BURIED TREASURES

It was the mid Eighties when I first heard the Rainmakers. They first recorded as a trio called Steve, Bob & Rich and recorded an album under that name in 1983. After they added Pat Tomek to their lineup they changed their name to the Rainmakers. The group was from Kansas City. The lead singer and writer of the material was Bob Walkenhorst. Not long after the name change they were signed to Polygram and released their first album under the name Rainmakers.





The Rainmakers became favorites of critics. Newsday called them "America's Next Great Band." Other major magazines joined in the praise, but outside some minor action on the charts their sales didn't match the acclaim. Stehpen King declared himself a fan.



They followed their first album with a second and a third. Even though their music never caught on in the States overseas they were becoming a hit. Their song "Let My People Go-Go" became a top 20 hit in England. In Norway the band were big enough that with the release of a new album it went gold within a month's time.



Their popularity overseas enabled them to release a live album that appeared only in Europe. After the live album the group decided to take a break in 1990 and the individual members went on to other projects.



In 1994 the group got back together to record a new album Flirting with the Universe. In 1996 they released what appears to be their final album Skin. Since than Bob Walkenhorst has recorded and tours on his own.

BURIED TREASURES

Years ago, more years than I want to admit, before I was the vast well of musical knowledge that I am now I would go to the record store and just browse through the albums. I was familiar with all the big names, but I would come across albums from people I had never heard of and would sometimes pick up their album and look at it and wonder what it was. This was before the internet (I told you it was a long time ago) so I couldn't check these unknown bands and singers out on the web. Sometimes I might find a suggestion of their sound in a magazine, but that was rare. Rolling Stone and other music mags covered the bigger name artists. But sometimes I would get brave and pick out an album from someone that I had no idea of what their sound was like. I remember hovering over an album from a group called House of Freaks for weeks. I would go back and pick it up and look at it, the name of the group called out to me, but I knew nothing about their sound. Finally I broke down and picked up the album. The album was Tantilla and I was hooked from the first song.
Bryan Harvey and Johnny Hott comprised the group lineup of the band. Bryan was the lead singer and played guitar and Johnny played percussion on anything he could use. The group had a much fuller sound than you would expect from just two guys.

"Crack In The Sidewalk"


They combined folk, rock and blues into a southern style of music that has been described at the musical equivalent of Flannery O'Connor. Their music was about was about race, religion and life in the South.



The band formed in Richmond Virginia in the mid 1980s and moved to L.A. with the release of their first album Monkey On A Chain Gang.

"Meet Your Heroes"


The group was never a commercial success but their first album did make a lot of critics' lists. They moved back home after their first album did not do as they hoped to.



Their next album was Tantilla and continued their style of Southern Gothic. For a two man band the music was full of energy. Unfortunately this album did not became a chart success either. Their next album was the ep All My Friends.


"Broken Bones"




After the ep the group recorded Cakewalk in 1991 and had a minor hit with "Rocking Chair." In 1994 they released their last album Invisible Jewel. After the release of this album the group split up



Actually Johnny and Bryan formed a new group called Gutterball with Steve Wynn from the Dream Syndicate. This group released two albums.

On New Years Day of 2006 Bryan Harvey, his wife and two daughters were murdered at their home in Richmond Virginia. The killers were later captured and convicted. Over 1400 people turned up for the memorial service for the former singer.

BURIED TREASURES

The start of a new column that I've been meaning to get off the ground for along time now. It's called "BURIED TREASURES" and in this column I'm going to talk about songs, artists, albums from the past that I feel might have been over looked or just need some to be mentioned again.

Up first is a song from a group called Buffalo Springfield. The song is called "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing."

The group Buffalo Springfield came together in the mid sixties. Its members were Stephen Stills, Dewey Martin, Richie Furary, Bruce Palmer and Neil Young. This was a supergroup before any of its members were super stars. All the members of this group went on to bigger and better things. The group didn't last long, three albums and it was splitting before the second was even out.

Neil Young was driving through L.A. with Bruce Palmer when Richie Furary and Stehpen Stills drove by on the opposite side of the street and recognized Neil's black hearse and did a U-turn and chased the two down. The four decided to form a group and took their named from the Buffalo-Springfield Steam Roller Company.

The record company didn't like Neil's voice, so even though he wrote a large percent of the songs he didn't sing lead on his own material. Neil wrote this song, but Richie sings lead on it. Richie went on to help form Poco after he left Buffalo Springfield.

The song is a haunting one of regret and loss. It's been a favorite of mine for a long time. Usually when Buffalo Springfield is mentioned it's with the song "For What It's Worth" which is a great song, but not the only one that should be remembered from the group. They put out a lot of good material that deserves listening. In addition to their three albums Neil Young released a boxed set of material from the group that included demos, songs that didn't make the albums and the first two albums themselves.

The song is the first single the group released and according to lore is the first song Neil Young taught his fellow group members.

Housekeeping

We know that this site hasn't been keeping up with it's announced goal of a weekly Spotlight and for that everyone here at Voices to Hear apologizes. (It's actually pretty easy to get us all on the same page, even though we're using the "royal" we, it's just me putting this site together.) I could make a long list of what's been going wrong and a million and one other excuses, but that still doesn't get the Spotlight out on a weekly basis, so I'll skip the excuses and offer my sincere apology and promise to do better.

It's a new year and we promise to try and do better this year. Our goal is to present a Spotlight every week, hopefully on Monday or as close to that day as we can make it. We have a long list of artists that we hope to feature in forthcoming Spotlights.

We also have lots more new features for the site. Hopefully our interview "Simply Six" will expand and feature more artists. Lily Holbrook actually sent hers back, but there was a mess up with the computers and it didn't come through, so she's re-doing it. We're expanding it out, sending it to more artists in the hope that we'll get more back.

Soon we'll be introducing a new feature called "Buried Treasures". This feature will showcase music from the past that we feel should not go unnoticed and warrants some attention. As always our aim with this feature will be to featured some music that is slightly off the radar from the majority of the music buying public. Hopefully we'll introduce you to some great older music that you might not have heard.

Also this year looks to be full of concerts. The New Orleans Jazz Fest will be here before long and lots of great music inbetween than. Our concert reviews will be featured more frequently.

And last but not least we hope to start featuring album reviews. There's a lot of great albums out there that we want to bring a little attention to. Sometimes we try to make our Spotlights come out when that featured artist has a new album coming out, but we don't always make it, so some great albums are slipping through the cracks.

While we said that the above was the last we also are hoping to run a round up of some of the best music from the last year that shouldn't go unnoticed or unheard. So we have an ambitious slate ahead of us for the coming year.

We'd like to hear from anyone that actually reads this site. Please leave some comments. Tell us what you think works and what doesn't. Give us your feedback on certain artists, let us know what you think about them. At the end of each Spotlight we link to mp3's for a handful of songs from said artist, give them a try, these are some great songs.

We also have a cafepress shop where you can buy some neat things with the VtH logo on it. We plan to expand this also and offer more goodies for you to spend your hard earned money on.

And finally, yes we really mean it this time, pass this site on to a friend. If you like it tell someone else. The purpose of this site is to push great music from artists that don't get the recognition they deserve, in other words - The Best Music You've Never Heard - so let as many people know about this site as you can so more people can hear them.