‘Blues on’ poster, featuring Little Bill & the Blue Notes. Bill did the event every year, allong with the ‘Gray Sky Music and Blues’ festival every spring, both in Tacoma.
by Little Bill Englehart
Unless the South Sound Blues Association has any more of my writings in the vault, this will be my last story. I have told you everything that I still can remember. It all started in 1956 when Buck Ormsby, Lassie Aanes, Frank Dutra and I formed a band called The Blue Notes. We were the first Rock and Roll band in Tacoma. Some time after that, The Wailers came along. They ended up winning the toss as they were playing kick ass rock and roll and we were trying to sell the blues to young white teenagers. As it turned out, both bands had a fair amount of success.
When I left the band in 1959, I had no idea what was to follow. As it turned out It was more than I ever thought possible and then some. Music has been more than what I do, it has been who I am. The rewards are almost like a dream. Over the years I have shared the stage with many great musicians, had a hit record, toured and opened for several heavy hitters, and self-published two books. Several years ago the city of Tacoma made my birthday, March 17, Little Bill Day, My dear friend Randy Oxford put out a CD called Big Blues for Little Bill. It featured several local musicians. Best of all I was able to talk a wonderful young girl into spending her life with me. Jan and I have been married for 57 years. We have a son name of Tony, AKA Anthony Star, my pride, our daughter Lisa, four granddaughters, Amanda, Kayla, Camille and Mariah and my wonderful sister Patty. This will be one of the hardest decisions I have ever made, but it’s time. Along the way I have met and became friends with some wonderful people, Does the song ‘Guess Who’ ring a bell for anyone? My plan for the future, except for a very occasional show, is to play out 2020 and then It will be over. This will be one of the hardest decisions I have ever made but it’s time. I will close with a very heart felt, Thanks for the memories.
July 12, 2016. Tacoma News Tribune article
“Little”Bill Englehart, a Tacoma blues musician celebrating 63 years of playing music.
There aren’t too many 80-year-olds around who once formed a teen rock band and kept it going for 63 years. But that’s Bill Englehart, better known as “Little Bill.”
Englehart’s secret? Doing what you love — and seeing others love it too.
“It’s what he does,” said the Rev. Dave Brown, who organizes the monthly blues event that combines music, poetry and a short reflection. “It’s essential to his identity. I have a hard time imagining him not playing music. Some people have a job, and some people have a vocation. For Bill it’s a gig, but it’s also the way he connects to the world, who he is.
Englehart started playing guitar at 15, and in 1955 he formed the Bluenotes — one of Tacoma’s first rock ’n’ roll bands. With their brassy sax sound, they were bluesier than the twangy guitars of the Wailers and Ventures, who came later and eclipsed them nationally. But in 1959, Englehart scored a top-100 hit with “I Love an Angel,” and ever since then he’s been playing gigs, with occasional breaks at other jobs.
I’m glad the Wailers and the Kingsmen are remembered for “Louie Louie,” not me. I’d rather be remembered for all of my music.
None of the other original band members are left. But that, says Brown, is part of why Englehart is such a local legend.
“Many musicians in the South Sound have come through the school of Little Bill and the Bluenotes,” Brown explains. “He taught them how to be band leaders, how to be professionals. He formed this whole generation of blues musicians who’ve learned their craft through him.”
Brown’s been featuring Englehart and his band twice a year since he began the Tacoma vespers in 2001, an honor he says he wouldn’t extend to any other musician.
“He’s a consummate professional, and he’s one of ours in Tacoma — that means a lot,” Brown says. “There’s a loyalty in Tacoma to that kind of skill.”
The News Tribune caught up with Englehart on the phone from his Seattle home to talk about 60 years of doing what you love.
Q: Sixty three years is a long time to keep playing. What’s your secret?
A: I don’t know if there’s a secret. I knew early in life what I wanted to do: My dad’s cousin was a guitar player, and I idolized him. The guitar always interested me. I left the music business a few times, but I always came back.
Q: Why?
A: I like performing. Recording, to me, is long and tedious — I’d rather perform live. You get an immediate reaction: sometimes great, sometimes not! But it’s something you try for. For example, this Fourth of July my band did a two-hour set down at Freedom Fair on the Tacoma waterfront. This lady came up on stage and said she listened every day to “I Love an Angel,” and were we going to play it? So I did, and she started to cry, and thanked me so much. Later I wanted to ask her why it meant so much to her — did she love someone? But that’s the reaction I’m talking about.
Q: Have you changed much over the years, musically?
A: I’ve always wanted to learn. From playing three-chord rock ’n’ roll stuff to now, I think I’ve become a better musician over the years. And I always tried to surround myself with guys who are better than me. That way I learn.
Q: You’ve played twice a year for Blues Vespers since 2001 — what do you think of it?
A: I met Rev. Dave years ago in Seattle at a club I was playing at, and he asked me to be in the Blues Vespers he was doing then. I said to him, ‘You’re a Reverend, what are you doing in here?!’
But I like Blues Vespers because people come to hear the music — it’s a big crowd. That’s what I like, and probably all the groups that play there: People don’t come to have a drink or dance, just for the music. It’s as good as you can get.
Q: You actually recorded “Louie Louie” before the Wailers got famous with it — what’s the story there?
A: Here’s what happened. I formed the Bluenotes in 1955. We were the first rock band in Tacoma. By the early 1960s I had left town and was working solo in Seattle with other bands. Topaz, which was a local label, asked me what I wanted to record, and I thought of “Louie Louie,” because that’s the song that everyone asks for. So when the Wailers, who formed a couple of years after us, found out, they did what anyone would have done and put their (recording) out first. I actually got the chance once to work with Richard Berry, who wrote the song — he’s a nice man. July 12, 2016. Tacoma News Tribune.
We thank you Bill, for all the music and everything you brought to the Great North West. Dave Brown, of ‘Blues Vespers’, is planning to have a show honoring Bill. Stay posted on our calendar for the date. A special tribute to a most honorable man.
Look for past Bill stories in our newsletter archives.