COTTONWOOD BIO
Dan Jones
“There’s a whistle up above and people pushing, people shoving, and the girls they try to look SHITTY”, were the words I used to sing when we’d play “Takin’ Care of Business” by Bachman Turner Overdrive. Yep, I had a bit of an attitude, but most of us do when we’re young and trying to be rock ‘n’ roll stars. I’ll never forget one of my first gigs with Cottonwood during a fourth of July celebration at the Inkom, Idaho City Park in 1975. I was informed that this was going to be a great outside party blowout celebration so I showed up with my guitar in hand, my amp, my 2 cases of beer, and wearing a t-shirt my lovely girlfriend, soon to be wife, got me while she was vacationing in the Virgin Islands. The t-shirt caption read “Try A Virgin Island”. As soon as I got out of Alex’s van one of the event’s promoters wearing an Uncle Sam’s red, white, and blue hat, (what an ASSHOLE!), approached me and informed me that I would not be able to play unless I changed the t-shirt due to its provocative suggestion and nature. To appease the gentleman, I turned the shirt inside-out and to this day that gig will always be remembered as the “nigriV A yrT” party. This was only 1 of many LDS party and church dances we would eventually play. However, we always had trouble with our volume at the church events, most of it due to my loud guitar and our rock ‘n’ roll repertoire. Eventually the church dance organizers began scrutinizing our song lyrics and so, needless to say, we wore out our welcome at LDS sponsored events.
We soon started playing club gigs, university parties, private parties, and high school dances that we often booked ourselves or got through various booking agents. Remember, this was at the height of the disco era and given that Pocatello, Idaho, our home base at the time, is and was the gay-disco-drag queen capital of Idaho, and because we were a rock band we often had trouble securing jobs at home so, staying true to our genre, we hit the road and logged thousands of miles throughout Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, and Oregon playing wherever we could. I believe Alex actually went as far as Rapid City, South Dakota to play a club job. Moreover, who could forget the Grand Targhee sorority party we played. We were really excited to play until we found out that this was a sorority reunion and most of the participants were in the 60 year age group. You had to admire them, however, because they all went skinny dipping after the party and who could forget the One-Eyed-Serpent.
We really became tight as a band mainly due to our commitment to rock music and our endless hours of practice to the point that we could anticipate each others next move, and so 4 or 5 hour club gigs became effortless especially with our growing song repertoire. You could also say that we became brothers, a tight knit family that would often argue to the point of fisticuffs and then make each others and club owners ears bleed; however, we developed a bond and friendship that only true band members can appreciate.
At the end of the disco era we were considered one of the top rock bands in Southeast Idaho. We played prestigious clubs in the area that were typically reserved for only the top road bands. Unfortunately, all things must come to an end and the Cottonwood Band was no exception. I will always cherish the memories with these guys that I consider my Brothers.
