KNEES CALHOON
A Night at the Rodeway Inn of Roswell New Mexico
February 28, 1974
I unfortunately don't have a picture of the whole band known as Knees Calhoon that played for a couple of weeks at the Rodeway Inn back in 1974. It consisted of Diane McGowan on vocals, Fender Tucker on guitar, Bill Smith on bass and harmonica and Gary Nabors on drums. It was one of the first -- and last -- gigs we did as "Knees Calhoon". A few weeks earlier we had appropriated a big road sign and hired a sign painter to paint over with a nifty KNEES CALHOUN logo. The sign painter spelled it CALHOON and that's what it's been ever since. The band broke up not long after this job and Diane went to California and the rest of the guys stayed in Farmington and played for a while at Dizzieland until Fender left for college in Las Cruces in 1975. Bill and Gary played for many more years in Colorado.
The club owner insisted we play straight country & western music and we tried, but the times were a-changin', even in Roswell, and the crowd seemed to like the rock&roll we played. On our last night there we started "Leader of the Pack" with a huge old trunk on the stage, as Diane's ghostly voice echoed the song, although she wasn't on stage. Then, at a climactic moment, she burst out of the trunk dressed in a go-go outfit and brought the house down. Hey, it was show biz!
Fender Tucker -- After and Before the Decrepitude Set In