FARGO ROCKS, VOLUME 2
In the DDM Films documentary “Fargo Rocks,” Ryan Myrold of the Blenders spoke of the numerous times that fans expressed curiosity about the unusually-high level of musical talent that emerged from the Red River Valley for over four decades.
“People in the Twin Cities, wherever, would ask us, ‘What’s in the water up there?’”Myrold said. Fellow Blender Darren Rust chimed in with his theory on what motivates musicians from the Valley: “It’s almost like the people from [Fargo-Moorhead] feel they have something to prove.”
James Klein, who played in Exit, the Michael James Band and Mike & The Monsters, said that when he and singer Mike Bullock moved to Minneapolis in 1982, “I would say half of the major drawing acts there were from Fargo. Groups from Fargo do their own thing; they’re not influenced by anyone else until they move [to a larger market like] Minneapolis.”
On that same subject, Bobby Vee simply asked, “Why not Fargo? The story of rock and roll and what happened in Fargo happened everywhere.”
Not only in the 1960s heyday that Vee enjoyed, but in the 1970s,‘80s, ‘90s, and on into the 21st Century as well. Musicians from Fargo-Moorhead never lost that desire to expand their horizons and chase the brass ring.
Next to Bobby Vee, Bismarck native Richard Torrance is North Dakota’s most prolific rock and roller. His 1977 composition “Rio de Janeiro Blue” was covered by Nicolette Larson, and another version by Randy Crawford (both on Warner Brothers) was a worldwide hit, selling over 800,000 copies. Torrance’s original version from his Bareback album is included here, along with the previously unreleased sequel, “Return To Rio.”
At a time when even secondary market radio was becoming less and less friendly toward giving local bands airplay, Chalis broke through in the mid-‘70s with “Hard To Believe.” And in 1978, perennial crowd pleaser Johnny Holm enjoyed a regional hit with his infectious version of Hoyt Axton’s “Lightning Bar Blues.”
The Phones, originally based in Moorhead and Dilworth, earned significant FM and college radio airplay throughout the 1980s with new wave albums loved by critics and regional hits like “Modern Man” (1982, from Changing Minds), “Blind Impulse”(title track from their 1983 LP) and “Crawl, Walk, Run” (from the 1987 Stickman EP). Blind Impulse earned a glowing review in numerous major newspapers, including the New York Times. Later, “Crawl, Walk, Run” received a Billboard magazine airplay recommendation.
In 1983, The Newz merged pop with punk and hit the airwaves with the LP Spicy Stories. Two years later, they cut an EP of original tracks, including “Can You Hear Me” and “Camera Shy.” “Piece Of Me” originally appeared on the 1982 album Homegrown, produced by Twin Cities rocker KQRS. All three tracks make their CD debut here.
After leaving the Michael James Band in the mid-1980s, Mike Bullock formed the popular Mike & The Monsters. Their hard-edged blues-rock found its way to CD in 2001 with First Take – a studio album recorded in 1989 with an authentic live feel achieved by producer David “Guido” Hanson. “Gotta Be You” is a Bullock original.
What started in the 1990s as the Bad Medicine Blues Band evolved into Kid Jonny Lang and The Big Bang. After Lang departed for fame and fortune in 1997, guitarist Ted Larsen kept The Big Bang together and recorded the Bullock-produced album Easy, represented with “Garden Of Love.”
Singer-songwriter Brenda Weiler got the performing bug while in high school. She sold cassettes of her work for $4 at her shows, which led to her first recordings that produced “Dancer,” a favorite of her ever-growing legion of fans from the Midwest to the West Coast.
All told, it’s quite a collection. As Stan Nyborg, guitarist for
Gravel Road, Roughrider and The Newz, points out, “There were a lot
of bands doing original material that
were good enough to land record deals. A big part of (not making it big)
is being from this part of the country.”
Judge for yourself, and hear what the rest of the country is missing. Then take solace in that, as Midwesterners, it’s our little secret – one we’re more than willing to share.
Daniel Dullum
Creative consultant
FARGO ROCKS, VOLUME 1
It all starts with a dream … hearing a favorite song or singer on the radio and thinking, “Someday, I could do that too.”
As rock and roll began to take shape as a popular musical art form in the 1950s, such dreams were fueled by the success of Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Eddie Cochran and Buddy Holly & the Crickets. Television soon becomes a player, as Ricky Nelson represented the suburban kid who could impress the girls by singing a song at the local high school hop, all conveniently packaged on his parents’ sitcom. Or, after school, you could run home and see who was performing on “American Bandstand.”
