The Bad Roads

Biography

The Bad Roads left the garage in late Fall 1965 to assault South Louisiana and Texas with their unique hard edged mix of rock n roll and rhythm n blues influenced by the popular British rock bands of the time. They quickly gained a reputation for their high energy performances and musicianship along the Gulf Coast club circuit. The band: Buz Clark, lead vocals and harmonica; Terry Green lead guitar and vocals; Briant Smith, guitar and vocals; Mike Hicks, bass; Danny Kimball, drums were in their...

The Bad Roads left the garage in late Fall 1965 to assault South Louisiana and Texas with their unique hard edged mix of rock n roll and rhythm n blues influenced by the popular British rock bands of the time. They quickly gained a reputation for their high energy performances and musicianship along the Gulf Coast club circuit. The band: Buz Clark, lead vocals and harmonica; Terry Green lead guitar and vocals; Briant Smith, guitar and vocals; Mike Hicks, bass; Danny Kimball, drums were in their mid to late teens and caught up in the rapidly changing social and musical attitudes of the mid-Sixties. Their rapid rise in popularity and the desire to record their own compositions brought them to Floyd Solieu's Jin Records in Ville Platte, La. Sessions at the Jin Studio resulted in the now legendary 45 rpm record Blue Girl B/W Too Bad. The record was a solid hit in multiple local radio markets and broke in Houston in Fall 1966. This led to a wave of concert and television appearances that solidified their reputation as Louisiana's bad boys and the definite hard-to-follow act in concerts. A year later after Terry Green left to be replaced by Bruce MacDonald the band called it quits with their reputation intact and went their separate ways. The Bad Roads reunited for a 1980 concert in Lake Charles, La that set the stage for highly anticipated yearly reunions.

Unbeknown to the band the single Blue Girl had taken on a life of its own with inclusion on compilation albums of classic 60ýs rock ný roll in Europe, Australia, and North America. Sundazed Records issued a special collectors 45 rpm with four songs: Blue Girl, Too Bad, Ray Davie's Till The End Of The Day and John Lee Hooker's Don't Look Back. A lengthy interview in Andrew Brown's 60's collector's magazine Brown Paper Sack brought further attention to The Bad Roads' legacy and music. (click here to see this interview) The raw sound, intense energy and attitude was cited again and again influencing countless punk and new wave bands in America and abroad. A mint copy of Blue Girl became serious collectors of the garage genre's Holy Grail. A copy sold on EBay for $1009.99 with less than fifty copies known in collections worldwide. Click here to see this ebay ad.

In 2004 Dr. Ike the ringmaster and driving force behind the Mystic Knights of the Mau Mau's Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans took on the mission to find the legendary band to showcase at the popular 50's and 60's rock n roll revival show. The Bad Roads' electrifying performance at the 2004 Ponderosa Stomp solidified their relationship with the Knights and they returned to the Stomp in 2005 to close the two day event. Due to Hurricane Katrina damage in New Orleans, The Bad Roads will travel to Austin, TX's SXSW music showcase and to Memphis, TN for the 2006 Ponderosa Stomp concerts.

Today The Bad Roads are set to release a CD of live material with preproduction plans underway begin recording a CD of new original material in August 2006.

The Roads go on forever, the party never ends. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.