The story begins in the Hamilton, Ontario area in the late 1960s, when the group served as the backup band for Ronnie Hawkins, until he fired them, unwittingly giving them their name by telling a friend, "those boys could fuck up a crowbar in fifteen seconds." Their debut was recorded with another local legend, King Biscuit Boy (actual name: Richard Newell) in 1970, but soon afterwards both acts did not see eye-to-eye and went their separate ways, which leads us to Bad Manors. One thing both Crowbar and King Biscuit Boy had in common was a rowdy, communal, party-hardy take on blues-rock and roots-rock that was diametrically opposed to Hawkins' old mates The Band. There was nary a ballad to be found on Bad Manors, and in fact the record was named after the group's communal house on the outskirts of Hamilton. Crowbar concerts were wild affairs where the guitarist and bass player were draped on the giant, hulking body of 250-pound piano player and lead vocalist Blake "Kelly Jay" Fordham. The notable song here was "Oh, What A Feeling", a sweaty, catchy, Funkadelic-in-spirit groove which put to shame all of Rare Earth's catalog in one expertly-tuned four minute blast. Then again, that was just one of many well-played and executed grooves from this record.
Sadly, about the only place people know Fordham from is a 2013 episode of Hoarding Buried Alive, and that he passed away in 2019. But make no mistake, his Crowbar was, once upon a time, a formidable presence on stage and on record, and deserve more recognition for it.
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