The Strand

 Origin: Los Angeles (USA)

THE STRAND

Peter Reilich - Dean Cortez - Rick 'Moon' Calhoun - Kelly Shanahan - Scott Shelly

Discography:

st - 1980

Notes:

- “IN KEEPING with Rock candy’s penchant for exposing great, yet relatively unheralded melodic rock music, we now turn the spotlight on an obscure Los Angeles based five piece named, rather curiously, The Strand. Although the name may not be recognisable, some of the band members will be very familiar to fans of sophisticated melodic rock.

The Strand’s origins can be found in a group called Rural Still Life, the very same group that spawned hugely successful multi Grammy winning West Coast AOR stars Toto. In common with Toto the band were also extremely talented players, some having backed Boz Scaggs both live and in the studio. Just like the session players that birthed Toto, they too hatched plans for their own group, quickly securing a deal with Island Records.

Signed personally by Island founder Chris Blackwell (and named by him), the band’s one and only album, originally released in 1980, was produced, not unsurprisingly, by long-time friend and colleague, Toto drummer Jeff Porcaro. The results, as you might reasonably expect, are spectacular, boasting killer songs, jaw-dropping musicianship and superb arrangements, all bathed in a stellar production. Listen out too for vocalist Rick ‘Moon’ Calhoun, one of the greatest, yet largely overlooked, vocalists of the genre.” -

(Notes by Derek Oliver. Back cover of the CD reissued in 2011)

- A five-piece from Los Angeles, the magnificently monikered The Strand comprised Rick ‘Moon’ Calhoun on vocals, Scott Shelly on guitar, Peter Reilich on keyboards, Dean Cortez on bass and Kelly Shanahan on drums, cutting a record that if you were to put the heavier side to Toto with the melodic lilt of Pablo Cruise you'd be somewhere close to imagining just how brilliant the record they recorded together, just over thirty years ago, sounds. With ‘Moon’ Calhoun’s smooth vocal performance topping a clean, crisp and unfussy production job from Jeff Porcaro, there is a dazzling sheen to the songs and musicianship. Perhaps because the members of the band effectively shared the same musical grounding over the years with their CBS signed brothers in arms, heck, a better description could be that this is probably the best hard rock album Toto never made.

These days Scott Shelly lives in Queensland, Australia where he owns a music composition and Production Company that provides original music and production to the entertainment industries, working on computer games, films and TV shows. One of his longest contracts had been composing music for the late Steve Irwin’s hugely popular ‘Crocodile Hunter’ series, but as a child back in North Hollywood, California he grew up with some very musical company, having had Jeff Porcaro and David Paich as high school mates, establishing themselves in bands together at a very young age; one such group being Rural Still Life.

“The first incarnation of Rural Still Life was a four piece jazz combo, with myself on guitar, Steve Leeds on sax and flute, Gary Sherwood on bass, and Jeff Porcaro on drums,” Scott explains. “The second incarnation of Rural Still Life grew out of that and The Merciful Souls which was a Commitments/Blues Brothers type of big band with a horn section that comprised of Jay Sacks, Doug Wintz, Steve Leeds, Frank Szabo, and Scott Page.

“When our keyboard player, Richard Aronson, left to attend Berklee in Boston, Steve Leeds found David Paich as a replacement. We were still all around 15 years old at this point, so Steve Leeds really deserves the credit for introducing Jeff to Paich.

“We started playing a lot of the high school dances and proms in the area then, covering songs by Blood, Sweat and Tears, Chicago, and Mad Dogs and Englishmen. Paich kicked us all in the butt in the best way. He probably wouldn’t remember, but I learned a lot about arranging and piano from David Paich, and consider myself very fortunate to have been in a band with him in those days.”

“The third incarnation of Rural Still Life had players like Steve Porcaro, Carlos Vega, Michael Landau, Steve Lukather, and Dean Cortez in the band.”

Scott had initially been inspired by his mother, an accomplished piano player, and grandfather (who played guitar, banjo, mandolin and organ) and a cousin who used to sing at family reunions (“I was fascinated by how much joy someone singing a song could bring to the party”), but there were a couple of records he heard at an early age that truly led him become a  musician.

“Hearing The Everly Brothers’ ‘Cathy’s Clown’ on the radio in the car for the first time was a key point, but the first two albums I saved up for and bought were Bob Dylan’s ‘Blonde On Blonde’ and Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Are You Experienced?’”

