Wilderness Road (band)

Articleissues
unreferenced=January 2008
importance=April 2008
tone=December 2007Infobox musical artist
Name = Wilderness Road
Background = group_or_band
Origin = Chicago, Illinois, USA
Genre = Rock
URL = [http://www.wildernessroad.net Unofficial website maintained by fans]
Current_members = .

Wilderness Road was a rock band founded in 1968 by musicians Warren Leming, Nate Herman, and relatives Andy and Tom Haban. The group, which performed an elaborate stage show, drew on American folklore, and was active in the Anti-War, and Peace Movements of the late Sixties and early Seventies central to Chicago's counterculture movement of the period.

Stage show

Both Leming and Herman were writer/musicians who came out of theatrical/musical backgrounds, and the Road's blend of original songs, many of them satirical, and performance features like: the Dope Report, a critique of the Drug Culture then prominent; the Gospel Hour-: a musical analysis of Fundamentalist Christian radio and politic; and Ricky and the Balloons, a Fifties revival band that urged listeners to "Come on down to the Del Vino Lounge", made the band an eclectic mix of the satirical and singular.

Albums and management

The band's first album was a film scenario disguised as rock album, but could not be labeled a "concept" project for fear that it would not attract an audience.

The group produced two albums: "Wilderness Road" (Columbia Records), and "Sold for the Prevention of Disease Only" (Warner Reprise). The band was managed by Ron Oberman, who had previously worked for Mercury records (he headed their publicity department.)

Oberman, following an unsolicited letter to the band, brought them to Columbia, where they were signed by A and R man, Alan Rinde. The band had established a significant audience in Chicago through their performances at The Wise Fools Pub, and were the first rock band to have drawn audiences to Chicago's Lincoln Ave., in Old Town, an area of the city now known for its bars, musical venues, and restaurants.

Performance history

The ensemble was road managed by Ray Ward, who oversaw the bands national and Mid Western tours. They frequently opened for Sha Na Na, the 50s revival act.

Member histories

Herman, who was a mandolin, dobro, piano and guitar player, had met Leming (guitar and banjo) at the famous Second City (1848 N. Welles). Both were satirists and deeply influenced by American roots music: Herman having fronted the Absolute Truth String Band, and Leming, with Ray Tate: the Urban Renewal Boys, two of Chicago's first "urban Bluegrass" groups. Leming had been a folk musician and had worked with Jim, later Roger McGuinn (Byrds founder) and guitarist song-writer Richard Toups.

Herman, a multi instrumentalist, had founded a Chicago rock group: the Moviing Violations, which featured pianist Bob Hoban, and guitarists Paul Ostrof and Carmi Simon.

Later history

The Road began its Chicago career doing benefits for the Chicago Seed (underground newspaper), and to raise funds for the Chicago Conspiracy Trial, which followed Chicago's 1968 "the whole world is watching" Democratic National Convention, where violence ended Vice President Hubert Humphrey's political career in what was later termed "a police riot". [ "The Walker Report" ]

The Road left Columbia in the early 1970s, and were immediately signed by Warner Reprise following a club date in San Francisco. They spent two months at L.A.'s Tropicana Motel (home to Andy Warhol and Tom Waits) while recording "Sold for the Prevention of Disease Only", which was criticised by DJs and record company execs for a condom

With the waning of the anti mercantilist "hippy" movements and the marginalisation of the Peace Movements through the election of Richard Nixon, the Roads activist audience was soon overwhelmed by Glam Rock, and the consumerist putsch which ended FM Progressive radio, and the independent "counter cultural" bands shot at airplay.The Road has been compared with the Byrds; Canada's: The Band, The Amazing Rhythm Aces, and a number of other groups who created original material and an audience among the "counter culture." They are to be found under Alt Americana, Alt, and Acid Country, Country and Americana on website and collector venues.

Past sidemen

Louis Ross, Bob Hoban (now with Rodney Carrington), Stuart Klawans (the Nation's film critic), Rawl Hardman, and Ric Mann all performed with the Road: and Herman, Hoban and Leming went on to produce "The Unsung Story of Rock and Roll" (for National Public Radio), and featuring friends John Prine and Steve Goodman.

Press/Literature

Critiques of the band's performance and history are to be found in "Rolling Stone" (Paul Nelson), "Chicago Tribune" (Bruce Vilanche, Dick Cheverton), "Chicago Daily News" (Jack Haffercamp), "Chicago Sun Times" (Lynn Van Mattre), "Playboy Magazine" (David Standish), Creem (Dave Marsh), "Chicago Seed" (Eliot Wald, Abe Peck), "Music Magazine", "Variety", "Billboard", East Village Other (Robert Rudnick), and the many "underground" papers of the period. Band member Warren Leming published a comic book "Snuk Comics", which featured the work of Leming and fellow band member Nate Herman, illustrated by underground comic legend Skip Williamson. The comic has since become a widely sought after collectors item. Leming also wrote a series of essays,songs, and a play "Cold Chicago", which has been published by Charles H.Kerr, the oldest surviving radical press in the United States.

Later career of principals

Nate Herman went on to work as a writer/performer at the National Lampoon Radio Hour, and for "Saturday Night Live" TV. Leming, who left the US for England in 1972, wrote a musical with English poet and author Heathcote Williams (AC/DC, The Local Stigmatic).

Herman and Leming later worked as satirists for National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" program and wrote and performed a musical: "A Christmas Commercial" at the St. Nicholas Theater in Chicago in 1976. Leming has had an active career since 1989 as a documentary film maker, working in close collaboration with documentarian/producer Denis Mueller. To date the two have written and produced over eight documentaries: most recently a new look at the JFK affair entitled "The Kennedy File" (to be released in Europe in 2007/2008.)

The band's first album cover is often listed among the 100 top album covers of all time. Based on an Edward Hopper painting, Morning, 1948, it was rendered as a model, the Hopper estate having refused permission to use the Hopper painting.

Tom Haban founded Chicago's Seagrape Studios, and pioneered Chicago Acid House, while his bassist brother Andy joined Lenny and the Squig Tones of TV's "Laverne and Shirley" show.

Notes