The
Original
EDEN :
L to R
Jeff "Nob" Wyatt (guitar/vocals), Stan Dorsett
(bass/vocals),
Jim Folk (keyboards/vocals), Van Lautsch
(percussion/vocals)
Photo by Bernie Wyatt
FORWARD
Here
I will provide a brief description of some of the history
of Eden as I recall it, as well as random thoughts and
remembrances of the Saskatchewan music scene at the
time. I would
like to especially thank talented writer, researcher and
prairie music historian Brock Silversides for helping to
jog my memory on many additional items relayed below.
This
EDEN - the band page is
accompanied by the
EDEN Photos
and
EDEN Posters
pages
that you will see in the page navigation links. Some of
the captions on those pictures relate to the written
material below.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1971 - THE ORIGINAL EDEN IN THE
BEGINNING...
The band
EDEN was a
popular 1970's Saskatchewan rock group, which underwent a
series of various membership incarnations, and a very
temporary name change to
SPIRAL.
EDEN was
founded in 1971 by
Jim Folk (keys/vocals),
Stan Dorsett (bass/vocals), Van Lautsch (drums/vocals)
and me, Jeff "Nob" Wyatt (guitar/vocals). For most
of the band’s existence our booking agents were the
amiable brothers
Don Hergott and
the late
Sam Hergott originally
from Humboldt, Saskatchewan. Together they
operated
Quicksilver Talent Agency
out
of Saskatoon and Regina offices, promoting Saskatchewan
music and serving countless prairie bands as well as the
communities which hired their services.
Don Hergott had the thickest, coolest black hair
& mustache I'd ever seen. He was a very
nice guy and a supportive agent. He was fairly laid
back and calm to be around. I never saw him worked up
about anything. He and his late brother Sam kept us
quit busy with booking one-nighters around the province for
many bands that they represented. There was lots of
work back then, but the pay was never great. That
wasn't Don or Sam's fault. They got what he could for
their bands. The vast majority of bands played for
the love of performing music,... rather than for the love
of money,... as the latter was very illusive. I
believe Don and Sam did handle groups which included
A Group Called Mudd,
Wascana &
Cambridge, who
later became the Queen City Kids and I
believe were then handled by Gary Stratochuk, who also
personally managed Streetheart.
Generally I thought Don Hergott to be a big
brother and sometimes even a father figure. He
would stand behind you if he liked your music and stage
presence. If he didn't particularly agree with
a direction (musical or otherwise) a band was taking, he
would state his concerns, but he would never stop
supporting you and working to get you gigs.
I believe it was my brother Bernie (aka
Daniel Wyatt) who
thought of the
EDEN name for
us,… or was it Van our drummer?? One day I'll find
out for sure. Anyway, Bernie designed a couple of our
promotional posters, as well as provided some cool black
and white photography. The above outdoor black and
white shot has always been my favorite. From left to right
you see me, Jeff “Nob” Wyatt, Stan Dorsett,
Jim Folk and
Van Lautsch – the original
EDEN of 1971.
This is a classic 70's style band photo taken in the
Qu'Appelle Valley near Craven, Sask., by Bernie Wyatt
(aka
Daniel Wyatt).
That location also became a favorite, outdoor party
place for the band and our friends during the summer of
1971. It was quite secluded and the farmer who
owned the land didn't seem to mind us being there,... or
perhaps didn't know.
A
TRAVELLING BAND
EDEN
originally
travelled by station-wagon pulling a large custom built
trailer provided by Jim's father Pat Folk, but it was just
a few months before we outgrew this mode of transportation.
On the
EDEN Photos
page
you can see that original trailer with the cool paint
job provided by my brother Bernie Wyatt (aka
Daniel Wyatt). As
our vision for the band expanded, so did the amount of
gear we acquired and toured with.
Deciding to upgrade, we bought a 24 passenger school bus
(from Wells Wayne Bus Lines in Southey, Sask.) with the
seats removed. We eventually stencil painted on the side
the silly phrase THIS IS NOT A SHCOOL BUS.... accidentally
spelling SCHOOL wrong,.... what was I thinking,... or
not(?). What dorks that none of us noticed until we pulled
the masking tape stencils off. But we just laughed and left
it that way rather than try and fix it. The roof had large
pieces of yellow paint peeling and hanging, which covered
rust beneath. Therefore we decided to have that roof
sandblasted and coated with primer, since we were planning
on eventually repainting the entire bus. We did finally at
least get a coat of primer on that roof to protect it,
although it wasn't long before we outgrew this puppy,
finally blowing that poor overworked engine sometime in
Spring of 1972.
We then purchased a 48 passenger school bus (also from
Wells Wayne Bus Lines in Southey, Sask.) with a newly
installed powerful 427ci engine complete with automatic
transmission. Having our doubts about the automatic
transmission safely pulling the weight of gear we'd
accumulated, my mechanic father assured us that if we
shifted it manually when climbing and descending hills (and
kept our eyes on the tachometer and vacuum gauges) we'd
save both the engine and the brakes respectively. He also
told us that truck companies were actually starting to
build dump trucks with automatic transmissions. His
assurances proved correct. We used that bus for the
remainder of the years
EDEN existed,
and it was a most reliable, powerful and comfortable
vehicle.
