My Music
These are my two most recent songs. Below them is my previous work and some stories for context. The names have not been changed to protect the innocent;-)-
Don't Say Goodbye took me 25 years to write!! I started in 1997 with the first verse and chorus. Couldn't seem to move past there. I'd take it out and dust it off once in a while but couldn't come up with anything that matched the theme and quality of the first verse. It took a pandemic, a lockdown, and a little push from my brother George to move it forward and complete. This song was recorded at Luna Recording Studio in Tucson, Arizona by George Nardo and produced by George and myself.
After finishing Don't Say Goodbye, Help Me I've Fallen, came rolling out within two weeks of that. I had fallen asleep watching TV. When I awoke, the commercial was on. I went downstairs and the song spilled right out of me. It was recorded at Luna Recording Studio in Tucson, Arizona by George Nardo and produced by George and myself.
After finishing Don't Say Goodbye, Help Me I've Fallen, came rolling out within two weeks of that. I had fallen asleep watching TV. When I awoke, the commercial was on. I went downstairs and the song spilled right out of me. It was recorded at Luna Recording Studio in Tucson, Arizona by George Nardo and produced by George and myself.
My Previous Solo Work
I wrote and recorded these songs; This is My Life, R&R Blues and Savin' The Rest in the late eighties. The band on these cuts, the core of my solo band, were: Benny Goldstein; Bass (decd 2000), Mugs Ross; Drums, Jon Hardy; Keys, and Robert Hill on slide (though Rob did not play on the studio version of This is My Life). I played electric and acoustic guitars and did the vocals. We were joined by Keith Fluitt and Deb Lyons on backing vocals. Great players and friends all. John "Jack" Dorsey recorded the songs and the format was 8 Track cassette. We mixed down to a DAT machine I think, if not a ¼” reel to reel. Recorded at The Music Building, 8th Ave and 39th St. NYC, in our rehearsal room on the 8th floor, surrounded by metal bands!!!
This next couple of solo songs were recorded during the same time period as the others (1990) in different studios and with some different personnel. I'm Leavn' is about the breakup of The Last Band on Earth and features Artie Lenin on lead guitar (I so loved playing the rhythm guitar part on this song, I brought Artie in to do the solo!!!). The rest of the musicians were; Benny Goldstein (dec'd 2000), Bass; Jon Hardy, Keys; Mugs Ross, Drums; Marz Marleau and Pam Miller-Potter, Backing Vocals. I Won't Settle was in the Last band on Earth repertoire but dropped and carried on as a solo project song (produced by Paul Guzzone) for my solo project.
I inserted some photos here in the music section for context. Three are from 1990 and one from 2023
Selected Cuts from The Last Band on Earth
Live @Mojo Lounge NYC 7/1/1989
Originally Posted 7/1/2019
Thirty years ago today, on 7/1/89, The Last Band on Earth played what I believe to be its last gig at The Mojo Lounge on 1st Ave in NYC. We had been together since January of 1984, right after the death of my first wife, Lucy Rosenthal Jacobs. At the time of its formation (and appearing on the first Last Band on Earth six song demo) the band consisted of Marz Marleau (guitar, vocals) Paul Warren Jacobs (guitar, vocals), Mugs Ross (Drums and percussion), Hymie Smith (bass, vocals), Jim Grigg (Victor DeBauche) (percussion and drums) and Dean King (keyboards). Hymie and Vic were part of the fabulous Ace Pancakes, a kick ass road band in CO in the 70s and good friends. Marz, Mugs and I had played and toured together since shortly after we met in 1972 in band called Loose Goose in Colorado, (just a note … Loose Goose played the first Telluride Jazz festival in 1977!) Loose Goose subsequently broke up and eventually the core three re-formed as The Last Band on Earth in 1984 with Hymie, Vic and Dean. We made a few attempts at getting signed by submitting tapes to record companies and playing live in NYC, which, if you remember, was what a band had to do back then before being able to release a record. When nothing happened, Hymie, Vic and Dean returned to Colorado and Marz, Mugs and I carried on here in NYC. We were joined by several bass players and keyboardists along the way; Benny Goldstein, Bill Massof, "Home Boy" Dave Hirsch, Pete Bonsangue, Kenee Lee, and a few more I can’t remember. By 7/1/89 we had a really great chemistry with our last line up which was Marz, Mugs and I joined by the fabulous Paul Guzzone (singer/songwriter/bassist extraordinaire and who now tours and records with Bacon Brothers Band) and Jon Hardy, the best keyboardist with whom we’d ever played and who would go on to play in our next joint project, zGroove and in my solo band.
