July 8, 1972: Wild Bill and the Sweet Clover Boys
News flash! Hippies invade country music mecca.
July 8, 1972
Just an Ol’ Country Band – Or Is It
More?
The Clover Sweetens
Despite the Long Hair
“Other groups have to do stuff to attract the crowd’s
attention,” drawls Wild Bill Houston, “you know, like dirty songs, but we don’t
have that problem. They’re lookin’ at us already."
No doubt about it, when they
climb onto the stage at the Club Utica, the mecca of country music in
And that’s hair.
Sure, Merle Haggard ain’t
bald and you can’t even see Johnny Cash’s collar in back, but these guys look
like refugees from a love-in or something.
Wild Bill knows all this. And
he plays off it. Look at how he introduces the band, starting off with
derby-hatted drummer Steve Hatch, whose curly hair is short enough to satisfy
even an Okie from
The fun starts when he gets
to guitarist Gary Boldt. First he just kinda stares at him. As if to say who’s
this weirdo over here. Then he announces something like: “
The crowd’ll chuckle at that
one and Wild Bill knows he’s scoring points. After all, those folks out there
have been thinking about hair ever since the music started and when they see
the band is going to joke about it too, well, now, that’s just all right.
* * *
THE BAND
almost comes off like hippie missionaries, breaking the hair barrier in the
country music world – akin to Kris Kristofferson in a way – and that carries
over into their material.
It’s subtle. The group knows
you can’t play country bars without old country songs like “Blue Moon of
Kentucky.” Or new country songs like “Kiss an Angel Good Morning.”
But in between, they spread
the gospel of country rock with songs from Poco, New Riders of the Purple Sage
and the Flying Burrito Brothers.
And the people seem to like it.
One of their most requested tunes, in fact, is the New Riders’ “Glendale
Train.” Another New Riders song, “Henry,” about a guy driving to
“A lotta people look at it as
a truck drivin’ song,” Wild Bill says with a flex of his eyebrows. “When I
introduce it, I ask ‘em if they can guess who wrote it. No, it’s not Roy Acuff”
* * *
IT’S NO
reconverted rock band. They got together to play country music. What really
puts them across, however, is plain old musical energy, which is where their
previous rock ‘n roll background shines through.
Unlike most country groups,
where the guitars and singers dominate, The Sweet Clover Boys work off a strong
rhythmic foundation. The drums, reinforced by recently-acquired bass guitarist
Bill Nowak, put new insistence into old standards like Hank Williams’ “Mind
Your Own Business.”
Their vocal harmonies are
generally tight and derive a lot from country rock. Wild Bill himself has a
voice well-adapted for country music, kind of a warm brown sincere tenor that’s
able to explore the possibilities in something like “Make the World Go Away.”
The guitars, for the moment,
stay in the background. Wild Bill just strums an acoustic 12-string, mostly.
And Gary, who switched over from bass to lead guitar when Bill Nowak joined the
group, is just beginning to reel out a few solo lines.
Most of the leads are carried
by Brad Felton, who’s been playing steel guitar since last winter when Wild
Bill got the band together in
* * *
THEY TALK
about the beginnings around the Felton kitchen table the morning after a night
at the Club Utica this week. Brad’s towering older brother, Terry, their road
manager, mixes an omelet in the blender as Wild Bill recalls their first job, a
nine-week stint at a club in
“The first time we played,”
he says, “people looked at us like we were polar bears in
Back then they were doing
standard country repertoire and arrangements, but their occasional country-rock
stuff got the best results.
“Now we take the regular
country standards and work them over,” Brad says. “The problem was that nobody
could dance to them when we did ‘em straight. Nobody can do the two-step any
more.”
By the time they hit their
first jamboree at Elma Manor, they had considerably more drive than most of the
other bands and it was a little hard for the crowd and the other musicians to
accept.
* * *
“THE PEOPLE KINDA looked at us and groaned and gritted their teeth, but they got into
it,” Wild Bill says. “You go up there like you did whatcher doin’ and get off
on it and people get the idea of havin’ a good time.
“It’s a more appreciative
audience than young people. Country people go to a bar to have a good time.
They don’t worry about lookin’ cool. You come down on a break and people buy
you drinks. It’s just like a big family.”
“We get a little static from
other musicians about what we’re doin’, but the people don’t complain,” Steve
remarks. “Some guy told Brad, ‘You’re not good, you don’t play like other steel
players.’
“I think it’s because most of
us aren’t that familiar with country players. I couldn’t name any country
drummer except Kenny Buttrey. And he’s not really old country.”
* * *
BUT THEY GOT
encouragement from country veteran Ernie Webber and even more from Dale Thomas,
the city’s leading country music modernizer.
When a band from Club Utica
split in mid-week in early May, owner Reg Tucci called up Dale Thomas and he
recommended Wild Bill and the boys.
They filled in well enough
for a weekend, so Reg invited them back for a two-week stay, despite all the
hair. They’ve got two more nights there, tonight and tomorrow.
“It’s a real compliment,” Wild Bill says, adjusting his cowboy hat. “Lotsa guys play around for years and dream about getting into the Club Utica. We did it in six months.”
The box/sidebar:
How They Began
Wild Bill Houston, who’s 24,
started playing guitar in his
But last summer, after he
teamed up with a former Ernie Webber sideman to form Inside West, he figured
country music was the place to be. No 15-minute guitar solos. Easier on the
voice, too.
Last winter, when he decided
to get a band together, he called on a few
Then he called Brad Felton,
22, a guitar player with the folk group Orion who’d picked up a pedal steel
after hearing folksinger Paul Siebel play it. Brad had gone to UB for a while and
was a part-time grocery clerk.
And drummer Steve Hatch, 20,
the only married man in the group, was willing to try it, even though he’d just
come back from playing with a loud blues band in
Bass guitarist Bill Nowak,
21, came three weeks ago. A
Originally they called
themselves Murder Creek, but it sounded too much like a rock band. “How about,”
Steve proposed one day, “Al Falfa & The Sweet Clover Boys?” Wild Bill,
having changed his name once, didn’t want to do it again. The rest is history.
“Nationwide,” Wild Bill says,
“there’s been young people getting into country music, but there hadn’t been
anything locally. I don’t know whether the people in the rock clubs are ready
to listen to us yet, but if it ever catches on, this band’ll be one step ahead.
* * * * *
IN THE PHOTO:
From left, kneeling, Gary Boldt and Bill Nowak; standing, Brad Felton, Wild
Bill Houston and Steve Hatch.
* * * * *
FOOTNOTE: Wild Bill Houston – real name Wilson Curry –
is still a front man. He runs Williston Auctions in
He came back to music in 2001 at the legendary open
mic nights at the Bar-Bill Tavern, according to a 2013 story in the Warsaw
Country Courier, where the correspondent caught him fronting his revived 1960s
rock group the Nomads at Vidler’s Backyard Bash in East Aurora. He now has a
new country and rock outfit – Wilson Curry and the Falling Rock Band.
Did we know that there’s a Greater
He recorded with Hank Williams Jr., Phil Everly and
Debby Boone, played with the house band in the Palamino club and toured with
country singer Susie Allenson. He also was in the band in the Eddie Murphy
film, “48 Hours.”
But making a living was hard in
Bill Nowak has played his vintage 1965 Fender
Precision bass in a whole bunch of bands, from
Guitarist Gary Boldt toured with a local country band
and in recent years was performing at places like Ernie Weber’s Beef ‘N Ale. Here’s
hoping he’s not the Gary Boldt whose Death Notice appeared in The News about a
year ago.
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