The Top Cats

Got together in 65-66 with some kids in my 6th grade class at 5th Avenue Elementary School in East Northport, Long Island. No performances, no practices and one guitar between us. At our first meeting we listed 145 songs that we were gonna do. Among them were "Satisfaction", and "You Keep Me Hangin On", the Vanilla Fudge version(another Long Island band.)
After the first get-together the group was never mentioned again. Of the original members of the group: 
Roger Pase ran away from home and became a Scientologist 
David Schuster moved to upstate New York with his parents. 
Tom Taylor dropped out of sight. 
David Attivisimo joined the marines. 
Steve Lekutis went to college, dated girls and works on cars. 

Me and my friend Russel Bravatta put together a musical plea to sing to the principal of our junior high who had outlawed the students annual Hat-Day in 1967. This was a very important issue at the time. Russel now has a law degree and a family but chooses to be a minister somewhere in upstate New York. 

St Paul and the Apostles 

1968. Athens, Greece. My first European endeavor. We had one practice before I quit. They went on to be ridiculed. 
Perry Fairchild moved away and was never heard from. 
Norbert Minch is serving a life sentence for trying to kill his weird family. 
Tom Brenner moved to Belgium and played on the Little League All-stars.
Chris Cleveland joined Yesterdays Beginning with Rod Spearin and Steve Girardi who had the longest hair in the school.
Gary Simon joined Monty Pythons Flying Circus. 

Also in 1968 and 69. First serious band with over 26 cover songs. Played a couple sub-teen dances but gave up after being humiliated. While playing the music for a game of musical chairs, guitarist Rick Rock Miller missed a hand signal and kept on playing after the rest of us had stopped sending the children into a state of total confusion. It was a miracle no one was seriously injured. Our greatest moment was playing "Land of 1000 Dances" with The Blues Period at a teen dance at the air base. Tried to get American Youth Center Sub-teen President Paul Ford into the band to assure us of gigs but teaching him to play bass proved to be a difficult task and the group broke up in dismay.
Rick Miller became Parthenon Huxley and is a big star in LA and plays in ELO
Tim Aquilinna is a rock star like me with a new album.
Chuck Miller auxiliary member owns a foreign car service in Hillsborough called Millersport. Very reasonable. Also a key member of the Ruse. 

1970. Same line-up as above with the addition of Scott Tevon who moved to Athens from Ghana and had a pet chameleon who later died. Scott survived and moved to Chicago to form a blues band. 

1970. Original incarnation formed on Australian terrorist Barry Furler's roof with a few grams of really great hash, a movie camera, a tape recorder, a bunch of instruments and a pair of vacationing parents. The film of this session is worth millions and will one day resurface. Also performed once at the American Youth Center with totally avant-garde approach that was way ahead of it's time.
Christopher Christ is a legendary insurance agent in Seattle. 
Barry Furler is a well known sheep herder in Adelaide. 
Peter Christ was the drummer for Kiss but now roots for the Golden State Warriors 
Ed Leight is a ruthless land developer in a city near you. 

Visit the Official CC Bluesking Website

Jesus Christ Superstar

1971. My first foray into theatre. A special role was written into the play for me. I played a tree and though I had no spoken lines my character was on-stage the entire show. 

CC Blues King

1972. Live version featuring the Christ brothers, Rick Miller and the Rodent bros. (from Chicago.) Through self promotion and deceit amassed an enormous following among our friends and played several dances before being banished from the music scene. Famous for driving out the entire audience from the American Youth Center at a quarter to twelve at the New Years Eve dance, a feat that has never been equaled. We opened the door for several generations of talentless rock bands who believed Iggy was God and Lou Reed was a poet. For our grand finale loaded the band with talented ringers for last day of high school farewell performance and fooled many students into wishing they had liked us from the start. Played one reunion gig at the airbase where we were affectionately showered with pieces of hot dogs. It was this performance that Rick paid tribute to in the song "Bhudda Bhudda" with the line"...our worlds are the same...hot dogs and jet planes".

1974-5. Tried to cash in on the Leslie West and Mountain craze by continuous practicing and eating.

1975. With Rick Miller in Chapel Hill. Traditional approach to the blues after realizing someone had to save a vanishing art form and if it wasn't us then someone else would get all the money. Finally gave up after realizing that we only knew one song with a lot of different words. 

1978-80. Under the strong arm of producer Don Dixon came out with a snappy pop EP that lashed out at several former girlfriends. With a cryptic cover and title that we didn't figure out the meaning of until several years later we set the college radio on it's ear by giving away nearly 500 copies and selling almost none. Recently this collectors item of a record was offered for sale at the price of $2500. Unfortunately nobody bought it. In fact nobody even called me. 

1982. Chapel Hills first super-group featuring me, Rick and two unknowns, bass player Zoe Lagergren and scientist drummer Dr. Scott Schwartzwelder. Utilizing the media tricks we learned in high school we were met with instant success and built up a following that followed us from our gigs to the wild parties that followed. By using a scientific formula developed by Dr. Scott we discovered the key to sounding modern was by practicing very little and playing very loud. We also discovered that by having a band open for us we could have twice as many people in the audience. It was through this generous practice that young Dexter Romwebber got his start. With the success of the Police it was decided that our future was that of a three-piece. Straws were drawn and mine came up short. Sadly I took my leave but when the other three could not decide on a leader I was invited back. We set off on a series of terrible gigs and by the time we split up nobody was sure if there had ever been a band. 

1983. Second version. Formed to back up the Dots on their North Carolina tour. We practiced for 2 months and did 4 gigs. When we finished our last show we never even talked to each other until several years had passed. Led by the keyboard Wizardry of J. Reynolds Smith we passed unnoticed through the history of North Carolina music. 

1988. With the help and inspiration of famed DOT bass player Leigh Sioris, recorded this underground classic in an orgy of pot and retsina with Wes Lachot at Overdub Lane Studios. Released as a single with esoteric cover that confused buying public who instead flocked to REM. Sold a few to my friends and gave the rest away to the dregs of society who don't have the money to waste on records: reviewers, A&R people and record company executives. 

1990. Recorded my cassette-demo masterpiece, produced by Paul Price but despite rave reviews in the Scandinavian press and the inclusion of a free blank side it went un-noticed by most of the general public.

Lonesome and Adrift

After this I embarked on a series of commercial ventures that metamorphised into my current incarnation of Matt Barrett, "lonesome folksinger". Since the beginning of 1992 nearly 300 people have seen me play, (though 280 of them had actually come to hear Nikki Meets the Hibachi.) I also hold the record for the smallest audience for a performance, 0, which I have done twice, once at the Cave and once in Montreal at a bar called Hell's Kitchen, a scant 3 blocks from the home of my hero Leonard Cohen. (Luckily he wasn't there that night.) I have done benefits for causes I was totally against, just to play in front of people and I have several dozen great songs that are worth a million dollars to anyone but me. I have been banned from playing the Hardback for being too folky and I have been banned from playing at the Station for being too loud. I have opened for Al Stewart, the Indigo Girls, Rick Danko, Chandler Travis, Jonathan Richman, Eugene Chadbourn, Aztec Two Step, Junior Brown, Roger Manning and Parthenon Huxley and not one of them have called me to ask how I've been doing lately. 

But they really liked me in Greece.