Biography
Back Home Again In...California
When the band got back to California, they reconvened, and came up with a new plan...
An early afternoon audition was arranged, with a group of area club owners and booking agents, in the upstairs area of the La Paloma Theater in downtown Encinitas. Due to the time of day and location, everyone in attendance knew this was not an ideal audition setting. This was quickly proven, when between songs, the band was greeted with silence, muffled coughing and the sound of people rustling in their chairs. The lack of applause was deafening. However, the band soldiered on and performed a solid 30-minute set of original country-rock material. Overall, critics in attendance were quite impressed, and yet they remained baffled about where to place them. With the recent explosion created by Saturday Night Fever, the American music listeners weren’t searching for hayseed Kansans in cowboy hats.
In hindsight, if the band could have hung on for another couple of years, John Travolta, who had helped set the disco era in motion, would again turn the nation's musical ear around when he ushered in the Urban Cowboy craze. Sawdust Charley would surely have had their pick of venues after that. They might have even ridden that wave to fame and fortune. We will never know.
By early 1978, the constant struggle to survive had taken its toll. Ehrke lobbied, to no avail, that the band help backup a female singer with a more current sound, but the band made a mass exit. With Ehrke gone from the band, drummer John Dondlinger saw the writing on wall, and was the first to return to Kansas. The three remaining members recruited a drummer from Wichita with less than ideal results. However, songs written during this period show not only a more modern sound but a musical maturity lacking in their earlier compositions.
Webb returned to Kansas next, followed by Dobbin and lastly Ehrke. Feldner moved to Colorado and Ratzlaff resettled in Nashville. The Kansas coalition reformed as Redshirt and played in Wichita for several years.
Sawdust Charley was inducted into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame in 2016. Unfortunately, drummer Dondlinger and steel guitarist Ehrke passed away prior to the ceremony. Since the 2016 ceremony, guitarist Dobbin also has passed away.
The three remaining members continue to pursue music, and as of this writing, some 40 years later, they still look back with fondness, and when on occasion their tape is played, it not unusual to one of them say, “that’s a great song, it should have been a hit.”