otherwise known as the MIGRANT WORKERS BOUND FOR FRANCE.
And as this is often asked, Let's just get this out that we are not presently, nor have we ever been seeking passage to the Great Nation of France. It is merely a band name that arose from listening to a story on the van radio about a busload of migrant workers bound for France that fell off of a cliff in Northern Spain....or was it a train?........**shrug** who knows? That was en route to the old Pearl Street Pub in 1985 for our 3rd or 4th gig and we really felt like we needed a NAME.
We are a three piece band whose core members have been together since Labor Day of 1985. That's 85 years to you and me.
On the Bass Guitar, vocals, and being the Keeper of the Non Wooden Carpet, we have Richard W. "Francois" Brown.
Back in the bull pen, keepin' it right and tight every night, we have Jimmy "Flame" Lachman on drums, vocals, and sports commentary.
And finally, we have the Whitest Man To Sing James Brown, Rick "Hawke" Weeth on guitars, vocals, and cultural play by play.
We play all sortsa stuff, but are happiest playing good drivin' rock and blues. We'll play some Bad Company, followed by Police, then some Stevie Ray Vaughn, followed by an original tune, and then pull the carpet out with some reggae. *S*
You never know what we'll do next because most of the time, we don't know ourselves until someone starts the next song. We play several of our own songs in styles that are as varied as the cover tunes we play. Some of the artists that we cover are Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Stray Cats, Rolling Stones, and B.B.King.
The Migrant Bus, from one of the old posters and tape jackets, doodled by Hawke in '85
c1985 Migrant Archives
Although there are but three of us in this band, there have been others who either added to, or filled in temporarily over the past decade and a half.
played rhythm guitar with us for a short time when we first started out. Hell, we practiced in his basement and ate his food and drank up all his rum and beer. We kinda owed the guy. **shrug**
Occasionally, Jimmy would have other gigs he was locked into playing, so we called upon
Terry Nirva
to play drums. He was with a popular regional act called JAWBONE at the time, and has since been seen touring and recording with Bill Miller out of Nashville, TN.
Most recently, on New Year's 1997-98 Jimmy was unable to play at one of our more frequent haunts, so we prevailed upon
Andy Glaysher
to sit in. Andy is a gifted performer who is an excellent stage actor/director as well as an accomplished painter. He helps operate the Odin Gallerey, here in LaCrosse. If anyone knows of a website for that gallerey, e-mail Hawke and he'll put a link to it here. *S*
The most widely known and recurring other band member would be
IRENE KEENAN JR.
Irene sang on the tape MAIDEN ROCK in 1985 and wound up playing guitar and singing with us on and off for the next ten years. She played pretty much exclusively with us through 1990 and some of 1991 as well. Irene has many irons in the fire as far as music goes, but anytime you can catch her solo show or one of the bands she's with, do so. She is a lot of fun to see and once you do, you won't forget her.
We haven't. :)
There will be a guestbook, a listing of upcoming shows, updated pictures, and possibly some sound samples on this page in the future so BOOKMARK THIS PAGE by hitting CTRL+D and CHECK BACK OFTEN
migrant
WE'RE
MIGRANT WORKERS BOUND FOR FRANCE and SO ARE YOU!!!