To make this mechanical powerhouse suitable for band
travels, we had all the seats removed and built a partition
to house all our gear behind. Comfort was important, so we
purchased 2 left over reclining double greyhound style
seats from a local rock band called
A Group Called Mudd and
mounted them just behind the driver seat. This was a mighty
piece of transportation for us in which we traveled to
perform all around the southern and central reaches of
Saskatchewan and slightly across the borders of Manitoba
and Alberta. My mechanic father Jack Wyatt always
kept our buses in good running order to alleviate some
of the fears for all our parents as we traveled in extreme
prairie weather conditions which ranged from +35 degrees
Celcius to -50 Celcius. Although our parents did worry,...
they were very supportive. We did have an occasional minor
bus mishap or bus breakdown which left us stranded in
snowbank in a ditch or in snow drifts on the road during
Saskatchewan blizzards. But we're all still living with our
extremities intact.
As a band we took turns driving and we developed a rather
unique way of switching drivers without stopping the bus or
even slowing down. Our drummer, Van, was the first to
quickly perfect this skill and coach the rest of us in it's
simple yet effective safety first intricacies. Actually,
with all the extensive roominess around the drivers seat,
this technique of swapping operators was quite simple to
accomplish. AND there was another technique we developed
for urinating without stopping the bus. This one was always
good for a chuckle. The driver had full control of the door
handle, which was part of an assembly extending from the
door over to the dash board, right beside the steering
wheel. When someone needed to relieve himself, the driver
would hold the door open slightly (with the handle beside
the steering wheel), while the bladder bursting dude would
stand in the door entrance pit and ever so gracefully try
to aim through that 4" opening that the driver was trying
to hold steady. If we were going around the bend, or over a
bad bump, anyone in the pit had to hang on or there would
be excess liquid waste on his pants and shoes. And,...of
course,... if you were the driver,... you had the power to
play practical jokes on any poor dude who was at your mercy
in the "piss pit". Unfortunately, the side of the bus took
a bit of a "piss beating" depending on the cruising speed,
wind direction and velocity, and such. Although the rain
always seemed to keep it washed clean.
Early one evening we started to paint that bus dark forest
green at Pat Folk's (Jim's dad) autobody shop, using some
leftover paint we managed to compile. Or actually, Jim
started painting it until his dad, Pat stopped by and
decided to finish it. It was funny because Pat was going
out to dinner with his wife Ruth,... so he was wearing a
very classy suit at the time. As a side note:... with the
utmost of trust and all due respect for Jim's
abilities,...although he was a good autobody painter, Pat
had done it for many, many years and had earned a
reputation as being one of Regina's top autobody painters.
After grabbing the sprayer, Pat made it look so easy and he
completed the entire bus in about 30 minutes,... with his
smock over his 3 piece suit and a ventilating mask over his
face. It was amazing and amusing entertainment. I kept
thinking about poor Ruth,.... patiently waiting in the car.
EDEN
had
steady work. These were the days when there was an
abundance of available one-nighters on the prairies, and if
bands didn’t mind traveling, they had a lot of work.
The pay wasn’t so great, but the work was plentiful and the
communities that hired them generally treated traveling
bands with much appreciation and respect. It was not
at all uncommon to pass other bands on the road, driving to
or from gigs.
THE
MUSIC
Playing
mostly cover tunes,
EDEN did
however include some original compositions in our sets most
nights. Some of the progressive 70's bands who's
songs we liked to cover included, Santana,
Deep Purple,
Procol Harum,
Emerson Lake and
Palmer,
Yes,
Gentle Giant,
Blodwyn Pig,
Uriah Heep,
Frank Zappa,
Edgar Winter,
Johnny Winter,
Rick Derringer,
King Crimson,
April Wine,
Chuck Berry,
Bloodrock,
Alice Cooper,
Eric Clapton,
Led Zeppelin,
Argent,
A Foot In Coldwater,
Sly and the Family
Stone, and
others. Obviously, we liked to learn some difficult
stuff, just to stretch our horizons and abilities to see
if you could actually do it. Thinking back, as a band we
were certainly not lazy. We liked to work hard, and the
rewards included that feeling of accomplishing something
you never knew you could. We pushed each other to
improve as musicians and live players in every aspect we
could think of.
Generally when it came to our original music, one member
would approach the others with a basic idea for the song
then we'd work out the final arrangement together with each
member contributing his own unique part. Sometimes the
songs worked and sometimes they didn't. Plus at rehearsal
times, before we'd dig in our heels, we often liked to
unwind and clear our heads by jamming. It was a great way
to loosen up and develop improvisation skills, as well come
up with new song ideas.
HARD
WORKING, FUN FILLED YEARS
EDEN's
career had many highlights, an early one of which was
having the pleasure to perform as a warm up act for the
ever popular Canadian rockin' blues influenced show
band
Crowbar in
the fall of 1971 at the old (now demolished) Exhibition
Auditorium in Regina, Saskatchewan. The song that
Crowbar will always be most renouned for is that well
known radio hit
Oh, What A Feelin (Whatta
Rush).
This concert occurred at a major crest in Crowbar's
popularity, so they had no trouble filling venues and
leaving people buzzing wherever they went. This
was a memorable gig for us because the place was packed,
the air was electric and we were scared out of our
wits. And what do people do when they are
frightened to this degree? They pray, of
course,..... which was what we decided to do in order to
calm ourselves down before taking the stage.
Finally when a stage hand came backstage to retrieve us,
we entered from stage left while the crowd roared and
the smell of marijuana wafted through the
auditorium. This was like a downsized version of a
70's
Grateful Dead concert.
