Paying tribute to "The Bushmen"

They were just four amateur musicians who came together after school and on weekends, doing what they loved, making music. You may even say they became quite the entrepreneurs, booking gigs all around central Iowa and earning a nice profit along the way. Their stint lasted only three years. They graduated high school and went their separate ways.

Over fifty years later, “The Bushmen” from Jefferson, Iowa are being inducted into the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Lead guitarist and vocalist David Williamson who would later make his home in Ogden, said he never realized the impact they had on their audiences. After all, most were just teenagers like themselves. “It’s just amazing that people remember us,” says Williamson.

The Bushmen were performing their last gig in 1966 (the year of the British invasion) when Claude Gardner, an amateur recording artist working at that time as a janitor at Jefferson schools, asked if he could record their last performance. The tapes floated around for years and eventually resurfaced. That’s when the band’s drummer, David Baller, digitized the music. The cleaned up 17-minute recording was what impressed Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame CEO John Senn.

Williamson remembers vividly how the band originated. During the spring of his sophomore year,  1964, his family moved from Atlantic to Jefferson. “I was hanging around uptown when a class mate, Roger Dunlop, approached me and asked if I had any hobbies.” He, like Williamson, was a guitarist, playing the rhythm guitar. They officially became a band after adding a freshman drummer in Baller.

By late summer the fledgling band was picking up gigs in the Jefferson area.

“For the first two weeks we called ourselves The Impacts,” said Williamson. “Then we came up with The Bushmen. Long hair was in then. The name we thought had a tribal feel to it.” 

Read more in the Feb. 21 issue of The Ogden Reporter.

 

 

PHOTO ID: 

 

A band from Jefferson that included former Ogdenite Dave Williamson (right) is being inducted into the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The group booked one of their earlier gigs at the Spinning Wheels in Ogden, playing for a teen dance. 

 

The skating rink was owned and operated by the Christensen families.In commemoration of being inducted into the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, special t-shirts were printed. Williamson (right) presented Roger Christensen one of the shirts last Tuesday outside the local venue.

 

-Ogden Reporter photo by Kathy Pierce

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