I’m posting 5 songs … two from each songwriter and one we wrote together. This was mixed live to cassette by our own Jack Dorsey (with us since 1974!) and it's a bit funky and a bit pitchy at points. It was not mastered but was much cleaner than I ever would have imagined. It sounds best on good headphones, of course! Oddly enough, I never would have found this cassette recording had it not been for COVID! Silver linings. Enjoy!
I’m posting 5 songs … two from each songwriter and one we wrote together. This was mixed live to cassette by our own Jack Dorsey (with us since 1974!) and it's a bit funky and a bit pitchy at points. It was not mastered but was much cleaner than I ever would have imagined. It sounds best on good headphones, of course! Oddly enough, I never would have found this cassette recording had it not been for COVID! Silver linings. Enjoy!
The First Last Band on Earth Demo 1984
This video of The Last Band on Earth at The Bitter End also appears in the Video section of this site. I felt so strongly about this performance, I posted it here in Music as well. Enjoy!!
Promo shot by Waring Abbot - late 80s L-R: Mugs Ross, Marz Marleau, Paul Warren Jacobs
Loose Goose
(The Loose Goose Band)
Upon arriving in Denver from our college town of Utica, NY, Mugs Ross, Marz Marleau and I lost almost all of our material belongings when the UHAUL trailer we had carted from NY was stolen from a parking lot in Denver! Stolen were my guitar and amp and almost all of our personal belongings along with those of two guys we had traveled with. Luckily my laundry bag had been taken inside so we shared those clothes until we could get more. We took what we had left and moved to Idaho Springs, a small defunct mining town about 30 miles west into the mountains. We soon rented a cabin right outside of town. We then got mining jobs to help pay for new everything, including gear. So ... Loose Goose started in Idaho Springs, Colorado in 1973 where we lived together in a small cabin in the mountains outside of Idaho Springs, CO along with our friends Todd Paraninfo and Pat (Space) Stratton. At that time, Idaho Springs was populated by three distinct social groups: Miners, Cowboys, and Hippies. It was not always peaceful but eventually enough Hippies worked at the Molybdenum mines and enough miners and cowboys got high, those groups intermingled and lived peacefully together. I totally embraced Hippie culture, ate a lot of acid and mushrooms, smoked a ton of pot and hash, and, drank moderately! To get together enough money and focus to form a real band, we needed to move out of Idaho Springs, (party central). We worked at the molybdenum mines and gold mills in the area and eventually moved to Lafayette, Colorado just east of Boulder into a funky 8 bedroom house, hired and fired our first bass player, hired Benny Goldstein and proceeded to get our shit together and become a darn good cover band, eventually adding our own material. Todd Paraninfo, who had lived with us in Idaho Springs, moved down to the flatlands with us, became our agent and booked our first gig in Louisville, CO, the next town over. Jack Dorsey, our friend and sound-man, moved in as well adding his ears, gear, technical skills and a badly needed van!! Our PA was bought for us by our friends Frank "The Cowboy" Ashton and Marsha "Flo" Florida. These two people made it possible for us to succeed in launching our musical careers. We continued to book gigs and tour Colorado and the surrounding states. We went through a lot of personnel changes, replacing our original bassist with Benny, adding pedal steel player, Dave Taylor, for a bit and different keyboardists (Chris Ventske) and eventually a sax player named Willie Williams. That took the band in a new direction and we were lucky enough to be one of the two local Colorado bands to play the first Telluride Jazz Festival in 1977. We were on the bill with Muddy Waters, Dizzy Gillespie, The Crusaders and The Glen Miller Orchestra along with others.The recording format was cassette and it was mixed live by our sound-man, Jack Dorsey. The personnel at this point was Marz, Mugs, and myself along with Benny Goldstein, Willie Williams, and on keys, Fenton Murray.
