The Sleighriders 2008

The Sleighriders with their cast of ever changing members, continue their fundraising activities at the Benefit for the SafeZone Community Art Project, taking place at Shank Hall in Milwaukee on December 15th. This year’s performers include: Eddie Butts, Steve Cohen, Warren Wiegratz, Gregg Koch, Sigmund Snopek, Annie Dennison, members of Bad Boy (including Steve Grimm & Xeno), Blue Hand, Crisis, Speakeasy, Dirty Ernie, Boogie Men and many others. The Brandon James Band opens the show this year.
2008 marks the 26th annual charity event by the Sleighriders. It is an event to encourage kids to get involved in making music and discover their potential. The money raised is given to buy instruments and musical instruction for children in the community. Their newest cause is the Safezone Community Art Project, which they have been raising money towards for the past five years.

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Sue DaBaco & Wise Fools

An Illinois native whose star is on the rise in the Milwaukee blues scene, lead guitarist and frontwoman, Sue DaBaco came to southeastern Wisconsin a decade ago after playing in Chicago’s Buzz Kilman And The All Bubba Blues Band for years. She solidified the lineup of her band, WISE FOOLS, four years ago with Scott Walters on bass and Darrel Douglas on drums. A power trio that started off as primarily blues but has “morphed into a progressive rock-blues thing”, according to DaBaco.

Raised on the still-ubiquitous 70’s rock sound of bands like Fleetwood Mac, Rush, and Heart, DaBaco says Jimi Hendrix is still her favorite, but she also incorporates influences like Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Sonny Landreth. WISE FOOLS has been performing regularly throughout Wisconsin, being an annual Summerfest favorite, and even opening up for big classic rock names like Peter Frampton, Eddie Money, and Jefferson Starship, along with more straight-up blues musicians like Koko Taylor, Lonnie Brooks, and The Fabulous Thunderbirds.

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A Tortured Soul

Sometimes you find a band by accident. A band that you’re expecting nothing from but at the end of the night, you’re so happy you saw them. There is that initial moment of doubt when you say to yourself “do they really sound as good as I think they do?” I found such a band in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and they are called A TORTURED SOUL.

They formed in 2001 when old high school friends lead guitarist Nate Gorenc and bass player Stefan Bohl put together a group named REZ. They placed an ad in Uncle Bob’s music store (where they buy most of their equipment) and vocalist Rick Black answered it. With a change of name and the additions of Ryne Schultz on rhythm guitar and Eric Gnant on drums, ATS does the business every time they step on the stage.

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Black Frog

Guitarist/vocalist Eroc explained to me how they came up with the name BLACK FROG. He had four carnivorous albino aquatic frogs in a fish tank. One day he noticed a frog was missing. The next day another one was gone. Mystified, he put weights on the cover of the tank but he came home and the other two frogs had vanished.

Months passed and the frogs were never found as Eroc concentrated his energies on building a recording studio in his basement and launching a new band. One fateful day, the furnace in the studio needed repair and as the technician opened the furnace, Eroc heard him scream. When Eroc entered the room he found the repairman holding four fist sized frogs as flat as pancakes and blackened from oxidation. They had made their escape through the heating ducts to an entire new floor of the house. In honor of these four brave souls, Eroc decided to name the band BLACK FROG. He still has their corpses today and hopes to shellac them into a guitar.

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The Buggs

A Milwaukee original, THE BUGGS have been punking up classic pop and rock songs since 1999. As lead singer and guitarist, Lane Klozier, describes, “We were all from original bands and we were just tired of playing shows for eight people in the audience. We got a couple sets together of music anywhere from The Beatles to Badfinger, played out and it went very, very well.” Similar in vein to Punk rock super cover group, Me First and The Gimme Gimmes, Lane describes THE BUGGS as Milwaukee’s only “original cover band” taking classic songs and makes them their own with a hard rock/punk sensibility.

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Decapitado

Most bands worry about making music to appease and please the masses. Not so with Decapitado. This Milwaukee trio is focusing on originality in an effort to maintain their sanity and produce high quality art. These guys are not newcomers to the music scene by any stretch. Each is currently in at least one other band outside Decapitado and each has been in several others before this as well. Bands like Fuck Face, Custom Grand, Boy Dirt Car, and Die Kruezen to mention a few.

Dan Kubinski (vocals/bass), Andy Keels (guitar) and Charles A. Mayer (drums) are Decapitado. Starting at the top, Andy fills us in about the band name. “The word decapitado appears in a newspaper clipping in the movie “Curdled.” I thought it was such a cool word. My wife said it would be a great band name. I was in three bands at that time, and this one fit the name best. The name symbolizes the world today; a lurching, twitching body, lumbering forward, unable to hear or think or see. It stands for the way too many of us live our lives.”

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Claude Dorsey

To a generation of Milwaukeeans, Claude Dorsey was the musical centerpiece of the city’s nightlife. For 40 years, he entertained diners as the house pianist and vocalist at the Clock Steak House, a downtown crossroads of politicians, entertainers, and reputed mobsters. “It had great food, and the entertainment was pretty good, too,” Dorsey quipped. “The best meals were when Miss Addie was cooking. Whatever she made, it was the best.” In many ways, The Clock became the crossroads where Milwaukee met the Vegas Rat Pack culture. “All the cabbies recommended it to touring acts – that’s how Bob Hope came to see me a few times. [The] same with Nat ‘King’ Cole , Tony Bennett, and others. The cabbies were great at networking.”

Dorsey traces his roots to Gainesville, Georgia, about 40 miles north of Atlanta. “My daddy was the main minister of a church there,” he said. “I wanted to follow him – I tried, but I was always playing music.” Dorsey came to Milwaukee as a teen in 1928. “My dad became minister at Calvary Baptist Church,” he said. The approval of his father was an important factor in Dorsey’s career. “When he heard me play, he said, ‘you’re ministering here; you’re reaching people. That’s what it’s all about.’ I was so happy that my daddy approved of what I was doing; that he was proud of me,” he said.

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