During 1971 and 1972, the classic Blue Ash line-up of David Evans, Jim Kendzor, Bill "Cupid" Bartolin and Frank Secich played more than quite a bit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It seemed like we were playing "The Burgh" 4-5 nights a week. At the time, we had two booking agencies in Pittsburgh, Go Attractions (Rich Engler and Paul St. John) and Fly By Night Productions owned by Joe Riccelli. One time back then we were driving on Rt. 51 south of Pittsburgh to a gig in Clarion. Cupid looked out the window of the car and saw a big sign for a restaurant called "Mr Billy’s”. He said to all of us as he pointed to the sign, "If we ever get to make an album, we should call it "Dinner At Mr. Billy's". We all laughed. I thought it was a hilarious idea. Cupid and I even wrote a song right after that called "Dinner At Mr. Billy’s", then we promptly forgot about the whole idea. While going through the vaults recently at Peppermint Productions, we found the tape of the song "Dinner At Mr. Billy's" and in honor of Cupid, Mr. Billy has now finally made it out of oblivion and on to an album.
This particular journey through the long lost Blue Ash archives will start in Philadelphia, PA in late 1970 at Sigma Sound Studio with Blue Ash's first ever recording session. Back then Blue Ash used to play a lot of gigs for famed Pittsburgh DJ, Bob Mack. Bob ran record hops and dances at the Tarena in Tarentum, the White Elephant, the Zodiac Club in Irwin, and the Lebanon Lodge in Mt. Lebanon. We would play all three gigs in one night. We we'd do 20 minute sets at each venue, tear down our equipment and then go set up and play at the next place. Bob was also famous as the legendary discoverer of Tommy James and for bringing him and his 1966 smash hit "Hanky Panky" to the world. Bob loved our band and especially our vocals and asked us if we wanted to record. We were all very fond of Bob and we signed on right away. Bob had a song called "We'll Live Tomorrow" written by Pittsburgh folk singer Teri Gruber. We also had a couple of originals he liked called "I've Been Rolled" and "Everybody's Singing That Song" which we also would record with him in Philly. So, on December 1st of 1970, we travelled to Philadelphia to record and right after that we went to Charlottesville, VA to play for a week at the Zodiac Club at the University of Virginia. "We'll Live Tomorrow" was a tribute song to Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin who had died in the previous months. The recording came out very well with Bob producing it. One of the highlights of the session was Wilson Pickett stopping by to listen and give his opinion…"You guys aren't bad....for white boys!" We all howled! Bob tried shopping the song around to labels in New York but didn't have any luck (probably because he didn't own the publishing which was crucial in making record deals back then). The recording still holds up pretty well today. Looking back it could been a nice sounding single on the radio at that time. Blue Ash thoroughly enjoyed our first recording session and were bitten by the recording bug.
In early January of 1971, we entered United Audio in Youngstown, Ohio which was soon to become Peppermint Productions. It was there that we cut our first session with Gary Rhamy engineering and producing. The two original (Secich-Bartolin) songs we laid down were "Stay" and "Here And Gone". Neither song has ever been released until now, and I still own the original acetate. During all of 1971, Bill and I were writing and stockpiling songs like madmen as Blue Ash were playing 250 gigs a year across Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, West Virginia and Virginia.
In May of 1972, Blue Ash signed a 5 year contract with Peppermint Productions after being approached by Gary Rhamy and Steve Friedman who also worked there. The coolest thing about our deal was that we got 2 full days of recording every month for five years. In the first session in June of 1972 with John Grazier producing and Gary Rhamy engineering, we cut demos of "Abracababra", "I Remember A Time", "Silver Horses", "You Don't Know What It's Like", "I Won't Be Long Now" and "Here We Go Again". Peppermint then sent reel to reel demos out to all the major labels. Much to our surprise four labels were interested. Mercury, Polydor, MGM and Metromedia (which was owned by Merv Griffin) came calling.
