Leadfoot Johnny, or LFJ for short, has been entertaining around Cincinnati since 1996. Formed in that year by bassist Dave Janes, the band has gone through many changes. Why not! Its a dynamic group! The origional focus was hard hitting Rock & Roll with an edge. Over time, the band has developed a sound and playlist of tunes in Soul, R&B, Funk, Rock & Roll and Blues. The sound has evolved over the years and "livin' in the groove" is what its all about.
On the MENU: Soul with a side of Groove. R&B with a side of Funk. Rock & Roll with a side of Jazz. All smothered in Love of Playing and Entertaining. Tasty!
Come Listen.... Come Dance!
If you like the music of Joe Cocker, Van Morrison, Sting, Stevie Wonder, Rob Thomas, B.B. King, Allman Brothers, Tommy Castro, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, The Neville Brothers, James Brown, Delbert McClinton and Jonny Lang mixed in with some classic old soul tunes cooked up with soulful vocals, some wicked guitar and sax interplay, over a rock solid groove-you're really gonna dig Leadfoot Johnny.
TIM TIERNAN -Lead Vocals. Tim sang & played bass in local bands around town (most notably was a rock band called Fingers) before becoming involved in sound engineering and became the sound man for the band Painter (formerly known as Swan then Factor S) and found himself traveling the country with them.
Upon returning home from the road Tim decided he wanted to perform again and in 1994 helped form the Blues Persuaders, one of Cincinnati's premier blues bands. After Tim left the Persuaders in '98, he freelanced around Cincinnati area bars and clubs. He'd book gigs and then call around to find the musicians to do the job. Whatever group of guys that would show up would be called the whatever the name of the bar was "All Stars". This activity familiarized Tim with lots of area musicians, including Brian Flanery and some of the guys in Leadfoot Johnny who believed he had one of the best soul/blues voices in town.....
JOHN TOEDTMAN: Bass They told me that I had to write my bio or I would end up in a trunk with Tim’s sneakers. I don’t need that kind of aroma therapy. I grew up in the suburb of Madeira in a musical family. At the age of 11, after suffering through 7 years of violin lessons, my parents finally let me get a bass guitar. It was love at first sight.
By the age of 12, I learned the entire catalog of The Dead Kennedy’s, The Sex Pistols, Black Flag, TheMisfits, and The Red Hot Chilli Peppers. After the punk thing I became interested in Jimi Hendrix, Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd, and many other classic rock bands. Somewhere along the way in high school I discovered Jazz. After Jazz, I moved on to studying Classical and getting a B.A. in Classical Bass from the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore.
Upon graduation, I returned to Cincinnati and started playing classical gigs with a little bit of jazz sprinkled in. Since then I’ve done all kinds of gigs from Jazz, Blues, Classical, Western Swing, Fusion, and Steel Drum.
Come listen....Come dance!
GREG THOMAS: Guitar and Vocals Leadfoot Johnny guitarist GREG THOMAS became addicted to guitar after hearing guys like Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. Greg was really hooked and practiced til his fingers bled (or at least until they really hurt).
Like the others in Leadfoot Johnny, Greg spent some time bouncing around various Rock bands around Cincinnati. One day he and his band were looking for a new sound man and Tim Tiernan came around to "apply" for the job. The bass player didn't show up so Tim thought he'd give it a try and sounded alright. But when Tim SANG a song, Greg thought "This guy can SING!" It wasn't long before Greg and Tim formed The Blues Persuaders and enjoyed five busy years playing the bars around town and doing some recording. Greg and his buddy Gary Partin wrote all the Persuaders original material. You can sample some of Greg and Gary's songwriting on either of the two CD's the Persuaders released: "Come On Funny Feelin" and "...and They Wonder Why I Play The Blues" as well as Leadfoot Johnny's new CD "Random Lag Time".
When Timmy left to form a band with Brian Flanery, Greg and the Persuaders continued on until 2002. Then Greg formed a 3 piece act called The Roadhouse Kings. When Leadfoot Johnny needed a new guitarist, Greg was the first one Timmy called.....
Come listen....Come dance!
