The Rick Clogston Band is the alter ego of the Red Hat Band. Both names come from a complete lack of ability to think up a name for either version.
I have a red fedora, the third in a line begun when Lynn Bradley bought me the first at Rochester Fair back when we were dating. We'll celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary in July, 2018. Anyway, it's become something of a trademark for me, and the band. During the years while we kept trying, and failing, to think of a proper name, people were asking club owners when the guy in the red hat was coming back. So, when we got booked, they would put on the sign out front; "The Red Hat Band." And it's stuck.
So, that band is myself on guitar and vocals, Jonathan Sindorf on bass and vocals, and Ken Anderson on drums and vocals. But that band does nothing but cover tunes, and I write songs that weren't getting played by anyone. Jonathan very graciously agreed to help me get them played, and possibly even recorded. One of our fill-in drummers, Rocko Russelli, also agreed, and the second band was born. Again, couldn't think of a name, so the guys sat me down. They pointed out that we're doing songs that I wrote, and I'm singing them and playing lead guitar on top of it, so it's the Rick Clogston Band. I would like to note that the RCB could not exist without the RHB, so thanks, Ken, for helping make this possible.
We contemplated recording it on our own, seeing that there are so many options easily available at reasonable prices. Luckily, one of Rocko's other bands, the Stovepipe Mountain Band, was thinking the same way but much more intelligently. They had gone to a local studio in Woodsville, NH called Studio Bohemo operated by Wes Chapmon. The finished product sounded great, so I just had to meet this guy. He impressed me as much as Stovepipe's CD did, so we made arrangements to come in and record.
We arrived on the appointed day, set up, and got to work. We quickly ran through the songs that we had prepared, and it was going great. We'd get a good take or two, and Wes would turn to us and ask; "What's next?" So, we kept on going. Pretty soon, we were running through songs that Rocko had never played, although you'd never know it. The basic tracks for every song on the disc were recorded that day.
The way it was done, we were basically live in the studio, but any part of any song could be done over. What we were recording was considered to be scratch tracks, but some came out so well we kept them. On most, I went back in and re-did the lead vocals. Most of the lead guitar parts are overdubbed, although some were left from the raw scratch tracks. There were also some background vocals recorded later on. I think I did one song, Jonathan did a couple, and my daughter, Cathleen, came in and did a couple as well.
From there on, it was up to Wes to mix and master. We came by the studio to sit in on the major mixing, and he took it from there. He actually did quite a bit of tweaking on it, and I am flabbergasted by how good it came out. As it progressed toward completion, we started to think about the cover art. I had a rough idea, and knew exactly who I wanted to do the photography.
My thinking was, if we put a picture of the three of us with our instruments, people would make a judgement on what was on the disc and decide from there whether they were interested. I thought instead that it would be fun to have a cover photo that would really give no clue to what the music was, and that would either pique their curiosity . . . or not.
The pictures were done at the Pemi Valley Church in Woodstock, NH. This is the church I went to when I moved back from California in 1985. It's also where I met my wife. And, they have this beautiful old pipe organ, which made the perfect backdrop. We brought various instruments, and I handed the idea over to my son, Alex Clogston, who happens to be an excellent photographer. He was ably assisted by his girlfriend, Jess Nichols.
The three people on the cover are Jonathan's son, Peter Sindorf; my daughter, Cathleen Clogston; and my mother-in-law, Sharon Bradley. The picture on the back cover happened when somebody brought the little white bear, and then somebody else set the hat on its head while it was sitting at the organ. Alex couldn't resist taking a picture of it as well.
As for the title, that comes from what has been my standard retort for years now. People I've known for a long time will ask; "Are you still playing?" And I reply; "Yeah, they'll never shut me up." And by gum, they won't!
So, that's the story of the CD. I'll take apart the songs in future posts. And if anyone has any questions, I'll be happy to answer them here.
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