Blue Ash guitarist Bill “Cupid” Bartolin has passed away. Bill had been dignosed with lung cancer and brain cancer shortly after Labor Day and died of complications on October 3rd.
Bill “Cupid” Bartolin April 21, 1951-October 3, 2009 RIP
There’s was a nice tribute to Bill by Mike Sin on WFMU from New York yesterday. Here’s the link:
https://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/33232
Here’s Bill in action with Blue Ash at the IPO Festival in Youngstown, Ohio in November of 2008.
Blue Ash Special Bonus CD’s!
There will be a special limited free bonus CD when ordering Blue Ash’s “No More, No Less” from Not Lame or Kool Kat Musik. The Not Lame bonus CD will feature unreleased songs from 1973 that were done “live” in Peppermint Studios.
https://www.notlame.com/BLUE_ASH/Page_1/CDBLUEASH1.html
The tracks are:
Hippy, Hippy Shake
(Chan Romero)
Baby You Lied
(Secich- Bartolin)
Now All You’ve Got Is You
(Kendzor)
She Cried For 15 years
(Secich-Bartolin)
One After 909
(Lennon-McCartney)
I Thought I Knew You
(Secich-Bartolin)
Say Goodbye
(Secich-Bartolin)
Give Me Love
(Secich-Bartolin)
Walls
(Secich-Bartolin)
Paper Bag Blues
(Secich-Bartolin-Kendzor-Evans)
Be My Girl
(Secich-Bartolin)
When I Get You
(Secich-Bartolin)
Make It Easy
(Secich-Bartolin)
The bonus CD album with Kool Kat Musik will feature a “live” performance
of 12 songs recorded on January 31, 1974 at the Packard Music Hall in Warren, Ohio! The band was opening for the Raspberries at this show – and, as you’ll hear, they definitely had
their “game face” on as they rock through these covers and originals:
Hippy Hippy Shake
One After 909
Do You Love Me
Anytime At All
Start All Over Again
Plain To See
What Can I Do For You
She’s So Nice
Baby Baby Come On
All I Want
Twist and Shout
My Generation
It must be noted that this is an audience recording (the
only type that exists according to the band) that, while not
of the highest audio quality, captures
the band at a magical moment in their career, and serves as
an archival testament to the power they exhibited as a live
band! You’ll still be awfully
glad you snagged this little piece o’ Power Pop
history!
orders@koolkatmusik.com
856-468-2442
https://www.koolkatmusik.com/showproduct.aspx?Productid=4920&Sectionid=1
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Blue Ash's 1973 debut album "No More, No Less" has been issued for the first time ever by the good folks at Collectors' Choice. Here's the link: https://www.ccmusic.com/item.cfm?itemid=CCM0963
Blue Ash’s song “Can’t Get Her Off My Mind” appears at 1:51 of the trailer. It was written by Frank Secich & Bill Bartolin and performed by Blue Ash.”Smother” is a soon to be released
comedy starring Liv Tyler, Dax Shepard
and Diane Keaton.
Here’s the link!
https://youtube.com/watch?v=DdxLUW8Wscc
The interview can be found at:
https://powerpop.ru/interview/2006/frank_secich__eng.shtml
This is a great new site run by St. Petersburg musician Iggi Scaldin and his wife Marina.
Pictured below are Blue Ash in 1969. Photo by Darla Bartolin
The songs from Blue Ash’s "Around Again" (a 2004 two cd retrospective) will soon be available for collective and individual downloads. Also, over 170 Blue Ash songs that were found in the vaults a few years ago will also be available for the first time anywhere. Some of the titles are "Walls", "I’ll Be Standing By", "Dinner At Mr. Billy’s", "Make It Easy","It’s All In Your Mind", "Look Out Your Window Baby I’m On Your Porch", "Baby Doll", "It’s Alright By Me", "Dangerous! Dynamite!", "You Know My Number", "Freeloader","When I Get You", " If I Were Ever Minus You","Movin’ Right Along","You Really Get To Me",…and dozens of other tunes that have never before been heard by anyone outside of the band members themselves. All of it was written by the Blue Ash songwriting team of Bill "Cupid" Bartolin and Frank Secich. The songs were recorded in Youngstown, Ohio at Peppermint studios between 1972 and 1976. More details will be forthcoming here at "Lost In The Grooves" in the next few weeks.
https://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/BlueAsh/
Frank Secich, Jim Kendzor, Bill Bartolin and Jeff Rozniata of Blue Ash 1974
Blue Ash is glad and honored to be part of the "Lost In The Grooves" family. This is a brief history of the band. Blue Ash was formed in 1969 by Frank Secich (bass guitar), Jim Kendzor (vocals), Bill "Goog" Yendrek (lead guitar) and David Evans (drums). The band debuted at a psychedelic club called "The Freak Out" in Youngstown, Ohio on October 3, 1969. Determined to go against the then omnipresent long-guitar-solo-jam bands, Blue Ash would forge a style in the manner of their own teen-aged years heroes: Beatles, Who, Kinks, Byrds, Beau Brummels, Hollies, Rolling Stones, Yardbirds, and many others mixed in from the mid-60’s. Coupled with a wild stage-show and the management of Geoffrey Jones, Blue Ash soon became very popular on the teen-dance and club circuit of PA, NY, Ohio and W.VA. In October of 1970, guitarist Bill Yendrek was replaced by Bill Bartolin. For the next few years Blue Ash played a hectic 200-250 dates a year throughout the region. During that time the songwriting team of Secich-Bartolin were stockpiling an enormous amount of original material. In 1972, they were signed to a recording contract with Mercury Records by the late , great (legendary A&R man/ rock writer) Paul Nelson. Paul also signed " The New York Dolls" around the same time. Their debut lp "No More, No Less" (1973) received rhapsodic reviews in the rock press. Blue Ash along with Big Star and Raspberries became critical darlings of a new sound later to be called "power pop". With not enough sales or FM airplay came the death knell to the first wave of 70’s power pop bands. Blue Ash continued on and in 1977 released a 2nd lp on Playboy Records. In 1979 the band broke up. In the ensuing years Blue Ash developed a world-wide cult following with many groups recording their songs: Records, Finkers, Michael Monroe to name a few. Over the years there was rumoured to be tons of unreleased Blue Ash material. In 2004, Not Lame Records released a 2CD set of it with 44 songs called "Around Again". Blue Ash is now reformed (but not too reformed) and play out occasionally. The band consists of all 4 original members plus 2nd drummer Jeff Rozniata, Bob Darke (bass) and Brian Wingrove (piano, vocals). For more about Blue Ash go to: www.BlueAshMusic.com and…. https://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/BlueAsh/
