FRANK BANG AND SECRET STASH

Double Dare

Blue Hoss Records

by Brian K. Read

When I first popped in the new CD by Frank Bang & The Secret Stash, Double Dare, I had a major deja-vu, some kind of sonic satori, as the opening note of buzzsaw-slide guitar took me back…back to a Uriah Heep concert, hovering sometime around the murky mid-1970s, or maybe King Crimson, or the opening note of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Born On The Bayou.”  I thought…this CD is gonna be different.

Here’s a guy who has toured with Buddy Guy all around the world, gotten a chance to jam with The Rolling Stones, Carlos Santana, Robert Plant, Jimmie Vaughan, R.E.M. John Mayer, Eric Clapton, Dave Matthews, to name a few.  And he’s played on The Tonight Show, Conan O’Brien’s stage, and been featured in BBC documentaries.  Frank Bang’s music is a mélange of blues, rock, country, even some jazz…how the heck could I begin to describe it?

Just then I was oddly reminded of Dr. Who and some episodes of the timeless Sci-Fi show I’d just watched with my two young sons.  “Bigger On The Inside,” the motto for the Tardis, that magical British call-box that careens the Doctor and his crew around wildly in time and space; only such a time machine would do for the kind of time-travel needed to explore the life and times of Frank “Bang” Blinkal.

Fire up the Tardis, and off let us fly!  Flash back to the years of Frank Blinkal (his real name) growing up, hearing his first live music at the place where his Mom waitressed.  After some initial resistance from his police officer Dad, Frank gets his first six-string, but is only allowed to play in the garage.  So, at age 16 the spark hits the tinder.

Let the Tardis now take us ahead to Frank at around 21, and venturing into the Chicago blues-club scene, where he discovers, as so many have, the roots of rock to be the blues.  After a try at college, he gets a job at Chicago’s Hard Rock Café, then gets himself transferred to their other café-clubs, in San Diego, and Houston.  He’s into all the music, but then he comes across the venerable Stevie Ray Vaughan, is blown away, and realizes his dreams, his blues, his musical future are back in Chicago.  Tardis, let us follow Frank home…

Now, Tardis, take us to the early days of Buddy Guy’s Legends, when Frank got a job working the door at the club.  He got a chance to get close to some of the top blues talent in the city, and across the nation, to soak up their styles.  There were late nights when he and Wayne Baker Brooks would sit and jam together, well after hours when the club was closed.  The fire grows…

Linger here a bit, Tardis, we are getting to the good parts.  Frank caught Buddy’s ear, and then Frank began to join Buddy on some tours and concert dates, stretching out a bit.   During this time, he also got his nickname “Bang” while doing a gig as a road manager for Larry McCray, who liked the way Frank got his work done, with a “bang!”  The name stuck…

Mondays were always jam nights at Buddy’s, and Frank soon had his own band, The Buzz, working them.  He had his own style of playing and singing, but it was the “Holiness Church Sacred Steel” tradition, and hearing players like Robert Randolph, that really got Frank going on slide guitar.

Tardis, take us now to the best part!  Buddy likes what he hears from Frank, and puts him in his touring band!  Five tours of the world!  Playing with Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, The Rolling Stones, B.B. King!  Tardis, wake us not from this dream, man, cuz it rocks!

Cruising back to the present, Tardis-style, when in 2004 Frank pursues his own music, coming out with Frank Bang Alive One, followed by Frank Bang’s Secret Stash, a studio set done in 2005.  Then in 2006, it was Homegrown Live, done from the stage at Martyr’s.  2007 saw his release of They Named It Rock And Roll, which led to the writing of most of the songs on Double Dare.

Frank Bang’s grinding slide, smooth and mean, is all over Double Dare, a signature sound, recognizable in an instant.  Whether lap steel, dobro, or straight lead, it creates an ambience for each song on the record.  Backing Frank are  Ryan Fitzgerald on bass, Bobby Spelbring on drums; The Secret Stash, as tight a band as you’ll find going today, along with guests like Russ Green on harmonica, guitarists Phil Miller and Drew Pentkowski, Daryl Coutts on Hammond B-3, and sax man Greg Ward.

Frank Bang isn’t the first one to work a slide guitar into the blues.  Others include Jerry Byrd, who played with Hank Williams and Ernest Tubb, Sneaky Pete Kleinlow with the Flying Burrito Brothers, Jeff Healey’s lap-guitar blues, or the hybrid “Git-Steel” slide work of Junior Brown.  But in Bang’s hands, it conjures up the pure, raw sounds of early American music, sprung from the blues, but with generous pairings of country, gospel, and the baby of the family, rock’n’roll.

The music wends its way along many musical paths; if you want to hear some country, try songs like “My Own Country Way,” and “God Fearin’ Man.”   To add some blues to that country sound, try “Burnin’ Up In The Wind.”  For a little rock, go with “Lose Control,” or the Stonesy “Wonder Woman,” replete with some sweet Mick Taylor-style dobro slide.

You just have to jump in to this music and feel your way around.  But go in with ears open, because there’s a bedrock blues thing going on throughout the entire lineup of songs, something that hearkens to the sounds of Hound Dog Taylor, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Freddie King, and a whole lot of Buddy Guy!

Double Dare is just what the name says, a dare to blues fans of all kinds to take a listen to a sound both fresh yet familiar, with an energy drawn from years of jamming all over the planet, with the cream of the crop from blues and rock.  Slide into the store and score some of The Secret Stash…Frank Bang’s the bomb!

For info or to buy this CD, visit:

http://www.frankbang.net/frankbang/music/