Big Red
(photo by Rick Myers)

The first time I saw Big Red I was just out of high school. It was this place downtown, some sort of juice bar. There was a guy named Nate playing Rhodes at that time, and I can still remember his song Knoxville Ladies. The music was sorta rock, sorta country- what we'd now call Americana, no doubt. It was some rockin' good times with Big Red over the next couple of years. Bob Esbenshade played bass and sang, Terry Law sang and played harmonica and percussions, Dave Secunda played drums, Glenn Redcay played guitar and sang, and soon Tom Carey joined on guitar as well. Nate was eventually replaced by Tom Lowery on piano, vocals and harmonica. I recorded a demo for them down at the 'ol Secunda place on a borrowed 4-track machine, mostly original music. I'm still impressed with the energy and tightness of the band. Recently, Bob gave me a tape of an earlier recording session, with 11 more official songs on it. I discovered five more on the tape, recorded later at a different speed when Tom joined the band, plus a partial recording of another song and a segment of a jam. I'm diggin' into these tapes, trying to bring out the best on them. update-2006  They're back! And what started as a one-off reunion for a benefit gig has stretched out into several performances at their old stompin' grounds. They're playin' better than ever.

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