Scott Walls - steel guitar
Howard Kalish - fiddle
Paul Skelton - lead guitar
Cornell Hurd
Lisa Pankratz - drums
Randy "The Badger" Glines - bass
Blackie White - guitar
Del Puschert - tenor sax
T Jarrod Bonta - piano
Danny Roy Young - rubboard
The beginnings of this band go back to 1968, when Cornell Hurd (vocals, guitar) and Frank Roeber (vocals, bass), refugees from high school rock and surf bands put together The Milpitas Submarine Band, a “hillbilly” band formed to entertain students at Homestead High School in the town of Cupertino, California. Cornell and Frank were joined by Russell E. Bowen and John Shudlick, vocalists who played guitar and percussion, respectively, though (like the whole band) not respectfully.
The Ragg Brothers
As the young men went off to college, TMSB dissolved, reappearing a year and a half later as The Ragg Brothers. This acoustic swing band was formed to entertain students, this time college students, at the various institutions (UC Santa Barbara, De Anza College, San Francisco State) that the young men attended. Cornell and Frank were now joined by Cornell’s brother, Drew Hurd (harmonica), Joel Crawford (lead vocals) and Kim Muscatel (lead guitar). They played primarily coffee house gigs and made a couple of “live” recordings. To date, only one of these has been located.
By this time, the band had begun writing original material, and several of the songs from this period survived long enough to be recorded by the Cornell Hurd Band. They played covers of Spade Cooley’s Crazy ‘Cause I Love You, Hank Thompson’s A Six Pak To Go, Lalo Guererro’s (Do You Believe In) Reincarnation? and Billy Ward’s Sixty Minute Man, among others.
The El Rancho Cowboys
In 1971 Cornell and Frank relocated to Berkeley, California and formed The El Rancho Cowboys, a fully electric Country and Western band. They were named after El Rancho beer, which sold for $0.79 a six pack.
At this time Berkeley was home to Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen, an absolutely fearless collection of musicians who labored under the Country Music banner, but basically played American roots music of the highest caliber. The LPA were at the time, and remain to this day, the most easily identifiable influence on The Cornell Hurd Band. During the El Ranchos’ stay in Berkeley, they also encountered Asleep At The Wheel, recently relocated from Paw Paw, West Virginia to neighboring Oakland, California. Although they didn’t know it at the time, the path the CHB would take from the mid-eighties until now was laid out in the wildly creative scene that took place in Berkeley in the early seventies.
The El Rancho Cowboys lasted approximately a year and a half and included Cornell, Frank, Kim Winn (drums and vocals), Lyle Pratt (lead guitar) and Gary Dulleck (piano) as its core members. Along the way, they were joined at times by Greg Canote (fiddle), Gus Garelick (fiddle), Barry Goold (steel guitar), Lynn Smith (vocals, guitar) and the legendary West Virginia Creeper (steel). Joel Crawford would also join the band on occasion, in a cutting-edge performance as lounge singer Jerry Campbell.
The El Rancho Cowboys performed in honky-tonks, back yards, military bases, beer joints, political rallies, talent shows, hootenannies and nightclubs. For a brief period, they were the Sunday/Monday house band at Lyle Shannon’s Country Palace in Santa Clara, California. They opened shows for Asleep At The Wheel and Commander Cody. The repertoire was straight-up country from their favorite artists – Ernest Tubb, Bob Wills, Ray Price, Johnny Paycheck, Hank Thompson, Roger Miller and Johnny Bush. Many, if not most, of those songs are still performed by the current CHB.
In the fall of 1972 Cornell, Frank, Lyle and Gary jumped in Frank’s Volkswagen and drove to Nashville to attend the annual Country Music Disc Jockey’s Convention.
The band folded in early 1973. Cornell got a job working in an electronics factory.
The Original Mondo Hotpants Orchestra
After briefly living in Amarillo, Texas, Cornell returned to the Bay Area with a vision. He had seen real Texas dance hall bands. He also had developed an interest in ‘20s music and wanted to create a 3-set club band complete with costume changes centered around those two types of music.
“I’ve forgotten what the third band was, probably a ‘50s act, or a jump band, but that ‘20s act became The Original Mondo Hotpants Orchestra” - Cornell Hurd
The OMHO once again had Frank Roeber on bass with Joel Crawford rejoining on vocals. From various sources, Cornell assembled Mitch Montrose (drums), Don Bangle (trumpet), Jim Pollock (sax) and John Madden (piano).
While this band had a very brief history, it was the first of Cornell and Frank’s bands to make a commercial recording. In the spring of 1975 the OMHO went into Dave Porter’s first Music Annex Studio (a converted garage) and had Dave produce their first EP for $125. The four original songs were Here Come The Clones, I’ve Had It Up To Here With The Blues, On The Brink and Flying Away With The Breeze. 500 copies were pressed, and a handful exist today. The tracks exist in CD format on Cornell Hurd and His Mondo Hotpants Orchestra. Shortly after the record was manufactured, band manager Kevin McCaffrey dropped off a copy at San Francisco’s KSFO. Jim Lang (of The Dating Game) was a popular afternoon DJ there, and one magic afternoon, he gave the band its first airplay when he spun Flying Away With The Breeze.
The OMHO performed live a handful of times. Once in a Santa Cruz club. Twice at SF State. Once in a live radio broadcast from KKUP, in Cupertino, CA. Recordings exist of the live radio show.
The band’s song list included originals by Cornell and Joel plus renditions of the Hank Thompson/Mills Brothers standard I’ll Be Around, Ray Price’s Bright Lights and Blonde Haired Women and Nancy Sinatra’s You Only Live Twice.
