June 30, 1973: Waves, featuring Phil Hudson of The Road

 

Whenever singer Jerry Hudson of The Road got a new project up and running in the 1970s, it was news. Same for The Road’s other singer – Jerry’s brother Phil. 

June 30, 1973

Waves Roll Along – New Songs, First Record 

FRED SAIA, the big daddy of local band booking agents, smiles a lot these days. And why shouldn’t he? Under his fatherly guidance, three of his groups have landed contracts with national recording companies in less than a year.

          Waves, the group sitting in Fred’s Hertel Avenue office this bright afternoon, may well give him that proud papa look for the fourth time. It’s built around Phil Hudson, who with his brother Jerry fronted The Road, the city’s most popular rock band in the late ‘60s, and the prospects are good.

* * *

THERE’S A METHOD to the Saia success. First you need a band that writes its own songs, good songs. Happily, members of Waves are songwriters. Then you go record. Waves went to Trackmaster Audio on Seneca Street.

          “It was a very comfortable place to work in,” says keyboard man Ken Kaufman. “We did it a month ago. It took about 60 hours, including the mixing. We did that there too. We did about as much work on that eight-track, dubbing and all, as you could on 19, 20 tracks.”

          “I think people are gonna be surprised that it came out of this city,” Fred remarks.

          The results will be out in mid-July. The big side is expected to be a song written by Ken and a friend of his, John Lotz, who used to play with a band called Rooster. It’s titled “Feeling the Sunshine.” Flip side, “I’m in Love with a Schoolgirl,” was penned by guitarist Ron Lombardo.

          It’s being put out on Bandstand Records locally (Fred’s wife, Roslyn, and partner Fred Casserta’s wife, Cindy, head the label). Fred’ll get it played on the radio and then he hopes the same thing happens that happened with the three other bands.

* * *

WHICH IS TO SAY that it’ll get big enough locally to look good to someone like Big Tree Records, which picked up on Jerry Hudson’s “Gillian Frank,” or Scepter Records, which took in Big Wheelie & The Hubcaps and Weekend.

          The band is gratified and enthusiastic at the prospect of seeing success so soon – they’ve been together only about six months – and Ken figures what they need is to put across a succession of singles.

          “We have other original material that is without a doubt recordable,” says Ken. “We’re looking for the right thing to follow the first one up, not just to put out a record for a record’s sake, but to figure the right thing to put out.

          “I think we’re recording quicker than any group in town to consistently keep recording, recording continually. Just keep putting things in the can.”

          Ken talks about the importance of making sure things are right at each stage of developing a record, illustrating his point by moving items about the coffee table. A good song mated to a proper arrangement, the producer understanding what the group wants the song to sound like, and making sure the record comes out that way.

* * *

“IT’S GOTTA GET a coordinated effort right on through to the final mix,” Ken says. He feels Waves succeeded in this on their first record.

          Waves started forming last winter after Phil and Ken, who played with The Road in its latter days, had talked about putting a group together after Phil’s try at getting things going with another band. Ken and Ron also talked about getting a group together ever since they’d written songs with each other two years ago.

          “We heard Ronnie in the studio and he’s got a rich baritone,” Ken says. “We put together a practice with Glen (drummer Glen Bowen) and found the vocal blend was just great. There aren’t that many baritones around.

          “Then we started putting the group together. We made Fred aware of the fact that we were working something up and we set a target date. The problem was finding enough people to play.

          “It was a little rush-rush. We had no lead guitarist until two weeks before we went out. Jim (guitarist Jim Catino) just knocked on my door one day. I knew Joe (bass guitarist Joe Burgio), but we had only one week to practice with him.”

          Though they wanted to do a lot of originals, they realized that the way to the hearts of a local club audience is with the hits. Accordingly, they’ve picked up a bunch of familiar tunes, including a set of Beatle songs.

* * *

“I’LL TELL YOU, whenever we do something, we all get into the style of it,” Glen says. “We’ve grown up enough so we don’t sit there and say, like, heavy rock’s the only way.”

          “You have to be versatile to survive,” guitarist Jim Catino adds. “I think music’s going through another change right now. We just went through a stage of great lead guitarists, like Clapton and Hendrix. Now people are accepting good music for the sake of good music.”

          “Before I worked with this group,” Ken says, “there were a lot of different styles I never did. I looked down my nose at them. Now I see they’re valid styles.

          “On the Beatles tunes I’m playing things a kid playing three days could do, but it sounds right. To me, it’s irrelevant whether I stand out. As a piano player, I’m concerned now with whether the band would be unfair.”