Over the next few years Scott would establish himself as a sought after team player, working alongside the likes of Albert Collins, Warren Zevon, Tom Jans, Randy Meisner, Boz Scaggs and Dan Fogelberg. He even had a brief stint as a replacement for Randy California in a line-up of Spirit. 

“Working with those guys in every case taught me to do my homework, to listen first and talk later whenever possible, to remember that people are paying good money to come see the artist that I'm lucky enough to be playing with, to not be complacent and take anything for granted, and to pace myself on the road.”

On one of his jaunts with Dan Fogelberg, he found himself alongside one Geoff Lieb (aka Jeff Paris). “He’s very smart, very funny, and a scarily multi-talented guy. We spent close to 12 weeks on the road that summer with Dan - one of my favourite tours.”

It was playing in many of these groups that the first seeds of what would become The Strand were sown. 

“Kelly Shanahan played with Randy Meisner, Dan Fogelberg, Tom Jans, and Boz Scaggs when I was with them. Dan Fogelberg’s band at that time included Dave Pearlman on pedal steel, Kerry Hatch on bass, and Tom Kelly (of I-Ten fame, With whom Shanahan also toured when Kelly fronted Fool’s Gold). Boz’s line-up included Dean Cortez, Peter Reilich, Michael Landau, Tommy Funderburk, Vanetta Fields, Paulette Brown, Lenny Castro, and John Madrid. There were a few Boz gigs with 3 guitar players that Steve Lukather, Michael Landau and me, that was huge fun, with Bill Myers on synths, and Jeff Porcaro made it for a few of those as well. My impression at the time, though, was that Steve, David and Jeff were pretty much concentrating on Toto and other sessions.”

In addition to his touring and session work, Scott had also been branching out as a guitar tutor, which would lead him into meeting a young student who would, albeit after his tragic and premature death, become accepted as one of the greatest guitarists of his generation.

“My teacher at Valley Arts Guitar, Al Karnis, asked if I would take a few students on as their ‘rock guy’, and I agreed and found out that I enjoyed teaching,” responds Scott on the subject. “Then I heard through the grapevine that Musonia in North Hollywood was looking for another guitar teacher, so I followed up and met Delores Rhoads. She had been looking for a teacher for her son Randy, and after a couple of gruelling teacher audition hours - she really knows her stuff - Mrs. Rhoads decided that I would do. After a year or so I had to tell her that he knew everything I did and that it was time to look for another teacher to take him to the next level. Randy was the most ferociously dedicated guitar player I've ever met, and an inspiration to millions. It is an honour to have known him.”

It was actually Boz Scaggs’ manager, Irving Azoff, who was the catalyst in The Strand coming together as an entity, as the musicians that would form the group, minus Calhoun, were all a huge part of Scaggs’ band by that point.

 “On one of the Iater Boz tours, his manager Irving Azoff pulled me aside and said that Boz was going to be concentrating on writing for a while and touring less, but that we should consider staying together and try to find a lead singer,” recalls Scott. “I'd been around long enough to understand that if Irving was taking his time to tell you something, it would be a very good idea to listen.”

Shelly then convinced ‘Moon’ Calhoun to join the party. Tulsa, Oklahoma native Calhoun had earned his spurs drumming with The Gap Band and playing sessions with other R&B outfits such as D.J. Rogers, but he had also established himself as a song writer whilst a member of Rufus, by co-penning the band’s biggest hit in ‘Stay’ with Chaka Khan and appearing on the ‘Street Players’ album. He had also written material for June Pointer and Pressure. 

“l had a chance to get to know ‘Moon’ a bit at a party at Tom Jan’s house,” recalls Scott. “I mentioned that we were looking for a singer. Although ‘Moon’ was an amazing drummer and song writer, he sang his butt off as well, so it turned out he was willing to give it a shot.”

Oddly enough, the deal with Island Records was established thanks to some slick networking rather than the band having to shop for a deal. 

“’Moon’, David Batteau (a prolific song writing friend of Scott’s who had been a recording artist himself on A&M and Columbia at various times in the 70s) and I had started writing together and Paul Camarata at Sunset Sound offered us some demo time, which was very kind. We recorded a demo of five songs as I recall, and ‘Moon’ gave a copy of that tape to a friend at Cavallo, Ruffalo and Fargnoli (managers of Earth, Wind and Fire, Little Feat, Weather Report and Reggie Knighton). We weren’t technically even a band at that point, so it wasn’t a case of us shopping the stuff round the labels in LA. It just happened.