The dream intensifies, and teenagers across the nation start thinking: “Maybe I can start a band.” It was as if the dream traveled telepathically throughout the land.
In the late ‘50s and throughout the 1960s, regional rock and roll scenes emerged all across the U.S. with their own distinct sounds – West Texas/Eastern New Mexico … Chicago, New York and Detroit … New Orleans and Memphis … Northern and Southern California … the Pacific Northwest … Ohio/Pennsylvania, and so on.
Same thing was happening in the Upper Midwest, where many a Minnesota, Iowa or Wisconsin band found its way to the Twin Cities in search of the elusive brass ring. And there was another Upper Midwest rock scene emerging at that time, tucked away in the relative obscurity of the Red River Valley of North Dakota and western Minnesota.
A common thread for bands in all of those areas was the desire to break out and find a larger audience. Soon, bands would resolve to take their dream one step further by declaring, “Let’s make a record!”
And many of the more enterprising groups did just that. With no major labels around to hear them, garage bands scraped up enough cash to score an hour or two of studio time and do it themselves. A rushed recording session offered enough time to put down two or three songs tops, and not much more. As part of the deal, the act would receive 500 copies of the 45 rpm disc, usually distributed to radio stations to promote their dances, and maybe a friendly disc jockey would give it enough airplay to spawn a regional hit. In the days before format consultants and focus group research, such things were possible.
Admittedly, while a number of these recordings are as bad as one might expect, occasionally an unpolished gem emerges. The soundtrack of “Fargo Rocks” includes 18 of these rare and unique recordings.
Prior to the rock era, North Dakota’s main contribution to popular music was Peggy Lee and Lawrence Welk. Fargo’s rock and roll scene provided the next one – Bobby Vee.
Robert Velline was a sophomore at Fargo Central High School when he, his brother Bill, and their yet-unnamed band answered the call to perform as fill-ins when the airplane carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson crashed en route to Fargo on Feb. 3, 1959. Rock and roll history books tend to tie their debut at the Winter Dance Party directly to the start of Vee’s recording career. Truth is, Bobby Vee and the Shadows didn’t cut “Susie Baby” until five months later. The success of “Susie Baby” as a regional hit caught the attention of Liberty Records, which bought the rights and signed Vee to a long-term contract.
While Vee was one of the most consistent international hitmakers of the early 1960s, he, like many of his contemporaries, hit a slump when the British Invasion arrived on America’s shores in 1964. A casualty of that stretch was “Keep On Trying,” a minor hit from early 1965. Arranged and produced by Beatles’ producer George Martin and composed by Van McCoy, “Keep On Trying” stalled at #85 on Billboard’s Hot 100 – it’s a track from Vee’s vast catalog that’s long overdue for rediscovery.
The smooth guitar fills on “Susie Baby” belong to Bill Velline, whose unique “plucking” style of rock guitar predates Mark Knofler by a good 20 years. In 1960, Bill Velline stepped to the microphone for a rare vocal on the Shadows’ “Leave Me Alone,” with brother Bobby on lead guitar, joining a lineup that included bassist Dick Dunkirk (who replaced Jim Stillman) and drummer Bob Korum.
Formed in 1955, Terry Lee & The Poor Boys was North Dakota’s first rock and roll band. Four years later, in August 1959, the Poor Boys, led by lead singer/rhythm guitarist Bob Becker, traveled to the Kay Bank studio in Minneapolis to record “My Little Sue,” a Gene Vincent/Buddy Holly-influenced rockabilly disc released on Soma. “My Little Sue” was a KXGO “Pick Hit of the Week” and, with only 500 pressings, has since become one of the most highly sought-after rockabilly 45s in the world.
Ronnie Ray & The Playboys recorded the first significant instrumental to emerge from Fargo – “The Vulture.” Ron Rekken, then a freshman at Concordia College, took a Playboys lineup that included Larry McCrehin, Pete Beck and Bruce Carney to the Circle-Dot Studio in Minneapolis and recorded “The Vulture” (a McCrehin composition) in October 1959. “The Vulture” was released in January 1960 and nearly edged out “Muleskinner Blues” by The Fendermen atop KXGO’s Fabulous Fifty Survey, settling in one week at #2.
