Casey and the Pressure Group – Powerhouse
Casey and the Pressure Group
Listen/Download Casey and the Pressure Group – Powerhouse
Greetings all
I hope the new day finds you well.
The end of the weeks I finally at hand, and so that means you should prepare to dial up the Funky16Corners Radio Show on the old radiola, or better yet, point your intertubes browser in the direction of Viva Radio, this and every Friday night at 9PM. If you can’t dig in at airtime, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes.
The tune I bring you today first slipped over the transom and into my ears years ago via a mixtape of Hammond tunes, passed on to me by a friend.
I knew nothing of the band, Casey and the Pressure Group, but I dug the tune, ‘Powerhouse’.
‘Powerhouse’ – at least for me – hit all the same pleasure centers as the Turtles’ ‘Buzz Saw’, moving at a similar pace and driven along by insistent Hammond organ chords.
Flash forward a decade or so, and the record turns up on a sale list (at a very low price indeed), so I took the opportunity to pick it uo and add it to my arsenal.
As it turns out, Casey and the Pressure Group hailed from the Netherlands, and released several albums of instrumental grooves in the early 70s.
They were led by keyboard player Cees Schrama (aka ‘Casey’), and somehow managed to get the 45 you see before you (‘Powerhouse’ was also the title cut of their debut LP) released here in the US on Jimmy Wisner’s Wizdom label in 1970.
Schrama had spent the latter part of the 1960s as the keyboardist for the Golden Earrings (one of the Netherlands top pop bands, later better known simply as Golden Earring).
Casey and the Pressure group had a European hit in 1970 with the tune ‘Soul Tango’ (the flipside of this very record) which is probably how it ended up getting released here in the States.
‘Powerhouse’ is a very groovy record indeed, and the US version of the 45 is pretty cheap, and well worth adding to your Hammond box.
I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all on Monday.
Keep the faith
Larry
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Themocracy
Groovy jam, Larry. I’m curious to hear another jam – The Otis Jam, the flipside to Otis’s You Left The Water Running. Do you happen to have it or know of a place where I can hear it. Just curious to hear it. It’s actually listed as being by the Memphis Studio Band.
Thanks!
Tommy
I know of that track but do not own a copy. I will be on the lookout, though.
Larry
Cees Schrama is a music legend from my hometown of Leiden! So cool to see him pop up on your site, Larry!