Blue Ash, a name taken from a road sign outside of Cincinnati, Ohio, pointing towards a small town called Blue ash, was formed in 1969 when Frank Secich and Jim Kendzor were kicked out of high school for refusing to cut their hair! That’s…. rock and roll!! The classic Blue Ash lineup of Frank Secich (bass, vocals), Jim Kendzor (vocals, guitar), Bill Bartolin (guitar), and David Evans Evans (drums) were prolific songwriters from the start, having amassed a couple hundred original compositions before stepping foot into Peppermint Studios where they recorded “tons” of demos. They had one recorded single prior to this when Bob Mack (Tommy James) offered to take them to Philly’s Sigma Sound Studios and record a single, “We’ll Live Tomorrow”, that was targeted for a tribute to Morrison, Joplin and Hendrix. Only 1 single was pressed, and Frank Secich still owns it! Blue Ash were soon signed by Paul Nelson to Mercury Records based on a box of demos he received and an unsolicited comment from a visitor to his office that Blue Ash “kick ass live!”. Their debut LP, “No More, No Less” on Mercury included a rousing cover of The Beatles “Anytime at All”, and an unreleased demo of a Bob Dylan song, “Dusty Old Fairgrounds.”

The first single from the album, “Abracadabra” is considered a power pop classic today! Covered by a few artists including The Records. “No More, No Less” sold well regionally but fell victim to being on a good label at a bad time as Mercury was funneling most of their advertising and promotion budget to label mates Rod Stewart, BTO, and The New York Dolls.

Blue Ash continued their grueling live tour schedule opening for acts like Bob Seger, Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, and Raspberries while they continued to write even more originals. The decline of album sales and their reluctance to establish a club base and play New York lead to Mercury Records decision to drop the band. The band signed a new deal with Playboy Records. Their 2nd album, “Front Page News,” would be one of the first rock and roll albums ever released on Playboy. The album was recorded in Miami’s Criteria Studios and at Village Recorders in Los Angeles. The original masters were submitted to Playboy, and, unbeknownst to the band, Playboy completely changed the sound by bringing in Mike Lewis (string and horn arranger for K.C. and the Sunshine Band) to add horns, keyboards, and strings to the master. Just days prior to the release, the band members received their advance copies and were outraged by what they heard!! After taking Playboy to task and refusing to tour behind this travesty, Playboy compromised and remixed the album reducing the embellishments added by Lewis. It was a significant improvement, but still not what the band originally recorded or intended. Released in 1977, “Front Page News” featured the single “Look at You Now” which reached #1 in 12 markets. But, again, fate dealt Blue Ash another bad blow as Playboy International pulled the plug on Playboy Records, which meant, no support for touring or promotion, and, subsequently, less than stellar album sales (although, selling considerably more than their debut on Mercury with 55,000 sold).

As the late 70’s saw disco still hanging onto life and the surging genre of Punk/New Wave, Blue Ash slowly packed it in and called it a career. The members all went their separate ways and stepped out of the music business with the exception of Frank Secich who went on to work with his childhood friend Stiv Bators on the classic “Disconnected” album and producing another great Ohio band, the Infidels. Secich went on to form The Deadbeat Poets with former members of the Infidels having released a number of albums on Pop Detective Records.

(Source: Mark W. Hershberger, Pop Detective Records August, 2019)