The 70’s
The Buster Brown Band started in the Texas Panhandle towns of Pampa and Borger when Kelly Mcnulty (guitar and keys), Ken Johnson (drums), and Jim Casey (guitar) came together for a Jam session. They decided to form a band and added Pat Darling (guitar and vocals) and Mark Wilson (bass and vocals). The band played for a year in the Panhandle before deciding to move to Denton to go to school at UNT because of the great music scene surrounding the college.
Ken Johnson left the band after a semester at UNT and transferred to Austin where he joined the band Steam Heat and later moved on to San Francisco where he was a part of the “new wave” scene in the late 70’s. He met Chris Isaacs who recorded ‘Wicked Games” in SF, joined his band, and has been with Chris ever since.
Danny Darling (Pat’s brother) replaced Ken in Buster Brown and the band started to play the Dallas area clubs. Danny and Pat Darling left the band soon thereafter and “Little John” Sanders and Eric Stuer joined the band. This is when the band began to play for larger audiences in the Dallas area and opened for many artists such as Dr. John, Herbie Hancock, David “Fathead” Newman, and Tower of Power.
The band performed at a local hot spot in the 70’s, Fannie Anne’s, where they became friends with the club owner, Wayne Morgan, who was a former UNT Jazz lab band member who loved Jazz and Blues. Wayne sold Fannie Anne’s to tour the Caribbean in his sail boat, but eventually returned to Dallas a year later and opened Popsicle Toes, a club named after a song by Michael Franks. He wanted to feature Jazz and R&B groups and asked Buster Brown, The Bees Knees, and a great new band called Phyrework to perform in the club. The Dallas Jazz Orchestra also played on Sundays, also. The club was a big hit because of its laid back attitude, beer garden, and Wayne’s vision of having a club where musicians could play Jazz, Funk, and original music. Popsicle Toes was a “hang” for local musicians and national acts that came through the DFW area.
The band went through more changes as John Sanders, Mark Wilson, and Eric Stuer left the band. In their place Victor “Wide-track” Hill (bass), Otis Gardner (vocals), Scott “Valves” Walter (trumpet), Steve Gay (sax) and George Lawrence (drums) joined. The band recorded their first demo project at this time and Kelly Mcnulty started to emerge as the primary writer and lead vocalist in the band. The band signed a record deal with Tortoise records, a subsidiary of RCA. Don Davis was the producer that had heard the demo and wanted to record the band. Don produced Marilyn McCoo, the Dramatics and owned United Sound studios in Detroit. The band worked with Don on the new project but he soon sold the record company and the contract evaporated.
George Lawrence and “little John” moved to Sacramento to play with “Uncle Rainbow”, another great Dallas band at the time. George also played with “The Pages” who later became “Mister, Mister”. Around this time Kelly met Eric Tagg, another prolific songwriter in the area. They formed a songwriting bond that is still alive today. Eric joined Buster Brown and the band went in the studio to cut Eric’s songs. Eric shopped the demo in LA and Lee Ritenour loved what he heard and contacted Eric. Lee and Eric recorded many songs together and they enjoyed a top ten hit with “Is it you”. Kelly and Eric co-wrote the title cut to one of the albums, “Dreamwalkin” and also wrote “Turn the Heat Up”. Kelly also toured with the Lee Ritenour band as a backup vocalist.
Mike Collier joined the band on drums and vocals when George Lawrence, Steve Mitchell, and Eric Stuer left. Kelly’s longtime friend and extraordinary bassist Lewis Nichols joined the band during the Popsicle Toe’s era. Lewis was a great musician that adapted very well into the big shoes left by “Wide-Track”. Another big addition to the Buster Brown Sound at that time was the addition of Roger Burton and Rusty Lewis from the famous Dallas band “The Bees Knees. Jim and Kelly had known Rusty from their days in the Texas Panhandle. .
