In mid -1974, just after moving to LA, I started doing some work at Cherokee Studios, where Flo & Eddie had done some recording. When F&E were ready to tour in late 1974, they called the studio, and I was recommended. We toured and recorded constantly for about three years, making the "Illegal, Immoral and Fattening" and "Moving Targets" records. Flo and Eddie shows were known for alot of great hit songs from their career as "Turtles", cool stuff from the Flo & Eddie albums, some stuff from the Zappa years, and their usually profane and hysterical tirades about the excesses of pop stars and the music business in general. I mean, this was funny stuff, and usually attracted alot of big names to the shows, particularly the shows in towns like LA and NYC. That's how I first met Alice, onstage with Keith Moon at the Troubadour in LA singing 'Happy Together' (Turtles Hit) and 'Wooly Bully'.

Mark and Howard (F&E), as the main "Turtles", had their first #1 single at the age of 16, followed by many more Top Ten hits and they developed a particular perspective on the music scene that combined a love of the music and the musicians, with laser-eyed observations on the sometimes ridiculous excesses surrounding the circus. I couldn't help but absorb some of this perspective.

For a young musician from Gurnee, Illinois (where?), recording and touring with Flo & Eddie upon first moving to LA was enlightening, illuminating, eye-opening and alot of other -ing words. In short...great sport...a fine graduate course on the music business and its denizens. On Christmas Eve 1974, at LA's Troubadour, Linda Ronstadt, James Tayler, Joni Mitchell, Peter Asher and others all came onstage and sang Christmas carols. The next night is when Alice Cooper and Keith Moon came up and did "Happy Together" and "Wooly Bully". In NYC , Lou Reed came up and we did "Walk on the Wild Side". Later in Australia, our tours intersected, and Mark and I spent some additional time with Lou...interesting fellow. Time and conversations spent with all these folks was pretty cool.

And while Mark and Howard weren't as big as Flo & Eddie as they were as Turtles, we got on huge tours. We went out in '75 with Jefferson Starship, whose "Red Octopus" album went to #1 five different times, and in '76 we were out with the Doobie Brothers, whose "Takin' It to The Streets" was also #1. In between we did a tour with Steven Stills, and gigs with Fleetwood Mac, among others.

I can remember doing a show in San Francisco with Steven Stills, where the rumor going around was that Neil Young was going to appear with Steven onstage and sing some songs for the first time since CSN&Y had broken up. So I found myself hiding behind the guitar rig with Grace Slick and Craig Krampf as the reunion took place. These tours, and the albums with Flo & Eddie, still stick in my memory.

I was living in LA but was in Chicago with SD [Sonia Dada] and had a night off. Richard Brown was doing some work with Mavis Staples and said Pops was looking for material for his next album. This was 1994. So, I went over to RB's home studio and told him to put the drum machine on a simple R&B beat at tempo 110 and call a guitar player, Glen Rupp. I then just started the bass groove and called out changes. We recorded an arrangement of this simple, but deep groove. It all went pretty fast.

Later, as Richard tells me, when Pops and Mavis came by Richard's studio to hear ideas, they heard about five things, and Pops said, "Play that one with the bass drag again." That was mine. Richard came up with the title, I think, and Pops and Mavis wrote the words for what became the title cut of that album "Father Father." It won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues recording for 1994, and, at the party afterwards, I was introduced to Pops and Mavis. Ha! Later, Jim Tullio produced an album for Mavis, and he and Jim Weider wrote a song, "Have A Little Faith".

I went to the studio and recorded the bass track, but didn't see Mavis that night either. It turned out to be the title track for the album, and Mavis won The Blues Foundation's W.C. Handy Award for Best Soul/Blues Song of the Year 2005 for "Have A Little Faith", and best Blues/Soul Album of the Year 2005 for the album.

A note to visitors...
I'll probably add to these comments about folks I've spent some time with, depending on time and interest. By the way, if you have any questions and or comments, please feel free to e-mail me at eski33@comcast.net....see ya later...eski.

I'm currently working on some music here at the studio, and I hope to get it ready for listening in the not-too-distant future....play on.

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