Back in 1979 in Cleveland, the music scene was hopping, especially in the areas of punk and new wave; there were area bands such as Pere Ubu, Bernie and the Invisibles, and the Pagans, while in neighboring Akron
Devo was just breaking out -- their first album, "Q: Are We Not Men? A: We are Devo" had been released the year before. At that same time, alas, there was no equivalent boom in folk or bluegrass circles, and bands such as the Hotfoot Quartet were generally confined to small clubs and taverns out in the exurbs of the city.
But that didn't mean that no one was listening. Bob Frank, leader of the Hotfoot Quartet, had started out as a blues musician before organizing the Hotfoot's trademark blend of bluegrass and swing standards, and he listened to a even broader spectrum of music than he practiced. When I first met him and started following the band, he was looking for new material, and hit upon the idea of doing a bluegrass version of Devo's lead single, "Mongoloid." At that time, I'd just released my own first LP of solo guitar compositions on my Black Snake label, making use of the legendary Boddie Records studio and pressing plant, and I thought it would be a great thing to record and release as a single. Bob went to work.
Cleveland bands, at the time, were much more interconnected than some of their fans might have realized, and one nexus of this web was an independent record store, Hideo's Discodrome in Cleveland Heights. The proprietor, John Thompson, working under the name of
Johnny Dromette, was an impresario-in-the-making; in 1977 he'd staged Devo's first big concert, DEVO IN CLEVO, held in the delapidated WHK Auditorium (henceforth known as the Disastodrome). Being a master of DIY production, Johnny designed the poster himself; it was to be the first of dozens of posters and record covers, and so when approached by Bob Frank, he was happy to make one for the single. He even helped track down some radiation suits like those Devo had worn -- who knows, maybe they were the same ones! --and worked the photo into a textured background complete with Letraset lettering. Meanwhile, I brought the Hotfoot -- along with guest mandolinist Bob Smakula (credited as Bobby Smack), the son of another legendary local music proprietor,
Pete Smakula of the Goose Acres Folk Music Center -- to Tom Boddie's studio, where we did the final rehearsal and recording. One of the great features of that studio was that it had an old-fashioned RCA ribbon microphone mounted on a pole from the ceiling. We were able to record the whole thing live, with each musician leaning into to mic for his solo, looking for all the world like an 1950's session with
Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys, except for the material. For the "B" side, banjo player Paul Kovac suggested an obscure
Hank Thompson tune, the "La Zinda Waltz," which we recorded the same afternoon.
The pictorial sleeves came from another printer, so the last stage was an afternoon stuffing session to get the singles into them -- all five hundred of them. The initial idea was to sell it at gigs and by consignment, but I also got in touch with Roundup Records -- the distribution arm of Rounder Records -- and they put in an order for 300 copies. It even got played by Doctor Demento! But the market for bluegrass-punk crossover singles being limited at the time, it faded from view pretty quickly. Nevertheless, it lives on in virtual space at the Internet Archive!