Cornell Hurd and his Mondo Hotpants Orchestra
By the fall of that year, another plot was afoot. That would be Cornell’s attempt at cashing in on America’s upcoming Bicentennial craze. Rehearsing a larger version of this band, Cornell and Frank went into San Francisco’s Different Fur Studio with producer Vince Sanchez and came out with Village of The Durned and Other Shorts, released under the name Cornell Hurd and his Mondo Hotpants Orchestra. This EP contained their “single” The Bicentennial Boogie, plus Psychotic Love, The Thrill of It All and the title cut, (I’m Living In )The Village of The Durned.
Tom Mix, a drive-time DJ at San Jose’s rock powerhouse KSJO, pushed The Bicentennial Boogie into the station’s rotation, and the nationally syndicated Dr. Demento featured it repeatedly, breaking it into his top ten. This was the spring of 1976. Flushed with success, Cornell quit his day job.
The recording personnel in this phase of the MHO were former Hotpants band mates Roeber, Montrose, Bangle and Crawford, plus ex-El Rancho Cowboys Pratt, Dulleck and Winn. The sax section of Larry Stokes (baritone) and Jack Sanford (tenor) rounded out the session. The performing version featured all the above, minus Don Bangle, with Les Margolin replacing Mitch Montrose on drums.
Their show consisted of original material, almost exclusively. One notable exception was an amazing “hillbilly” arrangement of the Barbara Streisand hit/movie theme re-named The Way We Was. Their gigs were primarily club dates, with the occasional college show and “rock concert” thrown in.
They went back to the studio and recorded Texas Behemoth/Platinum Blondes, their first 45-rpm record.
Despite the success this unit enjoyed, it was the shortest-lived of all Cornell’s bands. By the late summer of '76, Cornell found himself putting together a new version of the Mondo Hotpants Orchestra. The new version was centered around Cornell, Frank and Joel Crawford. Cornell’s brother Drew signed up to play guitar and harmonica. Patrick Hennessy, a powerhouse 19 year-old drummer from South San Jose was hired. To flesh out the band, Cornell hired the nucleus of a local rock act, Divine Wind. Ricky “Tex” Yamashiro (alto sax), Bryan “The Mighty Squid” Yoshida (keyboards), and yes, Paul Skelton (guitar) joined the band in one fell swoop.
They rehearsed, they recorded, they went on the road. Pianist Dave Clemes joined them mid-journey on their first road trip: a seven-week swing through the Midwest and Texas in March and April of 1976.
“We stunk at times. Crawford left the band with a recurring illness. I was forced to be a real front man for the first time in my ‘career’. But fear of failure in front of a strange crowd can do wonderful things. By the time we came off that first road trip, we were worlds better. We’d gained real fans, been given great reviews and gotten rid of the things that didn’t work. And we’d been to Texas.” - Cornell Hurd
Their association with Asleep at The Wheel had led them to The Armadillo World Headquarters on the corner of Barton Springs and South First Street, in South Austin, Texas. Today Cornell and Paul play every Thursday at Jovita’s, a few blocks away down that same South First Street.
“I knew shortly after I ‘got off the bus’ that I would live here some day”. - Cornell Hurd
This became The Cornell Hurd Band in the summer of 1977.
The Late Seventies and Early Eighties
The Mondo Hotpants Orchestra that stumbled into “The Armadillo” to open for the Bellamy Brothers in April of 1977 would basically last until early 1982. “Mondo Hotpants” became a liability (no one would take them seriously) and was dropped. Ricky “Tex” Yamashiro would leave eventually. During starvation times, it was decided to keep only one keyboardist, and Brian Yoshida left. The lead guitarist’s job, which was to be a largely ongoing problem, was filled in succession by Skelton, George Mueller, Bill Hayes, Skelton again, Andy Mitchell, Gene Maciel, Neil Farris (who held down the job the longest consecutively), Chris Cahill, Kevin “Pooter” Price, and yes, Skelton once again. During several stretches, the band employed twin lead guitarists. Cornell, Frank, Drew, Patrick and Dave remained in the band until it disbanded (no pun intended...ah yes it was) in 1982.
During that time, they toured extensively through the Midwest and South, and the Pacific Coast up into Canada. They spent two weeks in Alaska that they’d like to forget. They liked Des Moines, Iowa and Austin, Texas best.
“I knew shortly after I ‘got off the bus’ that I would live here some day”. - Cornell Hurd
This became The Cornell Hurd Band in the summer of 1977.
The Late Seventies and Early Eighties
The Mondo Hotpants Orchestra that stumbled into “The Armadillo” to open for the Bellamy Brothers in April of 1977 would basically last until early 1982. “Mondo Hotpants” became a liability (no one would take them seriously) and was dropped. Ricky “Tex” Yamashiro would leave eventually. During starvation times, it was decided to keep only one keyboardist, and Brian Yoshida left. The lead guitarist’s job, which was to be a largely ongoing problem, was filled in succession by Skelton, George Mueller, Bill Hayes, Skelton again, Andy Mitchell, Gene Maciel, Neil Farris (who held down the job the longest consecutively), Chris Cahill, Kevin “Pooter” Price, and yes, Skelton once again. During several stretches, the band employed twin lead guitarists. Cornell, Frank, Drew, Patrick and Dave remained in the band until it disbanded (no pun intended...ah yes it was) in 1982.
During that time, they toured extensively through the Midwest and South, and the Pacific Coast up into Canada. They spent two weeks in Alaska that they’d like to forget. They liked Des Moines, Iowa and Austin, Texas best.
Hello . . . thanks for the add . . . please come check me out at PATSYS COWGIRL SALOON, Thursday March 6th, 8 – 10 PM, if ur not doing anything. Be well . . .
