Making Their First Appearance Together Since 1977 Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen Reunite Original Band Members For A Once In A Life Time Performance at 19 Broadway Niteclub, Fairfax, CA
Featuring Commander Cody (George Frayne), Billy C. Farlow, John Tichy, Bobby Black, Tony Johnson, Tim Eschliman, and Graham Tichy.
Fairfax, CA (PRWEB) March 27, 2004 --Look in any rock and roll history book and you will find a chapter about Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen; mention the name of the band and it is likely someone will break into song, or at least make an attempt to reiterate the lyrics to their hit song Hot Rod Lincoln." Now, for the first time in over 27 years, the original band members are coming together for two very special performances at 19 BROADWAY NITECLUB, 17 Broadway Boulevard, Fairfax, California on Friday, April 16, and Saturday, April 17 at 9:30pm. Tickets: $17 Advance Purchase; $20 Day of Show, public can purchase tickets at www.ticketweb.com, or phone 1-866-468-3399. For more information about 19 BROADWAY NITECLUB visit www.19Broadway.com.
The band was first conceived in 1967 by George Frayne (who would later become Commander Cody), then a student in graduate school at the University of Michigan and his pal John Tichy, then an engineering PhD candidate. Together they formed a new band they identified as Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen -- named after the 1950 movie of the same name starring Kristen Coffen as Kommando Kody. In 1968 Commander Cody through George Frayne answered a call of the road" and headed West bringing with him his longhair country/rockabilly music to San Francisco and the rest of the civilized world -- just in time to catch the tale end of the summer of love. Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen were eight pieces strong, with the Commander on the piano, three guitarists, fiddle/sax, pedal steer guitar, bass and drums – four of the eight able to sing lead.
Barry Oliver booked them for the 1968 Berkeley Folk Festival and that gig ultimately catapulted their status in the music world and it was at the festival they came into contact with their first stars musicians who actually made records." Kristofferson, Odetta, Joplin, and the Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Group (headed by Dynamite Annie Johnson and Phil March) were supportive of the new comers and helped them pave their path to stardom.
Although they started out as the house band for the likes of Linda Ronstadt, Doug Kershaw, Gene Vincent and Emmylou Harris, they eventually started headlining clubs on their own and soon were signed to Paramount Records. There they recorded four albums (now in print on MCA records), that included the runaway hit Hot Rod Lincoln" which also made the top ten in 1972, "Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar", "Mama Hated Diesels" and "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke (That Cigarette)".
A few more tunes breached the top 40 as they hit the concert trail, playing the legendary Fillmore Auditorium, and finding themselves on bills with the Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Alice Cooper, Led Zeppelin, and The Eagles. Additionally, they backed up legends like Gene Vincent, Link Wray, Ron Wood and Klaus Voorman.
Their Live From Deep In The Heart Of Texas album, recorded at the famous Armadillo World Headquarters, won a four star rating from Rolling Stone magazine and is also regarded as one of its best 100 albums of all time. In 1975 Billboard Magazine crowned them Band of the Year." Eventually, the band moved on to Warner Brothers Records, where in 1976 they hit with "Don't Let Go," and then three more albums for Warner Brothers followed, including the double album Got A Live One Here, recorded live in European.
In 1977, however, they all went their seperate ways...until now.
Where they have been, and what they have been doing:
Commander Cody a long time Marin County resident went on to make two solo albums on Arista, working with Delany Bramlett and Nicolette Larson, he paralleled his musical career with his passion and talent as a painter. He performed with Joni Mitchell, Ron Wood and Klaus Voorman. And eventually, in 1997, he relocated to Syracuse, New York where he grew up. Today, he still resides in New York, and for nearly four decades his sculptures and paintings have been featured nationwide at shows, events and museums, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Additionally, he continues to perform with a newly created Commander Cody occasionally playing with original band member(s) when schedules permit.
Billy C. Farlow, an original lead singer, and writer of several of the best known Commander Cody tunes was always considered the driving force behind the bands live performances. After leaving Commander Cody, he formed his own Western Swing/Rockabilly band and toured with such artists as Chuck Berry, Ricky Nelson, Kenny Rogers, Bo Diddley, Asleep at the Wheel, Merle Haggard and the Byrds. Today, he continues to boogie, shout and testify his way through rousing programs of his own material, showing the world that neither the years nor the miles have dimmed his fire and passion for performing, but have merely served to enhance it. Keeping with the rhythm and blues of his deep Southern roots, he continues to work the blues
circuit in Europe and the Southeast and records on Zane Records.