Although we had a previous small Regina debut concert at a
cool little venue often referred to as the
"Zig
Zag Drop In Centre" (named
after the popular rolling paper brand), this particular
night was our big
Regina
debut concert, the outcome of which would give us immediate
popularity or an instant thumbs down from our musician
peers and local rock music lovers. To our great joy
and delight, this was one of those magical nights that
musicians yearn for, when everything "clicks" on and off
stage; one of those times when you can do no wrong and even
"mistakes" come across as being well planned artistic
occurrences. This was a make it or break it night and
we road high on the public's good wishes and praise that we
received in the following months to come. As a band
we were so grateful for this experience and thus decided to
always have a short prayer before we took the stage ever
after that. Although none of us were over religious,
we were spiritual minded and this became an integral part
of the precursor to most every gig.
I should say here that although I refer to the engagements
we prairie bands played at were "gigs", "concerts",
"engagements" and "one-nighters",... they were really
mostly DANCES in those early days. They were often
open floor events where many people danced, while others
stood, watched and listened. All the prairie bands in
these days played dances in the following types of venues:
--school
gymnasiums
--town halls
--church basements
--University halls (note: Pub nights at the
University of Regina were always fun)
--lake resort pavilions
--park bandstands
--outdoor festivals
These last 2 types of gigs were mostly concert types of
events because most everyone sat and listened.
The original
EDEN was
a rare
breed of a 70's rock band, in that we discovered very early
in our career that we performed and functioned much better
when we took the stage without the influence of alcohol or
any other substance. We treated our time on stage
very seriously,... somewhat sacred, for lack of a better
word. If people were good enough to pay their hard
earned dollars to come see us perform and dance to our
music we felt they deserved the best we could give
them. Plus, we always felt better after a gig if we
knew we'd given our best and played well. But we
still had enormous fun, although our good feelings stemmed
from adrenalin and the natural occurring biochemical
endorphins in our young brains. Because of our
abstinent on-stage behavior, I often thought of us as a bit
of a 70's anomaly, since drugs and booze usually ran
rampant backstage for many bands we knew. We didn't,
however, have a "holier than thou" attitude and thus never
liked to judge other bands for behaving that way. We
just preferred not to. We reserved getting tipsy and
crazy for our band parties, which always included our
friends. Although we sometimes liked to down a few beers in
the bus on the way home from gigs. Being parched after a
gig, I used to like those partially frozen "beer slushies"
that naturally occurred in the bus during those frozen
winter months. These weren't slovenly, drunken travels by
any means. They were just enjoyable refreshments after a
gig and whoever was driving always had a sober, clear head.
Even our original roadie/soundman/lightman,
Bob Ell,
would sometimes take the stage with us for a song or
two, playing his Gibson ES330 guitar.
(note:
Bob's daughter is the talented guitarist, singer and
songwriter Lindsay Ell,
who is making quite a name for herself in the music
world). Our
very reliable friend Bob departed from us after about a
year or so to peruse a career in engineering. We were
sorry to see him go. After his departure we relied
heavily on our friend Keith Soehn and others to come
along as road crew on our trips. We couldn't pay much
(if at all), but we were always able to promise some fun
and interesting times.
Although the band experience and performing music was
indeed fun much of the time, there was still the business
aspect that we could not ignore, and it was the dollars we
earned from playing one gig that helped finance us getting
to the next. And the music business, like any other
business, has always had it's vultures that prey on honest,
naive musicians. I remember one such incident of
EDEN being
booked to play at Temple Gardens in
Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. This grand old palace of a
venue was built in 1921 and had an amazing history of
musicians who had graced it's stage up until it's
demolition in the late 70's. When I walked into this
place for the first time, there was an apparent feeling
of largeness to the room; both horizontally and
vertically. It was by far more vast and impressive than
any other Saskatchewan dance hall I'd ever had the
pleasure of experiencing.
The year was about 1972 when
EDEN had been
booked into Temple Gardens by a
promoter who had a bad reputation for not honoring
contracts. This fellow indeed had a history of ripping
off both bands and booking agents, and if you were in a
Saskatchewan band in the early 70's, the promoter/agent
name with initials J.V. might strike a familiar,
dissonant chord with you. The Temple Gardens gig I
refer to had a low turnout, partially because the
promoter hadn't promoted the gig well enough in advance.
But, in his defense, if I remember correctly,...it was
also sub-below-zero COLD outside along with a pileup of
previous snow falls making driving a little sketchy,
however the bold hearts of prairie people seldom let the
viscousness of winter dictate their activities.
Never-the less, none of this helped in getting people
swarming into the "Gardens" that evening.
Due to the low turnout, at the end of the night the
promoter decided he wasn't going to honor the contract he
signed with our booking agent. To the best of my memory, he
paid us nothing, or only a portion,... but only after we
threatened to report him the musician's association. This
was a rather unfortunate and sour way to end the night and
from then on the memory of Temple Gardens was
not a fond one for me. It is strange indeed how one
negative experience can cloud our vision of something
that deserves our appreciation.
It wasn't until 2012 that my perception changed when I came
to know Heather Hodgson (ex- Moose Jaw resident and writer)
who, along with Gord McCaw, had been working on a book
dedicated to Temple Gardens and
its interesting and colorful history. The information
and photographs that they, and others had been gathering
were indeed of interest and I learned much, giving me an
entirely new appreciation of Temple Gardens. And
to top it all off, Heather remembered being there,
dancing to our music that night. How cool is that?
