What separated The City Blues Band from many of the local teen groups in 1960's Fullerton was their desire to perform Chicago blues. Forty plus years later, their lone LP has been classified as "Acid Blues" and currently fetches large dollar amounts in collectors' circles. Robert Lesher provides the story on The City Blues Band...
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An Interview With Bob Lesher
60sgaragebands.com (60s): How did you first get interested in music?
Robert Lesher (BR): The Beatles hit during my senior year at Fullerton Union High, circa 1964. I saw a clip of them on Jack Paar Late Night doing 'She Loves You' and then, like a million other kids, there was the Ed Sullivan Show appearance. I knew what I wanted to do. Actually, I first caught wind of The Beatles in a Life magazine photo in the November, 1963 issue. Their look was cool and beyond American hip. Very soon after, I caught-on to The Rolling Stones, Them and The Animals. I loved their R&B flavor and tried to sing like Eric Burdon.
60s: Was The City Blues Band your first band?
RL: City Blues Band was my third. My first band was a surf band from Santa Ana, California, that was converting to the Brit sound. This was 1965 and I was at Disneyland one evening. I had "longish" hair at the time. Two guys from this band heard me talking and asked if I'd like to front/be the singer in their band. They were called (gag) The Goodies. We did a few parties playing, mostly, Rolling Stones and some Animals covers. I do remember a gig with another band at The Costa Mesa Teen club. The first "pay" I ever made was with them--a quart of Coors for a party. The band then faded away. I think the bassist joined the Army. After a few months, while at my folks', in Fullerton, I heard a band practicing in a friend's garage about two houses over. I sang 'Gloria' with them (they had no singer) and that afternoon we formed The Northern Sound with Richard Payne on guitar, Gary Carlson on bass and Danny Dotson as drummer. About a week later we took on Paul Hafner, a neighbor, on rhythm guitar. We played parties, some of them frats at Cal State Fullerton, and teen clubs in Fullerton, Placentia and Yorba Linda. We had a following--mostly girls. I remember letting one wear my cord coat for a set at Fullerton Teen Center. It was quite a big deal for me at that point! Payne's dad had some connections at Custom Records in Hollywood so he financed a recording session at Electro-Vox Studio on Melrose. We cut two songs Richard (Dick) and wrote: 'Wandering Boy' (an obvious Bo Diddley influence) and 'New Orleans' (a straight-on freight train rocker with fuzztone bass). The recordings survive on a cassette I have of them. Custom thought us too unpolished and raw so that was that. Later, in early 1966, a guy nmaed Lou (a college guy, I think) financed us doing a recording of The Yardbirds' 'Mister, You're a Better Man Than I.' I thought it sounded good, but for whatever reason, he never did a thing with it. We recorded it at a very pro studio located behind a music store off Bristol St. in Santa Ana. The band then split-up; Dick and I wanted to go more Blues (Butterfield, Chicago-style Muddy Waters stuff) so we left. The other guys were into Beatles, Paul Revere, but after we left, they folded-up and Northern Sound was no more. Gary, the bass player, is now head Buddist priest at a temple in Portland, Oregon. We stay in touch.
60s: Where and when was The City Blues Band formed?
RL: Dick and I formed The City Blues Band in mid-1966, taking on Steve Eliot on bass (he was Northern Sound's "manager") and Phil Howitt on drums. Phil's dad owned a music store in Fullerton.
The band was: Me (Bob Lesher) on harmonica and vocals; Dick Payne (guitar), a few months later; Ed Solberg on second guitar, Steve Eliot on bass, and Phil Howitt on drums. Phil was replaced in 1967 by Tim Reeves. Phil wanted to devote all his time to the university.
60s: How would you describe the band's sound? What bands influenced you?
RL: Well, Paul Butterfield's band had a huge influence on us. We had the same type of line-up with the exception of keyboards. There also was Jr. Wells (who I couldn't get enough of) and Jimmy Reed. We fancied ourselves a Chicago-style blues group but also really got into John Mayall's first three LPs and stuff by Taj Mahal when they broke-out.
