were no further equipment issues other than the odd sound mix from time to time. The set they played after intermission was louder and more ‘rock’ than the first, but issues with hearing the keys, sax, and mandolin largely disappeared. I should also note that Gremp’s drumming was spot on all night and the sound of his kit was right in the pocket. He and Granda were the steady backbone for the band for the entire evening.
Chappell was an interesting character. Wearing a bright red hat similar to something Michael Stipe from REM used to sport, he acted as the band’s official cheerleader. When he took lead and harmony vocals, they were spot on. He looked to be having a great time even though his percussion parts were often buried in the mix. Very little could be heard of the shaker and bongos he played the most. The sharp rap of the klaves he played came through fine and nobody could miss the cowbell. According to Granda, the band recently released a digital track called More Cowbell! which they had played at The Grand Old Opera during their last performance there. As the title suggests, it featured Chappell happily pounding out cowbell beats during the chorus which featured the ‘sing along’ lyric More Cowbell! Even when the song appeared to end, Chappell continued ‘cowbelling’ until the rest of the band flagged him to a stop . . . almost! It was a lighthearted comic moment shared between the band and the audience.
Both Dillon and Granda shared stories of their former band mates Larry Lee and Steve Cash. Both were given their props as songwriters and performers with Dillon noting their passing; Cash in 2019 and Lee in May of 2025. Dillon also mentioned how much they enjoyed their previous visit to the Crystal Theater in 2022 (which partly explains the reception the crowd gave to Chicken Train). They had previously played at the Mole Lake (Wisconsin) Festival so they were familiar with the country up north. The Crystal Falls area really reminded them of their Missouri roots, especially on this trip as they got further north of Chicago. When they were planning the When It Shines tour, they made it a point to put the Crystal Theater on their list of ‘have to play’ venues just because they felt so at home here the last time.
Before the intermission ended, the band’s road manager said he wanted to share a few thoughts with the audience. He mentioned the 35 musicians who have kept the band alive over the past 53 years. He also singled out the Crystal volunteers and supporting members because musicians live to perform at such historic venues. Dillon underscored these thoughts when he shared a story from early in their career. He said an agent promised if they relocated to Los Angeles, they would make enough money in two years to be set for life. The Ozark Mountain Daredevils didn’t take the bait, preferring to ‘stay home and watch our tomatoes grow’.
Before they were actually a band, they were just a group of like minded people who would gather in the living room or on the front porch and sing together. These sessions became a kind of songwriting collaborative where they shared new music and helped each other turn their riffs and lyrics into actual songs. Back then, Dillon was the only one with a job as he played at a pizza joint. His friend Cash was an aspiring songwriter but he didn’t play – he was just happy to hang out and help John down his allotment of pizza and beer. To summarize the second phase of their recording career, Dillon said, “Columbia Records (their second major label home) were good to us. They pretty much left us alone and let us record anything we wanted. I think they were a little scared of us.” Their prolific output has seen them release 20 albums (in the United States and Europe) on major and independent labels since 1971. Their two biggest hits (If You Wanna Get To Heaven (1974) & Jackie Blue (1975)) were actually recorded for the A&M label. The first albums moved enough units to get them some leeway to put music they liked on tape. They may not have had enduring chart appeal, but they did build a loyal following of fans. Perhaps their audience was not as large as The Grateful Dead’s, but they certainly had enough fans to get them invited back to every corner of North America and other parts of the world. When their album sales for A&M began to sag, they moved on; first to Columbia and then to a variety of independent labels.
The Sunday after the Crystal Theater show, we held a picnic lunch after our Sunday church service at St. Paul’s Lutheran in Mass City. Our annual Vacation Bible School was scheduled to start the next Monday and a Day Camp team from Fortune Lake Bible Camp was on hand so we could introduce them to the congregation. During lunch, team leader Lily mentioned the heavy rain fall they had at the camp on Saturday morning. Fortune Lake Bible Camp is just west of Crystal Falls off US 2. I told her that my wife and I were 15 minutes down a nature trail at the Biwabic State Park (which is also just off US 2, just a little closer to Iron River) when that same storm soaked us before we could get back to the car. When she asked what we were doing there I mentioned the concert we saw on Friday night.
Lily surprised me when she said, ‘Oh, the Ozark Mountain Daredevils stayed overnight at Fortune Lake. Most of the artists that appear at the Crystal Theater stay at the camp. The Ozark band members are just terrific people – no rock star stuff, just plain nice people.” Lily was working at the camp in 2022 when they paid their last visit to the Crystal Theater. Remembering that visit, she again raved about what nice, regular people they are. Her assessment was spot on as that is exactly the image they project on stage. There is no ‘look at us we’re rock stars’ attitude in the OMDs. At the end of the show, Granda said, “You know how at the end of the show, the band runs off and makes you stand and holler for five minutes before they come back out and act surprised that you are still here? How about we skip that part and just do one more song?” The answer was a resounding ‘yes’ from all.
The OMD played the next night at the Calumet Theater before they headed south for their next show on July 19. This is the second year of their two year farewell tour and it will wind down in November with three shows in their hometown of Springfield, Missouri. Though they won’t be touring after 2025, they still expect to do some recording and occasional one off shows. After 53 years of being on the road, that part of the band’s life has run its course. With that said, they started as a group of friends playing music for themselves and it would not be odd at all to see them get back to where it all started.
Top Piece Video: Jackie Blue from England’s Old Grey Whistle Test show in 1975