Biography
It's Now Or Never
As Sawdust Charley was struggling to find a gig (i.e. starving) in California , they contacted their old booking agency in Kansas, and arranged to play the prestigious Cotillion Ballroom back in Wichita. The agency said they would find them gigs to cover their cost for the trip back to Wichita, and that it was likely that they would do very well at the big 2,000+ seat venue in their old home town. Although doing the tour meant that some of them would have to take a leave of absence, or quit their day jobs, the band members all agreed to do it.
Now here's where the "Chuck Luck" comes in. Shortly after they booked the tour back to Wichita, Gary Borman and company made their pitch to manage the band. They would manage them for 20% "from this point on" which meant that they'd be profiting from the tour back to Wichita. Since the band was already paying the Kansas booking agent 15%, they'd be giving up 35% of what was not going to be a lucrative trip. The band argued that there was not much 'managing' to be done while they were on the road, and they tried to get the Borman group to hold off until the band got back to California. But they wouldn't budge, saying it was now or never.
No one in the band liked the deal, and ultimately they walked away from it, but in retrospect it’s hard to argue that a little near-term pain might have been preferable to the end results. But regardless, it was now in the rear-view mirror and Sawdust Charley set out on the longest road trip of their career. In one year (including the trip to CA), they drove through every state west of the Mississippi River except 3!
Chucky's Big Ride
The trip included gigs in Bend, Oregon (Dobbin pronounced it ‘Bend O’er Again‘), Idaho Falls, Idaho, Salt Lake City, Utah, Missoula, Montana, and Lincoln, Nebraska. As they inched their way across a map of the great northwest, they found out that their good friends Tree Frog, were playing at the Park Hotel in Missoula, Montana, a week before they were scheduled to play there. They made an extra effort and got there in time to hear them play and hang out with them for a few days. They also found out about an upcoming festival that Tree Frog was scheduled to play around Wichita that might be perfect for Sawdust Charley as well.
Heroes and Zeros
The Cotillion show, which was the culmination of their journey, went off without a hitch, and old friends and long-time fans got to hear those favorite songs again.
At the festival show, things were not so smooth. Ehrke had booked a secret gig for the same night at the Stagedoor Inn in case the Festival fell through, but word got out and the band was forced to play both shows. They had to cut their last set short at the Stagedoor, and then drive 45 minutes to the festival, so they were a little late. The organizers met the band at the entrance and having sensed hostility from the crowd, told them they didn’t have to play after all. “We’ll just pay you your fee, and you don’t even have to perform.”, they said, but the band opted to play anyhow.
As soon as they took the stage, the catcalls and heckling started. The booing got so loud between songs, that one of the guys, having spotted some of the Tree Frog band members, drug them on stage, placing them behind members of Sawdust Charley. “See”, he implored the crowd, “Tree Frog stands behind us!” The crowd did not think it was funny, and responded with “Go back to California!”. So what the band had hoped would be another hero’s welcome on this trip, turned out to be an unexpectedly hostile reaction from a crowd who felt the band had betrayed them by moving to the west coast.
Ratzlaff, learning that his wife back in CA was having complications with her pregnancy, borrowed money to fly back while the rest of the band boarded their double-van convoy and headed back for the West Coast, another 1,000 miles away.