RANDY BROCK: Drums and Percussion. Hi, I'm Randy. They said if I didn't write a bio for the website I had to ride in the trunk of the old "55" and that's where Tim stashes his tennis shoes, so I don't wanna go there. I was born in the middle 50's and didn't do much for a few years. Then, after a while I noticed the kitchen sink made these cool sounds if you hit it just right (quite unlike the sounds I made when mom thwacked me just right while getting after me for banging on the kitchen sink). Along about the same time I noticed an island of rhythmic heaven in white porcelain, mom's old wringer washer ( ka-thump-thump-cha-wa-swish and variations on the theme).
It was a wonderful, hours long rhythmic background to my Tuesday afternoons. Of course, my dad was a guitar player (or guitarist, depending on your cultural background) who played in Country bands, and a strict disciplinarian who believed his children should be exposed to the good things in life. Things like, The Grand Ole Opry on radio and The Porter Wagoner Show on TV. When the band wasn't playing on the weekends they would often come over for "jam sessions" ( 3 hours to tune up, a little trip outside for a "nip" to tune up, then pickin', pickin' and more pickin'). My sister, brother and I were expected to quietly watch. We did. We watched and listened..... for hours...... and hours. We thought that was ...well....normal. Such was life, Grand Ole Opry, Sunday school, grandma's house after church, elementary school, softball, jam session, Porter Wagoner etc....
Then, one afternoon, warm day, nothin' else to do, I turned on the radio, turned the knob away from dad's country station and ..............dat-dat-daaa, da-dat-dat,da-da-da-dat(repeat) and a beautiful feminine voice singing "Tall and tan and young and lovely". Yep, hoakey as it sounds, when I heard "Girl From Iponema" for the first time, my life was changed. I loved it. Suddenly, I really wanted to play. That was over (a while back) years ago. I've been trying to make it real ever since.
My VC: Age; old, Hair; some, Sex; hetero, Favorite Drummers; Omar Hakim, Vinnie Colaiuta, Rick Marotta, Chris Layton, Vinx, Rafael Padilla, Babba Ya Ya Diallo (thank you, good sir). Influences; Sting, Chicago, Scotch, Memphis, Texas, GFR, Crosby Stills & Nash , Seal, Merle Haggard, Maytag and 2&4.
OK, maybe now I won't have to ride in the ......................................*&$@%$*(##)???@.......... .........WHAT TH'......$*@^(##)......SHI'>>>>..... BUT YOU SAID.....>.......OH*&#(##)................ ___________________. (knocking sounds).....................(muffled *%$@(##))......................!
Come listen....Come dance!
JOE AUGER: Saxophones Dave said I have to finish this if I want to be on the website, so here it is.
Unlike the locals in the band, I got my start in the suburbs of Philly. My earliest recollections of any sort of musical influence was rummaging through and listening to the stack of my parents’ 45s of oldies rock and Motown. My older brother played trumpet in jazz band at school, so when I got a little older he got me into listening to big band and fusion which started me down the road to Coltrane and Charlie Parker from which few return. He even formed his own big band outside of school that I started playing in when I was in 7th grade. It was my first experience playing gigs and taking solos and I loved it. My brother was smart though; he kept music a hobby and got a “real” job.
After graduating from Temple U with a degree in music education , I hung around Philly where I acquired a general distrust of strangers and tried to make a living as a sax player. Some of the groups I played in were: Jazz: Straight Ahead and other small groups. Ska: Rathskeller, Skanatra. Salsa/Meringue: Sanchez. Funk: P.M and the New Breed, the Mindbenders Organ Trio, and jam band Japhy Ryder. Hmmm…no rock or blues bands yet…
I was teaching music in a small private school in Philly when I met my wife-to-be. The next year after that is somewhat of a blur, but I distinctly remember waking up one day and finding myself married and living in Birmingham, Alabama.
It was here that I hooked up with a great group of musicians, the Tuscaloosa Horns www.tuscaloosahorns.com , and performed with the Temptations, Temptations Review, O’Jays, Four Tops, and the Guy Lombardo Orchestra, as well as big bands, rock bands, jazz groups, with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, and even American Idol Ruben Studdard. After getting used to good BBQ and warm winters, my wife decided to displace me once again so she could finish her pediatrics training (some excuse) in Cincinnati.
I was subbing in some bands and trying to find gigs when I saw an ad for a band in need of a saxophone player. So I sent Dave an email…..
Influences: Joe Henderson, Dexter Gordon, Johnny Almond, Coltrane, Rollins, Kenny Garrett, Tom Harrell, Chris Woods, Maceo Parker, Chris Potter,…..
Come listen....Come dance!