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My current band affiliation is with the Fabulous Chancellors
The Fabulous Chancellors, 2002-
back row:
Jamie Jensen; 2nd tenor, sax, keyboards, violin, percussion
Ross Miller; baritone, guitar, bass
Stephen Baldassarre; baritone, drums
front row:
Jon McKay; 1st tenor (primary vocalist), guitar, percussion
Dr. Joe; 1st tenor, lead guitar, flute, harmonica, keyboards
Blair Crook; 2nd tenor, bass, trumpet
The Chancellors Current Set List
Original Chancellors Tunes
From the early 60's: Diamond in
the Sky Hey Girl
From the 1990 Fraternity label
album: I'm Cool (Me and My Baby Like) Old Songs
On the upcoming CD: Lovin' That Girl
Beacons Searching
Stay a Little Longer
Doo-Wop & 50's
At the Hop
The Lion Sleeps Tonight Little Darlin'
Pretty Woman Rock
and Roll Music Ruby
Runaround Sue The Wanderer Youngblood
Cryin' For
Your Love
Sea of Love
Unchained Melody This Magic Moment
British Invasion
All My Lovin'
Brown-Eyed Girl Day Tripper
I Feel Fine I
Saw Her Standing There Jumpin' Jack Flash
Satisfaction
This Boy
Nowhere Man
We Gotta Get Out of This Place
The House of the Rising Sun
I Love You So Much A
Whiter Shade of Pale Slow Down
Give Me Some Lovin' I Should Have Known Better
Soul and Motown
Hold on I'm Comin' I Feel Good
Land of a Thousand Dances
The Letter
Mustang Sally Shotgun Soul
Man
Time Won't Let Me Then You
Can tell Me Goodbye
Surfin'
California Sun
Do You Want to Dance Fun, Fun, Fun
Runaway
Surfin' USA
Party Tunes
Louie, Louie Gloria
Money Mony, Mony
My Girl Sloopy Nobody but Me
Wooly Bully
Born to Be Wild Love Me Two Times
Proud Mary/Lodi
70's and more recent
Dance With Me Tonight Rock
This Town Betty Lou
That Thing You Do Travellin'
Band Who'll Stop the Rain
All My Only Dreams Comfortably Numb Knockin'
on Heaven's Door
Fire on the Mountain
Tupelo Honey Old Time Rock and Roll
Instrumentals
Jeff's Boogie Pipeline Theme
from "Simon & Simon" Wipeout
Tequila
Walk Don't Run Sleep
Walk McCoy
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The Fabulous Chancellors
had a few mild hits in the Northwest USA in the early '60's. Their run came to an end in 1967, but the band reorganized
under Ross Miller in 1989. I was part of this rebirth playing lead guitar, keyboards, flute, sax and harmonica, and
singing about a third of the leads.
I left the band in 1991 to play in two
power trios, Dr. Joe & Clockwork and The Shadows, successively. In 2001,
however, I rejoined The Fabulous Chancellors, and a year later, my son, Stephen, rounded out the
sextet as their drummer.
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THE FABULOUS CHANCELLORS, 1990
Dr. Joe; Lou Mathews, bass; Grant Green, drums; Ross Miller,
guitar
In 1990, The Fabulous Chancellors,
as a quartet, recorded its first album. The self-title work yielded two singles: "(Me and My Baby Like) Old Songs"
and the tongue-in-cheek "I'm Cool", both composed by Ross and released on the Fraternity label.
To see The Fabulous Chancellors' official web page, please click here.
Most of my work in bands has been in a trio.
I formed my first in 1968 when The Off-Set couldn't find a replacement bass player.
From 1976 to 1989, I headed up Chapter 3 in Boise. We went through several bass players
and drummers, but one of the better ones is pictured here.
| Chapter 3, about 1982 |
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| Allen Taylor, drums; me; Quinn vanPaepeghem, bass and guitar |
Between stints with The Fabulous
Chancellors, I did the trio thing again from 1991 to 2001 with two different incarnations: Dr. Joe
and Clockwork and The Shadows.
| The Shadows, about 1996 |
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| Lou Mathews, bass; Dave owens, drums; and me |
The Off-Set played some of the big clubs in the Northeast Ohio area. We warmed up for dozens of recording
artists and backup several others. In 1967 we were crowned #1 band in Cleveland and were scheduled to perform on the
Hullaballoo TV show. Unfortunately, the show was canceled and the band disintegrated with the loss
of two successive bass players: Dave Grale (who went to college) and Doug Barrack (who was killed in a motocycle accident).
We tried to find a replacement but wound up
trying the trio thing with Tim Cernan (lead vocals/organ/bass) and Marty Pietrasz (drums/vocals). We went on for a while
but eventually split up. Tim and I later played together again, but that ended when I left Cleveland in 1975.
Unfortunately, no known photos survive of The Off-Set.
The last really good rock band with which I
played in Cleveland was a symphonic rock band called Dante. We did stuff like Moody Blues,
King Crimson, The Association, The Cryan Shames and a host of others. Anyway, we had six terrific voices
and a very flexible array of instruments. We practiced 4 hours a day, 3 days a week. Unfortunately, nobody wanted
to hear it - we played 12 gigs in 18 months. What a waste!
My first band, The Citations started
up in 1962. We started off playing mostly polkas, a lucrative thing in Cleveland, but by the time I left in 1975,
we were playing all kinds of music. I think that one of the most impressive things about this band is that I only had
to replace each position once in 13 years. Below is us at our first gig, a wedding at the Italian-American Hall in February,
1962.
| The Citations |
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| Chuck Vleck, me, Jim Baran, Ted Cioban |
A THOUGHT: Don't take life too seriously, you'll never get out of it alive.
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