Bloomington Indies: Deep Roots and Unique Vision

BLOOMINGTON INDIES: DEEP ROOTS AND UNIQUE VISION

By Barney Quick

No matter where you live or what you do or don't know about Bloomington, Indiana, this piece from the July 1997 issue of BC Magazine gives a good case study of the evolution of a regional music scene over the last 30 years.

September 1973 - On a warm Friday night, the I.U. Auditorium is the scene of a revue by all the acts on Bar-B-Q Records, a local label. The headliners are the Screamin' Gypsy Bandits, a seven- or eight- piece ensemble with a horn section. The evening's portly bearded emcee, who looks like some kind of sleazy circus ringmaster, brings them on. They blaze through a stunning set. Singer Caroline Peyton is striking in hoop earrings, long brown ringlets of hair cascading out from her bandana, and a vibrant print maxidress. At one point, they go into an extended jam called "Cold Pizza," during which guitarist and songwriter Mark Bingham writhes on the floor and implores Peyton to take off her bandanna and whip him with it. The horns play this punchy riff that accentuates the bit of choreography going on in the foreground. "Now," Bingham moans, "where's that fat guy?" The emcee comes out, borrows Peyton's bandanna, and lashes Bingham to a frenzied climax.

Other acts follow, notably a folk-oriented guy named Bob Lucas and a heavy fusion band led by guitarist Bruce Anderson.

Such were the beginnings of Bloomington's independent-label movement. Bar-B-Q set a tone combining eccentricity, respect for heritage, and a balance between funk and sensitivity that characterizes the city's approach to this day.

The initial financing for Bar-B-Q came from Kathy Canada, Eli Lily's granddaughter and a zealous benefactor of Bloomington arts. She fancied herself as a musician (and did in fact play a little guitar). Journeyman songwriter Bingham saw big opportunities in Canada's venture. In the late 1960s, he had assembled the Screamin' Gypsies, a sprawling behemothwith a fluid personnel roster. Now he had a way to get them into a studio.

Bar-B-Q sessions were cut at Gilfoy Sound Studios, owned by the still-active jazz drummer Jack Gilfoy. Gilfoy handed most engineering duties over to Mark Hood, whose Echo Park has become one of 1990s Bloomington's most active studios.

In 1972, the Screamin' Gypsies recorded In The Eye, an LP with a big, varied sound. One can hear everything from R&B horn charts to esoteric tabla-and-accoustic-twelve-string flavorings. This album won a five-star rating in Downbeat magazine.

Bingham's next project was producing Mock-Up, a Caroline Peyton solo album featuring lots of Screamin' Gypsies personnel. Peyton, a former I.U. choral music student, drew some critical flack for ostensibly imitating Joni Mitchell, but a close scrutiny of Mock-Up showed that she was covering ground that Mitchell would never touch.

Bob Lucas's The Dancer Inside You likewise displayed a folkie veneer but actually went into much deeper territory. His "When The Storm Is Over" remains a Bloomington classic.

Bill Wilson, who had debuted on Columbia in the late 60s but was a casualty of Clive Davis's firing at that label, returned to Indiana and joined the Bar-B-Q roster. He was a regional favorite until his untimely death in 1993.

Bar-B-Q issued Bloomington sampler LPs during the 70s, featuring the above acts as well as the Al Cobine Big Band, Bruce Anderson's MX-80, and guitarist T.J. Jones.

Caroline Peyton toured area college campuses during this period with Bingham, Lucas, and Bill Schwartz, who worked at the I.U. folklore museum and played everything from tablas to accordion. In 1977, she released her second LP, Intuition, featuring all these players as well as guitarist Mike Wanchic, now a crucial part of John Mellencamp's operations. It spanned styles from neo-folk to raw blues to polished disco.

In the mid-1980s, Peyton was Linda Ronstadt's understudy in the touring company of The Pirates of Penzance.

By the end of the 70s, Bar-B-Q was losing steam. Bingham seemed to embrace both of the impulses that characterize modern-day indies, namely uncompromising quirkiness on the one hand and dreams of big commercial success on the other, and it led to diluted focus. He left for the deep South, where he became a sound man at Black Top Records and eventually came to own the Boiler Room studio in New Orleans.

Richard Fish, an engineer who had apprenticed under Mark Hood and worked on Bar-B-Q projects, stepped in to fill the gap. He started Homegrown Studio in the duplex where he lived in 1975 and moved it to its present location in a rambling farmhouse south of town in 1977. Two years later, he founded RedBud Records.

RedBud's first release was Avec Moi by the Keithe Lowrie Duet, a pair of fleet-fingered acoustic guitarists. Ron Keithe still works with Fish at Homegrown as an audio technician. Other releases quickly followed. The trio Eclectricity produced a polished self-titled LP. This ensemble consisted of Bill Schwartz, Bob Lucas, and violinist Miriam Sturm. Lucas is now with Mad River Theater Works in West Liberty, Ohio. He has returned to Indiana recently to cut an album at Grey Larson's studio. Schwartz and Sturm went to Chicago to provide music for the Steppenwolf Theater. Sturm recently returned to Bloomington to perform on John Mellencamp's Mr. Happy Go Lucky.

Kathy Canada cut a 1984 album on RedBud called Watchers of the Dawn. The cover sports New-Agey graphics and the personnel includes such still-active players as Lisa Germano, Brian Lappin and Jan Henshaw.

Other Redbud acts included the Indianapolis progressive-bluegrass powerhouse High Ground, jazz guitarist Royce Campbell, and Bill Wilson.

Richard Fish has turned his attention to reviving radio theater in America. He is producing material for the recently reunited Firesign Theater.

Another local label from this time was Gulcher Records. Its big act was a loud aggregation called The Gizmos. Former Gizmo Davey Medlock is now at WFHB radio.Another studio from this era was Ribbon Rail, located on Leonard Springs Road. It was run by John Byers, also now at WFHB, and Mark Litz, who succumbed to cancer in the early 1980s.

The world is a richer place for the last quarter-century of Bloomington music.

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