"Apparently lawyer involved, Eric Eisner – who worked with Cavallo, Ruffalo and Fargnoli - was friends with Chris Blackwell (head of Island), and Chris was in LA at the time. He asked Eric if he’d heard anything interesting Iately, and Eric played him our tape. Next thing we knew we were being offered a deal with Island. We were signed without a band name – Chris came up with the name The Strand. I’m not sure what Chris Blackwell was thinking of when he suggested The Strand as a name - in the States the first thing that comes to mind is the boardwalk or footpath down along the beach - I just remember thinking that if the president of our label is suggesting a name, we should probably give it serious consideration, unless it totally sucked - which it didn’t - and I bounced it off the guys before giving Chris the OK.”

When it came to who would produce the album it was pretty much a no-brainer to Scott and the band that old friend Jeff Porcaro would come in to do the job. 

“It was a no-brainer. He'd already played on more hit records than anybody else I knew, but there were a few other factors. Kelly and Jeff were very good friends - both great drummers, both of their fathers are drummers, and I knew both of them would probably have a ball working together. Jeff was also my very good friend, and I had been trying to find a way to reciprocate for all he’d done for me. I knew Jeff was getting frustrated at being perceived as ‘just a drummer’ by the guys in Toto - very strong writers, players, personalities - and that if he agree to produce, it might help him with that. He also came up with the idea for the hook on ‘Can’t Look Back’, so that when The Strand album was done, Jeff was officially a producer and a song writer. A few years later, he co-wrote ‘Africa’.”

The album was released in May 1980 with a smattering of initial interest in the industry press, but little in the way of full on promotion. The band toured, but not widely, although one show worth noting is when The Strand opened for the controversial Rod Evans fronted band of nobodies outrageously billed as Deep Purple at Long Beach Arena in August 17th 1980.

“We should have toured a lot more,” acknowledges Scott. “Jeff invited us to open for Toto on a swing through the Pacific Northwest, which was great, and we had a few clubs in L.A. that we played at several times, but that was it.”

“Island was going through a lot of changes and didn’t quite know what to do with us, and I don’t think in retrospect that our managers at the time, though they tried, did either, so sales of the record had been woeful to say the least.”

“After giving it a reasonably good go, ‘Moon’ made it clear that he wasn’t happy singing rock stuff, and wanted to focus again on R&B, which was more his thing, After ‘Moon’ left we tried out a few lead singers, including David Eisley (later of Giuffria and Dirty White Boy), before we found Keith Landry through Jeff, as Keith had toured with Toto as a backing singer, and when Peter Reilich decided to go on tour with Foreigner, I rang Michael Boddicker and started writing with him, with the intention of picking up the second album per our deal with Island and with Boddicker as a member. I thought the songs we wrote were a progression from and an improvement on ‘The Strand’ album. We had re-named the band Citizen by that time and I think we did 6 tunes all up, but Island was going through a lot changes and we just sort of fell through the cracks. Those tracks were never released. Mike Porcaro was on bass by that point, so when David Hungate decided to leave Toto, Mike of course went to play with them. And that was it for us.”

A band (‘The Fire Project’) featuring Landry and Shelly alongside legendary Canadian guitarist Frank Marino and former Jefferson Starship drummer Aynsley Dunbar got close to being signed, but soon fizzled out. Scott was later contacted by Landry again on a country rock project akin to the Eagles. “Keith Landry and Oakley Tyger approached me to co-write some contemporary country rock with them,” comments Scott. “I'd been wood shedding on guitar, writing with David Batteau, and studying composition privately, and was very clear about not wanting to be in another band. And of course, I ended up playing with them for almost two years, almost moved to Nashville, but went to San Francisco instead and got into composing for games. 