Heather and Gord's book should be published and available
hopefully by December of 2013, and I will post information
here as to how to obtain it when that information is
available. In the meantime here is a link to a Facebook
page dedicated to this magestic old dance hall and ball
room.
Temple Gardens Ball Room
In those days, there was no real recourse when a promoter
refused to pay the agreed amount; it was "band beware".
Hmmm? Come to think of it, it's still much like that today.
Up to that point we had been paying dues to the local
musicians union, as we felt that such membership gave us
some clout and protection from guys like J.V. But we found
from this experience that our union was no help in this
regard. It was at that time we discontinued paying any
future membership dues, as we felt that union membership
served us no purpose and gave us no real benefit
whatsoever, only a false perception of protection.
I had previously heard of other bands that had similar
experiences with promoter J.V. Integrity and honesty were
not his strong points. I can only hope that our good old
friend Kharma has taught him a thing or two over the
decades since. There weren't many of his kind around in
those days, and fortunately we never dealt with anyone like
him again. Every other promoter we dealt with honored the
contracts they signed.
I feel I
should mention here too that there was a young, shy,
unassuming, talented singer-songwriter who use to show up
at some of our gigs. We used to enjoy letting him play some
of his original material while we took our breaks. His name
was
Ron Thring and he
wrote some very interesting folkie kind of songs very
reminiscent of the style of Bob Dylan.
We'd set him up with mikes on his voice and acoustic
guitar and let him do his thing. Ron was never a member
of the band, but since he played at some of our gigs he
certainly deserves a mention here. I'm not sure where
Ron is today, or what he's doing, but I remember him
well and he's part of our history.
A FEW OTHER BAND MEMBERS INCLUDED KEN 'SPIDER' SINNAEVE,
DOUG ZUROWSKI, BRIAN MORGAN, KEITH SOEHN, DALE SAUER...
After a
year or more
EDEN went
through some growing pains. We became somewhat bored and
unsatisfied with what we were doing. One of the issues was
that we wanted someone to take over the lead vocal role,
freeing up the rest of us to focus on backup vocals as well
as our instrument playing. We thought it would help us to
be more versatile and allow us to expand our repertoire. We
were fortunate to bring on board vocalist/guitarist Dale
Sauer to help us out. Dale not only had a great lead
singing voice, but was also a very able lead guitarist. We
were looking only for a lead singer and ended up with
someone who I could also play dual guitar parts with. How
cool !! The extra voice allowed us to do more vocally
challenging tunes which included those of
Uriah Heep.
Plus, with 2 guitars we could play the record version
of Deep Purple's
Highway Star, complete with Ritchie Blackmore's
overdubs.
I think it was somewhere around this time when we were able
to have Guy Seifert as our reliable soundman, lightman and
roadie. Guy was a cool longhaired, music loving kind of
dude who road a Harley. I always felt safe with him
around. He was a kind, thoughtful and fun-loving but
he didn't take any crap from anyone who dished it out
unfairly. If guy was your friend, you can be sure of a very
loyal friend. Therefore I should also add the title
"bodyguard" to the duties he willingly took on. We never
had trouble that got out of hand with him round. He could
give someone a simple look that would make anyone step back
and behave themselves.
The growing pains of
EDEN continued,
however, and the band struggled between the thought of
continuing playing "one-nighters" and possibly becoming a
club or cabaret band. Full agreement on either was
difficult for us to decide upon. Plus the chemistry of the
band was in some turmoil. Looking back, it had to have been
very difficult for Dale to come into a band that already
had an established 4 man camaraderie. He must have felt
like the odd man out sometimes. If it was me, I'm sure I
would have. We had bickering going on amongst us like never
before. That certainly wasn't Dale's fault, we were just
too immature and unwilling to deal with band issues head
on. Nobody wanted to bend and thus the 5 man chemistry
didn't seem to be working anymore. The 4 of us original
members finally were able to somewhat reluctantly agree to
try playing the club circuit. That was not what Dale
wanted, so he chose to leave the band. So there we were,...
back to the original 4 rehearsing again,... putting the
pieces together, and dropping some of our material. Being a
band that was always in flux and known for changing plans
midstream, we soon swung back to wanting to play
"one-nighters". The thought of playing the club circuit
somehow lost any appeal it had to any of us. Perhaps we
just got scared. Regardless, the "one-nighters" continued
for us.
In about 1972 we were presented with a sad and difficult
time. Due to medical reasons, our original bassist Stan
Dorsett was forced to sadly depart for a period. Jim, Van
and I were a little perplexed as to how to deal with this
as we couldn't imagine the band chemistry without Stan.
Plus we had gigs to play and had to think about a bassist
replacement. Because of time constraints, we were forced to
play a few of our gigs with me on bass. We thought
if Emerson Lake and Palmer
could
do it, we could temporarily try, although we had to
perform our set lists slightly modified and the songs
took on slightly different arrangements. For those trio
gigs Stan was very gracious in providing me with his
very cool Rickenbacker bass
and Traynor bass
amp. It seemed very weird playing without having the
guitar parts, and it put more pressure on each of us to
make our overall sound work.
