Ramblin: Edgar Winter's White Trash working the road

Mar. 24—It happens all too often — missing seeing a band perform before it breaks up and the chance is gone for good.

That's happened several times for me and I'm sure for many others as well.

Sure, fans might have the opportunity to see the artists separately or in different configurations, but no longer with the original lineup.

Or sometimes, a band will tour with none of the original members performing, but with all new members instead. That sometimes happens when a band manger or someone else associated with the band somehow acquires access to the name even if none of the original members are involved.

Other times, a solo artist and his backing band will decide to go their own separate musical ways. It might still be possible to catch them each in a concert or club performance — but not as the performing unit they once were.

That's happened to me on several occasions, but one of the ones I remember missing is the musical collective known as Edgar Winter's White Trash.

I never did get the chance to see Edgar Winter's White Trash perform live — at least not in that combination.

I did however, later see both White Trash and Edgar Winter as separate acts in different venues. By that time, Edgar Winter had radically changed his sound, white White Trash stood more true to their funky soul roots.

Before Winter went on to have his #1 hit song "Frankenstein" and his #14 hit "Free Ride" — both from his album "They Only Come Out at Night" — he'd teamed up with the band White Trash.

When they joined together, they combined both of their names — which is how they ended up with the Edgar Winter's White Trash moniker.

They never had a big hit, but enough people bought or heard their albums to earn them a respectable reputation among music lovers — especially here in Southeast Oklahoma, where local music fans responded to their regional flair.

Still, the band gained fans from New York City to Los Angeles, which is where Edgar Winter's White Trash recorded their triumphant live album "Roadwork."

With Edgar Winter hailing from Beaumont, Texas and White Trash lead singer Jerry LaCroix from Louisiana, they delivered a powerful one-two punch on lead vocals.

Their repertoire came from funk, rhythm and blues, gospel and of course, rock 'n' roll — a musical gumbo delivered through the band's dynamic horn section and the other masterful musicians in the group, who mostly hailed from Louisiana and Texas.

Once Edgar Winter and White Trash got together, they started attracting attention — especially through their raucous live performances.

It's a sound captured on the group's second release — a live album titled "Roadwork."

While the band's self-titled debut album only made it to #111 on the charts, the powerful live performances on "Roadwork" drove it all the way to #23, and eventually to Gold Album status.

Although "Roadwork" consisted of 10 tracks, the release came in a double-album format, with one song — the band's version of Nashville songwriter John D. Loudermilk's "Tobacco Road" — taking up an entire side of the vinyl album.

White Trash included a three-piece horn section, consisting of Mike McClellan, Tilly Lawrence and Marshall Cyr on trumpets — while Jon Smith, Winter and LaCroix were all accomplished saxophonists, giving the band a six-horn lineup at times.

Although he was not a regular member of the band, guitarist Rick Derringer handled a lot of the lead guitar duties on "Roadwork" and sang his self-written song, "Still Alive and Well."

Not only that, Edgar Winter's brother, the fabled blues guitarist Johnny Winter, joined in a solo spot to sing "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo," another song written by Derringer, which Edgar's brother first recorded with his own band, Johnny Winter And.

Tracks for "Roadwork were recorded live at the New York Academy of Music, at the Whisky A Go Go nightclub in Los Angeles and at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.

"The Buddy Holly Story," starring Oklahoma's own Gary Busey, features a scene where Black audience members at the Apollo were shocked to learn Holly and the band were white musicians — but gave them a rousing response once the music started.

By the time Edgar Winter's White Trash performed at the Apollo, times had changed and the audience likely knew what they were getting when they brought a ticket to see a group with the name White Trash.

Even so, reports from the time state that an audible gasp went up from the Apollo audience when the band walked onstage because Edgar Winter, like his brother Johnny, both had the inherited condition known as albinism.

That resulted in an extreme white skin pigmentation, along with white hair and pale eyes.

Once Edgar Winter and White Trash tore into their opening number — a funky Edgar Winter-written number called "Cool Fool" it became all about the music and the audience gave them an enthusiastic response, with some of the Apollo performance tunes making their way onto the "Roadwork" album.

While the band White Trash featured lots of horns, the group wasn't seeking to emulate the sounds of other horn-laden groups. of the time, such as Chicago or Blood, Sweat & Tears.

They weren't playing jazz-stylings, but the aforementioned gumbo of funk, rhythm and blues, gospel and rock 'n' roll.

Other songs featured on the "Roadwork" album included Otis Redding's "I Can't Tun You Loose," and Chuck Berry's "Back in the U.S.A."

It even includes a long rendition of "Turn On Your Love Light" — although nowhere near as long as the version presented by their West Coast contemporaries, the Grateful Dead.

One of the funnest tracks is "Jive, Jive, Jive," a song written by Winter and LaCroix.

Then just like that, Edgar Winter and White Trash parted ways.

Edgar Winter achieved a resounding success the very next year, with his new band, called The Edgar Winter Group, consisting of Don Hartman, Chuck Ruff and Ronnie Montrose.

Yes, it's that Ronnie Montrose, the same guitarist who had played on Van Morrison's groundbreaking cut,"Listen to the Lion," on Van's album, "Saint Dominic's Preview."

Yep, the same Ronnie Montrose who after he later left the Edgar Winter Group, formed his own successful band, Montrose, featuring Sammy Hagar on vocals.

That would come later, though. The Edgar Winter Group quickly scored a #1 smash with Winter's song,"Frankenstein" and then followed it up by riding Hartman's song "Free Ride" all the way to #14 on the charts.

These days Edgar Winter has performed in several versions of Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band, along with Steve Lukather and Warren Ham, of Toto; Colin Ray, of Men at Work; Hamish Stuart, of the Average White Band and others.

LaCroix went on to sing with later iterations of groups including Rare Earth and Blood, Sweat & Tears, before he passed away in 2014.

One more thing.

While LaCroix was a Louisiana native, born in Alexandria, his family later moved to Texas and he attended Port Arthur High School, before graduating from Port Neches-Groves High School in 1961.

It's the Port Arthur reference that caught my attention, because another well-known singer also attended high school in Port Arthur, graduating in 1960.

Although LaCroix had gone on to graduate from a different high school, I wonder if their mutual love for music may have brought these two blue-eyed soul singers together.

Even more intriguing to me, after they graduated high school, they both went on to attend Lamar State College of Technology, now known as Lamer University, in Beaumont. Texas — which is the hometown of both Edgar Winter and his guitar-playing brother, Johnny Winter.

Given the ties to Part Arthur and then their both attending Lamar, I can't help but wonder if LaCroix and the other Port Arthur graduate ever ran into each other campus, heard each other perform somewhere or maybe even held a jam session.

Oh yes, her name — some singer known as Janis Joplin.