Mr. Blotto
is a jam band band from Chicago, Illinois. They blend hard rock, original rock, southern rock, folk music, and country rock. They formed in 1991, and tour extensively in the midwest area. Along with their four album releases, they have also released four "official bootleg" albums of their live recordings.
The band's name is taken from an old syndicated cartoon character created by artist Gene Ahern. Underground comix artist Robert Crumb seems to have visually based his famous "Mr. Natural" on Ahern's earlier character.
|
MR. BLOTTO TICKETS
|
Early history
The core of Mr. Blotto is the brother songwriting team of Mike and Paul Bolger, who had played together in garage rock bands throughout high school. They went in separate directions musically when they attended different colleges, Mike leaning towards the hardcore punk stylings of
Hüsker Dü, and Paul focusing on the resurgence of 70s rock like
Aerosmith, while eventually discovering
Crosby, Stills and Nash and the
Grateful Dead, who would later become huge influences. After Paul graduated he decided to pursue the life of a full-time musician while Mike opted to become a lawyer. Paul landed a gig as the house singer in a Polish club in Chicago called "The Cardinal Club." It was here that Paul met guitarist Bob Georges and they decided to cast their lot together in a band.
Bob was a veteran of the Chicago music scene, having achieved some regional success with the blues-rock band "Rooster" in the 80s, and doing session work on the side due to his proficiency in country, jazz, rock and blues playing. He had also learned much along the way about running and designing sound systems to maximize a band's live sound. One of the comments most often heard at early Blotto shows was how clear everything sounded, compared to whomever had last played that club.
Paul and Bob found drummer Alan Baster at a jazz night, hired him on, and were excited to get rolling with the band. After several auditions for a bass player yielded no results, Paul convinced Mike to be an interim bass player. The band as a four-piece started hitting Chicago area open mic nights and outlying bars, developing their roots-oriented jamband sound and weaving a large amount of reworked Grateful Dead songs into their sets to supplement the originals being penned by Paul, Mike and Bob. As their audience grew, Mike quit being a lawyer and became a full-fledged member.
They released
Parking Karma and found their way into the larger bars and venues of the Chicago scene. After the album was released, Dave Allen - an old college bandmate of Paul's - joined on keyboards, filling out the bass-acoustic guitar-electric guitar-keyboards-drums ensemble that has remained consistent through personnel changes since.
In addition to Piano, Synths, & Hammond B-3, Dave supplied another singing voice and an ability to improvise lyrics that complemented a long-standing element of the early Blotto show, the "Reggae Rap," in which Paul would freestyle over a rock-steady type of beat.
Recent activity
In the mid-90s, they released a second CD, "Bad Hair Day," and continued their process of steadily playing shows in the Chicago area. By the end of the decade they had built their audience to the point that they became the number one local draw in the area.
1998 saw a third CD, Ancient Face; in 1999 Bob Georges was thrown out of the band for his drug abuse and unsavory antics, including shooting himself in his hand, and was replaced by Mark Hague. The introduction of Mark (who had played with the
Freddie Jones Band) marked a creative period for the band, and he helped pen the next generation of Mr. Blotto tunes. Paul, Mark & Mike started meeting every Monday to work on new original ideas. In these sessions, any idea would be chased down and put to tape. These songs became Cabbages and Kings, the 4th CD which (93.1)
WXRT called the band's best release yet.
Around this time, the band addressed the constant demand for a Live Record. Mr. Blotto had been, from its inception, an improvisational band and had always allowed people to record the shows. One dedicated fan (SB) went so far as to purchase equipment out of funds from the sales of the "Under the Covers" series of CDs, and built a taper path that included an analog to digital converter, a distribution amplifier, and an open invitation for all to enjoy the high quality of a constant gain board patch in either digital or analog. As a result, clean Mr. Blotto boots began to cross the country, often in advance of the band -- this is especially true outside of the Midwest, where they rarely tour.
Seeing as not everyone had a portable CD burner or DAT, Mr. Blotto began issuing Live Shows and Compilations. The Bootleg Series is a single CD of songs handpicked by the band for their unique characteristics, where the Just Did It series is made up of double disc sets from one particular show or run of shows.
In
2005, Alan Baster left the band....and Mr. Blotto picked up a drummer from Indiana by the name of Tony Dellumo. Shortly thereafter Paul, Mark, Mike, Tony and Dave started in on a new album that was finished spring
2006. With help of the Grateful Dead lyricist
John Perry Barlow, Mr. Blotto released their 5th studio album: "Barlow Shanghai."
When Dave "B3" Allen had to leave the band at the end of 2005, Mr. Blotto hired on another well established musician in the Northwest Indiana music scene by the name of Steve Ball. Steve Ball is best known in Northwest Indiana and the Chicago music scene as not only a keyboard player, but also a guitar, bass, mandolin and harmonica journeyman.
Members
- Paul Bolger-Lead Vocals & Acoustic Guitar
- Mark Hague-Lead Guitar & Vocals
- Mike Bolger-Bass & Vocals
- Tony Dellumo-Drums
- Steve Ball-Hammond B-3, Keyboards, Mandolin, Harmonica & Vocals
Discography
- Parking Karma
, 1992
- Bad Hair Day
, 1994
- Ancient Face
, 1998
- Cabbages and Kings
, 2001
- Barlow Shanghai
, 2006