Cool Kent! Furvus of The Fifth Estate here. The guys will probably kill me when they hear what I sent to you and how raw and unfinished they are. Jeesh - I'm as good as dead!
The first is Around and Around which, of course, everybody played at one time or another - but the interesting thing here possibly is that this is something the band played right off after not having been together for 35 years. First take - no rehearsal - and in some sense it sounds like it. Rick didn't remember the words - the guys didn't remember any sort of arrangement and Bobby Lee on piano in place of Wayne had never played it with us before. But all in all I think it feels pretty good and is a fair indication of how we sounded 40-30 years ago!! We were a real American Rock and Roll band! We could play on the same stage with anybody. We still are and we still can!!!!
The second is a DEMO of a new tune to be on a new album called TIME TUNNEL we hope to have completed this Summer. Like Around and Around it is just the five of us playing the song - nothing fancy. Straight ahead musicians who could sing, write good tunes, and who love playing Rock and Roll. I'm Furvus the drummer on this and I'm playing a 2 and 4 rock and roll beat like Ringo used to play, but against (at the same time) a Bo Diddley beat like my favorite drummers Clifton James and Frank Kirkland used to play. Remember those days?? Ahh - man ... It doesn't have the lead guitar fills or parts on it yet - so it sounds a bit "open" to me. Plus it is just a 2nd take DEMO track (boy the guys are gonna kill me??), but it at least gives somebody an idea of how we sound on our new stuff today.
We will have our first live show in 30 years at an amusement park in CT as a fund raiser in Sept. We hope to keep it going from there. It will be good to be in front of an audience again.
Here's a picture of us these days in case you are looking for something really ugly to look at.
Furv
Hey, I REALLY like that second one ... "See If She Dances" sounds like classic '60's album rock ... a FAR cry from "Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead." The Fifth Estate were unfortunately typecast as a novelty band after the success of that tune ... (a follow up release was "Heigh Ho" from Walt Disney's "Snow White" for God's sake!!!) ... but listening to some of the tracks released by these guys under their various guises over the years proves that they could rock with the best of them! Keep us posted about the new CD, Furv!!! (kk)
We also heard that our music bud Jimy Rogers, formerly of The Mauds, is ready to release a brand new CD with his NEW band, Blue Truth. Here's the scoop on that one:
Hi Kent!
The new Blue Truth CD promo copies are done, our final packaging, barcodes, etc. are in the works. The CD will eventually be for sale on our website, CD Baby, and I Tunes, and at our shows.
The CD includes 11 songs recorded Live at our Holiday show last December. Included is Mercy, Mercy, Mercy with the original lyrics written for the Mauds by Curtis Mayfield (different from the Buckinghams) and an old Mauds blues tune, You're Gonna Need Me, in addition to other great rock, soul and blues "standards" done Blue Truth style. There is even a 13 minute + version of Them Changes by Buddy Miles with a 60's-style psychedelic jam in the middle. The recording is studio quality and Jimy's voice sounds better than ever.
Please let me know if there is any further info you need.
Jimy Rogers / Blue Truth
VERY special thanks to Jimy (and Joan Gand) for giving us permission to feature their version of "Mercy Mercy Mercy" ... a "Sneak Peek" track from the upcoming brand new Blue Truth CD, featuring Jimy Rogers of the Mauds. The CD will be available soon at www.bluetruthchicago.com, I Tunes, and CD Baby. (kk)
Next we heard from Trade Martin, whose hit "That Stranger Used To Be My Girl" we featured a while back in Forgotten Hits. He sent us a couple of "teaser" tracks from his forthcoming CD ... along with a nice note:
Kent,
In case you can use them, here are two edited & shortened versions of vastly different forthcoming releases of mine. The first will be on a CD titled, "Doo Wop In The 21st Century" & the second on my "Mr. Northern Soul" CD.
The first is an a cappella recorded 'oldie' ("Only A Dream") that's newly written and recorded by me ... and the second is my revised and remixed version of "16 Tons" ... which I used in a recent video on You Tube.
Please send my best regards and mention to your audience and our friends to please check out my video page on You Tube. I'd greatly appreciate it. I've got about 40 videos posted, and if you or they would subscribe to my page there, every time I post a new audio-visual, they will be notified by You Tube. I hope you enjoy them, and please let me know if you might decide to use these mp3s on your site.
Thanks.
Warmest regards,
Trade
Click here: Trade Martin Music
Click here: YouTube - "Sixteen Tons" by Trade Martin 4 3 09 (WWW.TRADEMARTINMUSIC.COM)
Also coming up later this year are brand new CDs by Ron Dante (most likely summer) and Charlie Gracie (probably this fall ... and this one will feature guest appearances by Forgotten Hits List Members Peter Noone and Al Kooper ... along with Graham Nash, Keb Mo, Albert Lee, Dennis Diken of The Smithereens, and others.) We're hoping to have tracks from EACH of these new releases to share with you as soon as they become available to us. (Heck, I'd like to run a feature like "Brand New Music From Some Of Your Old Favorites" three or four times a year if these artists will continue to send us tracks to "Sneak Peek" ... it's good for EVERYBODY ... you guys get to hear some brand new music that conventional radio will most likely choose to ignore anyway ... you'll be able to keep up to date on all of your favorite artists' upcoming activities, and these artists will start to develop a built-in audience for sales of this new material before it even becomes available for purchase. That's a win / win / win for EVERYBODY ... plus WE'RE honored to be the ones able to present it to you!!! So please help us to spread the word to some of the OTHER artists out there who are still recording new material to consider Forgotten Hits as one of your BEST sources to help get the word out. To quote Bill Withers, "Use Me" ... that's what we're here for!!! Meanwhile, another round of VERY special thanks to ALL of the artists who submitted material this time around ... you ALL helped us provide a VERY special music series. And, if you readers out there enjoyed it, please let us know so we can focus on putting together another series like this a few months down the line. (kk)
