Danny Kroha: Band of the Month

ROCK IN DETROIT: I’m interested in your musical journey.  One of my earliest musical memories is being about 9 or 10 and one night hearing a song on the radio about some crossroads.  (In retrospect, it was Cream’s Live version of “Crossroads,” still a favorite.)  Do you have any early memories of music, rock music or discovering that music was important to you?
 
DANNY: Early musical memories are cartoons on TV like the Groovie Ghoulies, H.R. Pufinstuf, Josie and the Pussycats, and AM radio that I heard in the car. This would be very early 70s. When I was around 12, which would be 1977-78, I got a clock radio, which was the first time I had my own radio. I discovered FM rock stations, and also I would explore the AM dial, and I discovered a gospel station. I didn’t really know what I was hearing, but I loved it. The more I listened to FM “classic rock,” the more I realized I was drawn to music from the 60s, Yardbirds, Animals, The Who, Rolling Stones, The Kinks, and I started seeking out this music more. I discovered a lot of the great songs these bands were playing weren’t written by any of the band members, but rather by people like McKinley Morganfield, Ellas McDaniel, and Chester Burnett (Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, and Howlin’ Wolf, respectively). So I started making an effort to seek out that music. I was always digging for the roots of the music I love. Like so many of the white kids from the 60s, I discovered blues music through the music of the “British Invasion.” As I got more into that music, I started trying to learn how to play it. Then I began to look for the roots of those Chess label blues guys, and I discovered people like Mississippi John Hurt, Fred McDowell, and Charlie Patton, and that’s about as far back as you can go!
 
ROCK IN DETROIT: You mention starting to play.  How old were you when you picked up a guitar?  Or picked up an electric guitar (assuming you started on acoustic)?  Where’d you get it?  What were you mostly playing on it–early blues of the type you mention or were you starting out playing rock–Smoke on the Water, Steppin’ Stone, Wild Thing and the like?
 
DANNY: I joined my first band in 1985 when I was 20. I was the lead singer, but after being in that band for about a year, I started playing rhythm guitar on a couple of songs. I bought a Italian made Vox Hurricane electric guitar from an ad in the paper (I think). I really just started playing simple parts that went with our original songs. I was immediately playing stuff I made up that was inspired by 60s garage songs. This was in my first band which was originally called Start, then we changed our name to The Onset. We played a bunch of covers, Not Fade Away (Stones version), Sweet Soul Music (Arthur Conley), The In Crowd (Dobie Gray), Rosalyn (The Pretty Things), Bring It To Jerome, You Can’t Judge A Book (Bo Diddley), Got Love If You Want It (Slim Harpo), Valerie (Monkees), You Got To Me (Neil Diamond) etc., was also had a bunch of original songs. I had a band recently and we did “Can’t Judge a Book”. The first stuff I wrote was lyrics as I was the lead singer and didn’t really play guitar.
 
ROCK IN DETROIT: From The Onset you moved on to The Gories, with Mick Collins and Peggy O’Neill.  The Gories have become one of the most well-known and defining Detroit bands of the 80s.  Success, in my view, is a matter of the combination of talent, hard work and luck.  How would you explain the Gories’ success in these terms?
 
DANNY: I would explain The Gories’ long term success as just doing the right thing at the wrong time, meaning that we didn’t have immediate success because we were ahead of our time, but we were doing something that was organic and had soul and so it lived on.
 
ROCK IN DETROIT: After The Gories was The Demolition Doll Rods.  Like the Gories, The Doll Rods were a three-piece, two-guitar, no-bass, stripped-down drums band playing primitive rock and roll.  By that time, I assume you were much more knowledgeable about the rock world, what it was looking for and what your goal were.  What was the vision behind the Dollrods and how did it differ from the Gories vision?
 
DANNY: The vision for the Doll Rods was mainly Maragret’s vision, but on my part, it differed from The Gories in that I wanted to pursue more of a 70s punk sound and show even more Velvet Underground influence. I also wanted to be more glam.
 
ROCK IN DETROIT: But besides VU and glam, The Doll Rods sometimes had a gospel influence (which you mentioned listening to even from your early days).  I think in particular about your interpretation of Amazing Grace (click here) off There Is a Difference, which I’ve always thought is the most fuzzed-out/far-out version ever recorded.  How did that come about?  Have you had any feedback (no pun intended) about that traditional religious song, either positive or negative?  Do you ever include it in your set?  Have you ever thought about recording other gospel music?
 
DANNY: The Doll Rods version of Amazing Grace came about because Margaret and I both love that song and we were both interested in doing a “far out/fuzzed out version” of it. Margaret loves gospel music too and we almost always included something like that in our sets. We also covered “A Closer Walk With Thee” (which Hank Williams did) and “Can’t Nobody Do Me Like Jesus” (James Cleveland). The Doll Rods played all those songs in our sets at various times. The last Doll Rods album had a gospel song on it which we learned from a Numero Group record which is a compilation of recordings from a Detroit gospel artist, Shirley Ann Lee
 
ROCK IN DETROIT: You’ve been around the Detroit rock scene since at least the mid-80s.  Would you say that it’s changed since then, and if so, in what ways?
 
DANNY: It’s a generational thing. In the 80s, I could still see bluemen like John Lee Hooker and local guys like Buddy Folks who had been playing bars in Detroit since the 60s. I could see Rob Tyner around and see him singing with The Vertical Pillows (which was a revelation). The local and touring bands I idolized were my big brother’s age (if I had any big brothers. I’m the oldest in my family). They had come up in the late 70s punk scene. Bands like the Lyres, The Hysteric Narcotics, The Fleshtones, and The Chesterfield Kings. There was more rockabilly stuff in the 80s than there is now, it was more popular then.
 
ROCK IN DETROIT: I’m from Detroit by way of Boston and New York City, so I’m a big fan of The Lyres and The Fleshtones.  In some ways, it seems that when it come to rock and blues, the greatest acts have come and gone.  Do you think so, or do you think we still, perhaps, are in the Golden Age, we just don’t have the perspective to appreciate it?
 
DANNY:  The “golden age” is gone, but there is still a lot of good new stuff out there.
 
ROCK IN DETROIT: Speaking of good new stuff, you’re playing a lot of solo blues/tradition music these days.  Do you see yourself ever getting back into rock or a rock band?
 
DANNY: I play rock and acoustic blues side by side. I’ve had rock bands on and off over the last ten years. It’s just harder to keep a band together. Playing solo is something I can do anytime.
 
ROCK IN DETROIT: Now the fun question.  If you could open for playing solo rock or acoustic for any band (past, present or imaginary) whom would it be?
 
DANNY: I don’t want to open for any band, past or present. Opening shows for bigger bands is not that fun to me, having said that, The Doll Rods did open for Iggy on a west coast tour and that was a dream come true. We also did a US tour opening for Guitar Wolf and The Cramps and that was sick. There are bands I wish I had seen back in the day, especially The Stooges in ’69 or ’70 but I wouldn’t’ve wanted to open for them!
 
ROCK IN DETROIT: Could you tell us about any upcoming shows, performances or recordings?
 
DANNY: I DJ once a month at Kelly’s bar in Hamtramck. That night is called Party Stomp. It’s usually the third Friday of the month. I’m playing solo at Alpino in Corktown on June 19th and I will be doing Second Sundays at the Polka Dot through the summer, although I will probably skip June because of the Alpino show.
 
ROCK IN DETROIT: Busy man!  We’ll see you there.