Paul Nelson, legendary rock writer and A&R man from Mercury Records heard about us in a most unusual way. That summer a musician friend of ours named Gary Del Vecchio was in Paul's office at Mercury trying to get his band signed. In Paul's office there were stacks of demo tapes that arrived every day in the mail. By chance, Blue Ash's tape was on the top of one pile. Gary told Paul, "You should listen to these guys Blue Ash. They're from Ohio and they are very good.” Paul put on the tape and was knocked out. He called co-worker Bud Scoppa in to listen, and Bud liked it as well. That night Paul and Bud went out to eat at their favorite Italian restaurant, La Strada in Manhattan. At a table next to them they overheard three girls talking, and unbelievably they were talking about Blue Ash. Paul went over to them and said, "I'm sorry, but did I hear you talking about a band called Blue Ash?" One of them said, "Yeah, they are our favorite band. We're from Jamestown, NY and they play there all the time." Paul said, "I'm from Mercury Records and I'm thinking about signing them.” The girl said, "You should. You have to see them live. They are fantastic!" Paul told me later that he thought it was fate. He couldn't believe it.
Paul called our manager Geoff Jones and made arrangements to come to Youngstown to see us perform. Geoff picked up Paul at the airport and brought him to the Apartment Nite Club to meet us and see us perform. We played our set and went back into Geoff's office in the club which also served as our dressing room. We waited 5…10…15 minutes and Paul didn't come back. Geoff (sensing our apprehension) said, "Maybe, he didn't like you guys." Then I said, "I am going to out and talk to him." I found him sitting at the bar and I asked him, "So, what did you think, Paul?" He said, "I think you guys are one of the best bands in America and I am going to sign you to Mercury Records. I have been sitting here trying to plan it all out." I went back to the office and said to the guys, "Pack your bags boys! We've just been called up the the Major Leagues!" Paul would also sign the New York Dolls to Mercury Records around the same time.
On February 1st, 1973 we started recording our debut LP "No More, No Less" with Gary Rhamy engineering, John Grazier producing and Paul Nelson from Mercury Records as Executive Producer. We recorded all of February and mixed the first two weeks of March. “No More, No Less” was released May 15, of 1973. During our tenure at Mercury Records, Paul Nelson always wanted to hear our newest songs (of which we had many) as soon as possible. Many times we would go into Peppermint on our two monthly recording dates and make demos just to send to Paul. Many of the demos like the ones on this LP such as "When I Get You", "She's A Pleaser", "Moving Right Along", "Say Goodbye", "Make It Easy", "It's Alright By Me" and "Dinner At Mr. Billy's" were all recorded live in these sessions. Two other rough demos "She Cried For 15 Years" (with Cupid singing and just he and I playing guitars) and "Dangerous! Dynamite!" (with just Jim singing and me playing guitar) are fun little lost Blue Ash gems. Most songs were recorded in one take quickly, as to give Paul an idea of the song. We also recorded the songs for copyright purposes. There are over a hundred songs done this way that are still in the vault. There are also another hundred or so more songs fleshed out and multitracked still in the Peppermint vaults. We have additionally included in this set "Jazel Jane" which was featured in last year's Amazon Prime Hit Series "Daisy Jones and the Six" and the album ends with the last song Blue Ash ever recorded at Peppermint in 1979 called "She Isn't There" (featuring Brian Wingrove's amazing piano playing).
In 1979, after a run of ten years, Blue Ash called it a day. We would be back 25 years later. I have a funny and fitting story about "She Isn't There". In 1980, Greg Shaw (Bomp Records Prez), Stiv Bators and myself who had just signed with Bomp Records were checking out studios in LA to record what's now the "Disconnected" LP. While touring the famous Sound City Studios, I decided to have a look around the building myself. I heard some familiar music coming from a control room. I walked in and there were two engineers listening to "She Isn't There". I asked them, "What are you guys listening to?" One replied, "I don't know but it's great!" and that a piano player (Brian Wingrove) left it there as a sample of his piano work. Brian was trying to get a gig in LA as a studio musician. Next, Greg Shaw walked in and said, "Who is that? I'll sign them!" I said, "You've already signed one of them. It's Blue Ash!"
"Dinner At Mr. Billy's" is the first in a series of Blue Ash rarity LPs and a nice addition to the Blue Ash legacy.
Blue Ash gives special thanks to Gary Rhamy, Anthony LaMarca and Dean Anshutz for putting this wonderful collection together.
Frank Secich