The Trenchmen Story

The history of the Trenchmen is essentially that of the typical American mid-60s teen band. Founded in 1965 at the height of Beatlemania & Stones-fever, and also influenced by the guitar sound of the Ventures, the band lasted until 1968 when their school days came to an end. The Trenchmen recorded just one 45, the excellent Chains On My Heart b/w Travel With Me, which Jim Oldsberg describes in Lost & Found magazine as "one of the finest '60s discs from North Dakota." In retrospect this is readily apparent, but in their day the Trenchmen simply didn't get the breaks or have the drive to go for the bigtime.

"Our demise was a culmination of lack of interest, following, success...and we were all looking to go our own way, post-high school," is the pragamatic point of view of Jim Mackey, bass player and vocalist with the Trenchmen. He adds, "Our 45 did not have strong sales and getting air time was simply a struggle". A frustrating situation, but pretty much the norm for a young band at the time. But the Trenchmen are not forgotten, and their long-ago efforts have not been in vain as the outstanding music on this release makes abundantly clear.

1965: Minot, North Dakota: Jim Mackey (vocals, bass) got together with Greg Jordahl (lead guitar), Alan Mattson (organ) and Ken White (drums) to form the Trenchmen. The guys were 16-years-old, except for Greg, a mere 15. The band played the usual venues - high school events, proms, teen dances. "We always seemed to play high schools. That´s the crowd we were trying to impress", Jim recalls. By late 1965, the band had developed sufficiently to come under the guidance of Vern Garrison, a local booking agent.

1966: Booked to play every Friday and Saturday night through Mid-America Production (M.A.P.), the Trenchmen started to travel around the Dakotas, showcasing their styles ranging from the authoritative R&B of James Brown and the hard-driving Young Rascals, to the more decorous music demanded by the formality of a school prom. The gigs took place only on the weekends, with rehearsals twice a week, up to three hours per session.

1967: Probably the best year for the Trenchmen. In their 1960 Lincoln Continental they toured an enormous amount of miles through western and central North Dakota, northern South Dakota, eastern Montana and Southern Manitoba. In the summer the band went to the Minneapolis Kaybank studios and recorded two Greg Jordahl originals: Chains On My Heart and Travel With Me. The lyrics to Travel were composed the night before in a hotel room. "It was exciting to record", remembers Jim, "there were lots of takes with volume adjustments". Tom Jung, today a successful engineer, was at the controls. "I kept turning up after Tom would turn me down and the end result was too much bass." The band purchased 1000 copies of their 45 from their earnings, releasing the recordings on their own Impact Sound label.

While Travel With Me is a real crude garager with a good dose of biting fuzz, Chains On My Heart is perhaps one step ahead of the typical local recording fare of the time; with its infectious Incense & Peppermints-style organ sound and Greg's sharp guitar break, it posesses a nascent psychedelic appeal. Jim confirms that "We were influenced by the psychedelic music and used some lighting behind the band to reflect the times. But we were clean cut in real life." 1967 was also the year when 16-year-old Todd Ballantyne replaced Ken White on drums. Todd had already played occasionally for the Trenchmen in their early days, before Ken took over on a regular basis.

1968: The Trenchmen played their last concert at Minot's city auditorium. Jim describes it as their most memorable gig. "We had a respectable showing and received kudos from the local radio station the next day. It was quite a thrill to hear one's name mentioned on the air followed by one of the original hits we had performed." Jim Mackey had enlisted in the navy and was due to leave the band by the end of March. Plans to replace him were there, but it never happened. "Our demise was a culmination of lack of interest, following, success", he says. As with most teen bands, the music was a phase of their life they outgrew as time rolled along and the concerns of adulthood came to the fore.

The TRENCHMEN original 45

Travel With Me b/w Chains On My Heart - Impact Sound 23667 (1967)

Source: http://www.break-a-way.de/pages/trenchmen/story.htm