Wayne Mcdonald of the Sultans , The Keyes , The Graduates , Soul Incorporated Interview

Recently , we had a conversation with Wayne McDonald  . Many of you may not know of the very talented singer but you probably have heard him sometime in the past 50 plus years maybe on Mary , Mary as part of the Sultans or as part of the Keyes ( Barbara ) or live in the Graduates or with Soul Inc ( Hope you saw  them at the Louisville zoo on June 23 2012 ).

Wayne is a native Louisvillian born at the old  St Joseph hospital on Eastern Parkway ( not far from the White Castle and the Z Bar )and  grew up in the south end .

In Louisville we were fortunate to be exposed to all types of music and Wayne heard the country music , the blues and that good old hybrid called Rock and Roll as he grew up  .

Wayne attended junior high school at Gottschalk Junior High ( now Iroquois High School ) and it was there that the rock and roll journey began . 

The first group Wayne was with was  the Bitter Seeds and he met Mike Gossett ,who started the band, at Gottschalk . ( Please see the post from Mike Gossett in the previous posts of this blog -Included here is Mike's intro) 
 "The Bitter Seeds were  a band formed in 1958 and there were around Louisville some  well known and popular groups of the time like The Sultans with Tom Cosdon (Cosmo their lead singer), The Carnations, The Trendells, The Monarchs. These groups went on to even cut records, something as a matter of Bitter Seed history never did. Mike  once thought there existed an amateur recording of the group but if there was it never surfaced.   Nevertheless,  The Bitter Seeds did indeed get to as they say “run with the big dogs” meaning they got paid to perform, played a lot of major nightclubs and venues of the time,  got booked with the better named local groups, and even participated in a rock show that included nationally known rock and roll stars ( see the post on The Tokens ), and near the end of our run as a teenage band  were under contract with the local Louisville well known talent booking agency known as SAMBO which was an acronym for Sanders, Allen, Martin Booking Organization (more to follow in future entries to the blog.) .
The Bitter Seeds played the clubs in Lebanon ( please see the post 06/25/10 ) and because they were so young Wayne said that the parents had a bus driver to take the band back and forth to Lebanon .

The Bitter Seeds played other local clubs the Fabulon ( on seventh st road ) ,and the Say When ( on Berry Blvd not far from the intersection with seventh st road ).

Wayne joined the Sultans in 1963 and sang lead on their recording  Mary , Mary ( video on youtube )with the flip  How Far Does A Friendship Go ? on the Jam label .
Wayne is not in the picture but is the lead singer on both sides .

The studios that the Sultans and other groups  recorded were in Nashville and Louisville and were produced by Ray Allen and Hardy Martin.
The next group that Wayne joined was The Keyes a group formed by brothers Tom and Jim Owen . In 1964 they  toured as the opening act for the Shangri La's .
. The following year , 1965,  they had a song out on the JAM label called Barbara . (Wayne is on the right)

The follow up in 1966 was " She's the One "

In 1967 Wayne and his wife Sandy along with Butch Snider (previously the drummer with the Monarchs) formed a group called The Graduates . The group was together for more than 20 years performing around the kentuckiana area .According to Louisvilles Own , they had one recording" Dear Joe " in 1976  and Wayne was not on the recording.

Wayne is still performing and is often  called to perform with Soul Inc  . Please let us know if you would like to know more about Wayne and any other of the Louisville Groups .

Beyond the Music In New Orleans

http://www.npr.org/2012/07/05/156252315/beyond-the-music-in-st-louis-cemetery-no-2

Terrific article on New Orleans Music and Burial Customs . Go to the link and listen to the story .

EnlargePat Jolly/APErnie K-Doe poses outside his Mother-In-Law Lounge during Jazz Fest in New Orleans in 2001. He died a few months later and was buried in St. Louis Cemetery No. 2.

