Groove Kitchen, by DC Duncan (Soca rhythm)
Dance, dance, dance to the Groove Kitchen
Make romance in the groove kitchen
Dance, dance, dance to the Groove Kitchen
All on a Saturday night
And all the while we will make you smile
Shake your kimbo fast to the jamband style
Put your hands up high, try to touch the sky
Let’s shout… it out… and shake it all about!
Groove Kitchen – featuring Ms. Lisa Saunders: “Pagosa’s favorite dance band!”
In 2010 I was asked by my friends Lisa Saunders and Bill Hudson to join their groovin’ little dance band. I would be replacing their capable drummer, my pal, Marcus Rivas. It sounded like a fun proposition, and I was open. (I could definitely cook in that kitchen!)
They also needed a bass player so I suggested Jeff Hibshman. The final line-up was Lisa fronting the band, Robbie Pepper on guitar and vocals, Bill Hudson on keys and vocals, Jeff Hibshman on bass, and DC on drums and vocals. We utilized the rehearsal space out back of Bill’s Victorian house above downtown Pagosa and tightened up nicely.
In no time at all we were gigging weekly.
Moonlit passion takes the floor with rhythms and rhymes forevermore; embraced in night’s tender gaze with love and dance an endless maze. Welcome to the dance, children!
Dance, dance, dance to the Groove Kitchen!
Lovely Lisa, resplendent in her wild costumes, emceed the shows with great abandon. Within weeks we had garnered a huge following, and packed dance floors were the norm. (We played songs back-to-back to keep them up and jumping.) Our repertoire consisted of Classic R&B, Motown, Soul, Pop, Rock’n’roll and more. Lisa belted out Christina Aguilera, Lady Gaga, and other divas that were extremely hard to imitate. But she made it seem easy – that girl has a voice on her!
Groove Kitchen was playing mostly in Pagosa Springs. I suggested that Lisa book us at the Sky Ute Casino Resort in Ignacio, 57 miles from home. I had played there and knew the Southern Ute tribe (one of the richest tribes in America) was all business. First of all, you had to qualify to procure a “vendor’s license.” And then you had to abide by the multitude of incomprehensible rules and regulations. For instance: entertainers are forbidden to drink alcoholic beverages on stage. And to make matters worse, you can’t even drink on breaks at the casino bar. What the hell?!
The only way to get around that is to book a room in your contract – a must! The room serves as a padded cell, dressing room, overnight crash pad, and well-stocked barroom.
The stage was situated behind and above the casino bar – up, up and away from the annoying patrons. (Best to keep those fools as far from the band as possible.) Dancing at the casino was limited and perhaps even discouraged; a silly circumstance for a so-called dance band to find themselves. People who wandered into the bar area were gamblers; some were winners but most were pathetic losers. The winners drank to celebrate and the losers drank to commiserate. Win or lose, they were all drunk…
On top of all that nonsense, there were hundreds of noisy slot machines that that dinged, beeped, honked and clanged creating a loud din that permeated the entire casino. (Not to mention your fucking brain!) The goddam perpetual noise seemed to be projected in the key of B demented. Bands would be advised to play every song in that obnoxious key to avoid annoying dissonance.
That Evil Mistress works overtime in those crazy-ass casinos. (Not my favorite venues!)
Meanwhile, Groove Kitchen had morphed into Honey Bone. Robbie Pepper had been replaced with hot local guitarist, Greg Milioto and later, bassist Jeff Hibshman was replaced with Bill Trimarco. The new band played around town for a while…
…and then morphed into ‘Lisa Saunders and the Funky Uncles’. The one-and-only Dean Murphy took over lead guitar duties.
The tiring game of musical chairs continued as the Funky Uncles became obsolete. Out of the ashes rose Mean Dean Murphy with Lisa Saunders. Dan Hancock had replaced Bill Trimarco on bass and we were back at the Sky Ute Casino for a string of engagements.
I think everyone agreed that Lisa co-fronting the Dean Murphy band was an unlikely scenario. But we trudged onward.
All the while my arthritis was beginning to be a problem. I wasn’t getting any younger and came to the conclusion that, in the near future, I’d have to call it quits. Of course, I kept this troubling realization to myself. But it was more than arthritis. I was growing tired of kowtowing to my schizophrenic mistress. She’d been kicking me around for way too long.
One fine day amidst all the discombobulation, a beautiful New Zealander walked into my life. Treena Bennetts was a good singer/guitarist and aspiring songwriter. She had contacted me to help her make sense of her songs, both composition-wise and lyrically.
Treena, a sensitive and smart Kiwi, was having a hard time with a self-centered boyfriend. The destructive relationship was reflected in her lyrics.
