THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 14, 1995 TAG: 9509130137
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK ROBERTS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
JOHN BLANKENSHIP likes to tell the story about Penny Duke, his fiancee and business manager, who once said - just kidding, of course - ``you damn bands ain't nothin' but trouble.''
Sounded good, so Blankenship named his band TROUBLE.
It's a high-energy, party-time country band that has been busy for the past 18 months or so, preferring life on the road to weekly club assignments, although they are often found at Sports Emporium in Franklin.
``We don't want to be a house band,'' said Larry Price, the bass guitarist who is an Isle of Wight County deputy sheriff. ``You get stale.''
The theory is working.
``We're booked every weekend through January,'' said Blankenship, known as Johnny B. The lead singer's ultimate goal is ``opening for Reba - playing the Hampton Coliseum. Our musicians are as talented as many bands coming in here.''
Saturday, they will play the Isle of Wight County Fair, opening for national recording star David Lee Murphy.
Last year, they opened for Grand Funk Railroad. No problem. While noted as a country band, TROUBLE also gets into Southern rock, oldies, and rhythm and blues, running the gamut from ``Mustang Sally'' to ``Boot Scootin' Boogie,'' from Garth Brooks to the Black Crowes.
The musicians come from Suffolk, Smithfield, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach, and all were members of other Hampton Roads groups until getting together for the sake of TROUBLE.
``Most bands fail because they don't have the opportunity to be friends,'' Blankenship said.
Two of the musicians left another group, even though they still had three months' worth of bookings, splitting because of so many problems.
TROUBLE does not have that trouble.
``There's no animosity between us at all,'' said John Russ, the lead guitarist. ``What separates us from others, we enjoy what we do. We have a good time playing.
``Johnny B. is a pain in the butt,'' he said. ``We got together to keep him off our back.''
They got together because they are friends who respect one another's musical abilities. They play cover tunes, every now and then tossing in a Johnny B. original.
``He does most of the writing,'' Russ said. ``The rest of us are busy. We don't have time to write, so we butcher Johnny's songs the best we can.''
If you haven't gotten the idea yet, TROUBLE mixes fun with the music. ``And,'' Blankenship said, ``we always like to get the audience involved.''
They are determined not to put the audience in a quiet mood.
``We're energetic, wide open from start to finish. We don't do slow songs,'' Blankenship said.
``We give 'em up-tempo line dancing,'' Russ said. ``There are enough bands doing the whiney songs.''
If someone in the audience should ask, though, TROUBLE just might slow things down a tad.
``If you request it,'' Russ said, ``and you ask so nice.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
The country band TROUBLE will perform Saturday at the Isle of Wight
County Fair.
by CNB