We put the word out and the band auditioned and enlisted a
series of bassists. These included good friend, and
ex-bandmate of Jim's, Doug Zurowski (who played with us for
many months) and
Ken Sinnaeve, who
years later came to be nicknamed "Spider" because of the
dexterity, accuracy and speed of his finger
co-ordination - resembling that of a crawling
spider. After Doug left us, we were introduced to
Ken by Guy Seifert who was our sound man, lightman and
roadie at that time. We jammed once with Ken,...
and BINGO. somewhere in about 1973, Ken became our
new bass player.
Ken had a nice Fender Precision with an Ampeg amp which
reminded me of a medium sized refrigerator. A big and
heavy mother it was. Ken also played a remarkably mean and
dirty sax in those days. We always made sure he had a
sax solo featured every gig. The Edgar Winter tune
A
Different Game was
the song in which Ken unleashed himself on sax,... tenor
sax, I think (possibly alto?). Ken would set his
bass down when his sax solo approached and our
keyboardist Jim Folk would take over the bassline on his
ARP synthesizer. On the original
Edgar Winter recording,
an approximate 1 second delay was used on the sax solo.
At the start of the solo Edgar would play a short
phrase, then the notes would echo and disappear.
He'd play a few more notes and they would echo
and disappear. It was so cool the way Ken
handled this, because (since we didn't have any delay
unit) Ken would actually PLAY
the disappearing delays. Fortunately our
sound system did have reverb. So,... with a little
bit of applied reverb and Ken mimicking the
echos by actually playing them,... it sounded very
similar to Edgar's recording. Ken was and is a
creative guy.. (HAHA) My mind is flashing back
and digressing to a party following a gig in Saskatoon
where one of our road/sound/& light guys (Keith
Soehn) was trying to play Ken's sax, while Ken was
pouring beer into the bell. Yah there was alcohol
consumption involved that night.
In further regard to Ken's sax playing with
EDEN,... we
also covered Pink Floyd's Money,...
but I don't know why Ken didn't play the sax solo in there.
Jim played a synth solo instead of the sax solo.
That may have been Ken's preference,... I forget.
I know Ken certainly preferred playing bass.
The impression I had was that sax to him was a fun
toy to play for a song or two. He was
always always a natural performer. If he was ever
nervous, it didn't show. In fact he was a bit of a
ham on stage,... but certainly a "tactful ham"; not
arrogant in the least. But in Ken's defense,... the members
of
EDEN were all
a little "hammy", so he fit right in.
Ken hadn't yet his nickname "Spider" while with
EDEN.
That came in latter years. The nickname he had with
us was SNUFFY, and sometimes SNUFFS or
SNUFFLES...which was a bit of a take off on SINNAEVE as
well as SNUFELUFIGUS from Sesame Street. This name
was invented by either Keith Soehn or Van Lautsch. I don't
know that he particularly liked
being called SNUFFY, but it's a name that stuck
and he must have got used to it (sort of),... at least
while he was with
EDEN anyway.
And beside, being a good sport, he took it well.
However, with my nickname being "Nob", I was the brunt of
far sillier jokes, as you can well imagine.
I always thought that Ken's nickname "Spider" came from
the Streetheart era,..
but it very well could have come from the
Wascana or
Witness period.
Yah, everybody knew he was specially gifted. You
would know that the first time you'd hear him play.
The bass parts he was able to accomplish at such a young
age were phenomenal. In
EDEN we
tackled a bit of Yes and
Emerson Lake and
Palmer, and
Ken had no trouble learning and playing those advanced
Chris Squire bass lines,.. as well as throwing in some
of his own "SPIDEY" riffs for good measure. The
name SINNAEVE in Regina became synonymous with
bass guitar. He's one of those rare gifted musical
individuals that you don't come across everyday. Plus he
was a nice guy and fun to work with.
To the best of my memory the reason this incarnation
of
EDEN disbanded
in later in 1973 was due to Ken being offered a bassist
position with the hot local jazz fusion band
Wascana. Then,
with the inclusion of
Witness lead
vocalist and front man Kenny Shields as
well as drummer Bob Ego,
the
Wascana name was
changed to
Witness, which
was a shortened name from the predecessor
Witness Inc., which
Kenny successfully fronted in years previous.
(Here's
a Nov 19, 2011 article about Kenny in the Saskatoon
StarPhoenix "When Radio Ruled and Kenny Shields was
King").
Some members of this re-incarnated group eventually went on
to form the popular Canadian band Streetheart under
the management of Gary Stratychuk. (note:
Gary also managed local, rising bands
Kick Axe and
The Queen City Kids).
For a much
more
complete history of
Wascana,
Witness, etc.,
as well as the full band memberships, see
Bob Deutscher's Chronicle of Bands 1962 -
2003.
Bob Deutscher was
Wascana's guitarist and has done an excellent job
keeping track of this musical history.
Our time working with Ken was fun and productive.
Ken Sinnaeve has
since become a legend as one of Canada’s greatest bass
players, having played and recorded with names such
as
Streetheart,
Tom Cochrane,
Loverboy,
Lee Aaron and
Kim Mitchell.
Unfortunately we don't seem to have any surviving photos
of that time period with Ken. Maybe there's still
more boxes to look through.
