In honor of Willie Phoenix Way, I am re-posting the four-part Ballad of Willie Phoenix that first appeared on my blog Growing Old With Rock & Roll in 2013. It’s a deep dive into Willie's history from my dual perspectives as both a fan and as his roadie. Someday I might write another chapter, but just in case I don't, let me say this: If I hadn't met Willie Phoenix (and one other) in 1978, I would have lived out my existence as a middle-manager in some retail operation. Willie gave me back music, gave me back poetry, gave me back style, and made me believe in a future where I could still be living in and writing about rock & roll in 2020.
Thank you Willie.
Saturday, December 21, 2013 / The Ballad of Willie Phoenix, part three - The Shadowlords and The Flower Machine, 1983-1989
After the A&M album bombed and Willie was dropped by the label, he returned to Columbus and broke up The Big Band. (It was really too unwieldy and expensive a proposition to keep a seven-piece band together on local gigs.) After woodshedding for a few months he returned in the winter of 1983 with the brand-spanking new Shadowlords: the ever-dependable Greg Glasgow on bass & backing vocals, Tom McClelland on rhythm guitar and Jim Johnson on drums.
I first met Johnson - who is still serving behind the drum kit today in 2013 with Blues Hippy & The Soul Underground, Willie's current band, and who might hold the record for the most years and most gigs played with Phoenix - at a gig at a Lum's Restaurant across the street from the OSU Mershon Auditorium on a snowy night in 1983. As I recall we hit it off right away. He hailed from Youngstown, Ohio, giving him a solid grounding in working-class Attitude, and he understood what constituted rock & roll and what didn't. (One of my most-repeated quotes of the 30 years since that night has been, "Jim's musical interests run the gamut from The Rolling Stones to The Rolling Stones." I think people sometimes misinterpret that phrase as a put-down. I mean it in absolutely the most positive way.) We somehow wound up talking that night about Willie Nile, a songwriter I loved who most people were barely aware of. Jim admired Nile's rocker attitude crossed with a lyrical poetry bent. I subsequently found Jim to be that rarest of rock & roll drummers: somebody who actually listens to the lyrics and serves the song, instead of just simply driving the beat. The friendship born that night stands strong to this day.
The biggest change from Big Band to Shadowlords was that Willie had started playing lead guitar in the interim. And Jesus, what a lead guitar player he had become. He was a great, quirky, idiosyncratic soloist. Willie's solos never started or ended anyway near where you expected them to. (Later, in 1990's True Soul Rockers, when Willie was paired with Mike Parks - who essayed an absolutely slashing, rock-solid (no pun intended) style of lead guitar - Willie found the second lead guitar foil he had always needed. Willie & Mike playing together was like having Richard Thompson & Duane Allman playing in the same band, but they somehow pulled it off.)
(This is just an intro; click the link below for the “rest of the story” if you are so inclined…….)T
The Ballad of Willie Phoenix, part four: The Shadowlords and The Flower machine, 1985-1989
(Any history of Willie Phoenix is a Living History, an ongoing process. He’s still out here rockin’. Stay in the loop at WilliePhoenix.com.)
left to right: Jim Johnson, drums / Steve Donnellon, rhythm guitar & vocals/ Willie Phoenix, vocals & lead guitar / Greg Glasgow, bass & vocals