Adonis Records
My career and love for music starts with my parents, in my birth place, Dayton Ohio, my father who was always supportive of anything we undertook, and seem to have basic knowledge of most things, gave us a good foundation. Dad worked the 3 to 11 shift, and although I had a 9PM bed time, I would be awake most nights when dad got home around midnight, after he would clean up, talk with mom a bit, then eat his dinner, he would listen to the radio while reading the paper, I’d be with dad, just hanging out, there was this radio station from the south that would play different styles of music, from R&B to Gospel, country, to big band, Frank Sinatra, Diana Washington, Rosemary Clooney, Brook Benton, Ernest Tubbs, Carl Perkins, and while to me, it was about being with dad, the music was great too, I’m realizing while writing this, my father had a big influence on me liking so many different styles of music, Thanks Dad ! Yet another thing to love you for.
My mother sang gospel music professionally with her sisters, there was always music in our house, mom had a really pretty voice, she loved Diana Washington and BB King. I remember the first crush I had on a girl, I played a Sam Cooke record over and over, “ You Send Me” man was I a corn Ball ! We had a big family, I was the youngest, the two brother’s that were closest in age to me, Charles, a footballer, for a long time I thought I would follow in his foot steps, I use to dream of being a Pro football player, and to this day, I’m a true fan of pro football.
Then there’s Earl, the Musician, who taught me music and the music business.
Earl, the older of us three, was the leader of a band called “The Morocco Music Makers” I’m reasonably sure you’ve never herd of this band, they were signed with Motown, and were the Motown Review Tour Band, me, as little brother, got to meet artist like Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, who years later, I played guitar for at one of his recording sessions, Smokey Robison, and The Miracles, when Smokey’s wife was singing in the group, Smokey loved to play chess, when I was introduced to him, he said hello shook my hand, and ask me if I knew how to play chess, which I immediately said yes, ( I didn’t) he set up the board we set down, and went through three or four moves before I admitted I didn’t know how to play, he said I actually made good moves, I probably didn’t, but he was really a nice person, he and my brother got along really good. On this particular show, James Brown and Etta James were performing also, this is where I got bit by the music bug ! Think about it, Smokey, Etta James, and James Brown.
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My first band was called “Grand Prix” a four piece band, guitar, bass, drums, and a vocalist, our first paid show, we maid a quarter a piece, and we were happy! As time went on, we got better, and made more money, there was this little college town in Ohio called Xenia, there were two places there we played regularly, on this one show, a guy came up to me, introduced himself as his son’s manager, and ask if his very young son, (seven years old at the time) could sit in with us, I told him absolutely, he came early to set up his amp, what was most memorable was, he played a guitar call the Fender Jazz master, a professional level guitar, the guitar was taller than he was, he was amazing, a true player, not just for his age, he was really a good player, that young man’s was the late Roger Trotman, leader of the band Zapp.
Well, as the old saying goes, all good things come to and end, so did my band, duty called, I was drafted into the Army, which is another story in its self, after basic training, and a tour in Germany, I ended up in Viet Nam, as a tank driver, I had a little acoustic guitar I kept on the tank, it got shot up, I decided not to get another one.
After I was honorably discharged from the Army, I went through a period of readjustment, I tried to get back in to music, but there was something very different about me, and at the time I wasn’t sure what it was, we won’t get in to all that happen during this time period, but it ended with me dropping everything that I was in to, getting back in to music, and moving to Detroit Michigan.
Me and another musician friend arrived in Detroit on a Sunday evening, found a very, very cheap hotel to stay in, dropped off the few belongings we had, grabbed our instruments and headed to a venue called the Twenty Grand, an artist called Bohannan was performing that night, and being the cocky young musicians we were, walked in the place with our instruments, sit right in front of the band stand, and checked out every note that was played on their first set, when the set ended, the guitarist came over to us and I quote, “who the F--k are you M-F’s” so after the intro, he wanted to hear us play, he took us back stage to their dressing room, and we played for them, they liked what they herd, that guitarist was Wah Wah Watson, the bass player was Michael Henderson. After the show, Wah Wah took us to his house, gave us something to eat, and we jammed all night, the morning came, he said to me, “bring your guitar, I want you to go somewhere with me”
that someplace was Motown Studio, we walked in, he told the producer, in a very colorful way that I was taking his place in the recording session, and walk out of the studio, this was my introduction to Motown. I am eternally grateful to Mister Wah Wah Watson.
Many opportunities open up from that one gesture of kindness from a man who helped two musicians he had never met.
Many recording sessions came with notable artist, Al Green, The Temptations, Laura Lee, Dionne Warwick, song writing team Holland Dozier and Holland. There was one group we recorded for that a super road band was put together to go on tour to promote the newly finished Album, the group was The Chairman Of The Board, the hit from the album was (Give Me Just A Little More Time), I was the Guitarist, my friend Steve Neal, who came to Detroit with me, was the bassist, the Drummer was the original Drummer from The Funkadelic’s Tiki Fullwood, and the Organist and music director for the singing group The Originals, Thomas Postell was the keyboardist. We toured Europe Great Britain and The United States, a band I will never forget.
Motown made the move to California, and so did I. I became a L A studio musician, it was good, but the road, and touring was still in my blood, at a recording session, a friend from the band Lakeside, told me about a friend of his that was looking for a guitarist, and that they were an international group, I took the number and called to set up an audition,
The day of the audition I find out this was a seven lady four guy band, they were called The Love Machine, all of the ladies were either winner’s or runner’s up of Miss Black America contest‘s, need I say more. After the audition, I got the, “we’ll call you” thing, and I went on my way, as I was leaving the parking lot, the Manager came out to my car and said, “the girls really liked you, and wanted to hire you, but the next show they had was already promised to the out going guitarist, and because I’m a man of my word, I have to give him that show” I told him I respected that, we shook hands, and I left. About a week or so went by, and on a Wednesday evening I got that call, with instructions to meet the band at the L A airport Saturday Afternoon, they were flying in from Hawaii on a two hour lay over, my ticket would be at check in, next stop Toronto Canada, the manager kept his word, and I was now the guitarist for the Internationally known Love Machine, by the way, I
learned the entire show on the plane ride, back then we didn’t have MP3’s to e-mail back and forth, we did it the old fashion way, charts! O K, that last remark really makes me sound ancient.
Without question, the time I spent with this really great band, and even better people was the best part of my career, The Lady’s really worked hard on perfecting the show, I mean hard, their chorography was intricate high energy, and classy, these ladies represented The United States with the ultimate level of professionalism.
This testimonial is more about this band than me, however, I just have to mention these things to acknowledge how fortunate I was to be a part of this band, The Love Machine did three Royal Command performances for the Royal Family of England, they also performed for four different Kings throughout Africa, they were the first American band to perform in The United Arab Emirates, and while doing shows in Egypt, had the honor of performing for the Sadat family in the Main room of the Sheridan Hotel that sit right on the banks of the Nile River. We also tour with the great Tom Jones many times, we were his opening act, Tom Jones is one of the nicest human beings you would ever want to meet, he was just as real as it gets, worked very hard, our show was perfection, but it never seemed like work, because he wasn’t a task master, he made it fun and educational, specking of that, his manager Lloyd Greenfield was, business wise, a genius, I learned so much from being around Mr. Jones and his manager Mr. Greenfield.
I think I should close this out, believe it or not, I’m leaving out more than I've mentioned, the point to all of this is, I’m experienced in this business of music, an a absolute asset to any business undertaking that may transpire from this resume.
Thank you for your time
All the best to all concerned
Carl McDaniel