(The Loose Goose Band)
Upon arriving in Denver from our college town of Utica, NY, Mugs Ross, Marz Marleau and I lost almost all of our material belongings when the UHAUL trailer we had carted from NY was stolen from a parking lot in Denver! Stolen were my guitar and amp and almost all of our personal belongings along with those of two guys we had traveled with. Luckily my laundry bag had been taken inside so we shared those clothes until we could get more. We took what we had left and moved to Idaho Springs, a small defunct mining town about 30 miles west into the mountains. We soon rented a cabin right outside of town. We then got mining jobs to help pay for new everything, including gear. So ... Loose Goose started in Idaho Springs, Colorado in 1973 where we lived together in a small cabin in the mountains outside of Idaho Springs, CO along with our friends Todd Paraninfo and Pat (Space) Stratton. At that time, Idaho Springs was populated by three distinct social groups: Miners, Cowboys, and Hippies. It was not always peaceful but eventually enough Hippies worked at the Molybdenum mines and enough miners and cowboys got high, those groups intermingled and lived peacefully together. I totally embraced Hippie culture, ate a lot of acid and mushrooms, smoked a ton of pot and hash, and, drank moderately! To get together enough money and focus to form a real band, we needed to move out of Idaho Springs, (party central). We worked at the molybdenum mines and gold mills in the area and eventually moved to Lafayette, Colorado just east of Boulder into a funky 8 bedroom house, hired and fired our first bass player, hired Benny Goldstein and proceeded to get our shit together and become a darn good cover band, eventually adding our own material. Todd Paraninfo, who had lived with us in Idaho Springs, moved down to the flatlands with us, became our agent and booked our first gig in Louisville, CO, the next town over. Jack Dorsey, our friend and sound-man, moved in as well adding his ears, gear, technical skills and a badly needed van!! Our PA was bought for us by our friends Frank "The Cowboy" Ashton and Marsha "Flo" Florida. These two people made it possible for us to succeed in launching our musical careers. We continued to book gigs and tour Colorado and the surrounding states. We went through a lot of personnel changes, replacing our original bassist with Benny, adding pedal steel player, Dave Taylor, for a bit and different keyboardists (Chris Ventske) and eventually a sax player named Willie Williams. That took the band in a new direction and we were lucky enough to be one of the two local Colorado bands to play the first Telluride Jazz Festival in 1977. We were on the bill with Muddy Waters, Dizzy Gillespie, The Crusaders and The Glen Miller Orchestra along with others.The recording format was cassette and it was mixed live by our sound-man, Jack Dorsey. The personnel at this point was Marz, Mugs, and myself along with Benny Goldstein, Willie Williams, and on keys, Fenton Murray.
Loose Goose Live at The Telluride Jazz Festival 1977
The Last Loose Goose Studio Demo
Night Train
In 1978 Loose Goose had come to an end and I found myself without a band! I gigged with a few random bands and within that next year, Mugs Ross and I joined up with a blues trio, Night Train, made up of Robert Ashworh (Harp, Vocals), Albert Pascal(Bass, Vocals) and David Lampert (Rhythm Guitar, Vocals).These guys had great vocals and great spirit and needed a lead guitarist and a drummer!! We started gigging immediately and toured throughout Colorado and the surrounding states. Eventually David Lampert left the band and we hired Ed Rudman, a friend of Robert's, to come in and play guitar and harmonize. Ed played lead as well so we had great fun playing off one another.
So this was a kick ass blues rock band that was now writing it's own material, some of it straight ahead Rock. We were not going to get seen or signed in Denver, and at that time, you needed a record deal to make a record and get on the radio, unlike today. We decided to move east to New York City and make the push for some kind of deal. Timing is everything in this life and NYC was not the place to succeed as a blues rock band in 1980. The band grew impatient with its lack of success and lack of work and split in 1981.
