A NIGHT AT THE RODEWAY IN ROSWELL
In early 1971 I started playing with a band out of Durango called KNEES CALHOON, with Diane McGowan on vocals, Kelly Black on bass, Anthony Trujillo on drums and me on guitar. We played at Dizzyland in Farmington and Francisco's in Durango a lot. By 1974 the band had become Diane and me, backed up by Bill Smith on bass and Gary Nabors on drums. I'm afraid I don't have a picture of that band, but it was a damn good one. I recorded a night we played at the Rodeway Inn in Roswell some time in 1974 and now we all can listen to what passed for entertainment back in those heady days.
How came about the name KNEES CALHOON? The "Knees" comes from a nun I used to know back in the 50s whose knees popped every time she knelt down. And as a nun, she was kneeling down dozens of times a day and we little Catholics couldn't stand it. Behind her back we made merciless fun of her. It sort of paid her back for all the bullshit she shoveled at us over those 8 years. The "Calhoon" comes from one of my favorite characters of early TV: Algonquin J. Calhoun, the lawyer for Kingfish in the old Amos 'n' Andy shows. You must be at least 65 to remember such things. We started out calling ourselves KNEES CALHOUN but one day we stole a huge road sign and had a sign painter paint our name on it so we could put by the bandstand when we played. He spelled it CALHOON and we decided we liked it better that way anyway.
Here's what we recorded that night:
This was one of the few bands I was in that ever attempted a "show". Diane had bought a huge, old-fashioned steamer trunk which we hauled around in her VW bus. So during the last break that night, Bill and I walked into the bar carrying the giant trunk and placed it on the stage where Diane ordinarily stood. Then Bill, Gary and I picked up our instruments and started to play the low, ominous opening to "Leader of the Pack" with the feeble falsettos. Pretty soon you heard the vocals where the girls are talking about their boyfriend's bikes, but where's Diane? In the trunk of course! She pops up with mic in hand as the rest of us sing the words "Leader of the Pack" and the crowd goes wild.
I spent 25 years playing in bands and while I never made enough money to kick my Social Security benefits up over the $900 a month mark I sure had some fun with some terrific people. Some of them, like Skip Batchelor, are still plying music out in public! I do all my music at home while sitting in my office chair, pressing buttons on my devices. I have about 180 songs up at my musical blog (www.kneescalhoon.blogspot.com) and try to add a new song every week or so.