Playing with Big Louie was like having an affair while maintaining my primary relationship with Later. The core of Big Louie was Bill McCoy and Don Jackman, two guitarists who had played together for years. They formed Big Louie as an explicitly short-term project for the spring of 1971. We expected to be going our separate ways in June after our high school graduation, so we understood that this was just a fling for all of us.
My role in this temp band was to use my keyboards to add fullness to Bill and Don's sound, which had been all guitar up before I joined with them. Playing with a guitar-oriented group like Big Louie was an interesting change of pace from the brass-oriented groups I spent most of my career with. Bill moved from bass to rhythm guitar and Greg Farson played bass. The result was certainly more full than it had been with just Bill and Don and a drummer.
We played only three gigs that spring, two at Park Forest Junior High School and one at Delta Chi fraternity. We had a third booking at PFJHS, but the dance was cancelled.
Members
J.J. - Keyboards
Don Jackman - Lead Guitar
Bill McCoy - Rhythm Guitar
Greg Farson - Bass Guitar
Craig Holden - Drums
Set List
On June 4, 1971, we had our last get-together in my basement. For this recording session we put together a program of our favorite songs and captured the magic on the famous Wollensack tape recorder. I am just now (holiday break, 2000) getting around to making mp3s and RealMedia files out of these numbers. As I get them produced, I'll be posting the Real versions here.