Baltimore Mystery No. 3: Blues Limited's very Psych 45, Broken Windows
Finally. Both Psychedelic and Baltimore.
This one ticks all the boxes: it’s Psychedelic and Baltimore.
Our guest today is local Baltimore music legend, Rob Grant, lead guitarist of Blues Limited who played on their fantastic, psychedelic 45, Broken Windows, backed with the classic Hey Joe. The Broken Windows 45, released on the Beet Records label, is an impossibly hard to find slice of authentic, local Baltimore psychedelia from 1968.
Rob began his musical career in the mid ‘60’s, initially as a guitarist. Blues Limited was his very first band, formed when he was 15. The players were singer and rhythm guitarist Jack Byrd (Charlie Byrd's nephew), Bob Dunning on drums, Jack Cassidy on bass and Rob on lead guitar. David Byrd, Jack’s brother, joined the band later on rhythm guitar. Blues Limited played mostly small coffee houses and parties. Rob later formed a trio with his neighbor, Tim Camponeschi, (a/k/a Tim Camp, later of Bootcamp) called Fabrajax. The trio became fairly popular and played frat houses, concerts, and coffee houses. After a drumming change, they morphed into Momma Max, which became a mainstay at Baltimore’s legendary teen-only nightclub, the Bluesette. Following Momma Max, Rob switched over to bass with a band called Tricks (or sometimes Trix), featuring guitarist Kraig (Trixy) Krixer, John Garriques and singer Randy Hammond.
If that pedigree is somehow insufficient – “Wait …There’s more!” Yes, Rob later joined up with Kraig in Baltimore’s most notorious musical adventure, Pooba, as bassist. (Well, at least for a few gigs.) After Pooba dissolved (or perhaps experienced an alien abduction) Kraig continued on with Trixy and the Testones and several other excellent bands. Rob formed a few bands that never quite got out of rehearsal, but then went on in 1975 to play in a 9-member, leisure-suited, disco band called the New Sideshow. (Hey, we all had leisure suits back then. I believe they were government-issued). Following the Jive Talkin’ era, Rob joined up with Orange Wedge (later known as simply “Wedge”) as bassist from 1977 until 1980. He can be heard on Orange Wedge’s track Bye Bye Baby featured on the 98 Rock Album, released in 1978.
After Orange Wedge, Rob chilled-out, musically, but slowly found his karma again, about twenty years ago. He became one of the internet’s earliest music collaborators. He was forced to drop out of music a few years later, thanks to a computer crash and a fire that cost him all of his music files. But in 2020 he was back again, web collaborating, as his retirement hobby. In fact, his internet band, Rayon Vert, recorded 3 CD's. The players were from Finland, California, and Canada. And Rob is still working the web here from his HQ in Bawlmer. You can find his collaborations on the MixPosure web platform. (I, on the other hand, was recruited to join the “Mix-Poser” platform. Apparently, there’s a difference…)
But enough of these preliminaries. Time for the grueling Q & A:
Q: When did you learn to play guitar? Did you take lessons, locally?
A: I’m basically self-taught. I had a neighbor who was already in a band and he sold me a used Montgomery Wards Airline guitar and amp. I was around 14 or 15 and just started playing by ear.
Q: How did you guys come to form Blues Limited?
A: Basically, we were neighborhood and school friends who lived in the same general area. I lived in Govans and some of the other guys came from nearby Homeland and Roland Park. We decided to start a group. We were all big fans of the bluesier side of rock and the bands that played bluesier stuff, like John Mayall and the Stones. That’s why we chose the name Blues Limited.
Q. Where did you guys rehearse?
A: Mostly at Jack Byrd’s house and sometimes at Bob Dunning’s, the drummer. It was extremely primitive. Bob didn’t even own a full kit at the time. He had a snare, a couple of cymbals, one tom tom and used an old footlocker as a bass drum!