60s: What was the Fullerton rock and roll scene like in the '60s?
RL: Surf bands turned into Beatles and Stones copy bands overnight. Surf music just died. Some were excellent players. It was parties and teen clubs and the odd school gig.
City Blues Band got into the coffee house circut scene, playing at the Paradox in Tustin (a starting point for Jackson Brown, Tim Buckley and The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band). We also worked three different dates (Friday-Saturday) at The Hey You Club in Ventura. We played a few parties as well.
60s: Did you play any of the local teen clubs?
RL: City Blues Band stayed away from the teen clubs. Besides, we were not commercial. We did play a Love-In at Irvine Park in the summer of 1966 and did a number of outdoor concerts at Hillcrest Park in Fullerton in 1967. There were great crowds at both; it got us in the local press. We also did a MacArthur Park gig, opening for Phil Ochs and Pacific Gas & Electric in conjunction with the Peace & Freedom Party in 1968. Those were heady times.
60s: How far was the band's "touring" territory?
RL: We played as far north as Ventura. We played a lot of "folk clubs" around the beach area of OC. I recall one of them in Seal Beach.
60s: Did The City Blues Band participate in any battle of the bands?
RL: Like the teen clubs, we didn't participate, not for any special reason. I think we considered outselves so "un-pop" that we did, as young guys, develop a bit of arragonce towards, what we thought to be, "the commercial scene." We were, from what I've heard us described as, a hippy blues band.
60s: What other local groups of the era do you especially recall?
RL: The Menn were a very good unit; they played lots of British stuff and had a good singer. The Blazers were another excellent teen club band. A guy named Vern Ackrey (spelling?) was on guitar and he was far ahead of the pack as far as playing went. Al Valdez was their singer for a while and had wonderful voice for all rock and roll styles of that time. The Ladybirds were an all-girl group that did Beatles and Byrds covers. They were from Fullerton and the drummer was my girlfriend for a while. They were really a good band. They opened for The Stones, in Southern California during an early tour. Their bass player was Rosemary Butler who went on to sing back-up with Jackson Browne and is very popular in Japan. Timo Laine was another hot guitarist from Fullerton and was big in Canada in the 1980's doing jazz/rock solo recordings. Greg Johnson was another revered guitar player and vocalist. He was full of talent and could sing like James Brown, and was a very good friend of mine. However, a very severe bi-polar condition hampered his career throughout his life. He died a few years ago of natural causes. Sad.
60s: Did The City Blues Band have a manager?
RL: Dave Hall, a local deejay with a Sunday afternoon folk music show, out of Anaheim, saw us at The Paradox and took us on. He was responsible for getting most of our gigs including the one in Ventura. We weren't out-of-hand, but at times we could be difficult to deal with: egos, in-fighting, etc. Dave was only 18, younger than me, but was mature beyond his years. He worked hard for us and I don't think we appreciated his efforts as we should have.
60s: What were the circumstances leading to the recording of the LP?
RL: Dave decided he wanted to do it and set-up a primitive recording studio off Commonwealth in Fullerton. It was on the second floor of a strip of business buildings and still stands today. He thought we were ready, though I had some doubts. My harmonica playing was barely there at that time. But, we cut five covers and three originals and that was the LP on Noveau Records (Hall's label). There was a group, Scaff's Skiffle Band, that he was going to record, but the project got as far as four-five songs. I played harmonica on one. There are no outtakes from the City Blues Band LP. Tim Reeves had just joined the group and it took about three weeks to finish it. Lots of tension. I got mad at Dick and threw a harmonica at him. My patience was pretty short in those days. Lucky that he ducked. It left a hole in the acoustics on the wall of the studio. The final track, 'Smokestack Lightning,' is about twelve minutes long with all sorts of noddling going on. It was our take on Butterfield's East-West. The LP, today, is classified as Acid Blues by European collectors. It sold in Southern California and even turned-up being (so they say) played on Radio Caroline, the pirate station/ship off the English Coast.
