speats

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Roadmaster...perhaps the greatest 1970s arena rock band you've never heard of.

Wildly successful in their home state of Indiana during their '70s heyday, Roadmaster churned out four albums of inspired if unoriginal anthemic pomp rock a la Styx, Journey, and REO Speedwagon. Their 1978 breakthrough "Sweet Music" (released on the indie Village Records label) yielded them a deal with Mercury Records (which released their final two albums "Hey World" and "Fortress).

Sadly, despite touring the world as the go-to support act for many major bands of the day, Roadmaster's regional success did not translate to the national level and the group disbanded in early 1982.

Success however did not elude the band's bass player, Toby Myers, who went on to be John Mellencamp's bassist for nearly two decades. The band reunited briefly in the mid-'90s for a run of shows in their home state but any hopes of further activity were permanently dashed with the untimely passing of lead vocalist Stephen MacNally in 1998.

So you're probally asking why all my attention on this band?

Well, it goes like this: My brother and I were given a copy of their "Sweet Music" album when we were kids and it absolutely knocked us out. We spent many an afternoon air guitaring our way through that record with the same unbridled enthusiasm that greeted our well worn KISS, Styx, and Queen vinyl. Because nobody else had heard of the band never ever figured into the equation.

It was the music of the time...the kind of vapid happy-go-lucky type of rock that used to blair out of vans everywhere in my neighborhood and I suspect most of yours too (even if y'all were too young to recall the Summer of '79). At the risk of sounding like an old fart (one I'm willing to take), it was the kindler, gentler music of a one-phoneline-household-pre-internet age. And more over, the songs were (and are) damned good.

Sweet Music indeed.