Rockin' and Reelin' with the Young Rumblers
Fine Times Magazine (1984)
by Donna Brown
"Yeah, Daddy!"
That's Tommy Conwell's catchphrase these days. He uses
it onstage when he's particularly pleased with a song and offstage when
he's getting excited about a topic.
 |
| Tommy Conwell, Brad Fish and Chaz Molina |
We're sitting in an Italian restaurant keeping the
waitresses from going home, and Conwell is trying to explain the
differences between a rockabilly rhythm and a Chuck Berry rhythm. He's
tapping away on the table and singing the notes aloud.
That same easy nature and cool patter have helped propel
Conwell and his band, the Young Rumblers, to the top of the local music
scene in a matter of months. There's a buzz on the street about the
band, and it has spread with astonishing speed. Because of it, the Young
Rumblers have rocketed from playing Sam's Steakhouse to opening for the
Hooters and headlining at the Stone Balloon.
The name itself conjures up an accurate image of the
band-all the members are young, and the noise they make is like onstage
thunder. It’s fat, loud and full of life. While the music is based on
blues, it's injected with a contemporary, even punk, energy. More and
more Conwell originals are showing up in the set, and they're as far
away from traditional blues as possible.
"I wanna keep doing it our way," Conwell explained. "I
want it to be intelligent music. That's the one thing lacking in blues.
I'm going down to see my baby/take her to my house/put her in my
car/going downtown. God, I hate that shit. It's so dumb! But the music's
great - the music's full of fire, full of feeling. That's what I love
about it.
"My songs are very ambitious," he continued. "I really
write on personal experience. We can do it if we want to; 'Be true to
yourself,' 'Baby, I believe in miracles, and you believe in me' -
that's what I feel right now."
Conwell's blues chops came relatively late in life. His
first influence was jazz, especially Charlie Parker. "Parker is still my
main musical influence;" Conwell said. "He's the greatest jazz man who
ever lived:" Conwell, 22, turned himself on to jazz when he started
listening to George Benson's Breezin' album shortly after he'd acquired
his first guitar, the fat Guild he still uses.
"I picked up Downbeat magazine and started to learn
about jazz;" he recalled. "I was just starting to play and I wanted to
play like George Benson, so I never had that Jimmy Page influence. I
can't play rock to this day. I learned by hanging around with pros like
the Danny Mento Orchestra.
"They used to play at the Cherry Pit at the Cherry Hill
Holiday Inn every Friday and Saturday night. And I'd always go see them
because I loved jazz. They played 'My Way' for about 20 old ladies, and
there I was. I used to take my guitar down and ask to sit in and they
would let me once in a while. I idolized them when I was 18, not the
rock stars. I didn't wanna be no rock and roller. I was into music; I
was really into jazz and bebop. I was in a jazz quintet in high school."
Because Chuck Berry was influence number two, though,
Conwell did appreciate rock and roll, but of a different sort. "Then I
dug punk a lot - the Ramones, Sex Pistols. I used to go to the Hot Club
in Philly all the time, and that was a huge influence. I saw a lot of
smaller acts like the Speedies, Rattlers, the Cure, Johnny Thunders. It
was one thing to read about it, but it was good to be a part of it. It's
amazing what a good vibe it was. Very open, not snobby. They let
anybody in for a $6 cover. It was like somebody's basement, all the
walls painted black. It was great:'
When Conwell came to the University of Delaware from
Bala Cynwyd as an English major; he joined the Zippers, a new wave-ish
band that eventually evolved into the Maytags. "We were doing punk and
new wave covers, just stuff we liked,” Conwell said. "But we weren't
that stupid, because it did sell. The college punk crowd ate it up.
That's one thing I've learned from my experience - how to see a market."
After that came a brief stint as a drummer with the Christian Snipers.
But it was in Rockett 88 that Conwell started to get
people talking. He was the perfect foil for Mark Kenneally's boisterous
brand of blues. While "Doctor Harp" entertained with ribald stories and
harmonica shenanigans, Conwell was wowing crowds with his flashy guitar
style and youthful good looks. Rockett 88 has always been one of the
hardest working bands around and it was during this time that Conwell
started to learn the business of music.
"Not long into Rockett 88, I was feeling, 'Jeez, I could
do this myself,'" Conwell said. "But I didn't have the knowledge, I
thought, 'Well, why not do it myself? Be my own boss.'" But before he
could plan his own band, Conwell was asked to join Radio Carolyn, the
revamped Imports. "They said we weren't going to play locally, that they
were starting with a New York management company. There would be all
money gigs, no career gigs. I thought, 'Man, they can't be making this
up. It's too far-fetched.' That was pretty dumb of me, but ...I wanted
to be on MTV, I wanted exposure, I wanted to make records. But I knew
that if it didn't work out, I would start my own band.
