Blackfoot is an American Southern rock musical ensemble from Jacksonville, Florida organized during 1970. Though they are primarily a Southern rock band, they are also known as a hard rock act. The band’s classic lineup consisted of guitarist and vocalist Rickey Medlocke, guitarist Charlie Hargrett, bassist Greg T. Walker, and drummer Jakson Spires. They have had a number of successful albums during the 1970s and early 1980s, including Strikes (1979), Tomcattin’ (1980) and Marauder (1981). (More from Wikipedia)
The Southern hard rock band Blackfoot also has strong Native American roots and chose the band name to highlight this, though they are not so well known for their heritage as Redbone. The band is from Jacksonville, Florida, with two of the bandmembers – drummer and vocalist Rickey Medlocke (Sioux) and bass guitarist Greg T. Walker (Eastern Creek) – performing in a band called Fresh Garbage in the spring of 1969 with New York City native Charlie Hargrett (lead guitar) and Ron Sciabarasi (keyboards).
After Sciabarasi moved on by the fall, three members of a band called Tangerine – Jakson Spires (Cherokee) on drums and backing vocals, DeWitt Gibbs on keyboards and backing vocals, and Jerry Zambito on lead guitar – joined Rickey Medlocke (who by then had switched to playing guitar), Greg T. Walker and Charlie Hargrett in a new band called Hammer. When they learned that a West Coast band already had this name, the band changed its name to Blackfoot. After Rickey Medlocke and Greg T. Walker left the group in 1971 to join Lynyrd Skynyrd for a time, the band had a hiatus and then a series of personnel changes before settling into the line-up of Rickey Medlocke, Greg T. Walker, Jakson Spires and Charlie Hargrett.
In 1975, Blackfoot released its first album, No Reservations on Antilles Records; Flyin’ High came out on Epic Records the following year. In 1977, the manager of Black Oak Arkansas, Butch Stone hired Blackfoot as the backing band for Ruby Starr. She was a former back-up singer for Black Oak Arkansas who was emerging as a solo artist. Ruby Starr previously performed with a backing band called Grey Ghost.
Through their connections with the Michigan rock band Brownsville Station – best known for their 1973 hit “Smokin’ in the Boys Room” – the band recorded their most successful album Strikes in 1979. The album was engineered by the drummer for Brownsville Station, Henry Weck and was produced by their manager, Al Nalli.
Blackfoot front man Rickey Medlocke’s grandfather, bluegrass musician Shorty Medlocke (Blackfoot) wrote the band’s biggest hit single from this album, “Train, Train” and played harmonica on the song. Another track from this album, “Highway Song” was a hit later in 1979. Shorty Medlocke wrote and also performed on several other songs for the band – “Railroad Man” (on No Reservations), “Fox Chase” (on Tomcattin’) and “Rattlesnake Rock ’n’ Roller” (on Marauder).
Blackfoot has remained active over the years with a succession of bandmembers and has released 10 studio albums, plus 5 live albums including Fly Away (2011). Rickey Medlocke hand-picked a new line-up of Blackfoot in 2012.
(August 2013)
