Some things never change. The alarm clock rings each morning, and it’s time to get ready to go punch in again. For a lot of Michigan folks, this means working on the automotive assembly line. Detroit isn’t called the Motor City for nothing. But now that the rest of the world has caught up, we’re losing jobs left and right. Ford just announced they were putting 8,000 more people out of work. It should only add to Michigan’s unemployment rate, the highest in the country. The times are a changin’. But maybe that’s not such a bad thing. According to the Detroit band Stix and Stoned, and Plymouth, Michigan’s David Walz, working on the line gives them a bad case of the blues.
The band Stix and Stoned was formed by a group of buddies who worked together at the Ford Rouge Plant in Dearborn, Michigan. They had those rou-ou-ouge plant blues, and they had ‘em bad.
listen to Rouge Plant Blues:
I recently discovered this record by Plymouth’s David Walz, called Country Old Country New.
And to my delight, the lead off track on the B side was Assembly Line Blues. Stix and Stoned were not alone as a local bar band who was factory rat by day, rock and roll dreamer by night. I’m sure that playing music was much, much better, and this only contributed to the blues they all felt while bolting in those door panels or assembling those steering wheels.
David Walz doesn’t look like he has the blues, but that’s because he was posing for the cover of his new album instead of sweatin’ on that line. Give his take a listen and see who makes the most convincing argument.
listen to Assembly Line Blues:
Who needs the blues? As many of the immortals have said, They ain’t nothin’ but a low down achin’ chill, and if you ain’t never had ‘em, I hope you never will. And if you listen to Stix and Stoned or David Walz, that’s all those auto jobs are good for anyway.
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February 12th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Cousin Justin
I found a great website that has biographies to a lot of Detroit bands including Stix & Stoned. The Bio is as follows
“Stix & Stoned was a well-known “bar” band around Detroit for many years. Their founder, Bobby Lewis started playing guitar in the 60s with the Soul Survers. After getting married and starting a family, he set his priority as family first and secured a position both financially and musically rewarding in a bar called “Your Moustache” in Dearborn. This allowed him monetary survival while staying in one place. The three piece band kept the bar filled even with a cover charge and high drink prices and if you got there after 10, it was standing room at the bar only. They recorded one single: “The Rouge Plant Blues” about Ford Motor’s nearby factory.
Marcus Terry, Stix and Stoned’s original drummer, headed south to an interest in Florida. He was replaced by Jimmy Hunter (who’s gone on to an illustrious career as a studio/session/touring drummer). John Coury, their bass/keyboard player stayed on for awhile (John was also in Sky with Doug Feiger and later went on to write “End of the Innocence” with Don Henley) with new drummer Hunter in place, but eventually followed other callings.
Lewis put togehter a new ensemble, continuing on in the old format of including many personal touches and humor to the show, under the name of Bobby Lewis and the Cracker Jack Band. Lewis is something of a Detroit legend and owing to his musical abilities and length of time in the business, and it appears that anybody who’s anybody knows Bobby. One night at the Moustache, Jose Fleciano stopped in and did a couple songs with him, as had Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton on other occasions.
Their gig at Your Moustache ended when the bar was sold several years back but Lewis (and a revamped version of the band) has continued to play out around the metro Detroit area, albeit sporadically, over the years.”
The WEBSITE IS HERE http://home.att.net/~s.m.geer/home.htm Click on the bands link. It is atruly impressive list of bands and info
February 12th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
admin
Wow - that is a great site.