Horndog Newt Cole is still Fabulous
By Norm Wheeler
Sun editor
This story proves the adage: Old musicians don’t disappear, they just change keys. Long time local musician/band leader Newt Cole and wife Deb sold their house in Florida and have returned to Leelanau County to stay. And already Newt has re-configured The Fabulous Horndogs with both former and newer cats and is revving up crowds around the area.
Newt Cole’s musical journey started way back in Royal Oak Public School when he was in sixth grade and someone handed him an alto sax. He started taking lessons, and then his family moved to Franklin for his first two years of junior high school. “I played in the school marching and concert bands, and the material we played was horrible!” Newt remembers. “This was before bands played Top 40 and Beatles stuff. We’d march the wrong way on purpose because it was all so boring.” Newt remembers that the band sat in a U-shape in the rehearsal room, and his clarinet-playing friend sat across from him. “We didn’t like our director, so we’d honk out wrong notes back and forth just to see how pissed he’d get! After that experience, I put the horn away for two years.”
Thankfully, that wasn’t the end of Newt and music. “During my junior year of high school a friend said, ‘we’re starting a band, and we heard you can play sax.’” Newt joined the group and played everything by ear. “I never read a note after that,” he recalls. His family moved to Leelanau County in 1969, and by 1976 he had started the acclaimed Newt and the Salamanders band, with Tim Sparling on piano, Mike Marois on guitar, Bob Pavelek on trumpet, Fred Greenleaf on bass, and Jeff Forton on drums. “Our first gig was at the Marine Bar in Northport.” Trombone virtuoso Bugs Beddow from Detroit showed up and sat in. “After that he was in the band too!” At that time the group was trying to figure out a name. “Was it gonna be Bugs and the Insects, or Newt and the Salamanders? So we flipped a coin.”
Newt and the Salamanders performed for 10 years all around Michigan. At least 60 different musicians passed through the band during that decade. “I quit counting at 60!” Newt laughs. In 1986, he joined the Jellyroll Blues Band. “They were a Boyne City band that was group-managed, and they wanted a leader. Once when Jellyroll was playing Lizards in East Lansing, we were just a couple of blocks away, so I went over there to hear them. I really enjoyed listening to them, and when Craig Statmiller and Graham Fineout asked me to join, I said, ‘Yea.’” With the Jellyroll Blues band, Newt played a lot at Sportsman’s Bar in Boyne City, but also in college towns all around Michigan, including Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, East Lansing, and Ann Arbor. They also played at several Dunegrass & Blues Music Festivals in Empire.
It almost all ended one fateful day in 1997. Newt was at his day job in the office at BATA in Traverse City. He suddenly had a heart attack. “I started seeing black spots that kept getting bigger until all I saw was black. The next thing I remember I was seeing a ring of heads all around me like in a football huddle saying ‘He’s waking up!’” The emergency responders had zapped Newt with the AED pads to restart his heart. He had spent five years driving for BATA, plus going to NMC and playing with a new band, The Horndogs. “I was pretty worn out,” he admits.
In 1999, Newt and Deb moved to Florida. “We came back here each summer until the money ran out, then just stayed in Florida starting in 2004.” Fellow musician Graham Fineout had quit The Rollers and moved to Florida as well. “So, we started playing with the Cobalt Blues Band in Matlacha. We had the amazing Beer Bottle Bobby on guitar. When he was killed in a motorcycle accident, the band broke up. So, Graham and I recorded some drum and bass tracks and played along as the Palm Tones. Then Deb (Beyala) and the Dynamics heard our duo, we found a drummer, and soon became a 7-piece band with three horns that played at Doc Fords every Sunday from 1–4.” Then in 2021, Newt and Deb decided to move back to their house near Empire for good.
The latest version of The Fabulous Horndogs debuted July 9 at the Hofbrau in Interlochen, then played a private party the next night. Their two-night run (July 16–17) at Encore 201 in Traverse City (corner of Cass and Front) is already sold out for both nights! The band features Newt on Sax, Joe Williams on bass, Jim Murphy on drums, Mike Marois on guitar, Tim Wire on keyboards, and Billy Gauthier on trombone. Bob Pavelek sometimes joins in with his trumpet. “We are stickin’ around and lookin’ for gigs,” vows Newt. So stay tuned, blues band fans, and watch the local venues for Newt Cole and The Fabulous Horndogs’ upcoming gigs.
