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Churnev-All She Owed Him-S.J.C.

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Unknown to but a few hundred people on the planet Earth and unremembered by a fraction of those the sixties rock band "Ed Blake" has a story that doesn't need to be told and some may argue shouldn't be told. Whether the telling of this group's tale is a waste of time and space will ultimately be left to the reader. Only the inhabitants of the parallel universe where "Ed Blake" became "Rock Stars" and turned the musical world on it's ear will know if "Blake" really would have had anything to contribute to American culture. Would The Beatles have produced "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" if they never left Liverpool and ended up a cabaret act and broken up in despair? Would "Ed Blake have "made it" if they had been in the "right place at the right time"? Probably not. Even for the most unique and talented the odds of achieving success is worse than winning the fifty million-dollar prize in a lottery.

Now through the magic of audio tape that has managed to remain somewhat intact for thirty years and this brief history, you the reader and listener can decipher what  "Ed Blake" music was about and if it had a place in the Rock n Roll world of it's time.

Three fifteen-year-old lads search for an identity through rock n' roll music in a small California town in the northern-most part of the Sacramento Valley known as "Redding". Two rock bands vie for the attention of junior and high school dance committees, hoping for the nod of approval, granting their group the distinction of a "gig", a paid engagement.

In one part of town,"The New Caledonia Street Band", led by an older boy, Dennis Geiger on lead guitar and vocals, Steven Huff on guitar and vocals, and Robert Sell, Jr. on drums. They had no bassist, although a teen named Craig Fowler would sometimes stop by and play bass on the lower strings of his Japanese guitar.

Further south in "South Redding", a group known as "The Sand Hill Blues Band", also led by an elder, bassist Jack Knolty, boasted David Harvey on lead guitar, Dan Watson on guitar and vocals, and Chris Mayer on drums.

Clash of egos? Bad drugs? Dan Watson quits "Sand Hill Blues" and the group is in need of vocals.

Meanwhile, in the "Caledonia" camp leader Geiger retires to concentrate on his studies and to take a wife.

"Caledonia" boy Steven Huff can hear the "Sand Hill" scruffs practicing in the distance as he pedals his "Stingray" home from bandmate Robert Sell, Jr.'s Bonnyview, South Redding home.

In a sheet metal industrial building housing Jack Knolty's father's boat building and repair business, Huff comes upon the mighty sound of a rock band in full swing.With a real electric bass.

Twilight.Summer.It's still at least 100 degrees at this northern-most spot in the Sacramento valley. Even hotter in the sheet metal building that Huff circles and approaches like a wary beast.

Contact.Huff and Knolty have a common bond. They both know Craig Fowler.They ride the same bus to Shasta High-Nova.Huff is cajoled or offers to "sit in" with the "Sand Hill" boys. The group needs someone to sing. Would he be interested? Knolty has a brainstorm. How about Craig Fowler as well. Two singers. Harmony. Three guitars. Too much. Too loud.

This new band would need a new name.
 "Ed Blake".

A common misconception exists concerning the origin of the group moniker "Ed Blake". The first assumption even before the addition of a flautist was that the boys were mimicking the use of a singular proper name for a "group" as employed by "Jethro Tull". In truth the choice of "Ed Blake" was made before they had any knowledge of "Jethro Tull". The name derived it's origins as a catch-all “put-down” for a “hick” or “hayseed” i.e. an unsophisticated rural person as in “Look at that guy…he’s a real “Ed Blake” coined by Dave Eggan, a friend of “Blake” singer-guitarist Craig Fowler.

 Highlights of a "Blake" show included a credible reading of "In-a-gadda-da-vida" by Iron Butterfly featuring a show stopping drum solo by Chris Mayer (always a hit in the hinterlands) and generous helpings of  Credence Clearwater Revival.

 After some successful sojourns to places like "Hayfork" and "Weaverville" drummer Chris Mayer, longtime friend and peer of Knolty leaves the group. Huff and Fowler recommend young ex-bandmate Robert Sell, Jr. as a possible candidate for the position. This aggregation performed at only a handful of shows, most notably a “Peace Rally” in 1969-70 at Shasta College.Featured at this show was a David Harvey-Ed Blake composition with the rebellious title of “Fuck War”.

With the departure of his friend Chris Mayer bassist Knolty can take no more. The cacophony of the three electric guitar players vying to be heard and Sell, Jr.’s  free-form style of drumming is too much for his sensitive ears and he leaves the group as well (at a rehearsal early in the then new band's gestation Huff was booted out of the group by the authoritarian Knolty for exceeding the prescribed decibel level of a "rhythm" guitarist, an edict quickly reversed after Huff packed up his two amplifiers and the featured lead guitarist Harvey was left without amplification).Craig Fowler also resigns to pursue musical liaisons with more mature musicians and face the impending doom of graduation from high school and the subsequent horror of the draft board and Viet Am.

The youngest members, Harvey, Huff, and Sell, Jr. share an interest in the new "power trio" sounds. With Huff handling the bass chores and singing, Harvey on the new Claypton-Hendrix lead guitar style and Sell , Jr. drumming in the free-form style of Baker-Mitchell, they would undoubtedly be a formidable "power trio".
From the severed and mutilated body of  “Ed Blake” arose a monster only greed and therefore “American capitalism” could kill.