Her song “Love Disaster” says it all. She was going through some God-awful trauma, but on the bright side, the girl was writing some really poignant songs that only a broken heart could inspire. She wanted me to produce an album for her. But first we needed to rework the formats of her tunes: choruses needed strengthened (or even established), both lyrically and musically; some songs were calling out for a bridge… others needed hooks… and what about time signatures, instrumentation and solos?
On and on…
And then something miraculous happened: out of the blue, she met her dream man, Russell McCurdy… and the two of them fell in love!
Suddenly, she was walking on a cloud. Now she could fine tune all her old songs and write a brand-new song: “Everything I Wanted.”
After a few months she was ready for the studio. I booked block time at Scooter’s Place in Durango. And now I had to introduce her to the art of recording. First off, we hired Lisa Saunders for harmonies and background vocals.
Lisa was also a studio novice, so it would be like training two girls for the price of one. Soon we were ready to go.
Treena B in the Studio
Everything was falling into place as if guided by a magical muse. Luckily for Treena and Lisa our engineer, Scott Smith, was a world-class recording engineer. Julliard trained, Scott was patient and caring, a brilliant instructor and mentor. Each session was better than the last. I was very proud of my girls – and they affectionately called me Uncle Deece.
This Song for You by Treena Bennetts
In the end we had created a fine album, ‘Everything I Wanted’. Ten songs including: Down to The Blanco, Tell Her, Be Like That, Everything I Wanted, Gotta Be This Way, Love Disaster, This Song for You, Further Down the Road, Unintentionally, and Can’t Forget You. (Released in 2011.)
Executive Producer: Treena Bennetts; Producer: DC Duncan; Engineer: Scott Smith
Acoustic Guitar and Vocals: Treena Bennetts: Drums, Percussion, Background Vocals: DC Duncan; Bass Guitar: Jeff Hibshman; Guitar and Dobro: Robbie Pepper; Fiddle: Red Greer; Keyboards: Troy Turner; Background Vocals: Lisa Saunders
All songs written by Treena Benetts, and arranged by DC Duncan. Produced at Scooter’s Place, Durango, Colorado.
Front and Back Cover Photos by Russell McCurdy.
“Special thanks to DC Duncan for making my dreams come true.” – Treena B.
Thank you, my dear, it was a pleasure. And thanks for the wedding invitation!
In November of 2013, Lisa was visiting Cabo San Lucas in Mexico. There she met Geovan Olachea, the house drummer for Sammy Hagar’s famous Cabo Wabo, the hippest rock club in the city. That night, Lisa was asked to sit in with the band. Evidently, she turned some heads. Well, one thing led to another: Lisa and Geo became “close” friends.
Lisa was now thinking of actually moving to the tropical paradise that is Cabo. She needed a good demo of her music to help her shop around for gigs. So why not shoot for the moon and record a first-class, killer album?
She asked me to produce this endeavor. In 2015, she and I sat down and planned out the ambitious strategy: Geo would be associate producer and he and his boys would lay down the rhythm tracks in Mexico. We’d use flash drives in the mail, and once we got the sound we wanted, Geo would be flown to Colorado to work with us at Eagle Sound in Durango. Lisa and I picked 10 great cover tunes that would be given a certain Latin flare: I Want Candy, Infatuation, Game of Love, You & I, Searching My Soul, Bésame Mucho, Hella Good, All Right Now, Mercy on Me, Triste Cancion / Espiritu en el Jardin de La Vida.
Infatuation
Somehow, Lisa album project came together like clockwork! (The project, from start to finish, took two years.) We called our musical partnership, Banda Caborado:
Cabo San Lucas Crew at Green Sugar Studio: Geovan Olachea, drums & percussion; Hector Lopez, bass; Gilberto Mendoza, guitars; Kiki Martinez, keys; Adrian Grand, guitar; Hugo Navarro, bass; Mada, piano; Chaplin Fernandez Alvarez, guitars.
Colorado Crew at Eagle Sound, Durango: Geovan Olachea, drums & percussion; Ryan McCurry, keys; Bob Hemenger, saxes; Brian Flynn, guitars; Bob Newnam, trumpets & flugel horn; Venita Burch, vocal coach & harmonies; Marcia Leeper, den mother.
Producer: DC Duncan – Associate Producer: Geovan Olachea
Engineers: Chaplin Fernandez Alvarez (Mexico), Kiki Matinez (Mexico,) Doug Eagle (USA)
Cover photo: Doug Chapin Photography, Denver, Colorado
Graphic design: Bill Hudson, Pagosa Springs, Colorado
Sometimes my sexy mistress isn’t so evil after all. Once in a blue moon she reminds me why I fell in love with her in the first place. This was one of those times!
In September, 2016, Lisa produced a spectacular release party at the Center for the Arts in Pagosa Springs. The whole town showed up to celebrate Lisa’s new Album: ‘Infatuación’…
