Dan Armstrong Review by Jay H.
"The beginning of August 1970 found "Redbanks" practicing for the Henderson County "Battle of the Bands" in order to dethrone the last year's winner, "The Lavender Hill Mob". "Redbanks" comprised Nancy, who sang vocals, Steve the drummer, Chas the bass player, Rick on guitar, and me on guitar. Chas played a Hofner bass through a blackface Fender Bassman while Rick played a Les Paul goldtop through an Ampeg SVT with 4 of those 12 inch speakers, which made my Vox Cheetah through my Vox Viscount sound rather anemic, or cachectic, to say the least. It simply did not "cut the mustard", and belittled what talent and enthusiasm I contained at age 19. "How will the girls like me if they can't hear me? How will they know I am cool and want them to be with me because of my coolness?"
"Just before the day arrived, the rhythm guitar player for the Lavender Hill Mob, which didn't enter the contest to protect their championship in 1970 for reasons unknown to me, placed his blackface Fender Super Reverb for sale for $150, which I bought. Wait a minute, the county charged $100 a band to enter in 1970, maybe that's why they didn't enter. Yes, that's right, and the rest of my band hadn't wanted to enter, either, so I had to pay the whole $100 fee by myself. Well, small price to pay for everyone to find out how cool I am going to be. Then Rick, who had driven to Owensboro earlier the day before then, told me there was a brand new "see-through" Dan Armstrong guitar for sale in the Owensboro Music store for $365. He and I drove to Owensboro together on Friday, payday, and I traded my Vox Cheetah and and my$105.69 weekly Whirlpool payroll check for screwing 4 screws in the butter dish door for, like 246 refrigerators a day, minus 2 or 3 or 4 that I missed each day because of my vomiting episodes from heat exhaustion, for the Dan Armstrong with the Country Bass pickup and original Ess & Ess case."
"That night we worked for hours on our opening number, "Gimme Shelter", and our follow-up "Lookin' Out My Back Door". It was cloudy when the day arrived, so I wore tennis shoes to prevent electrocution, though it was unnecessary because the only exciting storm was the stage as "Redbanks" rocked and rolled while 8000 fans watched (well, it seemed like 8,000, maybe it was just 75 or 80), mesmerized by the new "see-through" guitar, though, in retrospect, I guess they could have been watching Nancy, the girl singer with her short mod skirt, or Rick with his Jewfro and his goldtop Les Paul, or Charles, whose shaggy ZZ Top bearded appearance predated the later Texas group with Billy Gibbons by a substantial margin. Now, and even then, I think they were watching me and my Dan Armstrong, played through the blackface Fender Super Reverb, volume on 6, treble on 6, bass on 9, and reverb on 3. Coolness emanated, no doubt, and perhaps unforgetably for a few. No one asked for my autograph that night, probably because they were scared . They asked Charles and Rick and Nancy for theirs. I don't understand that part. We won first prize, which was $200 and a store bought trophy of, what I think, was a football player with his throwing arm holding the football cut off so's not to confuse us, maybe. I am still confused, but it was certainly a memorable night, one that goes into Dan Armstrong history, perhaps, not as a paragraph, but at least, as a punctuation. This is my story, and I'm stickin' to it."
Jay H.
October 3, 2011
"Just before the day arrived, the rhythm guitar player for the Lavender Hill Mob, which didn't enter the contest to protect their championship in 1970 for reasons unknown to me, placed his blackface Fender Super Reverb for sale for $150, which I bought. Wait a minute, the county charged $100 a band to enter in 1970, maybe that's why they didn't enter. Yes, that's right, and the rest of my band hadn't wanted to enter, either, so I had to pay the whole $100 fee by myself. Well, small price to pay for everyone to find out how cool I am going to be. Then Rick, who had driven to Owensboro earlier the day before then, told me there was a brand new "see-through" Dan Armstrong guitar for sale in the Owensboro Music store for $365. He and I drove to Owensboro together on Friday, payday, and I traded my Vox Cheetah and and my$105.69 weekly Whirlpool payroll check for screwing 4 screws in the butter dish door for, like 246 refrigerators a day, minus 2 or 3 or 4 that I missed each day because of my vomiting episodes from heat exhaustion, for the Dan Armstrong with the Country Bass pickup and original Ess & Ess case."
"That night we worked for hours on our opening number, "Gimme Shelter", and our follow-up "Lookin' Out My Back Door". It was cloudy when the day arrived, so I wore tennis shoes to prevent electrocution, though it was unnecessary because the only exciting storm was the stage as "Redbanks" rocked and rolled while 8000 fans watched (well, it seemed like 8,000, maybe it was just 75 or 80), mesmerized by the new "see-through" guitar, though, in retrospect, I guess they could have been watching Nancy, the girl singer with her short mod skirt, or Rick with his Jewfro and his goldtop Les Paul, or Charles, whose shaggy ZZ Top bearded appearance predated the later Texas group with Billy Gibbons by a substantial margin. Now, and even then, I think they were watching me and my Dan Armstrong, played through the blackface Fender Super Reverb, volume on 6, treble on 6, bass on 9, and reverb on 3. Coolness emanated, no doubt, and perhaps unforgetably for a few. No one asked for my autograph that night, probably because they were scared . They asked Charles and Rick and Nancy for theirs. I don't understand that part. We won first prize, which was $200 and a store bought trophy of, what I think, was a football player with his throwing arm holding the football cut off so's not to confuse us, maybe. I am still confused, but it was certainly a memorable night, one that goes into Dan Armstrong history, perhaps, not as a paragraph, but at least, as a punctuation. This is my story, and I'm stickin' to it."
Jay H.
October 3, 2011