The Young Rumblers usually rehearse in Newark, but one
night they commandeered Wonderland in the Pike Creek Shopping Center,
where bassist Chaz Molins works. It was after hours, and the music
attracted a coterie of kids heading for the pizza parlor next door.
Peering through the windows, they could only see the backs of Conwell
and Molins. Drummer Brad Fish was obscured by record racks.
The band was readying for their first date with the
Hooters and planning to make the most of their 40 minutes onstage. Most
of the set would be originals like "Work Out," "Walking on the Water;"
"Dig It," the brand new "Yeah, Daddy" and Conwell's favorite,
"Satisfaction Guaranteed,” which pretty much sums up his outlook:
"I
wanna be one of the few / who believe in what they do."
"It's ballsy to say, but I have to believe that l am my
best product," Conwell explained. "I'm younger than most guys who play
the blues, a different generation. Punk made me want to rock, jazz made
me want to play. We have a good mix between them that I hope is
self-evident. If you've got a couple things going for you, you might
want to flaunt one and let the other happen. I don't want to flaunt my
rootsiness, 'cause that's there. I want to flaunt my punkness."
One way the Young Rumblers do that is with a garage-sale-cum-new-wave look. Molins' punkish hair and Conwell's spiky mop
contrast with their bowling shirts, ties and fatigues. Conwell sometimes
writes messages on his chest for the evening's end, when he strips off
his shirt "When I played before Rocky Horror (at the State Theater in
Newark) and wrote shit on my chest, I wanted to give them, what they
wanted. They didn't want to see some country guitar picker. "The Young
Rumblers appeal to a lot of markets," Conwell said. "That's one thing I
was conscious of when I started it. We appeal to blues fans and
Joe-off-the street, because everybody likes blues and everybody likes
to hear someone cookin' on the guitar."
"Girls are another market," Conwell continues,
grinning. "I sell myself to girls. I sing personal songs like 'I Love
You' or 'I Want to be Your Driver,' or my stuff like ‘Work Out’ and
'She's a Fine Little Girl, the Best in the World. 'I try to sing
personal songs and mean them. I'll put my guitar in their face and go
'oooo-oooo' and make them giggle. That's one of the biggest ways I sell
to them. All I gotta do is get them to relax and we'll have a good time.
True enough. When Conwell cuts through the dance floor,
trailing a long guitar cord behind him, no one is immune. If you're not
reacting, odds are he'll climb on your table - playing all the while -
then crouch down and "talk" to you with the guitar.
"I know how to create a stir," Conwell admitted. "'Be
wild but be good. I have some concept of entertainment and I'm always
thinking, 'How can I make things fresh?' I don't use a set list. I say,
'Let's do this one.' I like treating it as a job."
Conwell recently quit his other job, as a cook, to
devote himself to music. "I liked being a cook," he said. "I used to be a
landscaper and that was too damn strenuous. I like something you can
put a little pride into. It's hard to be proud of digging ditches."
Because he wants to be proud of every aspect of the
band, Conwell is taking weekly vocal lessons. In Rockett 88, he only
sang back-up and the major flaw in the earliest Young Rumblers gigs was
Conwell's obvious uneasiness at singing lead. Now he's strikingly
confident, making the most of his Presley-like sideways smile.
Out of the spotlight, Conwell looks like a milk-fed
all-American WASP, but onstage he looks more like Eddie
Cochran-meets-Brian Setzer. Conwell, however, disdains the comparison.
°I don't wanna be rockabilly. I've got the fat guitar, I play rootsy
music, put my hair up a little bit. But it's kind of a revised
rockabilly look. I figure that's enough, because it catches the eye of
that market. But I don't want to cater to them.
"I guess I don't like rockabilly because I've been
tagged with it," he continued. "If I hadn't, I wouldn't have anything
against it. I don't want to get rid of that fat guitar, because I’m not
gonna make it rockabilly. I’m gonna make it me.
"As a songwriter, I’m a baby," he added. "I've always
been more conscious of my playing than my songwriting, but I'm coming
to the end of that. The thing about writing is it's so risky. You have
to lay out so much of yourself." Conwell credits his creativity to his
girlfriend, Carol. "She's my inspiration and she's very supportive. I
don't know what I'd do without her, which is real weird because it
hasn't been long that I've felt that way."
He relies on his band, too. 'The first time I saw Fish
play, I was totally knocked out. He's got the magic, not technique. He's
got that indescribable thing. And Chaz looks contemporary, he's
pleasant, young and has a good ear. The band is so young, but I know how
much potential they have.”
Fans, in fact, have already affectionately tagged the
three members Ham, Fish and Cheese. That's appropriate, since Conwell
admits he's a shameless ham when it comes to winning over a crowd. "I
realize that it can be intimidating to have all this attention poured on
you, but I think I have it figured out. I'm gonna keep on doing just
what I'm doing. It can be stifling, but I’m trying not to be
intimidated, because I have faith in myself."
