LESLIE'S MOTEL
''STILL ALIVE AND DIRTY''
MAY 1 2010
42:26
1. Take Out the Dog and Bark the Cat /5:25
2. Shakes for Ya Momma /3:51
3. Guilded Splinters /6:15
4. Blistered Again /6:50
5. Step Down Baby /4:27
6. My Blues /3:17
7. Motel in the Latin Quarter /7:44
8. Wine /4:33
REVIEW
By Bill "The Blues Crooner" Tullis (CdBaby)
In 1972 Leslies Motel went into King Studios, in Louisville, Kentucky, with engineer Jay Petach, and recorded the Dirty Sheets album. We shopped it to Capricorn Records, Bell Records, and a production company in Nashville, but it was never released. The band continued playing the East Coast club circuit and several concerts and festivals until we parted ways in 1976. In 2009 I was contacted by Roger Maglio, owner of Gear Fab Records, and was asked if he could release Dirty Sheets on his label. It turns out that Roger was a big fan of the Legendary New York blues group The Blues Project, and one of our drummers was Roy Blumenfeld, the drummer from the Blues Project. We were all happy to have our music saved for our family and friends, but then the real surprise came, it started selling all over the world, and getting reviewed all over the internet. A reporter from the Louisville Eccentric Observer magazine did an interview with all of the members from the CD, and suggested a reunion. After contacting everyone we decided to "go for it" and planned a concert at Headliners Music Hall and a CD release party and show at Stevie Rays Blues Bar in Louisville. Duke Meyer, a DJ from the local public radio station WFPK, had been playing a cut from Dirty Sheets called Step Down Baby, and when they heard about the reunion, Stacy Owen, the stations program director, invited us to play on their weekly live show "Live Lunch". This show highlights local groups with new CD's, and national acts that are in town to do concerts, so it was an honor, and a bit of a surprise, that we were invited to perform. Roy came in from Sonoma, California, and Mike Seibold came in from Tucson, Arizona, and on Friday November 13th in 2009 at 12 Noon we started the show with only 3 days rehearsal, not knowing how we would be received after 37 years. After a short rehearsal with the audience, for their participation in the opening song (which I believe helped get them on our side) we started with Elliott Randall's Take Out the Dog and Bark the Cat. We finished our opening number and the audience erupted, with cheering, whistling, and yelling, and we all looked at each other and smiled. You can tell by the way I said "Thank you all VERY much" at the end of the song, that I was relieved, and now we were ready to go. During the intermission interview (which can be seen on the DVD), our host Laura Shine said she was blown away and very surprised, and that pumped us up even more. Later on during her regular show, she said "These guys came in here after not playing together for 37 years, and blew the roof off the place". The program director, Stacy Owen said "You guys kicked butt!!". By the time we got to the closing song Wine, from the ground breaking group Electric Flag (Roy is currently playing with the reformed Electric Flag) the adrenaline was flowing, and I up tempoed the song from the way we had rehearsed it. As Roy said afterward "That was a bit brisk!!". But the guys all really got behind it and knocked out some GREAT solos. Richard Bush played some really nice honky tonk piano, and then blues harp virtuoso Danny Hord went wild!! Danny was not an original member of Leslies Motel, but when I heard him play in Larry's and Sammy's band called The Holt Brothers, I asked him to join us on a couple of tunes, and he brought the house down with every solo. When we hit the slow bluesy ending of Wine, the audience jumped to their feet and continued to cheer long after we were finished. Laura came up and said "Wow! You guys were great". I can't describe what a fabulous feeling it was for us to have pulled it off after all these years. Then we discovered after the show that Andy High, WFPK's engineer, had recorded the whole show in 16 tracks, and the station had 4 cameras going through the whole thing. I contacted Jay Petach at Sound Images Studios, the original engineer for Dirty Sheets, and he agreed to remix the audio and edit the video. All of a sudden we were "Back in the business!!" I hope you enjoy sharing this experience with us, and maybe soon we will DO IT AGAIN!!!!
BIOGRAPHY
by J. Scott McClintock
Folk-tinged, psychedelic, and improvisational, Leslie's Motel skirted the periphery of the jam-band niche during the early '70s. Drummer Roy Blumenfeld (formally of Blues Project and Seatrain) was the group's most notable member. Their previously unreleased concept album, Dirty Sheets, was reissued by psych-garage imprint Gear Fab in 2009.
