Woodwind Steel: A Trio of Talent

Thanks to Inside Fort Thomas for publishing and Mickey Foellger for writing this article on the band. Mick spent over two hours with us around the kitchen table, reminiscing about old times and formulating the time line that brought the three of us together.

We attempted to digitally scan the actual article and upload the image to the site but it looked like "ground pepper on a field of grey". HEY, we're not pencil necked computer geeks, we're musicians!! (well, actually Ray is a pencil necked computer geek but he didn't have any luck either) So, that being the case, we have reproduced the article with great attention to detail and present it here for you now. Pleasant Reading!!

Woodwind Steel: A Trio of Talent

By Mick Foellger

Woodwind Steel is the real deal. First-rate musicians with 120 years of combined experience. And there are only three of them: Mark Asch, Ray Yancey, and Mark Dudderar. They play with great taste, sing with sweet harmonies and select strong, pop-rock songs. They’re not too loud, just right. And very tight. A result of logging legions of lounge nights.

I was having a discussion about them recently with some other musicians and one of them complained that Woodwind Steel was “too pristine”. I wondered if that was really a criticism or a backhanded compliment, as the envy in his voice was obvious.

Woodwind Steel has always been a trio, and has always emphasized three-part harmony. The group evolved from a duo in the early eighties called Pat and Tim. Pat Gregory and Tim Link played acoustic guitars and sang harmony together at various clubs in Kenton and Boone counties, primarily at the Gatehouse Taverne at the Drawbridge Inn, one of the most popular after dinner music venues at the time.

The duo became Woodwind Steel in 1982 when they were joined by Mark Asch, an electric and pedal steel guitarist with the ability to play lead and a reputation for an extremely clean sound on both his instruments and his vocals.

Mark Asch and Pat Gregory ended up playing together in Woodwind Steel for thirteen years, first with Tim Link, and then with bassist Cliff Mayhugh and later with guitarist Jeff Herron, all great players. And not just occasional gigs. They were steady, full-time musicians. Four, five, and even six nights a week.

Woodwind Steel was the house band at the Gatehouse for over four years before they moved a little north from Fort Mitchell to Fort Wright and set up shop at the Tumbleweed Inn (formerly the Lamplighter Inn) on Dixie Highway, where they played for six years and then switched with another small group to work at the Commonwealth Hilton in Florence, where they stayed for another six years. Incredibly stable employment in this business.

I first met Mark Asch and Ray Yancey when I was into music full-time myself in the mid-70’s, and I was playing original material with Wheels and looking for a record deal. They were doing the same with a local “super-group” specifically assembled by some financial backers to record albums at a beautiful new recording studio in Erlanger, designed and built by Nashville experts, literally while the group wrote and rehearsed in other parts of the building.

I remember how jealous I was that they didn’t have to go out and work the bars. The band members were each on a salary and simply went to the “office” everyday to work on their craft. Occasionally, their abrasive management, Jerry Warner and associates, would come by to a club where we were playing to hear us, arriving by limo of course.

They were called Southwind until the RV manufacturer made them nervous, and they changed the name to Highwind. The band featured song-writer/keyboardist Rick Fox, outstanding guitarist Mike Jones, drummer Bruce Stull, as well as Mark and Ray (on bass).

Highwind spent over a year in the Forum Recording Studio, completing one album with producer Mike Snow from Nashville and engineer Jim Krause, who became the sound-man for Wheels. Management later brought in Bill Halverson, a well-heeled producer form California, for their second set of songs. Bill had recorded the first Crosby, Stills, and Nash LP as well as a live recording of the Monterey Pop Festival. The Highwind album was eventually released on EMI records out off England.

After Highwind, Mark and Mike Jones hooked up with pianist Cliff Adams, and played places like Flanagan’s Landing on Second Street in Cincinnati and the pubs of Mount Adams.

Before Highwind, Ray Yancey started out in high school at Covington Holmes with a “Beatles band” called Aesop and the Fables, and then worked with a guy who became probably the greatest electric guitarist ever to come out of Northern Kentucky or Greater Cincinnati, Adrian Belew. Adrian Belew was Steve Belew at Boone County High School, and played drums with the Denims. He took up the guitar, had deliverance, and surpassed every guitar player in town, if not the entire world.

Steve changed his name to Adrian and put together a power trio with Ray Yancey on bass and Mike Hodges on drums. The trio was called simply, “Adrian”.

As Ray puts it, “That was my ‘work out’ period. That’s when I grew up and learned to play my instrument. We were very aggressive players, a trio of instrumental excess. Now that we have matured, I’d like to think of Woodwind Steel as a power trio also, a power trio of vocals.

Adrian Belew’s abilities on guitar exploded and his career skyrocketed as he was recruited to play with Frank Zappa, David Bowie, David Burn, and King Crimson. He returned to Cincinnati occasionally to record his own material with members of The Raisins, calling that band The Bears. He is currently recording with King Crimson in Nashville.

Anyway, Ray Yancey ended up with another country rock group from the north part of Cincinnati called City Limits, which included a number of great musicians over the years, such as Deno Kamoutsous, Danny Burton, Chuck Rich, Tim Short, and guitarist Doug Pridemore. Mark Asch joined city Limits after he left the Commonwealth Hilton on New Years Eve, 1998,

So Mark and Ray were back in the same group.

Meanwhile, Mark Dudderar was playing drums in a group called Sidewinder with Cheryl Cawood on bass and vocals, and Mike Bobbit on guitar. Cheryl and Mark were eventually asked by harmonica great Dave Gilligan to play with Ma Crow and the Flock after Ma Crow flew the coop. The Flock were regular nominees for the Cammy Awards as Best Folk Rock group in Cincinnati.

Mark Dudderar is a unique drummer, one that can also sing. Not just sing well, but he can sing well while not dropping the beat.

“That’s the great thing about Mark,” says Mark Asch. “He doesn’t quit playing when he sings.”

“I think that’s what has kept me in work,” admits Mark D.

No doubt about it. That and the fact that he has the finesse and the dynamics to play at a reasonable decibel level. He played many “acoustic only” sets with the Flock, primarily using brushes.

Mark is the first drummer to make the cut with Woodwind Steel. At least, the first to live and breathe. There was time in the past when they utilized a drum machine. He’s the first to fit the criteria as a good player with the capability to cleanly sing the third harmony part.

And, he has enough charisma to be featured on the silver screen, as an extra in the recently released film, Madison. He plays the lead singer in a lounge band (of course) working on a riverboat during the famous hydroplane races.

They actually filmed the movie six years ago, but it never got the financial support to be released. “Well, the star of the movie is Jim Caviezal, who plays Jesus in The Passion of the Christ. Needless to say, he is a star now and Mel Gibson bought and released Madison, and it is currently playing at a theater near you.

I saw Woodwind Steel at Miller’s Fill Inn (Belleview) on April 16^th and thoroughly enjoyed the soothing classic rock of the Eagles, the Beatles, James Taylor and the like. They musically fill a small room like that nicely, and with a drummer now, as Dick Clark would say, “It’s easy to dance to”.

Lois Miller plans to have them back once-a-month beginning in August. Woodwind Steel will open the summer season for the Ludlow-Bromley Yacht club on Friday night, May 13^th. They will also perform on the other side of the Ohio on May 27 and 28 at Drew’s River Saloon near Anderson Ferry.

You may not see a hydroplane zoom by and you might not see Jim Caviezel walk on water, but you will definitely hear some very fine music.