Louie Lucchesi
Chapter 1: The good old days (if I could only remember them).
In 1978 I left Milwaukee and moved to New York City in order to pursue art and music. Unfortunately for me I was neither an artist nor a musician, but that didn’t stop me. My first night in NYC a friend asked me what I wanted to do. Without hesitation I said “I want to go to Max’s.” I remember seeing Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott at the bar and thinking this is where I want to be. On stage that night was a punk band called ‘The New York Niggers’. Not too long afterwards I answered an ad they had placed in the Village Voice looking for a new lead vocalist. At my audition I sang a song called ‘Just like Dresden 45’ written by German lead-guitarist Dieter. I didn’t get the gig and was destroyed. It had never even occurred to me that I wouldn’t get it. Plus I REALLY WANTED TO BE A ‘NEW YORK NIGGER’. Band leader Leo decided he would be the singer and they become a three piece instead. Leo, Dieter and I remained friends.
The reason I moved to NYC was to be a singer in a rock ‘n roll band. Most of my biggest influences were ‘street poets’ from the scene. Patti Smith, Lou Reed, Elliott Murphy, Garland Jeffries, David Johansen… I spent a lot of time in the early years just hanging out in clubs and observing, seeing as many bands as I could. The Cramps, Kongress, The Mumps, The Colors, Von Elmo, Suicide, The Heartbreakers, The Waldos, The Marbles, The Senders, The King-Pins, The Student Teachers, Joy Rider and Avis Davis, Regina Richards and Red Hot and on and on. Clubs like Max’s, CBGBs, The Mudd Club, Hurrah! and Trax were a source of infinite fascination. It was sort of like going to college. I was particularly fond of Hurrah! I was there the night that Sid Vicious stabbed Todd Smith. I used to have a pair of shoes I bought at J.J. Flash (which is where all the glam bands shopped. I think KISS used to buy their boots there). They were pointy and had Cuban heels (as we used to call them). Hurrah! was on the second floor and the stairs were really steep. I swear I fell down the steps every time I left that place, not that I had been drinking.
By the mid 80’s I had become close friends with Michael Coyne, who along with partner Terry Dunne, owned Tramps. Tramps was blues central in Lower Manhattan and a hotbed of musical activity. Within 3 or 4 blocks were Irving Plaza, The Palladium, Max’s (already closed) and the Cat Club. One of my favorite artists and biggest musical heroes, David Johansen, was doing a residency at the club. This was when David began his legendary transition into Buster Poindexter. Watching this change taught me more about being on stage than anything I had ever seen. David was truly a master performer. I must’ve seen the show 100 times. During this period I also became friends with club veteran John Collins. John had emerged from the same Long Island music scene that spawned Lou Reed, Elliott Murphy and Billy Joel. John was a vital participant in the downtown music scene and the glam/punk revolution. We started to write songs together and quickly cranked out dozens of tunes. Along with bass player Moose Boles (ex-Lou Reed ‘Blue Mask’ band) and drummer Dennis McDermott (ex-David Johansen band) Blue and Red was formed. I had intended for Blue and Red to be a multi-media performance art band but was never able to launch it in that form. We became a power-trio with vocals, a format I continue to use to this day.
Stage fright continued to overwhelm me as we started to flesh out songs with demos being the objective. One Sunday night at Tramps, after knocking back a dozen or so cocktails, Johnny convinced me to get up on stage with his band ‘The Delancey Street Hawaiians’ and perform one of our new songs, ‘Up from down’. I survived. Tramps booker Deena Hatton immediately dragged me into the office and put Blue and Red on the club calendar. We were set to open for hard-folk singer Greg Trooper.
‘No Regrets’, ‘Tryin’ to get by’ and ‘Addrianne’ were recorded by Al Houghton at the original Dubway Studio in NYC. John Collins co-wrote all three songs, played guitar and added background vocals. Moose Boles played bass, Dennis McDermott played drums and Larry Weeks played piano. It was somewhere around 1986 but in all honesty I’m not sure. This was the first time I had ever been in the recording studio and ‘No regrets’ was the first song I ever recorded. For sentimental (and chronological) reasons it seemed to be the obvious choice to lead off the record.
Chapter 2: Back in Milwaukee
In the fall of 1990, shortly after I returned to Milwaukee, Blaine Schultz wrote a small article on me for a local fanzine called ‘The Newsletter’. Guitarist Rich Thomas, an old friend of mine from NYC who had recently moved here with his wife, saw the article and looked me up. He knew a bass player named Paul Ryan and I knew a drummer named Bo Conlon. In the early days of the band we used the name The Louie Lucchesi Group or LLG but soon took on the name ‘Crime Family’. The band debuted in early ‘91 with a show at ‘The Toad’. ‘Hole in the boat’, ‘Into the shadow’ and ‘Invasion of New York’ were recorded in 1991 by Ramie Espinoza at his Firebird Studio in Milwaukee.
Later that year we decided to go into the studio and record another batch of songs. Bo was friends with guitarist/producer Scott Finch so we entered his Velvet Sky studio to record. The songs recorded during these sessions, along with the four songs we recorded with Ramie, became our lone release, the cassette-only ‘Running in the rain’.
A couple of years after Crime Family broke up I called up the guys to see if they wanted to record some new songs I had written. Mike Hoffman was brought in to produce and the band once again entered Velvet Sky Studio to record. With no rehearsals the band bashed it out and the tape rolled. ‘Out of my head’ and ‘Adrenaline’ are from those sessions. After we finished recording the four of us went our separate ways and I decided not to release them because there was no band.
Not too long after this I was cast as Berger in a local production of ‘Hair’. I had never done any theatre before and it seemed like fun. I struggled with a couple of the songs and was referred by a friend to a voice teacher. We worked on standards like Sinatra, Duke Ellington and Bobby Darin and I really enjoyed singing these songs. The combination of singing the songs from ‘Hair’ and learning standards gave me an idea. At this point I had pretty much stopped performing and without realizing it almost 10 years had passed.
I had been gathering songs by the likes of Mike Fredrickson, Nil Lara, Jimmy Gnecco, Jeff Buckley, Bryan Ferry and Todd Rundgren. These songs became the core of my next record. I passed out copies of the songs to a group of players and they learned the songs. I returned to Velvet Sky under the watchful eyes and ears of Scott Finch to record my return to music. Bo and Paul played on tracks as well as Jeff Hamilton, Scott Finch, Joe Lucchesi, Beezer Hill and Chris Lehmann among others. I re-cut all the vocals from the Mike Hoffman sessions and together released it as ‘Second Hand Smoke’.
To support the record I needed to play live and so along with old friends Chris Lehmann, Johnny Washday and Howard Ellis put together Brother Louie. During this period Howard and I started writing songs together. Two of those songs, ‘Pop Pop Baby!’ and ‘Delicate flower’, are included here. Jeff Hamilton produced and engineered the tracks. Along with my band Brother Louie I continue to play the Wisconsin club and festival circuit.