Forrest Howie McDonald Recording and touring with the Wadsworth Mansion Sweet Mary 1971

Forrest Howie McDonald Recording and touring with the Wadsworth Mansion Sweet Mary 1971.

I messed up the intro oh well!

In this video Forrest tells the story of joining recording, and touring with the Wadsworth Mansion.
The Wadsworth Mansion, what a great time that was. To get into the details I will set the music story book to January 15, 1972. I was living in Provincetown, MA and there was no work. I was broke. I put an add in the Boston Phoenix to sell my 100 Watt Marshall Stack was too much for the clubs I was playing. In January 1972 I sold it to Joe Perry from the band Aerosmith. He and Tom Hamilton drove to my house in Provincetown, MA on 3 Carver Street where I was living with Jane Mead. Joe broke out a Stratocaster, proclaimed it to be the greatest Rock and Roll guitar of all time, played a few notes and broke out the cash. I paid almost $1300 for it and let Joe have it for $750. We loaded it into Tom’s pickup truck and I never saw that amp again. Several years later Joe told me that someone stole it from their truck not long after he bought it from me.

It was late January 1972. I was living in p-town Provincetown Massachusetts playing in my Trio choker and got a call from Steve jablecki explaining his new band the Wadsworth Mansion had a hit record called Sweet Mary (I’m Coming Home) on Sussex records released in 1971. I knew who Steve was but I had never heard the song. I didn’t listen to Top 40 radio. He was produced by Norman Marzano and Jimmy Calvert. He said I know your reputation and we need a great guitar player. Then he asked how would you like to join the band? We've got management we've got a record deal we've got tours we've got everything that you could possibly want and I said well why don't you come down to my place here in p-town we'll spend an afternoon together and we'll do some writing and we'll see if we click Steve said sure. We wrote a song that afternoon called Fire in the Morning. He said they were cutting 4 new songs in New York City in a month and he wanted me to play on the records and add some exciting parts to the songs. His brother Mike was playing drums and John Poole was playing bass. I jammed with Mike and John one afternoon in 1964 before I was in a real band. I had a favorable opinion of them from our afternoon in Rick Silva’s basement many years before. Steve had two roadies working for him they were James W McCaughey Jr. and Mike Messier. They were local Rhode Island guys and had their own brand of humor. I was looking forward to the recording session and laying down some great solos to the songs I arranged in a top notch studio.

We recorded 4 songs at the Ed Sullivan Studios in NY produced by Jimmy Calvert and Norman Marzano. The words and melody were written by Steve and arranged by the band and the producers at rehearsal the night before the session. We incorporated my parts and they gave the songs the validity that Steve brought me in to provide. The first songs Forrest recorded with the Wadsworth Mansion were titled Dusty Angel, Don’t Ask Me, Over and Over, and Why Does It Hurt So Bad. John was a co-writer on Dusty Angel. Recording Steve, Johns, and Mikes vocals was a solid effort. The Producers were Norman Marzano and Jimmy Calvert. Our road manager was Howie "Doc" Reamer. He had all of our tickets and itinerary for all the touring. After recording and touring with the Mansion Mike Jablecki left the band leaving an opening for a new drummer. We brought in drummer Charley Flannery to replace Steve's brother Mike who was returning to college.

Steve Jablecki, John Poole, Charley Flannery have all passed away. They were both a lot of fun on tour. Rest In Peace my brothers we made some great music together and had a lot of fun.

After the demise of the Wadsworth Mansion Steve and I reformed the group using the name Slingshot. The initial 4 members Were Forrest McDonald guitar vocal, Steve Jablecki vocal guitar piano, Skip Perkins Bass vocal, and Robert "Rob: Robertie.

I hope you enjoyed going back into Rock and Roll History with the Old Time Rock and Roller Forrest Howie McDonald's Music Moment Video Recording and touring with the Wadsworth Mansion Sweet Mary 1972.

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