Chi-Town
Hustlers
There
are 2 chapters of my musical career
that I rarely talk about but often
get asked about. One is the Chi-Town
Hustlers; the other is the group
Chase.
I
put together the Chi-Town Hustlers
soon after the Ides of March disbanded
in 1974. I had the vision of a rockin'
little combo as opposed to an arena
rock band. I held auditions in Chicago's
famous (and now demolished) Universal
Studios. I was friends with a dynamite
female singer named Vicky Hubly and
she was my first member. I picked
drummer Wally Drougas formerly with
MAX and Wally Pillach on bass. On
keys my immediate choice was the
diminutive Ira Kart-a bespecticled,
Yoda-like character-and a hell of
a funky piano player. We felt we
needed a second female singer and
chose a voluptuous redhead named
Jan Hruby.
We
rehearsed for weeks at Universal
learning a slew of songs for our
debut at Orphans Pub on Lincoln Avenue
on Chicago's North side. We learned
a collection of my new tunes such
as "Chi-Town Hustler" (we opened
the set with this song complete with
the sound of hot rods as we took
to the stage.) "Feel like Flying",
"Some Things Never Change", "Never
Going Back to L.A.", "How You Gonna
Keep 'Em Down on Broadway (After they've
seen the farm)", "Teenage Machine Age
(!)", "Louisiana Feeling " (Written
by AD-man Jerry Tilliedahl),
"Golden Oldies and Going Home", "Moving
and Growing " and a few more. We mixed
this with some oldies from my catalogue
such as "L.A. Goodbye"
and "Vehicle" giving those a much different
flavor than the originals.
We
did a great demo tape at Universal
Studios including the songs mentioned
above. Someday I'd like to make those
available to the public. We played
a lot around Chicago during '74 & '75.
We opened for Heart a few times and
did a week stand in Myrtle Beach,
S.C. In fact, we probably spent more
time down south than anywhere else.
We had CBS records out to see us
at Orphans, but they did not sign
us.
After
many shows, demos, and showcases
we gave up the ghost and went our
separate ways. I still have the ultimate
respect for everyone in the Chi-town
Hustlers and I hope they are all
doing well.
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