A rare glimpse into the art of homemade disc making is provided by The Rockin’ Teenbeats, a Fargo band that recorded four sides on acetate at the Hi-Lo Recording Studio in Moorhead circa 1961. Three of the tunes were covers of “Be Bop A Lula,” “Muleskinner Blues” and “Peter Gunn,” but the best cut of the bunch is an original instrumental, “Basic.” Unpolished perhaps, but historically significant as an example of how bands would try to record themselves with the best available equipment in rock and roll’s Dark Ages.
Originally from Bismarck and later from Minot and Fargo, Davey Bee & The Sonics made waves in 1961 with “Linda Lee” (a Dave Berdahl composition). Davey’s father, Arch Berdahl, produced the disc on his Pearl label, with Bill Velline providing his patented lead guitar licks as a session guest. One of the finest early rock and roll records to come out of North Dakota, “Linda Lee” earned significant airplay in the Dakotas, Montana, Minnesota and parts of Canada, often reaching the Top Ten on local charts.
At the same session, Bee’s Sonics recorded another Berdahl original, “University Girl.” On their way back to Bismarck from the Minneapolis session, they stopped in Moorhead to play the song for Bobby Vee to get his feedback. Vee liked it so much, he asked to record it himself. Bee turned down the offer, citing his own intent of releasing the song himself, but never followed through. Thus, “University Girl” remained in the can for almost 45 years before its initial release on this package.
Formed in 1960, The Treasures specialized in Ventures and Pyramids-style instrumentals. In November 1964, the lineup of Paul Hubbard (lead guitar), Don Formanek (bass), Jerry Jacobson (guitar) and Neil Olsen (drums) entered the Kay Bank studio in Minneapolis and emerged with “Minor Chaos,” a surf instrumental that had been part of their repertoire since Hubbard joined the band in 1963. “Minor Chaos” – originally composed and recorded in 1962 by F-M rock legends Steve Rowe and the Furys – earned airplay on stations ranging from daytimer KUTT in Fargo to 50,000-watt KOMA in Oklahoma City. In part because of distribution limitations and a total of 500 pressings, The Treasures’ version of “Minor Chaos” is one of the most collectible surf instrumentals ever recorded.
As both surf and instrumentals began to run their course, The Treasures briefly enlisted the vocal talents of the Aaron Brothers (Greg Grove and Darv Lucas) in time for another stab at recording. Late in 1965, The Treasures featuring The Aaron Brothers returned to Kay Bank and cut a cover of “Lean Jean,” an obscure 1958 single by Bill Haley and His Comets. After a memorable foray into promoting Fargo concerts by The Vogues and Paul Revere & The Raiders in 1966, Hubbard and Formanek enrolled at the University of Minnesota, and Olson joined Fragile Zookeeper.
Wild, uninhibited and talented, the always-entertaining Unbelievable Uglies – headquartered in Detroit Lakes, Minn. – were one of the top show bands working the Midwest circuit in the 1960s. They released 11 singles between 1964 and 1975, including a cover of the Impalas’ “Sorry (I Ran All the Way Home)” on Liberty (produced by Bobby Vee), which was preceded by “Keep Her Satisfied” from early 1966. Composed by lead singer Alan Spears, “Keep Her Satisfied” also included a trombone part for bassist Dave Hoffman and trumpet work from Dave Prentice, the band’s effervescent emcee. After numerous personnel changes, the Uglies evolved into Uglier Than Ever in the late ‘70s. Hoffman went on to Friendship, and later founded the highly successful Hoffman Talent Agency.
While most of the acts in “Fargo Rocks” are from the Fargo-Moorhead area, it became necessary to venture outside those parameters to effectively emphasize that recording activity in the Dakotas wasn’t restricted to the Red River Valley. The Trade Winds 5 from Bismarck, featuring the talents of Bismarck High student Richard Torrance, were popular regulars on the Midwest dance circuit. Here, the Trade Winds 5 perform a souped-up cover of Etta James’ “Somethin’s Gotta Hold On Me” which they titled “It Must Be Love.”
Torrance, who would move on and record three albums for Leon Russell’s Shelter label in the 1970s, garnered airplay with “Hard Heavy Road” – along with his band Eureka – in 1975. After leaving Shelter, Torrance recorded five albums for Capitol in the 1970s, including the rare, promotional only Live at The Boarding House.
Along with Terry Lee & The Poor Boys and Bobby Vee’s Shadows, 6 1/2 -year-old Ronnie Kerber was among those who helped fill in at the aforementioned Winter Dance Party show at the Moorhead Armory. Kerber helped break the tension that night with a rendition of Laurie London’s “He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands.” The performing bug stayed with Kerber, who years later co-founded The Mods along with lead singer Richie Jacobson. Their first single, “Should I,” knocked The Byrds’ “Eight Miles High” out of the No. 1 spot on KQWB’s All-American Survey in the spring of 1966.