The 80’s and 90’s
Popsicle Toes continued to thrive into the 80’s and Buster Brown and Phyrework continued to pack the house on nightly bases. Mike Collier left the band at this time and the 1 o’clock drummer Gregg Bisonnette and percussionist, Brad Dutz joined the band. Connie Schlig, a wonderful keyboardist from UNT was in the band at this time also. Greg left the band to go on the road with Maynard Ferguson and a year later got the gig with the David Lee Roth band with Steve Vai and Billy Sheehan. Brad went on the road with the Gap band and then joined one of the best fusion bands in LA at the time, Scott Henderson and Tribal Tech. After Greg and Brad left, David Collier (drums) joined the band. Popsicle Toes could not handle the crowds that the band was pulling nightly so Wayne Morgan and Ted Liggett opened “Busters”, a new club in Dallas that feature BBB and Prelude.
Kelly left the band right before “Buster’s” opened and moved to LA to work with David Ritz, a friend and writer who wrote the first article in D magazine about Buster Brown and later went on to write the biographies for Ray Charles, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, Jerry Wexler, Etta James, and won a grammy for writing the lyrics to “Sexual Healing” for Marvin Gaye and the liner notes for a grammy award winning Aretha Franklin album. Kelly and David co-wrote many songs together such as “Release your Love” for the Isley Bros. “Love is the light” and “Happiness” for Smokey Robinson, “Velvet nights” for Leon Ware, and “I offer you love” for Patty Austin. Kelly was also a featured vocalist for a Cagney and Lacey Christmas special.
In the meantime, Buster Brown continued on and was very successful playing at their new club with some new members. George Lewis (vocals), Tony Wilcox (vocals and keys), David Collier (Vocals and drums), Connie Schlig (keyboards), Kenny Evans (drums), and the big nasty, Rick Rigsby (bass) continued to rock the house. Around 1985 Buster Brown took their act on the road to Denver Colorado. BBB became a big hit in the mile high city and decided to move there. Tony Wilcox and Kenny Evans joined the Emerald City Band and Connie left to work on her master’s degree. Sherri Hammonds joined the band on keyboards and vocals. The band toured the west playing in Vancouver Canada, Portland, Seattle, and Ceasar’s Tahoe on a regular schedule. The band also signed a production deal with Danny Seraphum, the original drummer from the group “Chicago”. The band worked on original music written by Sherri with Danny while touring the country.
In 1988, Jim left the band to play with a new band called Einstein’s Apartment back in Dallas. The band was made up of his oldest friend Kelly McNulty and a talented new drummer and vocalist, Tiffany Smith, one of Greg Bissonette’s students who had returned from LA after playing with Morris Day’s all female band called the Daisy’s. She had also performed with Steve Vai. Rick Rigsby left Buster Brown to move back to Dallas to play in this dynamic new band. The band recorded a CD called Einstein’s Apartment, which consisted of the songs of Kelly Mcnulty in 1995. The band disbanded when Rick left to join Joseph Vincelli soon after and Kelly moved back to Amarillo.
Jim joined the Roofraisers for 10 years until this year when Kelly moved back to Dallas. Kelly,Rick, and Jim decided to put Buster Brown back together this year and they have been able to put together a very talented group of musicians. The “big nasty” Rick Rigsby is back on bass, Kelly is singing and playing keys, Frank Hames, from the group Phyrework is also on keys, Roger Burton is back again on vocals, Peebody is on the drums, Jim Casey is playing guitar, and Al Olive rounds it out on vocals.
I am sure I have left off many great musicians that have come through the Buster Brown ranks and I apologize if I have not mentioned everyone. Too much water has passed under that bridge. I hope this new band of musicians carries on the tradition of great bands that Buster Brown has represented throughout the years. So far, from what I am hearing this could be the best Buster Brown Band yet. I hope you will come see the new band and relive some of the old days while enjoying the new sounds the band is creating. I think you are going to love it!