Les Dudek interview for Bands Of Dixie (archive, 2014)

In 1973, Les Dudek made a name for himself because of his guitar work on the famous "Brothers And Sisters" where he played on the two albums gems. One might also wonder whether if we would sumptuously celebrate, in 2013, the 40th anniversary of this record if Les Dudek hadn't been there? But 2013 also sees the release of a new album after more than ten years of waiting ... and what an album! A delight from start to finish! The career of the Florida biker is rich in many projects and we would have had a thousand questions to ask him... priority to the Macon period, to his solo career and especially this "Delta Breeze" which we don't want to wait ten more years for enjoy its successor!

English version of Bands Of Dixie interview with Les Dudek.

Les Dudek - Live At Trod Nozzle (1978)

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Excellent, albeit short, performance by Les Dudek on this SBD recording from 1978. Live at Trod Nossel Studios in the same year as he would release 'Ghost Town Parade', this is something of a must-have alright. The quality of the recording is pretty good, but the best part: of the five songs played here, only one song ever made it onto any LP/CD. These are the kind of treasures I crave. Makes me wonder whether there might be unreleased demos out there? More SBD's? Anyway, what we have here is a wonderful little show, obviously very well played and it features some great songs. It kicks off with 'Me & My Guitar', a funky tune with nice vocals. 'City Magic' from his debut album follows and is done nicely. Next up 'The Night It Snowed In San Fransisco', of which Les says he hopes it will make his next album (it didn't) and it's a track that would do beautifully (small wonder?) in an Allman Brothers live set. Then we get a Les rendition of the Blues classic 'Red House'. Nice. Rounding up this recording is a song called 'Street Sweeper', a short instrumental. All in all, this is the kind of thing that makes me want to write a blog ;) I'm hoping this post will have people start digging out their collections for more of Les, SBD's and demos? That would be great! Street sweeper...

The Dudek, Finnigan, Krueger Band - Live (1978)

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In 1980 Les Dudek, with the help of Mike Finnigan and Jim Krueger, released the terrific album "DFK". Before that, being all signed by Columbia at the time, they already toured together. And making some fine music on the road, as you can tell by getting yourself this splendid live recording. Not a lot of live Les Dudek out there, I'm afraid. But this makes up for that. It's a FM broadcast for WPIX, recorded in 1978. Great sound, great songs, great musicians. Really, it's all great (such a fine word). And I just love hearing Les pick that guitar of his. And the Mike Finnigan songs are very good as well. As are Jim Krueger's. So, how could there be any stopping you from getting this now? Merry Christmas all! Enjoy some City Magic...

Black Rose - Black Rose (1980)

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Black Rose was a band which featured Cher on vocals and her then boyfriend Les Dudek on guitar and vocals. Their only release was this 1980 album for Casablanca Records. If you read about this album and were expecting an album similar to "Allman & Woman - Two The Hard Way", then you're in for a surprise. Not sure it'll be a pleasant one, though. This album has none of the flash of the Les Dudek albums. Instead it's a Power Pop exercise on which Cher gets to rock out some. It's not bad, just not terribly good either. I prefer the soulful sounds of her album with Gregg anytime. But since I'm a sucker for Les Dudek, I just had to complete my collection. So, are there any good Les Dudek songs on here? Hmm, sort of. Actually, he only gets to sing lead vocals on one track, a duet called "You Know It". I like that song, and it would fit nicely as a bonus track on his "Gypsy Ride" album. So, for that you should get this. Tricky move to start an album with a song entitled "Never Should've Started". For completists only..

Les Dudek - Les Dudek & Polar Bear (1974)

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Speaking of recommendations, I recommended Les Dudek the other month. But I couldn't upload, since everything is commercially available. Everything? Well, not quite.
These recordings are from The Record Plant - Sausalito, California, when Les was playing with a band called Polar Bear. This was a live in the studio setting, I guess. The source seems to have been a cassette tape, so it's a little slurry sounding at times. But not that bad. Not hardly bad enough to spoil the fun of hearing Les doing Les before we knew of him. Knowing that, it's actually quite a nice sounding recording. Well, funk me.

Recommendation of the month

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Alright, this time I would like to suggest to you all to play some Les Dudek. Or maybe buy some of his cd's. Les Dudek's cd's all are rather funky affairs. Like Les' debut album with the wonderful parrot cover.


But things really started cooking on Les' third outing, Ghost Town Parade. Truly one of southern rock's finest offerings.


On Gypsy Ride Les toughened up even more. Alle Les Dudek is very funky and has great guitar playing a plenty. These records have all been released on Wounded Bird Records, and are easily available.


The sun is shining. Get a tan!