The Mad Jack band - help?

[William J Kisselstein]

I've discovered by accident this band from the mid 80's called Mad Jack,
but I have no info on them but for the liner notes with one EP.. here is
all I have on them:

1984 LP album "Straight Up" on Fast Guns Records, 7 guys in song credits,
Dave Porter produces, 9 songs incl. cover of Fortunate Son. Another song
is "Fast Guns & Rot Gut" which makes me think the label is a one-shot deal
for this album. other than the cover this is all original material.

1986 EP "Down The Road" 5 songs, all original work. Recorded at UCA
Recordings, Utica NY, on Rough Cut Records, division of Gem Talent
Productions of Cortland NY (thanks also includes Syracuse NY area
ppl/radio, makes me think this band is local to upstate NY). Artists
include Lou Kaplan, Paul Mendillo (these are the only guys names on both
records), Mike "Smokey" Brown, Garth Livermore, Russ Brown, Bob Yeager,
Dave Galutz. latter two also do producing or engineering duties. Thanks
include local station 95X, DMR, Creative Concerts, The Outlaws, Molly
Hatchet, and some other local names.

Band logo is a spade, like in a deck of cards, with the band name on it in
an old-west sort of font. Band has a hard Molly Hatchet/Outlaws kind of
sound, with Kaplan the main vocalist but sharing and multiple harmony on
some songs. Seems to be 3 guitars/bass/drums, with keyboards on the LP.

I've tried the band name, studio, labels and the Gem Talent names all at
various online resources and nothing. The only other clue I have is on the
photo side of the liner sheet with the EP - a story about how the Virgil F.
D. is not connected to a promotion/even at the Blodget Mills Gun Club...
the name could be a small NY town, it sounds familiar, but I can't say for
sure and i have lived here 25 years (when this band was big I was all of
10-12 years old and clueless).

anyone with any info on these guys at all I would greatly appreciate it -
e-mail me pon...@nospam.dreamscape.com (take the nospam. out to actually
send mail) - I dont know where they came from, if they have any other
albums out there, hell if someone had a live tape these guys sound like
they would SMOKE, but I'm sure finding that's about as likely as hitting
the lottery.

Thanks
--

Bill K.

Lehigh Valley Railroad Mail List page
http://lehighvalley.railfan.net

Johnny Van Zant Tribute Page
http://www.dreamscape.com/pontiac/music.html

[fleet...@gmail.com]

I just came across this while doing a search.
I played in this band in the '80's.
My name is Garth Livermore (I know my email says gary lee, long story), and I was the bass player for Mad Jack.
Check out Lou Kaplan on Facebook. He's got all kinds of stuff posted there about us.
Thanks, Garth