White Summer II
All Along the Watchtower
This is the second Hub in a series about my rock and roll band. We were called The White Summer Band. On this page are links to three videos that feature the music made by our rock and roll band.
In The White Summer Band, I played the drums, and I sang some of our songs. Jimmy Schrader, from the same city as me, Benton Harbor, Michigan, played his 1957 Fender Stratocaster guitar (same guitar Hendrix used) in my rock and roll band for sixteen years.
During the time The White Summer Band recorded these songs, Steve Douglas from Cincinnati, Ohio, was the front man and vocalist. Our rock and roll band featured Danny Frye from Boston by way of Sandwich, Cape Cod, Massachusetts on the keyboards in those days. Donnie Brown from Los Angeles, California, by way of Greenville, Mississippi—the blues capital of the world—plays bass.
First up is a live recording of The White Summer Band playing our own version of the Jimi Hendrix version of the Bob Dylan song "All Along the Watchtower."
All Along the Watchtower by White Summer
Green River
The White Summer Band was a recording and touring group for nearly 20 years. My rock and roll band recorded five albums of original material (one prior to Jimmy Schrader joining the group).
Besides our own original music, The White Summer Band played classic rock. At one time we featured a song list of 1000 tunes. Our rock and roll band specialized in remakes of songs by Jimi Hendrix; ZZ Top; Pink Floyd; Led Zeppelin; Beatles; Rolling Stones; Van Halen; Robin Trower; and Van Morrison, among many others. The White Summer Band was known to bust out some Bad Company; Little Feat; James Brown; Grand Funk; Cream; Loverboy; John Cougar; Billy Idol; AC/DC; Santana; David Bowie . . . I'll stop.
My rock and roll band probably covered every artist we could at one time or another. The link below will take you to a video of The White Summer Band version of the Creedence Clearwater Revival song called "Green River." That is me singing this one—sorry to say—and it was recorded live on a simple cassette deck.
GREEN RIVER by WHITE SUMMER
Running From the Light
On a previous Hub about my rock and roll band, I featured four songs—three of our original compositions from the last album that The White Summer Band recorded, and one remake: Red House by Jimi Hendrix.
The remake of Red House received the best reviews by far from that Hub, so this time I am only going to present one original song by The White Summer Band.
Jimmy Schrader, the long time guitarist in our rock and roll band, came to me one day and said he had the guitar parts worked out for a new original song.
He played it for me on his guitar, and immediately I could hear, in my head, my own voice singing a melody—and the words.
I wrote the words down that I heard and we presented the tune to the rest of the group.
The result is the song "Running From the Light" which can be heard via the link below.
White Summer Original Running From the Light
The White Summer Band
That's it for now. Perhaps in the future I will put together a few more videos of my rock and roll band. I have a large catalogue of CDs of The White Summer Band—both of live performances and studio recordings.
There are also some YouTube videos of two other bands that are illegally using our name—youngsters from Australia; and some kids from Canada. This was my life and these are samples of my art. The White Summer Band was my rock and roll band.
