Blue Ash Biography

Formed in Ohio in the summer of 1969 when bassist Frank Secich asked Jim Kendzor (a singer he knew) if he'd like to start a band. Guitarist Bill Yendrek and drummer David Evans were recruited in August and they debuted at a club called "The Freak Out" in Youngstown on October 3, 1969. They gained loyal following playing an endless stream of one-nighters over that year. In October 1970, Bill Yendrek, was replaced by guitarist/songwriter Bill "Cupid" Bartolin.

Blue Ash continued playing 250-300 dates a year throughout Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and West Virginia, while songwriting team Frank Secich and Bill Bartolin accumulated and enormous amount of original material. In June of 1972, Blue Ash signed a production contract with Peppermint Productions of Youngstown and started recording and sending out demos. In late 1972, they were signed to Mercury Records. Their first album "No More, No Less" was released in May, 1973 and received rave reviews in the rock press. It is considered a power pop classic, and is regarded as highly collectable among fans of that genre (it has yet to appear on CD). Blue Ash toured and opened for such acts as the Stooges, Bob Seger, Aerosmith, Ted Nugent and more but for lack of sales they were dropped by Mercury in May, 1974.

Blue Ash continued to play live and record adding drummer Jeff Rozniata, who replaced David Evans in 1974. They were signed to a singles deal with Playboy Records in 1977. The first 45 "Look At You Now" became a regional hit in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Mississippi, as well as in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Playboy then offered an lp deal. The LP "Front Page News" was recorded in Los Angeles in August of 1977 and released in October of that year. It was selling well but in early 1978 Playboy International pulled the plug on Playboy Records and Blue Ash was once again without a label. They called it quits in 1979.

A few audience-recorded live tapes of the band exist (including one of the original lineup from January 31, 1974 at the Packard Music Hall in Warren OH) but are of generally poor recording quality. Other tapes, recorded by a fan who followed Blue Ash to many of their gigs, are rumored to exist but have yet to surface on the collectors' circuit.

In the summer of 2003 original members Frank Secich,( now rhythm guitar) David Evans, Bill Bartolin and Jim Kendzor got together privately in Ohio to play once again. They decided to reform the band. On November 8 they played the International Pop Overthrow at the Khyber Club in Philadelphia.

In the late 1990s, renewed interest toward the band was given a boost as a large cache of unreleased Blue Ash recordings fell into circulation amongst collectors. In the summer of 2004 a legitimate release of that material -- a two CD retrospective called "Around Again" -- was released on Not Lame Records. It contains 44 songs of unreleased material spanning their career.

Blue Ash, which also now includes former members Brian Wingrove (piano), Jeff Rozniata (drums) and with the addition of (bassist) Bobby Darke plan to record and play again in 2005. (edit)

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