) and on their Facebook page.\u00a0 Voted #1 out of 64 bands competing in the NYS Music 2021 March Madness event, it is a good bet this will not be the last time we hear from them.\u00a0 Perhaps we will get the opportunity to see Organ Fairchild come our way when the Porcupine Mountain Music Festival is revived in August of 2022.\u00a0 We have been able to book bands from as far away as the Carolinas, California, Colorado, Detroit, Milwaukee, and overseas, so never say never.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I really enjoyed hearing from Dave about their album.\u00a0 I mentioned my drumming background so he has made it a point to single out (good naturedly) the contributions his drummer, Kertzie, makes to Organ Fairchild.\u00a0 I liked their groove immediately and Ruch\u2019s guitar playing is a perfect match for this type of trio format.\u00a0 Bellanti\u2019s work on the Hammond organ brings me back to some of the best musical moments I have experienced since my earliest days as a gigging drummer.\u00a0 Perhaps I owe my fascination with keys to my own lackluster paino studies when I was eight and nine years old.\u00a0 My folks bartered piano lessons for my older sister when my dad built a fireplace for our up the street neighbors.\u00a0 Mrs. Bowers happened to teach piano but when Barb didn\u2019t stick with it, I became the beneficiary of this brick for keys deal.\u00a0 I did okay but did not progress well when it became apparent that reading music was not one of my skills.\u00a0 Once a tune had been plunked through, I could replicate it without exactly following the music so my score reading skills didn\u2019t progress.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The background helped me a lot when drum lessons entered the picture in fifth grade.\u00a0 Piano was laid to rest until my freshman year in college.\u00a0 My first introduction to the sound of a Hammond Organ came the summer before my senior year in high school.\u00a0 We spent the summer working up enough songs to start playing actual paying gigs as a guitar \/ bass \/ drum trio called The Twig.\u00a0 Near the end of July, my next door neighbor dropped by with a couple of his students from the Northern Michigan University band program.\u00a0 My neighbor was a drum instructor and the guys who came with him had a combo (The Larry Henry Trio, but they rarely played as a trio) in need of a drummer for a wedding reception the next weekend.\u00a0 Once assured I could play a polka beat (no wedding reception can happen without at least a couple of polkas), they told me to be at the Holiday Inn by 7 PM Saturday.\u00a0 It was a fun introduction to getting paid to play.\u00a0 That night they had a small keyboard, bass, guitar, trombone, and me in the line up, but not a Hammond organ.\u00a0 Once the horn player told me I nailed <\/span>Spinning Wheel<\/span><\/i> by BS&T, I relaxed and had fun.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The next week, the same neighbor called and said, \u201cRex Bignall is playing at the Diamond Club and needs a drummer for eight nights in August.\u00a0 He plays a Hammond Organ and his drummer quit in a huff about something.\u00a0 I told him you would be there Friday night and you would be fine.\u00a0 He will pay you forty bucks a weekend.\u201d\u00a0 I showed up, met Rex at the bar and then proceded to set up on the bandstand without ever hearing him play a note.\u00a0 The first night, he would introduce a song, tell me what the time signature was. and count it off with me gamely following along.\u00a0 By the second night, I could recognize what we were going to play just from the titles so I brushed and soft sticked my way through eight nights listening to Rex coax some amazing sounds from his Hammond B-3.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It was fun and Rex was an interesting fellow.\u00a0 When he found out I was 17, he said, \u201cWhen the guy from NMU said you were a senior, I thought he meant in college.\u00a0 Whatever happens, do NOT tell the club owner how old you are and for God\u2019s sake, do not order anything but pop!\u201d On another night, he told me, \u201cHey, the owner told me to tell you not to wear black anymore – it is too depressing,\u201d after I had performed with my black slacks, black turtleneck and maroon sport coat (which I thought was kind of a classic cocktail lounge musician look).\u00a0 The second weekend, Rex showed me a 24 inch Zildian cymbal on a stand and asked if I would be willing to take it in place of one night\u2019s pay.\u00a0 He had purchased it for his drummer and said, \u201cI am not giving back to him, so if you want it . . .\u201d at which point I said yes, yes, and yes!\u00a0 The going rate for a 24 inch Zildjian Cymbal these days is nearly $500 and back then they were three times my nightly $20 pay.\u00a0 It sounded so good compared to my \u2018almost like a trash can lids\u2019 cheap cymbals, I ended up buying a new16 inch Zildjian crash to go with it.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It wasn\u2019t rock and roll, but it was a paying gig which The Twig used in part to finance our new PA system.\u00a0 We jokingly refered to the joint as \u2018Menopause Manor\u2019 in reference to the age of the patrons, but it was good training.\u00a0 It was the only drumming job I ever took where I didn\u2019t even break a sweat.\u00a0 Rex got a big smile on his face when I performed my \u2018drum solo\u2019 during a song called <\/span>Patricia<\/span><\/i>;\u00a0 it consisted of four bass drum beats in the pause between the verse and chorus.\u00a0 It may not have been my kind of music, but Rex made the B-3 sing and that stayed with me.