Incidentally, another post The Strand/Citizen project Scott was involved with was working alongside ‘Moon’ Calhoun again on Marcy Levy’s ‘Marcella’ album, based on knowing Marcy from her stints with mutual associates. “Peter Reilich shared a house with Richard Feldman, Marcy, and Roger Linn (of the Linn Drum fame). Richard, Marcy, and Roger all co-wrote ‘Lay Down Sally’ with Eric Clapton. Roger invested his royalties in his drum machine, which became very successful. So I actually met Richard and Marcy through Peter, and then found out that they knew ‘Moon’ from Tulsa. Nice people all - I remember that the song ('l Can’t Stand It’) we wrote together came pretty quickly.”

By this point Scott had begun to take a keen interest in scoring for computer game work, but he also became heavily involved writing for film soundtracks, including the original ‘Transformers’ movie. “I discovered that I liked doing work-for-hire composition stuff, and did a lot of material for Paramount in the 80s. A neighbour, Russell Steinberg - a music teacher at USC - gave me an old textbook on composition and orchestration which was a big help, and I owe Steve Porcaro a Thuge thank you for all his tips and help with synths and keyboards over the years. The ‘Transformers’ song (‘Dare’) was a last-minute thing. The composer Vince DiCola rang and asked me to write lyrics to an already completed melody and track. I think they recorded Stan Bush’s vocal the very next night down at Scotti Bros Studios. Stan did an amazing job on that! 

As noted previously by Scott, ‘Moon’ Calhoun quit the band before re-discovering his appreciation for rock music when teaming up with Scott Gorham (who was at the time forming a new band after the break-up of Thin Lizzy) in Western Front, a line-up that also featured guitarist Marty Walsh (later to join The Key), keyboardist Dick Bergman and drummer Darrell Verdusco. Pretty much the precursor for Gorham’s later 21 Guns project, Western Front’s demos highlight the fact that ‘Moon’ still had a perfect voice for hard rock and this was further demonstrated in 1988 when the singer joined forces with his old guitarist pal Michael Thompson to cut the excellent ‘How Long’ album, before Calhoun hooked up with another long-time friend Jeff Paris and this pairing cut some very interesting tracks using the moniker of Moon Over Paris.

However, in September 1994 - having survived years of drinking and drug abuse that had led him into rehab – Calhoun’s life was to drastically and tragically change in extraordinary circumstances when he broke his neck in a freak cycling accident after he had hit a pothole in the road that had thrown him out of the saddle. He suffered life changing injuries. The accident damaged Calhoun’s spinal cord, leaving him seriously disabled.

The Moon Over Paris material sadly remains unreleased, although Jeff Paris has stated that he has every intention of getting it out into the wider public domain at some point in the future.

After touring with Foreigner in 1981, supporting the phenomenally successful ‘4’ album, Peter Reilich (who can also add a tenure in Gary Wright's all keyboard group to his CV) has continued to add to hugely impressive talents to sessions and tours, including a stint with John Waite amongst many others.

Dean Cortez, the elder brother of erstwhile Stone Fury drummer Jody Cortez, went back to session playing, appearing on Joseph Williams’ self-titled debut album in 1981 and the Karizma album ‘Dream Come True’ in 1983, alongside the likes of David Paich, Steve Lukather, Jeff Porcaro, Tim Pierce and Carlos Vega. He has enjoyed a long association with the Asian-American Jazz Fusion band Hiroshima, having assisted on the band’s early demos and consistently recorded with them on a session basis until becoming a permanent fixture on bass. 

Kelly Shanahan has continued to tour and record with a wealth of other artists over the years and is currently recording a new CD and playing live occasionally with a band called The Ride (featuring Paul Nussbaum, Tim Henderson, Gerrit Folsom and Lori O’Brien) and giving drum lessons to elementary school kids at a music school in Santa Clarita. 

Although Scott’s career has absolutely thrived since he immersed himself in the world of gaming, TV and film work, he continues to play now and again with his current band The Avocado Theory, offering proof, I guessed, that he missed being in a band despite his successes elsewhere.

“Sure, I miss it! There’s nothing like live music. I do get to play a bit now and then here in Australia - there are some amazingly talented and very kind people here - but I guess that for an old guitar player from Sherman Oaks I turned out to be a half-way decent TV and game music composer!” 

So far as his old band’s album is concerned, he’s extremely pleased that it’s finally seen the light of day on CD after all these years. “For something that was thrown together very quickly, I wasn’t unhappy with the album when it first came out. I think we all had fun recording it.” -

(Notes by Dave Reynolds. Nottingham, England. June 2011. CD booklet reissued in 2011)