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Show Local blues group changes Smoke to Rocks 'n Gravel By VAL NESS Chronicle Staff Five years ago, Blind Boy Miller, the famous Heber folk singer, was telling me about his new electric blues band, Smoke. "We may not be the best band around," he said, "but we're sincere." Blind Boy played bass, but he's dead and gone now. Gone, too, are: Crazy Jerome, the electric piano player; ramblin' Mark Richmond, Rich-mond, on amplified acoustic guitar gui-tar and cosmic feedback; and Rotis G. Stix on drums. The rest of the band under the name of Rocks and Gravel are still going strong. They are: Sliggs Cordray, doing Utah's most absolutely abso-lutely burned vocals; W.G. "silver fingers" Soeffker, on electric and amplified slide guitars and Pete Brandt, the gymnastic harp player. The present ensemble has many noticeable differences from Smoke. Among them are: John Ozzie, from Brooklyn, on drums and Bob Sorenson on low-riding bass. Bob is in the band mainly because he's from Cnicago and he wears argyles. The band shows a lot more discipline now, either because of, or in spite of, their manager, Jack "Flash" Bills, who wants to rename the group Eric and the Clap-Tones. The band has a pretty steady, if low paying gig at Ben's Railroad Exchange. They play Friday and Saturday nights when there isn't more money elsewhere. Just in case the Railroad Exchange Ex-change is too tame for your taste, let it be known that Rocks and Gravel is also the house band for the local chapter of the Barons-Nomands Barons-Nomands motorcycle club. Most of the boys have been blues freaks for a long time and this shows up in their repertoire: "You Don't Love Me, Baby," by the late super bluesman, Sonny Boy Williamson; J.B. Hutto's "Too Much Alcohol," with vocals by Pete and some nifty bottleneck work by Soeffker; "Lost Highway," High-way," by Hank Williams and for the rockers, there's their own Chuck Berry-type tunes as well as a bunch of Rolling Stones songs. |