Like The Trade Winds 5, The Cornerstones – from Grand Forks – technically fall outside of the primary focus area, but their short-and-sweet “You Rule Me” was a smash radio hit in Fargo-Moorhead and throughout the Midwest in 1966. “You Rule Me” not only ruled many radio chart surveys in the region, it was one of the top-ranked singles of the year at KFYR, Bismarck’s 5,000-watt AM rocker. Lead singer Steve Rood composed and arranged this 1 minute, 42-second garage classic in 15 inspired minutes one afternoon while waiting for dinner.
In the fall of 1965, three Concordia College students – Blake English, Kent Richey and Mike Naylor – hooked up with Steve Hanson from cross-town Moorhead State and formed The Pawnbrokers. Ron Yantz, a KQWB disc jockey, became their manager, and they soon began opening for national acts that came through town, including a Yardbirds lineup that featured guitar heroes Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck. And, for a while in 1967, the quartet was Bobby Vee’s touring backup band. In early 1967, The Pawnbrokers cut the Byrds-influenced “Someday” on IGL, which became a Top Ten record in the F-M market. They released two more singles before calling it a day in 1969.
Five farm kids from Oakes (located in the southeast corner of North Dakota) who called themselves The Dynamic Dischords unleashed “Passageway (To Your Heart)” onto the Midwest airwaves in 1968. Mel Bruns, Dave Enquist, Tom Rodine, Bob Vorachek, and Tim Weatherhead created a track that veered toward a heavier, psychedelic sound while still aiming for commercial success. A highlight for the band came when “Passageway” surged ahead of “She’s A Rainbow” by The Rolling Stones on KSJB Jamestown’s weekly survey in February 1968 en route to an eventual Top Ten placing. And Weatherhead still has the vintage KSJB tune-dex to prove it.
The first Fargo rock band to cut an album for a national label was Overland Stage, which released its self-titled LP in 1972 on Epic, a Columbia subsidiary. Overland Stage – Steve Babb, Duane Elofson, Jim Flint, David Hanson, Rick Johnsgard and Don Miller – recorded the album at the same San Francisco studio where Santana, It’s A Beautiful Day and Sly and the Family Stone created their works. Epic pulled two singles from the album, including “I’m Beginning To Feel It,” released in May 1972. Congas on The Overland Stage were played by Latin percussion legend Coke Escovedo (Sheila E’s dad)!
This collection is only the half of Fargo-Moorhead’s rock and roll story, as Volume 2 further explores the rest of this musical legacy. And for the stories behind the music, the documentary “Fargo Rocks” is nothing less than required viewing.
- Daniel Dullum
Creative consultant and narrator, “Fargo Rocks”
FARGO ROCKS, Vol. 1
| My Little Sue | Terry Lee and the Poor Boys | Soma, 1959 |
| Suzie Baby | Bobby Vee and the Shadows | Soma, 1959 |
| Leave Me Alone | Bill Velline and the Shadows | Vee, 1960 |
| The Vulture | Ronnie Ray and the Playboys | Circle-Dot, 1960 |
| Basic | The Rockin' Teenbeats | test pressing, ca. 1961 |
| Linda Lee | Davey Bee & the Sonics | Pearl, 1961 |
| University Girl | Davey Bee & the Sonics | unreleased, 1962 |
| Minor Chaos | The Treasures | Valor, 1965 |
| Lean Jean | The Treasures w/The Aaron Brothers | Valor, 1965 |
| Keep Her Satisfied | The Unbelievable Uglies | Soma, 1966 |
| Keep On Trying | Bobby Vee | Liberty, 1965 |
| It Must Be Love | The Trade Winds 5 | Fox, 1966 |
| Should I | The Mods | Plains, 1966 |
| You Rule Me | The Cornerstones | Metrobeat, 1966 |
| Someday | The Pawnbrokers | IGL, 1967 |
| Passageway (To Your Heart) | The Dynamic Dischords | IGL, 1968 |
| I'm Beginning to Feel It | Overland Stage | Epic, 1972 |
| Hard Heavy Road | Richard Torrance and Eureka | Shelter, 1975 |
| A very special thanks to Kit Grove for
re-mastering the songs and at the same time refusing to change how they were recorded and for letting the music be true to itself. |
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