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  • Guilty as Charged are (from left): Tracy Williams, John Vanover, Joe Howard, Rick Leffler and Dwayne Kendall. The group of local veteran musicians recently joined forces and will play this Saturday at Spinners. Photo Submitted

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August 9, 2012

Band pleads 'Guilty as Charged'

By Nate Smith Washington Times-Herald

WASHINGTON — For a time in Washington, before the Internet, iTunes, satellite radio, mobile apps like Pandora and Spotify, there was actual live music by many local musicians.

In fact, there wasn’t a weekend where a local band was not headlining a local club or bar or hang-out spot for young people.

As time has gone along, the players got older and the bands went away, but five local musicians are reliving their younger days by forming the band, “Guilty as Charged.”

“There’s a lot of history in this band,”said Tracy  Williams.

Local music veterans Joe Howard, Tracy Williams and Rick Leffler team up with John Vanover and Dwayne Kendall to create a buzz in the local music scene again.

They have all played together in the past, in the days back in the late 1970s and ‘80s when rock was something not thought of as an afterthought as it is today.

“The first time I played in a group was with Rick,” Williams said.

“We’ve been off and on together,” Leffler explains.

“We’ve all been friends and remained close,” Howard said.

What then followed the trio was a  cavalcade of groups that had local and regional success and people came out to see, groups like Backstreet Junction, Fliptop Box, J.C. and the Boys, Stonewall Weekend, Mammoth Magic, La Beatos and so on, the three reminisced during a recent interview.

“If any of us would have made it in the music business, we wouldn’t be here,” Howard joked. “There’s been numerous success and stories.”

A different scene than what is seen in the area today.

“Back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, everybody and their brother had a band,” Williams said.

“You would just book a place and you were the attraction,” Leffler said.

While the lineup was really set, there was no name for the band. But like many bands, a name just seems to happen.

“When Tracy joined, we were searching out names,” Howard said. “We came up with a couple of hundred names and we didn’t have ‘Guilty as Charged’ but then someone said something and Tracy said one day to John ‘You are guilty as charged.’”

A band is born.

Guilty as Charged is trying to recapture some of that magic, while at the same time attracting new fans to an extensive repertoire of songs. It helps that the five all know what they are doing as musicians, and when they started last fall, everything fell into place.

“The coolest thing about this is, to me, is all the musicians that are in it, it is a lot of guys that know what they are doing,” Williams said. “When we got together, our sound guy went ‘Wow, this could be a powerful group here.’”

After a few rehearsals, the group started its journey through the “Animal Circuit,” the local Eagles, Moose, and other clubs. They performed at the Moose last winter, and decided to make an arresting debut.

“We came dressed up in outfits from the Daviess County Jail,” Williams said. “The thing of it was it was a breakout show, and it’s about entertaining.”

The group probably won’t be touring in jail jumpers, but they have been honing their set lists at private shows like class reunions. Saturday, the band will be back at Spinners, 1401 W. Walnut St., where they have played in the past for a receptive crowd.

“We’ve only been together a couple of months and this is only scratching the surface,” Williams said.

The group plans to keep playing throughout August and September, with dates planned for Aug. 31 in Dubois and Sept. 1 back in Washington at the White River Party. Later on, they plan to travel.

“We want to play the Tri-State area and bigger cities,” Howard said.

But the group just loves playing together, and that is mostly the reason they got together.

“The thing of it is if you get five guys together and pull off a song and everyone enjoys it, that’s a rush,” Williams said.

“It really is.

“When everyone is jiving, it gets chills up your spine,” Howard said.

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