When not in his role as a professor teaching mechanical and aerospace engineering at Renssealaer Polytechnic Institute, cofounder of the Cody band, Dr. John Tichy makes occasional forays into the music biz, playing with his son Graham Tichy (a rockabilly guitarist of some renown), and an occasional gig with Commander Cody. As the current chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aeronautical Engineering, and Mechanics, he is a fellow of the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and he is Technical Editor of the ASME Journal of Tribology. Tichy is also listed in the Whos Who in Rock & Roll (1996) and the Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (1998) for his work as a singer, songwriter and guitarist in the 1960s and ‘70s with Commander Cody and His
Lost Planet Airmen. Recently, he performed on A Prairie Home Companion on National Public Radio.
World-renowned master of the steel guitar Bobby Black has played and performed for over 50 years with groups like Commander Cody, Asleep at the Wheel, New Riders of the Purple Sage, The Moonlighters and many more. A true gentlemen and living legend, he has applied his talent to numerous pop standards (such as Ary Barrasos Brazil (Aquarela do Brasil)" and Irving Berlins Always"), as well as more tropical-themed numbers (On the Beach at Waikiki" and Little Hula Girl"). Bobby Black continue to make music and collaborate with notable artists and is quite often a featured performer at national steel guitar conventions.
Tony Johnson has played drums for such artists at Maria Muldaur, Junior Walker and the All-Stars, Hoyt Axton, and of course Commander Cody. He has appeared on many recordings and his songs have been recorded by a variety of artists including Asleep at the Wheel, the New Riders of the Purple Sage, Commander Cody, Hoyt Axton, and Bette Midler (who sang his song Midnight in Memphis" on the double-platinum soundtrack album of the movie The Rose.") He holds a Masters Degree in Religion from Yale and has also taught philosophy at the College of Marin, Southern Connecticut State College and interestingly enough, the California State Penitentiary at San Quentin. Most recently, he returned from a two and a half year cruise around the world in a 39 foot sailboat with one other person.
Another Cody alum, Tim Eschliman – bass, vocals, ringleader – from Yellow Springs, Ohio has played with Etta James, La Vern Baker, Commander Cody, Leo Nocentelli, Syl Johnson, Big Jay McNeely, Ernie K-Doe, Jesse Colin Young, and
the Moonlighters, whose album Rush Hour" was produced by Nick Lowe. In addition, he and a small group of friends living in
Mill Valley, California, in the mid-70s with a penchant for Kentucky bourbon founded a holiday traditional jug band with Dan
Hicks where they performed many original holiday numbers, parodies of unlikely classics, and raucous jugbandizations of seasonal favorites were components of their play-list. In 1987, Globe Records released the bands first album, Mistletoe Jam" (on green vinyl) and the group officially became The Christmas Jug Band."
New to the Commander Cody mix of alumni is Graham Tichy. Son of John Tichy, Graham has already created his own following on the east coast having played with Wanda Jackson, and several other touring bands. Although he is the son of John Tichy, his place with this collaboration of musicians did not come through nepotism. Like many others, he was required to audition and it was his talent that placed him in the band over many more experienced Cody alumi.
19 BROADWAY NITECLUB
Voted the Best Music Venue in Marin County in 2003, 19 BROADWAY NITCLUB is a musical mecca that features live music seven nights a week. Once considered a run of the mill watering hole for Fairfax locals it has -- since a 2001 remodeling -- turned the little red-brick hideaway into a world-class night club and host to a wide range of top reggae, world-music, jazz, rock and folk acts who perform in an up close and personal setting that is just about unparalleled in the Bay Area. Recent billings have included the alt-rock super group Banyan, jazz diva Diane Schuur, jazz sage Mose Allison, the Count Basie Band, R&B sax pioneer Sam Butera, surf-guitar king Dick Dale, the Mammals (featuring fiddler Jay Ungar's daughter and Pete Seeger's grandson), the Sam Kininger Band (featuring the band's namesake and Soulive saxophonist) and AC/Dshe (a butt-kicking all-girl AC/DC tribute band). Future billings include former Billboard Band of the Year" Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, Latin jazz legend Pete Escovedo, and award winning smooth jazz sensation Acoustic Alchemy.
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