Vide

Kansas Music Hall of Fame Induction Speech 
Liberty Hall, Lawrence Kansas
March 5th 2011
by Dan Smith

Thanks, Bill, this is quite an honor, and a bit of a relief.  When you said induction, I thought you said intervention.

On July 4th 1974, we played our first gig as Riverrock.  The band included John and Paul Mumma, Steve Hall, Jim Blanton and me.   It was a purple passion party for a couple of hundred people.  After about an hour of music, we were reduced to shooting bottle rockets at each other using our mic booms as bazookas.

After three years with my late, hard working mother, Janet as our manager, we were signed to the Jim Halsey Company.  We thought we had made it to the big time.  A year later, Jim and Steve left and then Rick Harrelson joined the band.  We recorded our third album, “Midwest Man” in 1980.  To this day, we’ve sold under a million.

When Riverrock called it quits in 1997, we had enough alumni to fill this half of the room.  A couple of them are here tonight and they’ll all get citations. 

Then, a couple of years ago, Allen Blasco called Paul Mumma about putting a band together for a county gig.  Paul suggested his brother, John and then told Allen he would call me to play drums.  The rest is recent history. 

(Paul Mumma starts playing "Auld Lang Syne" on his guitar)

Now we play gigs every month and I don’t have to rely on giving washboard lessons.  It was getting hard trying to kill a half hour on an instrument where the only two notes are up and down.

So go to our website at riverrockkc.com, ‘cause you ain’t heard nuthin’ yet.  By the way, this music is a subtle reminder that we still need a gig for New Years Eve.

Ready, boys?

(sung to the tune of "Salty Dog Blues"):

Gettin’ old is kinda lame
Unless you’re in the Hall of Fame
Thank you Kansas Music Hall of Fame