 

There's so much water in, around and underneath New Orleans, that the dead spend eternity in tombs above ground.
Most of the tombs now have a similar design: On top, there's space for a wooden coffin or two, and at the bottom lies a potpourri of decanted family remains. Sooner or later, whoever is up high must vacate and settle lower, making room for the newly dead. That's how families stay together — in a desiccated jumble of grandpas, grandmas, siblings and cousins.
Well, in one of the city's oldest cemeteries, the final resting place of a white, aristocratic New Orleans family is also the eternal home of black musical royalty: an emperor, a king, a consort and a mother-in-law.
From Chitlin' Circuit To Pop Charts
In 1961, Ernie K-Doe managed something that no one from New Orleans had ever done before — not Fats Domino, not Louis Prima, not even Louis Armstrong at that point. K-Doe scored a No. 1 pop hit with a song about his — and apparently a lot of other people's — mother-in-law:

She's the worst person I know
Mother-in-Law, Mother-in-law!
She worries me so
Mother-in-Law, Mother-in-Law!
If she'd leave us alone
We'd have a happy home
Sent from down below
Mother-in-Law. Mother-in-Law!

Written by the New Orleans impresario Allen Toussaint, "Mother-in-Law" is still irresistibly sing-able.
" 'Mother-in-Law' was No. 1 on the R&B charts for five weeks," says Ben Sandmel, who wrote Ernie K-Doe, The R&B Emperor of New Orleans. "It was No. 1 on the pop charts for one week. This is when the black and white music worlds were considered to be very separate. And he went from playing the Chitlin' Circuit and being a local artist to having huge success in a very short time."

EnlargeCourtesy of Rob Florence Antoinette K-Doe (second from the left) stands with friends around a statue of her deceased husband, Ernie, at the St. Louis No. 2 tomb. Antoinette is buried in the tomb, and her mother — Ernie K-Doe's second and favorite mother-in-law, Leola Clark — is shown in the portrait. Clark is buried in the tomb, too.Courtesy of Rob Florence

K-Doe maintained that only three songs would stand the test of time: "Amazing Grace," "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "Mother-in-Law," because, as he put it, "There's gonna be mothers-in-law until the end of time."

The singer was just exciting, Sandmel says.
"He was young, he was in great shape ... did all the microphone tricks and the dance moves that had been made famous by James Brown and Jackie Wilson. And he would take whatever material was put in front of him and just sing the hell out of it," he says.
But to most who knew him, Ernie K-Doe had a problem with self-esteem: He had too much of it. He even challenged James Brown to a showdown in New Orleans. Later, K-Doe declared himself "Emperor of the Universe."
St. Louis Cemetery No. 2
Ernie K-Doe never returned to the top of the charts. Instead, he hit bottom, facing alcoholism and homelessness. But in the late 1990s, K-Doe and his wife, Antoinette, opened a club and had a growing cult of young followers.
Then on July 5, 2001, Ernie K-Doe surprised nearly everyone when he died of cancer.
"I was hugging and kissing on Antoinette and doing the typical thing, 'What are you going to do? Where are you going to bury him?' " says Anna Ross, a champion of cemetery preservation in New Orleans, who paid a call on K-Doe's widow when he passed away.
"And she said, well, they have a family cemetery in Erwinville, and he didn't want to be buried there. They have a couple of plots at this cemetery on Airline Highway; he didn't want to be buried there. He really wanted to be buried in St. Louis No. 2, because it was down the street from the bar."

Masahiro Sumori/WikimediaEarl King on stage at the 1997 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. He died a few years after Ernie K-Doe, and now the two share a tomb.

St. Louis Cemetery No. 2 is prime real estate in New Orleans and dates all the way back to Reconstruction. By happy coincidence, Ross' then-21-year-old daughter had just inherited a family tomb there. So young Heather Twichell offered the K-Does a berth, and Antoinette accepted.
"Then there was this gossip running around town: 'What is this white woman and her daughter and Antoinette doing? They burying a black man in a white man's tomb,' " Ross says. "My daughter thought it was the right thing to do. So we went ahead and had a funeral. People were dancing on top of tombs and vaults around here. It was wild."
The funeral was as grand as the Emperor had hoped. Thousands came to see Ernie K-Doe's services at the city's most regal hall. The second line parade to the cemetery was so long, it shut down the central business district. And sure enough, K-Doe's coffin desegregated the Twichell family tomb.
"He's the one who's made such a great impact on New Orleans ... and our music," Twichell says. "It's a gift."
Ernie's second mother-in-law — Antoinette's mother — joined him in the tomb shortly thereafter. He liked her. A couple of years later, Twichell opened the door again and welcomed a King.

'Those Lonely, Lonely Nights'

Ernie K-Doe may have had a national No. 1 hit, but Earl King was by far the greater artist. By the time of his death — on April 17, 2003 — King had written briefcases full of blues and R&B standards, including this one:

Those lonely, lonely Nights.
There's been some lonely, lonely nights
Oh baby, yes, since you've been gone
Lay my head on my pillow
How I cry all night long
The things you used to say to me
I thought that we would never part
Yes, you know I love you darling
Why did you break my heart?

