Eric and the Fender Benders: From the UFO Bass and Music Portal

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"...a sonorous tribute to the blues..."

- Ann Arbor Spotlight Magazine, December, 1994

Music Style: Stevie Ray Vaughan, Albert Collins, Buddy Guy style electric blues.

Background: In 1994 Eric Pratt approached me at a jam session at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor, MI & asked if I wanted to form a band. Eric, who hand-made his guitars from scratch, and I quickly put together a 4-track 4-song demo tape to shop around for gigs (using a drum machine which I programmed). Eric got in touch with his childhood friend Kevin Logerquist who was a formally trained and accomplished drummer. We quickly tightened up our sound and began getting gigs as a blues power trio at places such as the Michigan State University Campus (photo at left) and throughout the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti areas. In addition, Eric's brother Danny was our roadie and guitar tech, and later led my next band, the Liberty Street Blues Project.

Streaming/Downloadable MP3's:

"Shake it for Me" (1995): From our demo tape- Eric did the guitar track for this in a single take with no overdubs.

"Lenny" (1995): An instrumental with Eric his guitar with feeling.

How were the recordings made?

The songs above were recorded for a demo tape via the Tascam 424 Portastudio recorder. Note that we hadn't found Kevin to be our drummer yet, so on both recordings the drums were programmed by me in my Boss Dr. Rhythm DR-5 Drum Machine. In 2002 I transferred the recordings to .WAV format via my ZOOM PS-02 digital recorder and used my laptop to convert them to the MP3's above.

Where are they now?

Eric's still in Arizona, playing music and building guitars. Drummer Kevin Logerquist played with me for years in my next band, the Liberty Street Blues Project.

Photo Gallery:

Playing a gig at the Eastern Michigan University campus, April 1995. Note that Eric made his own guitar by hand, from scratch.

A pre-gig photo at the bar "Mingles" in Detroit, Michigan, Summer 1995. I'm not sure why I decided to hold 2 basses in the photo, but the one that's strapped on me (A rare Rickenbacker 3001) was so heavy and always caused back pain, I eventually got rid of it.