60s: Who was the band's primary songwriter?
RL: Dick and I were the songwrtiters in the band though only one of our tunes made it on the LP, the title track, 'Blues For Lawrence Street.' Solberg and Eliot wrote the one instrumental, 'In A Goovy Mood' and Dick wrote a solo slow minor blues, 'All Blues.' Later, for a projected second LP, we wrote 'Sawdustin' Blues' which described our Ventura gigs. I still do this tune with my current group, Tupelo Blue. It's on our CD, released in 2000. 'Edge of Town' was another from that time and Dick still plays it at his performances. Dick, who now lives in Toronto, and I still write stuff together. Dick is still very involved in music, makes his living at it.
60s: Do any other '60's City Blues Band recordings exist? Are there any vintage live recordings, or unreleased tracks?
RL: Other than the LP, I know of none. I do think Hall may have some stuff we did at his radio station just before Solberg joined us. I'm sure one is our take on a weird Animals tune called 'Bury My Body,' derived from an old black field shout. We did have a knack for picking off-the-wall material. I'd love to hear them but fear they've long been destoryed or lost.
60s: Did the band make any local TV appearances?
RL: No TV.
60s: What year and why did the band break up?
RL: The band, the LP version, fell apart in mid-1968. There were some emerging substance problems going on and a pile of musical differences, egos looming. Some of the guys wanted to be more underground rock. Dick was going through a huge folkie stage and was simply expanding upon his musical horizons. He was a schooled musician and very serious about being one. Dave Hall had bowed-out of the picture the year before which left a real vacuum as to leadership. I, being the oldest, stepped-in but couldn't maintain the objective viewpoint Dave had.
I kept The City Blues Band going, adding new members in 1968, two of whom moved to Victoria, British Columbia shortly after I did in April of 1969. They were Bill Burdick on bass and Mike Balfe on drums, both Fullerton guys. Greg Johnson was on guitar, briefly and replaced by Jon Bodner, who had worked with Dick Dale. We kept the group going up there for about another six months until we integrated into the local music scene. I've played in numerous bands since then, both in Canada and back here in Southern Calififornia (I moved back in 1975). Blues Union, the band I worked with in Victoria, was recently inducted into the local music hall of fame. I was up there last September to receive the award and visit with a lot of bandmates and friends. We had a very kick-ass rock/blues outfit all through the 1980's that worked biker bars, every bar in OC, for four nights a week just about.
I have been with Tupelo Blue since 1995. Both the guitarist and drummer, Ken Sheldon and Scott Van Dusen have been in the band since then as well. Scott Lambert, bassist, has been with us for two years. We seem to go through bass players. The band works very steady and our CD is now in third printing. It has made us some money, netted great review s in LA Jazz magazine and Blues Revue. It's all original tunes. We are very proud of it. An acoustic-based CD of 15 original tunes, titled Fullerton Blues, by Ed Solberg (City Blues guitarist) and I, sits fully completed, mastered, artwork and barcode, but we need to raise enough cash to get more copies made. It will be marketed on the Tupelo Blue site and Amazon. Besides Tupelo Blue, I also play regularly with a local blues guitarst, Shakey Pete Baldwin, in a duo situation. I am 64 in August of 2010 and, aside from some blood pressure issues, am feeling fit and have a lot of years left.
60s: How do you best summarize your experiences with The City Blues Band?
RL: City Blues Band was a learning experience as to my performing and recording. It was my first "pro" band. It gave me confidence to write more and assert myself on stage. Most of the guys, who passed through the band, are still good friends, especially Dick. We are bonded by music, the blues. I am really grateful for that, the friendships and associations. There is not a band I've passed thought that hasn't resulted in a positive friendship.
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