Johnny Guitar Watson, Robert Palmer and Teena Marie were among the many who recorded Earl King songs. As was Jimi Hendrix. Remember "Come On (Part 1)"?

People see me but they just don't know
What's in my heart and why I love you so
I love ya baby like a miner love gold
So come on baby, let the good times roll

And then there's the Mardi Gras anthem that King wrote for his mother, "Big Chief." If you ever go to New Orleans and don't hear "Big Chief," then you should ask for your money back, because somebody took you to the wrong town.
"I'd rank Earl King at the very top in importance of anybody we ever recorded," says Hammond Scott, who was a co-owner of Blacktop Records and recorded King in his later years. "He was one of the most unique songwriters that came out of New Orleans and that ever will. He was dynamite."

 

Local Louisville Musician Remembers Dick Clark

Link Includes Video and article .

http://www.whas11.com/home/Local-musician-recalls-tour-with-Dick-Clark-148030065.html

Thanks to Wayne Mcdonald for sending and Marvin Maxwell for the interview with WHAS .


 Dick Clark is credited with introducing Rock-n-Roll to mainstream America. He also formed a traveling tour call the Caravan of Stars. 

In the ‘60s, a local group called Soul Inc. got the chance of a lifetime. Marvin Maxwell, owner of Mom’s Music, was the drummer. He said he’ll never forget the phone call he received when he was asked to join the tour while at work. 
“He said, ‘Would you like to go on the road with the Dick Clark Caravan of Stars?’ and I like drew a couple of breaths and said, ‘Well sure. When?’ and they said, ‘Tonight,’" Maxwell said. 
Maxwell quit his job and the band joined the tour. He said they played 30 shows in 30 states in 30 days. He recalled Dick Clark.
“He was a star as much as anybody else in those days or more so. He was the one who got this Rock-n-Roll thing going, but he was a very nice, clean cat. A very nice dude,” Maxwell said. 
Clark died Wednesday from a massive heart attack in Los Angeles. He was 82. 
“I don’t know what the words are, but it's almost a shock that he’s gone because he got so much going for the music industry,” Maxwell said. 
Clark is survived by his wife and three children.

Blogger Comments :


Growing up in Louisville , one did not get to see Dick Clark unless your TV had UHF . That's right , Mr Clark was on WLKY Channel 32 .


 The first commercial UHF TV station in the US, Portland Oregon's KPTV, received its license and went on the air in late 1952. The FCC had authorized the new TV channels 14 through 83 earlier that year, to relieve the crowding that was occurring as commercial television boomed in the post-war period. To receive the new channels, if any were assigned in your area, you would need a converter for your existing TV set (which of course tuned only 2 through 13). Though the TV set manufacturers were pretty quick to make built-in UHF tuners an (extra-cost) option for their sets, it wasn't until 1964 that the FCC required UHF capability in all new TVs, and 1975 before they had to be as easy to use as the VHF tuners. Add-on converter boxes were therefore the common way to get the additional channels for many years.

So , another memory from the past . 

Garage Bands In Louisville in the early 60's from Mike Gossett

Our thanks to Mike Gossett for this portrait of Louisville Rock and Roll . We hope there is much more to come . If any of you all have memories you would like to share , please comment .

Please see Mike's earlier post ( A planted seed ) on the Louisville Music  blog and learn how the Bitter Seeds were named .

“Garage Bands” Circa 1960

You know, my temperature's risin'
The jukebox's blowin' a fuse.
My heart's beatin' rhythm
And my soul keeps a-singin' the blues.
Roll Over Beethoven and tell Tschaikovsky the news.

- Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven, 1956.

In the spring of 1956, at the critically impressionable age of 11, when my friends and I were just graduating from elementary school, Chuck Berry in musical verse famously suggested that Beethoven should roll over and tell Tschaikovsky the news. The news was aplenty, not the least of which that there was a musical revolution coming that would make all other music from the present to the ancient past seem but a footnote.

Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Bo Diddley, and Ray Charles were some of the “prime movers” of the musical revolution underway. The new music was simply fused elements of black gospel, deep south rhythm and blues and hard core country music. The official arrival and identification of the new music as rock and roll would come via a good looking white kid from Tennessee by the name of Elvis Presley.

