SaddleTramp back to Grease Brothers

  This is the story - about SaddleTramp - that has had several different names and a varied list of musicians over the years.

  Once the name was Grease Brothers, and it has been revived for a CD now in production.

  "We're not sure of the title yet," said Rusty Griffin, one of the executive producers along with Phil Anaya, Tim Allen, Joe Lykins and Josh Harrison for the Kaiser-Chadwick Associates. "Thoughts are 'Desert Song' or 'The Setting Sun.'"

  Several musicians from earlier days with SaddleTramp have come together to make recordings of original music for the CD.

  Among them are Phil Anaya on bass guitar; Danny Vanak, Joe Lykins and Tab Wilcox, drums; Tim Allen and Rusty Griffin on guitars at different sessions. Lykins also played fiddle and sang.

  Jerry Rosner, one of the originals, took some time off his gigs with Slick Nickel to play guitar with his old Tramp buddies.

  "We pulled some of the harmonica recordings made by the late Ray Carl to add to the CD," Griffin said.

  "Mattie Figueroa, who sang with us a few years back, is writing a song with me from her home in San Diego," Griffin said. "She'll sing the bluegrass number. Vanak will play snare, Anaya bass, Jeff McVey acoustic guitar, while I'll play mandolin, dobra and banjo. We'll have 14 tunes in all."

   Rewind: Griffin had played guitar  back in the nation's capital. After his reluctant move to Yuma, he, Roy Harper and Billy Walker formed a rock band called Tuskey Brothers.

  "Even Keith Lewis, a Kofa  student, joined us a couple times playing piano," Griffin said.

    In 1972 Griffin and Anaya put their musical talents together to entertain around Yuma.

   Each had played with other bands from high school years.

   Griffin was a "newcomer" from Washington, D.C., and attended Kofa High when his family moved to Yuma.

   Anaya was home-grown and attended Yuma High School - different backgrounds, but their music blended into being dubbed the Grease Brothers one time.

   SaddleTramp was on the road since 1979, playing at clubs in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and Wyoming. Looking back, Anaya and Griffin recalled the days of the honky tonks and fatigue.

  "Pluses on the experiences were performing with big-names in country music - Hank Williams, Jr., Jon Anderson, Garth Brooks, the Marshall Tucker Band, Asleep at the Wheel and Rodney Crowell," Griffin said.

  "We'll never forget our sound man, Robert Saint John 'Toad' Newhard. He was great! We didn't have  to do anything for a show - just plug into what he had set up. We lost him three years ago when he had a massive heart attack," Griffin said.

   In the little studio, SaddleTramp old-timers enjoy posters of their idols. "We liked Elvis, Bob Dylan and the Beatles," Anaya said.

  There's a dozen or more guitars, a keyboard and more memorabilia. The Grease Brothers - Griffin and Anaya - are both married, have children and  work for Shay Oil.

  "There are lots of memories, and we've entertained for many fundraisers, the rodeo dances, private parties and for fun," Anaya said.

  "Getting the CD produced is not SaddleTramp's last ride. It's another beginning, Griffin said.

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Pam M. Smith can be reached at psmith@yumasun.com or 539-6856.