* * *

“WE’RE JUST IN OUR beginning stages right now,” says Phil, who’s sat listening for most of the conversation. “We’re just beginning to work things out. To judge a comparison with any other band would be unfair.”

          Waves, like Jerry Hudson’s band, doesn’t want the memory of The Road to haunt them. They do none of the old Road material. There are different vocal harmonies.

          Would Phil get back with brother Jerry in another band? Phil thinks a moment, then says: “No comment.”

* * *

THEY’VE BENT OUT a way to do Top 40 songs and their originals, starting an evening with familiar tunes, then working in their own material once they’re sure of the crowd.

          “In truth,” Jim Catino says, “what we’d like to do is drop the Top 40. When you’re Top 40 yourself, then you don’t have to worry about it.”

          They’re hoping that’ll happen not too long after mid-July. Until then, they’ll hang in on the club circuit – tonight and tomorrow at Kings Inn, Angola; Tuesday through July 8 at Laurel & Hardy’s in West Seneca; July 10-15 at the new Mother Tucker’s on Colvin at Fun & Games Park in Town of Tonawanda. 

The box/sidebar: 

Variety of Influences Stimulate 

          The variety of influences in Waves continues to make the group stimulating to each of its six members, the difference in backgrounds, the wealth of songwriting styles.

          “Each of us writes in completely different flavors,” drummer Glen Bowen notes. “Where Ken comes in, his chorded work on something he’s composed on piano will be different from what Jim composes on guitar.”

* * *

“TO ME,” Jim Catino says, “it’s the best group I’ve had to work with on my own songs. There’s a vocal section to work with, a rhythm section, the piano, special effects. What comes out is the group’s own particular sound on an original composition.”

* * *

“YOU CAN’T SAY that the recording of ‘Feeling the Sunshine’ sounds like anything but us,” remarks rhythm guitarist Ron Lombardo. “And the other side is the same way, though the style isn’t the same.”

          Their separate backgrounds look like this:

          Phil Hudson, 23, vocals, Cardinal O’Hara High School, former singer with The Road.

          Ken Kaufman, 23, piano, flute and vocals, Bennett High, attended Eastman School of Music in Rochester, formerly with The Road.

          Ron Lombardo, 22, rhythm guitar and vocals, Starpoint High in Pendleton, formerly with rock band Bags.

          Jim Catino, 22, lead guitar, mandolin, steel guitar and flute, Batavia High, formerly with The Squires and MacArthur Park, married, a son.

          Joe Burgio, 23, bass guitar, Bennett High, UB graduate, former substitute teacher, formerly with school jazz ensembles.

          Glen Bowen, 22, drums, Starpoint High, attended Erie County Technical Institute, formerly with Bags.

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTO: Phil Hudson kneeling on right. Seated is Joe Burgio. Standing, from left, are Jim Catino, Ken Kaufman, Ron Lombardo and Glen Bowen.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: Despite all the optimism about“Feeling the Sunshine,” it didn’t make the leap to a national label. Within a year, Waves had stopped making ripples and the Hudson brothers reunited for a new version of The Road that included Ken Kaufman and Jim Catino.

Since the Road had a final reunion in 2012 at the Hard Rock Café in Niagara Falls, Phil Hudson has been harmonizing in a Three Dog Night tribute band called Eli with Mark Dixon from Party Squad and Jimmy “Buzz” Rummings from Cock Robin. He’s also appeared with his sisters Pam and Marilyn in an outfit called the Hudson’s Band.

Keyboardist Ken Kaufman has had a more profitable career writing commercial jingles with his company AdSongs than he ever had playing in bands. His greatest hits – the supermarket ditty “Tops Never Stops” and the tune that accompanied TV ads for attorneys Cellino & Barnes. He’s also been the organist for Buffalo Sabres and Toronto Blue Jays games.

Ron Lombardo was one of the singers on that Cellino & Barnes commercial and had a track on Michael Civisca’s 1997 Christmas album, “That Holiday Feeling.” He’s also done some work with his good friend “Dr. Dirty” – John Valby.  

Jim Catino is still playing guitar and is one of the volunteers with the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame’s Musician Medics, serenading in senior living facilities with Alzheimer’s and dementia units. At the Lafayette Tap Room’s second annual Blues Festival in 1997, he was with a Batavia band called Blue Groove. In recent years, he’s been a mainstay with a classic rock group called the Old Hippies.

And Joe Burgio is still playing bass. Just a couple weeks ago he appeared at the Sportsmen’s Tavern with the Buffalo Zew Revue.