An international spending spree ensued on electric guitars, drums, and saxophones by rock music enthralled teens. Mel Bay “How to Play the Guitar” books flew off the shelves. Hours and hours of listening to the latest hit records, and mind-numbing practice sessions in an attempt to clone the exact sound of the revered rock and roll icons took up every free moment of wannabe rock and rollers. The same zeal would apply for a cappela, street corner harmonizing dubbed Doo Wop. Rehearsal halls for this new music was typically the suburban neighborhood garage (or basement) thus the term “garage band” would later became part of modern American lexicon.

By autumn 1959 when these very young fresh music zealots headed off to high schools some of best rock and roll and Doo Wop talent in the nation had bloomed in our home town. The Carnations and Tren-Dells, The Sultans, Cosmo and the Counts, The Monarchs, The Epics, and The Bitter Seeds were playing music at high school sorority dances, teen clubs, proms, and yes even seedy night clubs in and out of Louisville. These teen bands played clubs in the infamous Lebanon, KY., e.g. The Golden Horseshoe, Club Cherry and Club 68, clubs that hosted national talents like Ike and Tina Turner, Bo Diddley, B.B. King, Fats Domino, Otis Redding, and many more. And the aforementioned Louisville teenage bands graced these same stages, most not even old enough to drive. A father of one of the musician’s in our band, The Bitter Seeds, would rent a school bus and driver to get our band to our club performances in Lebanon.

( Blogger Note : Please  see earlier posts for pictures of the clubs in Lebanon, KY , USA )

One of the most well known and looked up to teen rock and roll artist of that time was Wayne Young (Manual 1961), the teen guitarist all other Louisville teenage rock and roll guitarist aspired to be. His love of the new music, and natural talent produced a hard drivin’ rock and roll, rhythm and blues style of guitar playing (think Eric Clapton) that elevated him to professional musicianship that far transcended his young age. After his years at Manual, Wayne would go on to play with many other well known rock bands, cut records, and even did two tours with Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars and Wayne is still going strong today in the Louisville music scene. (Go on line and Google Wayne Young.)

Another “garage band” artist of that time was Wayne McDonald (Manual 1962). He started out playing French horn in the Jr. High School orchestra. Don’t laugh, if you did not already know it, Bo Diddley was an accomplished violinist. Wayne started out as lead singer for The Bitter Seeds. Through a tenacious love of music, seeker of perfection, and a work ethic that none of us could match, he transformed himself from a classical French horn player into white vocalist versions of James Brown and Wilson Pickett. A testament to reaching authenticity and purity of heart thumpin’ soulful rock was the observance of the patrons of the all black club in Lebanon known as Club Cherry were on their feet and loudly showing their approval of his style, showmanship and music. I know, I was there. After leaving Manual, Wayne McDonald also worked with other well known rock bands, cut a few records, and like Wayne Young, traveled with Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars. Unlike Mr. Young, Mr. McDonald has now hung up his rock and roll shoes. Unless there is a local gathering of the old Louisville rock and roll bands and Wayne is asked to come up to sing and give us all a moment to nostalgically relive the way things use to be in the early 1960’s at Manual and musical events in the south end of Louisville.

Manual Tau Delta Tau Sorority Dance, South Park Country Club - 1961

The Bitter Seeds Standing, left to right: Roger Pfeiffer, (Manual 1962) trumpet and background singer; George East, lead guitar; Mike Gossett, (Manual 1962) rhythm guitar; Jaybird, background singer; Eddie Huettig, background singer; Tim Hughes, saxophone; Wayne McDonald, (Manual 1962) lead singer; Eugene Roberts, piano; and seated, Steve Yeager, (Manual 1962) drummer. 

RIP Etta James and Johnny Otis

Saw this and it was so right on  . 

Your Humble Blogger 

But first some video with Etta on a Chess subsidiary with a Beach Music Sound 

Two Sides to Every Story 

Payback 

Johnny Otis  with Marie Adams, the Three Tons of Joy, and Lionel Hampton. 