EDEN
was
noticeably influx at this point. We went so far as to
briefly change our name to
SPIRAL and try
something completely different. Jim, Van and myself asked
Brian Morgan (on bass and backup vocals) to join our ranks
along with our good long time friend
Keith Soehn (on
synth/tape and backup vocals). They were a great couple
of guys, but for some reason the overall musical
chemistry between us wasn't working on a consistent
basis. I remember feeling unsatisfied after many of the
gigs we played. There's no blame here. Sometimes
combinations of people just don't function as well as
you'd like them to, regardless of how much you want it
to work. And it may have absolutely nothing to do with
the individual talents. Something that Keith brought the
band which was quit unique and "ear catching" was the
use of pre-recorded tape to the band's performances. We
always finished off the night playing along with a tape
recording of the final crescendos of the great opera
aria Nessun Dorma from
the classic opera Turandot by
the Italian composer Puccini. And Keith had the volume
"cranked" through the sound system. It was so cool !!
With this we always turned heads and got full attention
at the very end of the night. Nessun Dorma is a
work that became Luciano Pavarotti's
very own trademark.
1975 - THE ORIGINAL EDEN REUNITE
AGAIN...
Somewhere down the road
EDEN once
again reformed, resurrected and reunited with our original
bassist and good buddy Stan Dorsett, and the original, yet
renewed band happily played out its remaining years with
it's 4 founding members. It was an inevitable reunion
that just felt good and the timing was right and we were
"pumped". We played our final gig sometime in late 1975 or
early 1976, although we briefly reformed in about 1981 for
some rehearsals and demo recording sessions of some
original material. Those tapes are packed away in Stan's
archives.
By 1982 times had changed, our lives were different and
priorities needed to be re-evaluated.
EDEN parted
on very good terms. The fire had simply died and there were
other aspects to our lives that needed tending,... we had
grown and needed to think seriously about earning a living.
We remain friends to this day and when any of us do get
together the memories are fond and the laughter is
immediate and contagious.
As a band, when we were “on” we were "really on". But
when we were “off”,…well,…we were disappointed.
The
EDEN years
were creative, challenging and fun days. It was an
education in music, life, sleep deprivation and long
distance driving. We were more than friends,... we
were family. I feel privileged to have been able to
work with these extraordinary and talented individuals who
will always be my close friends. My thanks also
go out to those hard working "road toads" and sound and
light guys that worked their butts off for paltry pay,
greasy burgers and fries, a few beers and lots of
laughs. These included
Bob Ell, Guy
Siefert,
Keith Soehn and
others who travelled with us from time to time.
I am also so very grateful for the fact that we have so
many existing photographs of those
EDEN years.
Many thanks to the photographers, who included Ray
Bell,
Bob Ell,
Bernie Wyatt (aka
Daniel Wyatt),
Jim Folk,
Stan Dorsett, Van Lautsch and others. Thanks to all the
above for supplying the photos that I posted on this
site.
SOME
FINAL RANDOM THOUGHTS AND MEMORIES OF THE 1970's
SASKATCHEWAN MUSIC SCENE
At this
point I'm going to admittedly ramble a bit with some of my
fond memories of the 70's Saskatchewan music scene.
Regarding the band
A Group Called Mudd,...I
liked these guys right from their beginnings. The
first very incarnation was as a power trio;
Doug Rusu -
guitar and vocals, Cal Bradley - bass and lead vocals,
and the late Neil Doege on drums and backup vocals.
It was a sad day when Neil died in a boating or
rafting accident somewhere around 1969. As far as
I remember, he apparently headed down Wascana Creek
during a spring flooding. The flow and flooding
was quite heavy. I'm not sure of the sequence of
events but the result was that Neil drowned, but the
whole musical community of Regina was extremely upset.
This earliest form of
A Group Called Mudd was very
enjoyable to listen to. The first time I heard them
play live was at one of their evening rehearsals at RUSU'S
service station in the vehicle repair bays. Doug
Rusu's dad owned this place. It was located on the
southwest corner of Victoria Ave and Dewdney Avenue in
Regina. Steve Hegyi was a good friend of bassist and
lead vocalist, Cal Bradley. We just dropped in on
them one cold winter evening. Their musicianship and
presence was very good and they left an impression on me.
Even at a rehearsal they looked and sounded like rock
stars. I remember they played some awesome
Cream and
Blind Faith covers.
Cal had a great voice for singing lead. Neil
reminded me of drummer Mitch Mitchell to look at.
I thought he even kind of played like him.
At this rehearsal I still can remember them
practicing Blind Faith's "In the Presence of the Lord".
I was held quite spellbound while I listened to
this local power trio. Doug Rusu's guitar playing, I
thought, was reminiscent of Eric Clapton.
Eric was probably one of his idols, I suspect.
And probably Jeff Beck.
Doug didn't play flashy, speedy riffs. He
played nice, tastey, well planned full, very delibrate
fat notes. "Fat" because he used a Gibson Les Paul
guitar in those days. I can't remember what he
used for an amp,... possibly Marshall.
Over time there were various re-inventions of
A Group Called Mudd. Neil
had passed away and at some point Cal Bradley left
and Kenny Shields (formerly
of
Witness Inc. and then
simply,
Witness) became
their vocal front man. I
thought it worked very well. The band totally
reinvented itself. And it was a good invention.
Power trios didn't seem that popular anymore.
Bands wanted the addition of keyboards now.
Even well known international power trios like the
band Mountain were
adding keyboardists to their band lineups. The
only original member of
A Group Called Mudd was now
Doug Rusu. They also shortened their name to
simply
Mudd somewhere
around or slightly before this time. All along people
usually just called them
Mudd anyway.
