The Huron Expositor, 1998-02-04, Page 17111 -THE !MOON EXPOSNTOR. February 4, 11/011
• Former Ronnie Hawkins' drummer now fossil
Still rocking after all those years
BY GREGOR CAMPBELL
Expositor Staff
He's one of The fossils but
still kicking after all these
years.
Jerry Baird of Stanley
Township, near Brucefield,
has been drumming, singing
and making music for 38
years now.
His dad, Stewart, was a
drummer. That's how Jerry
got pointed in the direction,
when he was six. Since then
he's been all over the place, a
third of the way around the
world at least three times,
including 14 countries in, 41
days by train in the late
1980s with The Hawks.
Those legendary Hawks
are, or were, Ronnie
Hawkins' backup band. '
Baird had been their beat
for the past 15 or 16 year,
until "The Hawk" stopped
touring last year.
So some of those Hawks -
Baird and a good friend for
20 years, bass guitarist Terry
Danko (brother of Rick
Danko, now deceased, of The
Band fame), keyboardist
Brent Bailey and lead gui-
tarist Buzz Thompson - have
teamed up with another well-
known and travelled pair of
musicians, The Partland
Brothers.- G.P and Chris,
who play acoustic guitar and
sing - to form this latest
group, The fossils. •
They've been working on
their first CD, of the same
name, since last April. It's
being released later this
month, officially with a little
launch party on Feb. 25 at the
Phoenix Club in Toronto.
The name of the location is
apt for the musicians in this
band, all of whom are -in their
• 50s, or pushing it.
Baird, 52, has seen a lot of
trends come and go since he
started playing about four
decades ago in one -room
schools after community
euchres in Huron County,
with his brother Orrin on sax-
ophone, in a band called the
Delrays.
"My feeling of music is
there is nothing new out
there," Jerry says. "The guys
in the band sometimes joke
that you never get a chance to
retire in this business. The
only time you get off is when
you die, and even then you
have to give two weeks
notice.
"'It's all just a big story'
like Levon Helm says."
ON THE ROAD
Up until last year, Baird fig-
ures he averaged about seven
months of the year on the
road. He guesses he's
appeared on about 35
records.
He went to SS #I0 in
Stanley, but dropped out of
high school early.
After the Delrays (1959 to
62) there was the Oopiks, a
folk trio that put out four or
five singles, and got some air
play. Among other stops, he
has done stints with Blood,
Sweat and Tears, and Jack
Scott`("What in the World
Came Over You" - once con-
sidered one of the big three,
along with Elvis Presley and
Johnny Cash). There was The
Ring, and a whole bunch of
"Yankee bar bands."
In the heyday of rhythm
and blues, from about 1966
to 69, Jerry and his brother
Orrin both played with The
New Beaukeys, a 14 -piece all
-white hand that toured "the
mid -western negro circuit,"
the only white hand to do so.
He hacked up strippers for
two or three years. hut
doesn't go near strip clubs
these days.
"I've seen enough of it
from behind," Baird says.
It was in the late 60s he also
first ran into Danko. They
were in a group called
Barefoot.
Carl Perkins was a rock and
roll original who died early
this year. '
Jerry worked with him
back in 1965.
"I was honoured and privi-
leged," he says. "He was a
gentleman, through and
through."
'KISSED THE LAMA'
Baird's longest stand, so
far, was with Hawkins and
the Hawks, famed in these
parts.
Among their many, many
gigs, they played Nathan
Phillips Square in Toronto
every New Year's Eve for
about a decade.
Around the time the Berlin
Wall came down they were
on their whirlwind tour of
Europe by train.
In Gdansk, Poland the
group played in front of
250,000 people, in a concert
broadcast by Sky (British)
television to an estimated 38 -
million.
"Big time," as the Hawk
used to say.
"I've been high to the
mountain top, kissed the
Lama and got hack," as Jerry
puts it.
He thinks "emotion" may
he in for a comeback in pop-
ular music, and says The fos-
sils have tried to keep their
new CD "as live and off the
CONTINUED on Page 15.
DRUMMING UP A STORM WITH THE HAWKS
PHOTO BY GREGOR CAMPBELL
BACK TO HIS ROOTS HERE IN HURON - Jerry Baird has been a lot of places and seen
a lot of things in his 38 years in the music business. He is a drummer, as was his late
father Stewart. Jerry's latest group is called The fossils and their first CD is being
released later this month in Toronto.
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