Q. After you guys formed Blues Limited, how did you and Jack Byrd put Broken Windows together? Who was lead vocalist?
A: Jack was the singer and had a really great voice. He came up with most of the music and lyrics and I added a few musical ideas, throughout. It was 1968, the psychedelic era, and we, like countless other groups were influenced by the music of that time. You can definitely hear it!
Q. How did you wind up recording Broken Windows and Hey Joe?
A. We thought it would be cool to have a record out, so we pooled our money to pay for a recording session and 45s. Of course, getting our original down, Broken Windows, was key. We loved the song Hey Joe, particularly the Leaves version. We figured it would make a cool B side.
Q. How old were you when you recorded the 45?
A. Sixteen. I once had a photo where I was dressed in a double-breasted, gold blazer proudly holding the 45 before me.
Q. Broken Windows has a raga rock feel. Is that you playing the guitar to produce a sitar sound? Are you playing the fuzz lead in Hey Joe? If so, do you remember the fuzztone you used?
A. Ha! Yes, that’s me playing the sitar-sounding stuff in Broken Widows. And I am playing the fuzz lead on Hey Joe. But I can’t remember which fuzztone I had at the time.
Q Was Beet Records a local Baltimore label? Or was it simply your own enterprise? Do you recall how many copies were pressed? Do you still own a copy?
A. Beet Records was just a name we used for the 45. There was never any label as such. We probably pressed one hundred or possibly two hundred copies. I still have a copy packed away, somewhere. But until you sent me the mp3 copy, I hadn’t heard it in decades.
Q. In which studio did you record the 45? Was it cut live or did you overdub any parts? Did you do multiple takes or just one? Do you recall if the studio was 2 or 4-track?
A. Well, I don’t remember the name but it was a small studio located on the second floor of a building very near the old Greyhound bus terminal in downtown Baltimore. (Fayette St. and Howard St.) We had booked a couple hours to record. We spent most of the time on Broken Windows and had to rush through Hey Joe. That’s why you can hear a few youthful errors on Hey Joe. I’m not sure about the number of takes we took for Broken Windows. And I’m not sure about the tape machine used by the studio. Most likely we cut the instrumental track first and then Jack overdubbed his vocal. It may have been a two-track machine. The mixdown was in mono.
Q. Presumably Bob had a real bass drum at that point?
A. Ha! Yes, he used a real bass drum on the recording.
Q. Did you make any other studio recordings at the time?
A. No. It was a tremendous rush to get Hey Joe done before we ran out of time. The engineer didn’t have a lot of slack to offer us. “Look man, this is it - last take!” We never made another studio recording as Blues Limited.
Q. Was the 45 sold by local record stores? Did you sell it at your gigs?
A. I doubt that any local stores sold it, but we probably sold it at gigs for a dollar. And, of course, we gave a bunch away.
Q. Did the 45 ever receive local airplay?
A. No. I doubt that any of us tried to get any to a radio station. We had no management or promotion. It was just a bunch of teenage guys making a record at their own expense.
Q. We were all very saddened by the passing of our friends and local music legends of Pooba fame, Kraig (Trixy) Krixer in 2011 and Dave Wilcox (Steptoe T. Magnificent) in 2022. Do you have any good stories from your Pooba days?
A. Ha! Sure! I played bass, then, and was only a member of Pooba for a short time, probably just a couple jobs, but it was a blast. Occasionally, alcohol was involved. I recall one gig where the band was set up on the stage and I found my way to some sort of catwalk above ground and dropped my bass guitar to the ground below. Great sounding bass solo, and my bass guitar somehow survived!
Q. Nice! Tell us about your latest web collaboration, or the web collaboration(s) you’ve enjoyed the most?
A. I recorded with a collaboration I put together called Rayon Vert. We recorded 2 CD's back about ten years ago. I believe at least the second one can be found on Bandcamp. The players were from Finland, California, and Canada. Basically, it’s progressive rock music, the complete opposite of my teen band roots! We disbanded for a while. The fire and loss of sound files put a damper on things but we regrouped again in 2020 to do the third CD.
Thank you for all of this great info., Rob! We will hit you up again when it’s time to solve other local music mysteries…
