...there was a little band called "St. John's Alliance". It was formed in the summer of 1983 by two high school pals, Jon McNamara (a good witch) and
Ron Vail ( a right mean cow ) when they discovered how much fun it was to harmonize while singing songs by Lennon/McCartney. They even took a crack at writing their own songs like their fab hero's and made sure that almost every song had a nice harmony and that thing they called "the sound", which seemed to mean jangly guitars and lots of minor chord progressions. This made their songs sound happy and sad at the same time, thus confusing their listeners and made them come back the following weekend to give it another go. Drummer Dennis Eisenhart was also a school mate who loved bug music and it wasn't long before the trio had attracted the talents of a handsome young cat named Ken Bussiere. Ken is a fab bass player and lover of good music ( Kaja-Goo-Goo, Lionel Ritchie, Clay Aken...) and was a major force in the 'education' of his fellow bandmates when it came to the more obscure music of their favorite period, the 60's.The band debut was the Fall of 1983 as an opener for legendary local rockabilly raves, "The Rebeltones". Both bands hit it off swimingly and a good time was had by all that chilly night at the (sob* sniff*) 2nd Avenue in
Bethlehem, Pa.I'm going to stop there for now, I'll let Jon have a whack at it, maybe he will pick up where I left off...BIG NEWS..... the first "St. John's Alliance" cd is about to arrive! Yes kiddies, 10 demo songs from the songwriting duo Vail & McNamara recorded with the helpful talents of Ken Bussiere, Dennis Eisenhart, Dave Ferrara, Jeff Bennison and Fred Guzman! We think you will dig this, we are happy to finally put something out!
Keep an eye on this post for news!!!PLUS, I've got to throw in a plug for my big brother Kevin Shire for all the years of support and the great pictures you see on this (and The Smile) website, he's quite good you know! And a huge hug and kiss to our friends and family back home in the beautiful state of Pennsylvania !! Yahoo!!!! Go eat at Yocco's!!
Tell her no - The Zombies
