Newt Cole, Fabulous Horndogs headline Old Settlers Concert in the Park
From staff reports
The Glen Lake Community Church Men’s Group’s annual Concert in the Park benefit features Newt Cole and the Fabulous Horndogs with the Burdickville Boys as the opening act on Saturday, July 8, from 6-9 pm at Old Settlers Park on the east side of Big Glen Lake.
The concert raises money to support the Empire Area Community Center Emergency Fund and Leelanau HelpLink, a ministry of Glen Lake Church. Both charities work cooperatively to identify and support local neighbors in need. A “free-will offering” will be taken during the intermission. Both cash and checks made out to “HelpLink” will be accepted. The concert program will also contain a QR code that will allow donations to be made using credit cards or PayPal. All donations are tax deductible and will be split evenly between the two organizations.
Attendees are encouraged to bring their own lawn chairs or blankets, picnics and drinks. Food will not be sold at the concert. Limited parking will be available at Old Settlers, but guests are encouraged to park at the Glen Lake Community Church, a half mile south on MacFarlane Road. Free bus transportation between the church and Old Settlers will be provided, beginning at 5:30 pm.
Horndogs return
Excerpted from our July 2022 story
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.
Burdickville Boys jam in Mike’s garage
Back around 2010 Mike and his brother Greg and cousin Chuck O’Connor began playing guitars together in Mike’s garage on Tuesday nights. They called themselves the Burdickville Brothers. Soon their friend Mike (Sticks) Hasselbeck joined them on his drum kit, which he left in the corner of Mike’s garage. They reached out to other local musicians. Bob DeKorne, whose band the Corvairs had just retired, joined in.
“Then,” Bob explains, “other local ruffians, miscreants, and ne’er do wells started showing up.” By 2020 it had grown to 10 guys, including Tom Fordyce, the lead singer and harmonica player from the seasoned Cabin Fever Band, and neighbor Steve Kraus. Michael Papa started taking lessons on keyboard just so he could join in, and then Jeffery Richard on percussion and yours truly on trumpet were welcomed into the garage. As the little family trio turned into a legit garage band, they started calling themselves the Burdickville Boys. The Tuesday night gatherings have become a happy powwow for “the boys”, a highlight of each week as they sit around sharing stories and adult beverages between three sets of garage band jamming on classic rock and folk songs that just might get better every time.