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Ron Fowler's Lonely Summer
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Early in 1999, Jeff and the RF's were experiencing some changes. Drummer Rob Jones, who had toured with them the previous summer, had returned, but with the provision that he could leave if he found work in his true profession - theater. In the intervening months, Jeff had purchased a drum set, with the thought that he could always take over drum duties for the band if they went through another drummerless period. Jeff turned out to be on the right page, for no sooner had Rob returned, than he announced he would be taking a theater job in Utah for two months in the summer - the busiest time of the year for the RF's. Rather than seek out another drummer, the band agreed to have Jeff move from the keyboards to the drums. Lead singer Ron Fowler sought to fill the instrumental vacancy in a different manner this time around - he called in pedal steel virtuoso Bob Ritter. "A lot of our songs are kind of country rock, so I thought it would be an interesting direction to go into, and Bob indicated that he was willing to experiment with the steel guitar and bring it into more of a rock 'n' roll setting."

Rob Jones continued to play with the RF's for the remainder of his stay in the Seattle - Tacoma area, and was present for the first session of Bob Ritter with the RF's. "Up to this point, this has been kind of a loud rock band. Now I see we're starting to take it in a different direction which I LIKE!" So for one day only, the six-man lineup rehearsed at Northern Stars in Seattle. The lineup: Jeff Fowler - keyboards, tambourine, vocals; Ron Fowler - lead vocals, rhythm guitar, piano; David Park - lead guitar, vocals; Joe Anderson - lead bass, vocals; Rob Jones - terrible drummer; and Bob Ritter - pedal steel guitar.

Jeff had a habit of taking a boom box to the rehearsal room to record the practices, but on this day Ron brought in his portable cassette 4-track, "just on the possibility that some good music would happen that day". The first part of the day was geared toward preperation for an upcoming club show. Ron: "it was winter time, or early spring, so all we had done the last few months was play clubs and bars, and they wanted hard, heavy music in those places, so we were playing real loud, and some of the guys were probably guilty of overplaying a bit". This did not sit well with Bob Ritter. "I sat through five songs that day, and all I heard was a bunch of loud noise." Jeff: "Because that's what they wanted at those places! Bob was criticizing me for playing the organ too loud." Bob:"When you've got that organ going on and on, and you're holding down that one chord, you know, droning..." Jeff: "but I wasn't doing that, there's three chords there!" Joe Anderson came to Jeff's defense: "I know a little bit about music, and what he was doin' there was fine." Bob: "If i'm doing a steel solo, you can't be banging chords over the top of it!" After much discussion, everyone agreed to tone down the volume, although Rob pointed out "certainly when we play at the Java Jump, certain songs are going to have a certain amount of volume".

The sound began to jell when Ron lead the guys through versions of "I'm Walkin", "Safe from Harm", and "Love Song". Guitarist David Park lead the guys on "Heart of Gold" and "Is it LIke Today". Dave traded solos with Bob, bringing the RF's close to the sound poineered by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band. Fats Domino's "Blue Monday" became a countryish blues, "Summertime Love" became catchy country rock.

At the end of the day, everyone seemed pleased with the results, but Bob was unable to commit to further rehearsals immediately as he had prior commitments with a "Nashville studio sound" project he was trying to get off the ground. Bob said "I give that group only about a 50% chance of getting out of the garage". They never did, and within a few weeks he was back with the RF's. By that time, Rob Jones had left for Utah, and Jeff had taken over as drummer. Joe Anderson was reportedly very upset about losing Jeff's keyboard playing, and announced his departure effective immediately. In his absence, Bob Ritter played bass lines on his steel. Joe returned in time to do the Burien Strawberry Festival in June, and Tacoma's Freedom Fair on the 4th of July. Jeff, Ron, Dave and Joe also played the Rainbow Music Festival in Milton and the Yakima Folk Festival without Bob.

Bob Ritter was never completely happy with the sound of the group, though. He asked Jeff several times to play with "those sticks that are all cut up on the ends, the speeders" because he felt Jeff was hitting the snare drum too hard and it was too loud. When Jeff switched to the "speeders" (aka, "rods"), Bob asked him to try using brushes. Jeff thought this request was ridiculous.

Bob also asked that the band try to integrate some contemporary country hits into their shows, and not do so many original songs. His biggest complaint, though, was about David Park's singing. "He's the lead guitarist in the band, isn't that enough? He's a great guitarist, but that man cannot sing!" Joe and Rob has also complained about David's mumbled attempts at singing, but Ron's response was "it's only one or two songs, and it makes him happy, so we kind of have to do it, otherwise he'll just walk out".

In mid-July, Rob Jones returned from Utah, Jeff went back to playing keyboards. The six man lineup rehearsed one more time in Seattle, then everything began to fall apart. Bob missed the next two gigs, citing prior commitments elsewhere. Then David Park stunned everyone by quitting the night before a show. Ron:"The band was actually sounding better than ever, even with Bob missing those gigs, but when David quit, that pretty much killed everything." "

Jeff: "David called us on a Friday night, indicating that he had driven down to Oregon earlier in the day, and his car had died in downtown Portland. We had two gigs to do on Saturday, so I offered to drive down to Portland and get him, but he refused. Ron offered to buy him a Greyhound bus ticket, but David refused that offer, too. He said he was going to stay in Salem at a friend's house so he could keep an eye on his car in Portland" (apparently the friend had a home high on a hill with a view of downtown Portland). Bob Ritter was out of town fishing with his two boys, so Jeff and Ron had to do the shows without either of their lead guitarists. Ron: "We got through those two gigs okay I guess, but the whole mess with David put me in such a bad mood that it was hard to enjoy performing." The following Monday, David sent an angry letter to Ron explaining why he was quitting. "There was nothing I could say to him, he had made up his mind. He said that he would have quit long before except that he felt a loyalty to me and Jeff as friends." 3 years went by before Park spoke to the Fowler's again.

Bob Ritter also decided to drop out, but according to Ron. , "he kept calling me, saying we should go country. He really needed to be in a 100% country band."

The lineup of Ron, Jeff, Rob and Joe did one more show together, a disastrous performance at Olympia Harbor Days on Labor Day weekend. "Rob was all pissed off about everything, and his playing showed it. So it was down to just me, Jeff, and Joe."

Jeff & the RF's returned in 2000 with a new lineup, featuring guitarist Adam "Finndog" Finley. Adam left at the end of 2000. He was replaced for the 2001 season by Coal Train Robbers.

Coal Train Robbers and Joe Anderson left in 2002, and were replaced by southpaw guitarist Dave "The Rooster" Miller and bassist Scotty B. Schitslinger. Those two were replaced in 2003 by guitarist Leonard Culp, and the returning Joe Anderson. David Park also returned, with the understanding that he would do limited engagements.

Then came the events of Black Sunday, June 2003, when Anderson quit for the final time, to be followed out the door by Culp. By the end of the year, the RF's had gone on hiatus. Jeff Fowler joined Joe Anderson's new band, Flypaper, with former RF's drummer, Gary Becker. Their debut album is set to be released sometime in the year 2525. Ron Fowler and David Park did some acoustic shows as a duo.