At the time, Dora Wahl (who, like Casey Cosby, had also previously played the accordion) was the drummer for a 13-piece band called Brass Plus. Her 21st birthday present was tickets to a concert by Cream, where she got to sit directly above Ginger Baker’s drumset. Dora Wahl had become best friends with Carolyn Lee, the bass guitarist for Brass Plus, and recruited her for the new band. Lee was proficient at string bass and was just learning to play electric bass.
All of the songs on the Music Emporium album are original compositions, with 8 of the 10 being written or cowritten by Casey Cosby. Four of these were composed by Cosby with Thom Wade, who had been in Gentle Thursday. Dave Padwin contributed “Sun Never Shines”. Milt Bulian – who has worked in the field of education for decades and now lives in the Jacksonville, NC area – describes himself as a “groupie” for Music Emporium; he wrote “Times Like This” and had been a member of Brass Plus.
(October 2013)
