As some of you may know, I've created a new band specifically to perform music from The British Blues Boom of the 60s. Why? They say that the stuff that hits you in your teenage, formative years stays in your chromosomes forever. This was the guitar playing and music that turned my head around: Them, The Yardbirds, early Stones, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, Savoy Brown, Clapton, Beck, etc. It's a well that I go to every night I'm onstage playing electric guitar, whether it's music from that era or not.
I guested on a Penetrators record a while back, and Jack Lipton was the singer. It was garage rock, and we blasted it out live in the studio in a day. It was a joy. I'm always filing experiences away for future reference, and when the concept for The Maniacs hit me I knew I wanted Jack to be one of the singers.
Michael P. Ryan and I met in a bizarre incident that I won't go into (I'll let him write about it on his blog!), but we became friends and he gave me his solo CD. I thought his voice was great. It had a modern, Chris Cornell quality in the lower register, and when he was belting it out it had a lovely timbre like Jim Dewar (Robin Trower's singer). And I knew that he was an excellent bass player.
Terry Quill I met years ago when I was producing The Back Alley Boys. He's been playing guitar for a long time now with my best bud/partner Joe Whiting, but I didn't know that he played harmonica until me and Joe did the concert at Redhouse that was on The Truth DVD. I've always been a big fan of the more innocent, non-virtuosic harp playing of Ray Davies, Brian Jones, Van Morrison and Keith Relf, and Terry does that great. And we all know he's a great guitar player.
Frank DeFonda has played drums with Joe for years, and Frank and I go all the way back to Andy Pratt's touring band in the 70s. He is absolutely one of the best drummers I've ever worked with.
I knew from the first rehearsal that this band was the sh*t. The energy was so intense - I think we all felt liberated by the music. And it's just gone uphill from there. So the record is out now - it got a great review today in The Stars by Mark Bialczak http://blog.syracuse.com/listenup/2009/05/song_bites_cd_reviews_for_mark.html
People who buy it love it and get it - I think they can tell it comes from the heart. Our first show is this Friday, June 5 at Taste of Syracuse, Clinton Stage at 6:50. We're ready.
If you want to hear the CD, you can check it out at http://cdbaby.com/cd/mdatm 
So that's the back story. Thanks to all of you who have written and encouraged and supported us. Hope to see you at some of the gigs.

Cheers

Mark