While the Jerry Stiff Band was actually formed in Toronto, its members are all ex-Montrealers. The Movies, a band evolving from various others such as Kalamazoo and Straight Razor (with Bill Laurin), had torn a path through the high school, college and university circuit in the '70s and early '80s, with guitarist Rick Gunn being the common thread in these bands. The Movies ended up doing some recordings, with Sass Jordan on bass, which then led to the formation of Ms. Jordan's Pinups band. This split would eventually give Rick Gunn the opportunity to move to Toronto and join the Jerry Stiff Band (as well as the Paul Fenton Blues Band and the Harmonica Virgins, with Harvey Wolfe of the "Warchild" TV documentary).
The Jerry Stiff Band's repertoire currently consists of popular hits by the Eagles, Tom Petty, Georgia Satellites, Northern Pikes, John "Cougar" Mellencamp, Lenny Kravitz, Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakam, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Tracy Chapman ("Give Me One Reason to Stay Here" - which they surely did), and a modified but still smouldering version of Chris Isaak's "I Don't Want to Fall in Love". They also played some very early Beatles tunes (as well as "Come Together"), "Little Sister" (a personal favourite of mine) and "Shakin' All Over".
In addition to Jerry Stiff's versatile (and awfully sexy) vocal range, he was also very prominently leading the show playing an acoustic guitar with electric pick-up. This seemed to suit the unobtrusively modest personality of Rick Gunn, who "shone" on electric guitar only when necessary, but I really wouldn't consider Rick to be playing the role of "lead" guitarist in this outfit anyway. Derek Fitzpatrick (no relation to Mike) kept great time on the drums as well as providing some smooth lead and back-up vocals, and cool-looking Ron Shaughnessy filled out the sound with a lot of snappy bass guitar riffs.
I'd love to see a double bill for the Jerry Stiff Band with Beau Kavanagh and the Broken Hearted (formerly the Vibra Kings), three dynamic younger prodigies, also coincidentally from Montreal, who play originals gleaned from this same rock era - that gig would truly raise the roof with the intensity that only the '50s and early '60s style of rock'n'roll can produce! Pairing up the "classic" rock'n'roll standards with the newly-penned tunes would guarantee success with both older and younger music fans and that's what it's all about, isn't it - allowing the beat to go on? Don't be surprised if you see some recurring gigs by the Jerry Stiff Band at Replay Bar, Games & Grill.
October/01
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