Besides,... they made their
initial tongue in cheek point with that cool long
name. It got attention and interest.
The new drummer was Bill (Bilbo Baggins) Bobinski with the
long curly hair and long mutton chop sideburns.
People often just called him "Baggins". What a
good showman drummer he was. He was a very positive
guy to hang out with and he always looked like he was
having such fun when he played. Bill had a big set of drums
with an extra large kick drum. As a drummer he was
powerful and precise. The bass player that handled
the bottom end was Brian St. Goddard and the classy hammond
B3 organ was played by Dennis Meneely.
(Dennis
plays in the Edmonton band Tacoy Ryde).
The overall combination of musicianship was 70's rock at
it's best. The time period here was about 1970 to 1973. I
wish to thank Joan Stewart for clarifying Brain's and
Dennis's names and providing the URL to Dennis for me.
Kenny Shields did
add much to this new
Mudd with his
voice, stage presence and energy. Plus the babes
liked this skinny blondhaired, baby-faced guy who looked
very much like British rock star with a pretty cool voice
and rock'n'roll scream to match. He was the first
lead vocalist I ever say to wear gloves,.. I think with the
fingers cut off (sometimes). Looking back I think Ken
wore 2 gloves initially, but I know for sure he wore one
when fronting
Streetheart as
you can see in this Streetheart YouTube
video. He
started doing this long before Michael Jackson made "the
glove" famous.
EDEN played
one or 2 double bandstand gigs with
Mudd, booked
by the Hergotts of
Quicksilver Talent
Agency, of
course. I just forget where these gigs were.
The new musical style of "Jazz Fusion" hit the world-wide
music scene as well as our local music scene. And 2 of our
most prominent Regina bands entered into it's ranks. They
were
Wascana and
The Flying Colors. Both
of these local bands had prominent brass sections. To
assist and influence this, guitarist John McLaughlin and
the Mahavishnu Orchestra
(with
violinist Jean Luc Ponti) as
well as Jeff Beck (with
keyboardist Jan Hammer) did
separate concerts in the mid 1970's to present their own
unique interpretation of this new and popular musical
style to Regina audiences.
In regard to the band
Wascana,
the jazz
fusion thing they did was very good, AND they had great
stage presence. They were tight, well rehearsed,
energetic and enjoyable to watch and listen to.
Definitely they were all very talented. I was
always impressed to see Daryl Gutheil play
organ with his left hand and trumpet with his right.
The Gutheil brothers (Daryl on keys, brass, vocals
and Don on bass and vocals) possessed amazing talents,
as did the rest of the band.
Bob Deutscher of
Wascana (formerly
Andante) had
the kind of guitar style that suited a horn band (or even
an R&B or blues band for that matter) because he wasn't
strictly a "power chord" kind of player anyway. His
style contain many tasteful intricacies. Besides, a power
chord style wouldn't have worked as well with a heavy brass
band. Bob knew the kind of playing that would suit
the band's music and he knew how to deliver it. He could
play colorful, intricate guitar parts, AND he had a great
voice.. His guitar style could be likened to a
combination of the guitarist from Terry Kath from
Chicago and
Steve Howe from
Yes.
Bob played tastily and never overused
distortion. In fact most times he used very
minimal distortion in the years I heard him play.
My own thinking was (and still is)...IF YOU TAKE A
GUITARIST'S DISTORTION AWAY YOU CAN HEAR HOW GOOD HE
IS,... OR ISN'T. Bob was good!! And he still is!!
I'm going to side-track for a moment to make mention of a
prairie rock festival that took place on June 21st, 1970.
Thanks to researcher/author Brock Silversides for providing
this exact date. This festival was referred to as
the
Fairy Hill Rock Festival
which took place near Southey Saskatchewan. Click on the
YouTube video below. It was originally captured on 8MM
film, then later transferred to VHS and then to DVD. Just
so it wouldn't be silent, some
Three Dog Night
audio
was dubbed in to provide a soundtrack. This is some
great old footage, and I'm thankful to Terry Young for
posting it. Terry is the son of drummer Don Young.
(Note: Terry is currently the bassist for the Regina
band
6 Cylinder
Symphony). He
contacted me and provided more information on this
event, which I've included here. He revealed to me that
there was more footage, but it was not suitable to show
on YouTube. It involved some topless girls dancing in
the crowd, a guy in a black robe (later shedding the
black robe) and some other crazy things from our youth.
I was at that festival and remember seeing some of what
he described. Many thanks to Don Young for keeping this
video safe all these years. Some of the filming was done
by Don, who had passed on the camera to another operator
at some point so he could perform. As a matter of fact,
Don is the drummer you see in the first band,
Andante,
shown in
this footage, along with guitarist/vocalist
Bob Deutscher,
bassist/vocalist Don Gutheil and
keyboardist/vocalist Daryl Gutheil.
There are also glimpses of 2 other prairie bands from
that era. I believe the 2nd band in the video was the
original power trio version of
A Group Called Mudd with
Doug Rusu (guitar/vocals), Cal Bradley (bass/vocals) and
Neil Doege (drums). I can't make out the 3rd band in the
video. If someone can, please let me know. The last band
shown is
Andante, once
again. The band
49th Parallel headlined,
from what I remember. I also recall the lead singer
Arnie Guzyk walking on crutches. Brock Silversides did a
little digging and discovered that Arnie had shortly
before been involved in a motorcycle accident, which
explains the crutches. That is quite possibly
49th Parallel's
bus
driving down the hill in the video, but I can't be sure.