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0After making the concious decesion to not jump back into a band when my high school band broke up after graduation, I found a used organ and began to reaquaint myself with reading music.\u00a0 It was still slow going for me, but it did improve my ability to work out songs for my next band.\u00a0 The note and chord recognition also helped me with my guitar playing.\u00a0 When I joined an established group (called Cloudy and Cool, soon to be renamed Knockdown) at the beginning of my sophomore year, they had a better version of the reedy sounding organ I had been tinkering on.\u00a0 The other three guys in Knockdown were all in the Air Force stationed at K.I. Sawyer AFB so when the original keyboard player got transfered to Thule, Greenland, we went through a couple of fill ins while searching for a permanent replacement.\u00a0 We auditioned a new guy named Rich in a dank basement where he had been working with a band that never got off the ground.\u00a0 He accepted our offer on one condition:\u00a0 Could we put his Hammond B-3 in the back of my truck and bring it to my folks house before his other band found out he quit?\u00a0 Done and done.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Rich was also in the Air Force so between gigs, the band equipment lived in our basement.\u00a0 I spent the better part of the next fifteen months tinkering with the real deal – a Hammond B-3 with Leslie speaker.\u00a0 It was fun learning how to coax \u2018real\u2019 organ sounds from the beast, so I put my reedy sounding keys on the market.\u00a0 Using the time to also figure out songs to learn with the band, I knew I was on to something when my mother would call down the stairs, \u201cPlay that one again.\u201d\u00a0 The organ was so heavy we had to load it to the front of my pickup to keep the front wheels on the road.\u00a0 Six months in, Rich came down with an affliction similar to a stroke that left him partially paralized on his left side.\u00a0 He played so well one handed we kept him with us until the other guys mustered out and the band disolved.\u00a0 Rich was a big man but when he could no longer help carry equipment, I was designated the guy who had to always be toting the organ from the bottom when we went up and down stairs.\u00a0 Sure, there were more portable organs, but the Hammond sound made it worth the extra effort.\u00a0 Standing a B3 on end in the small elevator used to move food from the kitchen to the second floor dining room at the Ramada Inn was one of our most ingenious ideas\u2026.until the gig was done.\u00a0 The kitchen closed and the elevator locked up for the night, so it was back to toting all of the equipment to the lobby by the front stairs when the gig was done..<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0During this time period, all kinds of bands were performing concerts at NMU arranged by Brass Ring Productions.\u00a0 Brass Ring became very good at convincing bands playing the Detroit \/ Chicago \/\u00a0 Milwaukee circuit to come to Marquette for one-off gigs.\u00a0 With my background, the drummer was always my focus, followed closely by whom ever was playing the Hammond B-3. Two organ \/ drum duos came through town (Teegarden & Van Winkle from Detroit and The Whiz Kids from Ann Arbor) and my immediate thoughts on both were, \u201cWow, wouldn\u2019t that be fun!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Teegarden & Van Winkle landed in Detroit via Tulsa and had a minor hit with <\/span>God, Love, and Rock and Roll <\/span><\/i>in 1970.\u00a0 When they appeared in Marquette, Bob Segar opened the set as an acoustic solo act, followed by a T&VW set.\u00a0 The trio topped off by the evening doing a joint set of\u00a0 originals and a lot of covers.\u00a0 Teegaden would go on to play the drums with Segar\u2019s Silver Bullet Band, recording four albums and touring in 1972-1973.\u00a0 The guitar \/ organ \/ drum format was the springboard from which Segar wrote many of the songs that would propel him to superstar levels.\u00a0 Notably, <\/span>Turn the Page<\/span><\/i> was penned about an incident in Wisconsin (not outside of Omaha) on the same tour that brought them to NMU.\u00a0 Some people complained when Grand Funk Railroad started writing more radio friendly tunes, but the first time I heard the grinding Hammond sound on <\/span>Foot Stompin\u2019 Music, <\/span><\/i>I told anyone who would listen, \u201cOh, they are going to be bigger than ever now!\u201d\u00a0 Mark Farner is one of those rare individuals who can bounce from a Hammond organ to guitar and back again without missing a beat.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Many thanks to Dave Ruch and company for the great music.\u00a0 Keep tuned to WOAS-FM 88.5 (or <\/span>www.woas-fm.org<\/span><\/a>) as we will be spinning <\/span>Brewed In Buffalo<\/span><\/i> regularly in the weeks to come.<\/span><\/p>\nTop Piece Video:\u00a0 Organ Fairchild with\u00a0Amateur Night at the Apollo<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We recently received a CD entitled Brewed In Buffalo by a guitar \/ organ \/ drum trio called Organ Fairchild.\u00a0 I am betting the title might give you a hint as to where they hail from.\u00a0 It only took a few emails (one with an\u00a0 attached teaser track) sent by guitarist Dave Ruch to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-from-the-vaults","category-new-music","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2356"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2361,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2356\/revisions\/2361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}