The first four tracks were recorded at AJ's parents summer home on Candlewood Isle, live to two track reel to reel, by Jack Dorsey. The next four were recorded in Denver at Free Reelin' Sound.
The last three tracks were with David Lampert: Who's Makin' Love (Banks, Crutcher, Davi, Jackson), That's Alright, Mama (A. Crudup) and People Get ready (Curtis Mayfield). I had Night Train play on a solo project I did at the time and those songs were incorporated into our repertoire so I'm including them here.
So this was a kick ass blues rock band that was now writing it's own material, some of it straight ahead Rock. We were not going to get seen or signed in Denver, and at that time, you needed a record deal to make a record and get on the radio, unlike today. We decided to move east to New York City and make the push for some kind of deal. Timing is everything in this life and NYC was not the place to succeed as a blues rock band in 1980. The band grew impatient with its lack of success and lack of work and split in 1981.
The first four tracks were recorded at AJ's parents summer home on Candlewood Isle, live to two track reel to reel, by Jack Dorsey. The next four were recorded in Denver at Free Reelin' Sound.
The last three tracks were with David Lampert: Who's Makin' Love (Banks, Crutcher, Davi, Jackson), That's Alright, Mama (A. Crudup) and People Get ready (Curtis Mayfield). I had Night Train play on a solo project I did at the time and those songs were incorporated into our repertoire so I'm including them here.
zGroove
After the demise of my solo career, sometime around 1991, Marz, Mugs and I teamed up with R&B singer KFunk. After years of pressure, pushing to make it as an original band, we had great fun with K, singing with her and covering a bunch of great R&B and blues rock tunes with a few originals mixed in. Joining us on keys was Jon Hardy (and our friend Dave Kumin played keys as well, for a bit) For now I'm only posting a live gig we did to celebrate Mugs's 40th birthday at Downtime, 251 W 30th Street, NYC. It was recorded and mixed live by Jack Dorsey, and Cheryl Smith sang backup that nite. Just as an aside, at the time of this gig, the core of The Last Band on Earth, who were also in zGroove, had purchased a recording studio, New Breed Studios, in that same building. It was a really cool scene. Studio upstairs and club downstairs,. To get to our gig at Downtime we rolled our gear into the freight and hit Ground Floor and rolled right into the club!! It was fantastic!!!
This recording is unedited so there's here's a lot of chatter and bar sounds and a lot of space between songs. So sit back and pour yourself a tall one, press play and you'll feel like you were almost there live ... in 1993;-)- Enjoy!
This recording is unedited so there's here's a lot of chatter and bar sounds and a lot of space between songs. So sit back and pour yourself a tall one, press play and you'll feel like you were almost there live ... in 1993;-)- Enjoy!
Update 12/03/2023: Just found the first zGroove Demo which I have posted below! This lineup features Artie Lenin on Lead Guitar. These tracks were recorded at our recording studio, New Breed Studios and engineered by Jack Dorsey.
It had to be one of our first recordings on our new digital ADAT system. Enjoy!!
It had to be one of our first recordings on our new digital ADAT system. Enjoy!!
Rik Ekstrom and Boneshaker
I loved playing in this band!!! I engineered this record, mixed with Rik, co-produced with Rik and Mugs Ross. Displayed is a partial cover with credits. If you'd like to see the lyrics and inside covers go to Spotify and search up Rik Ekstrom and Boneshaker. This was a conversational jam band. Rik played mostly acoustic with some electric rhythm guitar, a bit of slide, wrote and sang lead on all the songs. I played lead guitar, a bit of slide and sang backup. Mugs Ross on drums and percussion and Marz Marleau on bass. There are a few guest artists as well. Rik provided an excellent canvas on which the four of us could paint a colorful picture of every song. Mugs, Marz and I had been playing together at this point for 25 years so we knew each other inside and out. Having Rik provide us with such rich landscape with so much lyrical depth, as well, was one of the highlights of my musical career. Enjoy!