''STILL ALIVE AND DIRTY''
MAY 1 2010
42:26
1. Take Out the Dog and Bark the Cat /5:25
2. Shakes for Ya Momma /3:51
3. Guilded Splinters /6:15
4. Blistered Again /6:50
5. Step Down Baby /4:27
6. My Blues /3:17
7. Motel in the Latin Quarter /7:44
8. Wine /4:33
REVIEW
By Bill "The Blues Crooner" Tullis (CdBaby)
In 1972 Leslies Motel went into King Studios, in Louisville, Kentucky, with engineer Jay Petach, and recorded the Dirty Sheets album. We shopped it to Capricorn Records, Bell Records, and a production company in Nashville, but it was never released. The band continued playing the East Coast club circuit and several concerts and festivals until we parted ways in 1976. In 2009 I was contacted by Roger Maglio, owner of Gear Fab Records, and was asked if he could release Dirty Sheets on his label. It turns out that Roger was a big fan of the Legendary New York blues group The Blues Project, and one of our drummers was Roy Blumenfeld, the drummer from the Blues Project. We were all happy to have our music saved for our family and friends, but then the real surprise came, it started selling all over the world, and getting reviewed all over the internet. A reporter from the Louisville Eccentric Observer magazine did an interview with all of the members from the CD, and suggested a reunion. After contacting everyone we decided to "go for it" and planned a concert at Headliners Music Hall and a CD release party and show at Stevie Rays Blues Bar in Louisville. Duke Meyer, a DJ from the local public radio station WFPK, had been playing a cut from Dirty Sheets called Step Down Baby, and when they heard about the reunion, Stacy Owen, the stations program director, invited us to play on their weekly live show "Live Lunch". This show highlights local groups with new CD's, and national acts that are in town to do concerts, so it was an honor, and a bit of a surprise, that we were invited to perform. Roy came in from Sonoma, California, and Mike Seibold came in from Tucson, Arizona, and on Friday November 13th in 2009 at 12 Noon we started the show with only 3 days rehearsal, not knowing how we would be received after 37 years. After a short rehearsal with the audience, for their participation in the opening song (which I believe helped get them on our side) we started with Elliott Randall's Take Out the Dog and Bark the Cat. We finished our opening number and the audience erupted, with cheering, whistling, and yelling, and we all looked at each other and smiled. You can tell by the way I said "Thank you all VERY much" at the end of the song, that I was relieved, and now we were ready to go. During the intermission interview (which can be seen on the DVD), our host Laura Shine said she was blown away and very surprised, and that pumped us up even more. Later on during her regular show, she said "These guys came in here after not playing together for 37 years, and blew the roof off the place". The program director, Stacy Owen said "You guys kicked butt!!". By the time we got to the closing song Wine, from the ground breaking group Electric Flag (Roy is currently playing with the reformed Electric Flag) the adrenaline was flowing, and I up tempoed the song from the way we had rehearsed it. As Roy said afterward "That was a bit brisk!!". But the guys all really got behind it and knocked out some GREAT solos. Richard Bush played some really nice honky tonk piano, and then blues harp virtuoso Danny Hord went wild!! Danny was not an original member of Leslies Motel, but when I heard him play in Larry's and Sammy's band called The Holt Brothers, I asked him to join us on a couple of tunes, and he brought the house down with every solo. When we hit the slow bluesy ending of Wine, the audience jumped to their feet and continued to cheer long after we were finished. Laura came up and said "Wow! You guys were great". I can't describe what a fabulous feeling it was for us to have pulled it off after all these years. Then we discovered after the show that Andy High, WFPK's engineer, had recorded the whole show in 16 tracks, and the station had 4 cameras going through the whole thing. I contacted Jay Petach at Sound Images Studios, the original engineer for Dirty Sheets, and he agreed to remix the audio and edit the video. All of a sudden we were "Back in the business!!" I hope you enjoy sharing this experience with us, and maybe soon we will DO IT AGAIN!!!!
BIOGRAPHY
by J. Scott McClintock
Folk-tinged, psychedelic, and improvisational, Leslie's Motel skirted the periphery of the jam-band niche during the early '70s. Drummer Roy Blumenfeld (formally of Blues Project and Seatrain) was the group's most notable member. Their previously unreleased concept album, Dirty Sheets, was reissued by psych-garage imprint Gear Fab in 2009.
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