Etta James and Johnny Otis: The End of a Great R&B Song

• By Mark Jacobson

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It is a rough day for the rhythm, a bad day for the blues when the 73-year-old Etta James and 90(!)-year-old Johnny Otis die within 48 hours of each other. Still, like the internal logic that imbues all good songs, it figures, since Otis, avatar of "Willie and the Hand Jive," discovered the then-14 year-old Jamesetta Hawkins in a San Francisco hotel room more than 60 years ago. A man with an eye for a hot mama ready to rip it up, it didn't take Otis but a minute to put Etta on the road with his "Hand Jive" revue, singing kind of dirty songs like "Roll With Me, Henry," which was changed to “Dance With Me, Henry” to get it on the radio.

Maybe it was that taste for the netherworld clubland that kept Etta James from crossing over to the mass market despite possessing a set of pipes to power a whole Rust Belt city. (Otis always went his own way, played a million one-night stands, and often recorded under the name Snatch and the Poontangs.) She wasn't churchy like Aretha, she wasn't silky like Sarah Vaughn, she wasn't skinny like Diana Ross, but of all the great female R&B singers to come of age after the rise of rock and roll, Etta James was the most street. She shot dope, got arrested for writing bad checks and forging scripts, claimed to be pool player Minnesota Fats' illegitimate daughter, and blew up to 400 pounds. Plus, she scared the shit out of you. There were few forces on earth to put the fear of God into a young boy surreptitiously listening to a transistor radio after bedtime than Etta James roaring, "Tell Mama ... all about it!"

It is probably typical that after six decades of cutting any number of truly great R&B tracks (name a better song than "I'd Rather Go Blind," "I Prefer You," or even her eternally cool cover of Sonny and Cher's "I Got You"), James got her only wide-scale press for vowing to kick Beyoncé's ass. This occurred in the wake of the contemporary star's rendition of James's signature song, "At Last," at President Obama's inaugural ball. Even though Beyoncé had done a more than credible job portraying the young Etta in the underrated film Cadillac Records, James didn't care for her hogging the presidential limelight. During a Seattle concert, already afflicted with the leukemia that would kill her, James told a crowd of people, "You know your president ... the one with the big ears? I'll tell you, that woman he has singing for him, singing my song, she gonna get her ass whipped. The great Beyoncé! ... I can't stand Beyoncé! Don't be singing my song, that I been singing forever." Later it was announced that James was only joking. But you knew that was a lie.

Great Version Of Stand By Me

http://playingforchange.com - From the award-winning documentary, "Playing For Change: Peace Through Music", comes the first of many "songs around the world" being released independently. Featured is a cover of the Ben E. King classic by musicians around the world adding their part to the song as it travelled the globe. 

Order the CD/DVD Playing For Change "Songs Around The World" now athttp://store.playingforchange.com/vShop.aspx

Order the "Stand By Me," "Don't Worry," "One Love," and "War/No More Trouble" videos and the new Songs Around The World album now athttp://store.playingforchange.com/vShop.aspx

Bill Bailey, disc jockey known as 'Duke of Louisville,' dies at age 81

By Karla Ward — kward1@herald-leader.com

Posted: 12:00am on Jan 15, 2012; Modified: 6:56am on Jan 15, 2012

On April 20, 1994, Bill Bailey entertained listeners for the last time before retiring. JANET WORNE | STAFF

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Bill Bailey, 81, a longtime radio disc jockey known as the "Duke of Louisville," died Saturday morning at Norton Brownsboro Hospital in Louisville.

With a gravelly voice and an outspoken brand of humor, Mr. Bailey, born William Boahn, was an on-air personality for more than 30 years at radio stations in Louisville, most notably at WAKY 790 AM during the 1970s.

He later spent more than four years as an afternoon DJ on WVLK in Lexington before retiring in 1994.

WVLK host Jack Pattie said Saturday that in the 1960s and '70s, WAKY was a very popular rock station among teenagers in Louisville and Lexington.

"He was what everybody listened to," Pattie said. "I think he was one of the best broadcaster communicators ever. He was a huge influence in my career."

After retiring from WVLK, Mr. Bailey moved back to Louisville.

His daughter Faith Chapman said he had a stroke about 13 years ago, which required him to use a wheelchair, but "he never lost his personality."

As a resident of a nursing home in Pewee Valley, she said he did morning announcements over the public address system and had frequent visits from fans.

He enjoyed painting and said in a 1989 Herald-Leader article that he would "rather paint pictures than anything.

"But I do enjoy radio because it's so easy for me," he said. "I don't like to do anything that's difficult."

Mr. Bailey is survived by a son and three daughters.