Thanks to my keyboard buddy Ray Silzer (who I used to
play with years ago) for letting me know about this
video after it was posted. Unfortunately there is no
audio.
Back to my fractured story. Yes,
Wascana was
influential in spreading the local interest in jazz fusion.
Another talented jazz fusion band was
The Flying Colors,...
formerly known as
The Checkerlads many
years before. The
Flying Colors later
became known as
Airborne.
They
were a talented bunch of guys who immersed themselves in
jazz influences, which naturally flourished in their music.
The band membership may have changed around a bit,
but the members I know of included the late Gary Arnusch on
drums (who sadly passed away around Christmas of 2007),
Rocky Rathgeber on tenor sax, Larry Reich on guitar, Ron
Brooks on trumpet, Arnie Davis on sax along with bassist
Tim Krieser (who sadly passed away in July of 1997).
For many years Tim was a guitar tech at
The Music Box in
Regina, which later became
Long and McQuade. He
worked there with my good buddy and
EDEN bass
player Stan Dorsett. I always trusted leaving a guitar for
Tim to work on, because when I got it back it was adjusted,
fine-tuned and set up to perfection. He was very particular
about his work, and such a nice person to deal with. Tim
eventually was able to fulfill a dream and open his own
store in Regina called
One World Music.
Being a guitarist myself, I always especially listened to
guitarists in the bands I heard. Larry Reich's guitar style
with
The Flying Colors was
jazzy and enjoyable to hear. His chord mastery made
him play with a distinct rhythm and groove. And his solos
were always clean and precise with colorful note
combinations. Here I quote Stan
Dorsett,.."Larry
was missing some fingertips on his chording hand but he
played thru the pain with great solos...".
Many thanks to Tim Krieser's sister Debbie for helping me
get the above band names and musician names correct.
There were other local bands that were influenced by the
fusion scene..... but I can't say it spread like wildfire.
It was just another genre that we all became
accustomed to and sometimes somewhat confused by. The
common local thinking was that you had to have horns in a
band to play fusion. That is until (as I stated
earlier) Jeff Beck came
to town and blew everyone away at Regina's old (and now
gone) Exhibition Auditorium. Wait a minute,... It
may have been Exhibition Stadium. Either way,....
they're both gone. At this point I really don't
remember any other prominent, local horn jazz fusion
bands other than
Wascana and
The Flying Colors.
Other guitar, bass, keyboard and drum bands
were influenced (certainly
EDEN was) by
the fusion thing ... but mostly we just used it as an
excuse to jam more and play longer solos.....haha.....
but
EDEN didn't
really play fusion. Not many bands did as I recall.
I'm going to state a bold opinion here.... I don't
think many local musicians did understand at the time what
fusion was anyway, and I place myself in that category.
For me it took time to sink in because I was hearing
a lot of very different music that was being labeled as
"fusion". As I recall the whole worldwide fusion movement
became very watered down in a few short years to the point
that people would gag if they heard the term, because
everybody and their dog were calling their music "fusion".
Unfortunately it was sometimes a bastardized form and
it eventually became a fad to be a "fusion" band. This was
unfortunate. .......OK.... I said it. Although I
hope I didn't offend the bands that were playing real jazz
fusion, because I certainly would put
Wascana and
The Flying Colors in
fusion's legitimate ranks. But,..being a guitarist
myself,... I mostly liked what Jeff Beck did
with it, although I don't know that in the strictest
sense his music at the time was really jazz fusion.
It was just some very cool instrumentals in
interesting rock arrangements, structures and rhythms.
OK.... Weather Report...
what an awesome fusion band they were. But more
than being fusion,... I think they were more
"progressive jazz" at it's best. They were
blazing a trail and extending modern jazz into different
galaxies. I Wish I could have seen them in concert
at their prime with the late renowned fretless
bassist Jaco Pastorius.
There are so many other 70's Saskatchewan bands and
musicians that respectfully deserve mention. Only a few of
the Regina based ones are listed above. The city of
Saskatoon as well as other communities had their fair share
of very impressive bands. Please don't think I'm
intentionally trying to ignore anyone. The intent of this
page is not to write a complete history of the local music
scene at the time. Someone much more qualified and smarter
than I can take on that mammoth project. These thoughts are
just some of my memories of the local musicians and bands I
knew.
Anyway,
that's enough of my rambling remembrances for now. Back
to
EDEN, which
is who this page is dedicated to.
2005
- CALGARY REUNION OF THE ORIGINAL EDEN
In July
of 2005 the original
EDEN members
got together in Calgary for a band reunion. Although
the performance was rusty, it had lots of heart.
the
EDEN Reunion
page
shows a few photos of that celebratory reunion and jam
in the city of the Flames.
Photos were provided by Jane Dorsett. Down the road I
hope and expect there will be another reunion as we grow
balder.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
FINAL NOTE
This
EDEN - the band page is
accompanied by the
EDEN Photos
and
EDEN Posters
pages
that you will see in the page navigation links. Some of
the captions on those pictures relate to the written
material above.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
If
anyone has any
EDEN band
stories or other prairie music memories to share, please
email me through my
Contact page.
THANKS FOR VISITING !!
Jeff Wyatt
BC, Canada