HORNING IN ON SUMMERTIME

The Fabulous HornDogs Shine On
By Deborah Cole
Sun contributor

Let’s just get the rumors dispelled right off. The band is not splitting up. And Paul is definitely not dead. In fact Paul Kuepfer, former trumpet man for The Fabulous HornDogs is back to stay, and very much alive. For just a couple of weeks more The Fabulous HornDogs is an eight-piece band with two trumpets. Newt Cole, saxophone player and the leader of the band, was excited at the prospect of a larger horn section because it would allow for the addition of a baritone sax to the mix. “But you need at least four horns to cover all the parts,” he explained.
Trumpet player Chuck Navyac will be leaving the band in September, heading for Ann Arbor to continue his education, and so the band membership returns to seven. But Newt has not dropped the baritone sax idea. In fact he’s been beefing up his lip on his piano-sized bass sax, and making sounds about adding it to the horn mix.
Those who made it to the Dunegrass Festival August 5 of this year, and heard the Dogs there, may have noticed a few new original tunes in their repertoire. In early spring of this year the group recorded their first original song, Summertime Shoes, which began with lyrics passed by Deb Cole to guitar player Mike Marois, in an effort to “light a fire”. Mike added some lyrics of his own and took the tune to a rhythm sectional at the home of bass player Joe Williams, and then to the complete band. The result was a tune with great driving rhythm, sort of a rock and roll rap, that brought audiences to their feet. Soon after that, Joe had written another fast moving tune, “Surely Got Me,” which seemed to fuel the horn section into action. Trombonist Jimmy Gallagher wrote three songs, Free HBO, Cage of Love, and Had a Good Day before the arrival of summer threw the band into the maelstrom of back-to-back performances that won’t end until summer does.
Until that happens, the band is having fun blasting out with four horns. “Summer crowds are fun to play for. They like to get up and dance their socks off,” said keyboard player Tim Wire, “but the local fans are the best of all.” Wire should know. He was off on a whirlwind tour through the French Riviera with Blues Legend Son Seals last month. “The French love the American Blues,” he wrote on a postcard that arrived two weeks after he returned home, “but I can’t wait to get back and blow some notes with the Dogs!”
The Dogs all say that the Goodbye Fudgie Blast (at the Cove in Leland on Monday, September 4) is the best of both (next to the Dunegrass) “It’s outside, it’s still summer, it’s all our friends, and they’re out there celebrating having survived the summer,” said Newt. “We’re all celebrating our survival of the summer!”
But, anticipation is a good thing. It keeps the spirit afire. And the band is excited about their in-progress all-original CD, and about the opportunity, finally, to complete it this fall. There are rumors about a reggae tune in the works, something about a tiki bar hidden somewhere in the dunes.
“It is happening,” promised Mike Marois. “This is a group that loves to work together, but it’s a big group and that can make it hard. The great thing is, we all have these wonderful, creative ideas, and somebody will just toss something out and somebody else will grab on and run with it — you never know where it will go. We’re definitely going to have something special when it’s finished.”