Bassist Dave Talley is more than just a fine musician and a wild and crazy guy. He is also the tape archivist for Free The Music and all things related to The Groove and Rich Lerner. Dave has been the bass player for this band from the very beginning and his collection of live recordings, out-takes and rehearsal tapes is  extensive. As keeper of the keys to the vault, Dave
will share his thoughts here on the web-site about  special performances and recordings. We'll make sound clips available here on-line and make some recordings available for purchase on CD in limited edition quantities.

We love the album "Sweet Tea" by Buddy Guy and often listen to it during breaks or set up time.
The album starts with a great solo acoustic tune called "Done Got Old" and then the rest of the album is heavy electric in your face blues/rock. It was Rich's idea to take that lone acoustic tune and give it an
electric band treatment for The Groove. This September 2002 rehearsal recording is from the first time we worked out our arrangement for the song.
It has the spook.

Dave's Rave's  Vol. 1- “ Napoleon in Rags “ CD

Almost ten years ago, in the late fall of 1990, Rich Lerner and his band which was then called “Down In The Groove” recorded a batch of Bob Dylan covers. The project was never intended to be released as an album. The idea was to make a promo tape that could be used as a free give away and also used as a demo for booking club dates. We were playing a lot at the time and much of our audience was unaware that a lot of the songs we performed were written by Bob Dylan.

To play live club gigs, you have to be willing and able to jam. You have to rock and roll and kick some ass. This was a line up of the band that did just that. Listening to the tapes now, in retrospect, this line up gets a sound close to the way Dylan sounded with with G E Smith although our stick man, Mike Blakeney, was more of a Winston Watson type drummer. This recording shows how Dylan's music can be made into a very hot set of barroom rock and roll.

Free The Music made this recording available on cd for the first time to commemorate the 10th anniversary of it's original recording date. This is available  in a limited edition quantity over the web site only. Here is some history behind the “ Napoleon in Rags “ recording session.

Thomas Rowan recorded “Napoleon in Rags” on November 26th, 1990 at The Sound Lab Recording Studio in Greensboro, N.C. Tom has been the man in the control room for all of the Rich Lerner albums on the Rockduster label. The session was engineered and mixed by Tom. There really wasn't any production at all as we just recorded everything live. The lineup of musicians on this session features the original members of Rich Lerner & Down in the Groove from 1989 to 1992. They are as follows: Rich Lerner- Guitar & Vocals, Dave Talley- Bass Guitar, Craig Pannell- Lead Guitar & Vocals, and Mike Blakeney- Drums. The songs, all written by Bob Dylan, include:
Track 1- Absolutely Sweet Marie
2- In the Garden
3- When You Gonna Wake Up
4- Serve Somebody
5- Union Sundown
6- Forever Young
7- Slow Train Comin'
8- Like a Rolling Stone
9- When the Night Comes Fallin'
10- Man Gave Names To All the Animals
11- Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)

All the songs were recorded live in the studio- just drums, bass, and two guys with Fender Stratocasters. From my notes, everything was recorded between 3:00pm and 11:30pm with one dinner break. Rich was in the studio recording “ Village of Chance in Motion “ his 1990 release for Rockduster Records. He used many different local studio musicians and also his live band. “Napoleon in Rags” is an extremely accurate representation of what the live band sounded like. As a matter of fact, we played the songs just like we did in our live shows. We never intended to release these songs, we just wanted a really good quality recording to have on tape to give to the club owners. 

We started Down in the Groove in February 1989. The name was later shortened to The Groove in 1991. I came up with the name in the parking lot of one of our first gigs. Obviously taken from the Dylan album “Down in the Groove”, the name seemed to fit us well. We started out with Mike and Craig as a Bob Dylan cover band playing in local clubs. Our first gig consisted of 25 Dylan covers and 3 other covers, with none of Rich's originals played. 1989 was a very busy year for us. We played a lot of shows, fine tuning our live thing, and working on new songs. In 1990 we took a break so Rich could record “Village of Chance in Motion”, although we did do some live shows. When we did “ Napoleon in Rags “, it was more than anything, just for us. It was one of those “Let's go in the studio and play live just like we do at the show” moments that every band dreams of. It was way cool and somehow it sounds even better now.

Sadly enough, in 1993, our friend and musical brother Mike Blakeney died way too soon. His last show with The Groove was December 5th, 1992. Mike was also known as “ The Rock “ to all of his musician friends because of his rock solid drumming. He and I had a very special relationship onstage and off. When we were playing I felt locked into everything he was doing on the drums. It's like we were one rhythm unit being played by two people. I've only felt that way with one other person, and that's my brother Sam Seawell, the current drummer for the Groove. We would all like to dedicate this disc to the memory of Mike Blakeney and all the great jams we had playing with him. He was truly a wonderful and unique person and a gifted musician. we will always miss him and never forget him. These performances show off his unique style of drumming with Craig's aggressive playing at it's best on “ Napoleon in Rags “ and add in a little slippery bass plus Rich's unique phrasing and strong rhythm and you have cooked up some serious rock and roll stew.
Enjoy…. Peace, Love and Free The Music,
Dave