There were a lot of people who moved through Big Al’s blue world of wonder and weirdness, and some of them stuck around long enough to make a difference on how it all collected and evolved as it did. These are some of those folks, and while a few lasted long enough to fully impact what it was like to be part of the WASBB family, each of these guys played as members of the band for as long as that was the case. Not every player made the cut for this page. Just the ones you can’t leave out if you want to tell this story.
Bios Page
Big Al
In 1980, when Alan cashed in a metric ton of recovery silver @ $50 an ounce, he did what any guy in his position would do. He gave his sister the photo business, retired his old man, and launched the world's most notorious blues band. Playing big-balls Chicago-style blues with his BFF Iggy on bass, and with a 10 note harp in hand, he took one big step outside the mainstream and he never even considered going back again.
From there, he took a good long look inside himself and discovered that there were nooks and crannies down in there that were going to take some serious time and effort (and money) to properly explore. So he packed his gathering flock of circus freaks and moved the whole adventure into the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains - a crossroads named Gray. NY - and it was there that he crafted a legend that defies simple description.
The guy also defies description, so I'm going to just let everything on this site - everything that he created - speak for itself. Big Al IS the W. Albany St. Blues Band, and in all its ragged glory.
Iggy
Iggy was the one who brought Big Al to the blues, and sent them both on their “mission from God”. He was the band's original puppet master, but that shifted as time went on. As a result, the band's initial sound - a traditional Chicago-style groove with plenty of belligerence and attitude - became the more introspective and experimental sound of later recordings.
A gifted oil painter and silversmith, Iggy's creativity and talent stretched out far beyond the boundaries of the band itself.
He was no rookie with the ladies either, and his running stable of exotic beauties generally drew the male half of the band's initial following. Just to see if they could score on them nasty fine bitches.
Iggy and Al were the two who made the WASBB what it was, and taking either one of them out of the lineup was like canceling the gig. It just wasn't the W. Albany St. Blues Band without Iggy out front on vocals and bass.
Chester
Chester and Iggy are brothers. If you think that makes them alike in any sense of the concept, then you're fucking wrong. The only thing they've ever had in common was a confusion over what the hell the other was thinking when he did whatever it was that he'd just done.
Chester was (and still is) the easiest guy in the world to like, and the hardest guy in the world to trust. And the bitch is that most of the time, it's not due to anything that he just did or didn't do. Some guys just have that shit hanging around their necks like an albatross and it's their curse in life.
You'll hear all kinds of stuff about "Chetty did this and Chetty did that", but the truth is that no one up @ Gray was spotless. Chester just took on the blame when someone else succeeded in getting away scot-free. If anything, that's what he provided the WASBB community - a tolerant go-to blame target in a place where if he hadn't already existed, they'd have needed to invent him.
The truth is that Chet was the one other guy who defined that environment up in Gray. First, it was Alan, but then it was Chetty. The bottom line here is that you'll never know the whole story about those WASBB's years in Gray without first getting to know Chester.
Coupie
Jimmy Coup was probably the most capable guy to ever walk into the living-room at Al's. What that meant was that he was able to dangle out there the farthest, without any net at all, and be the one most likely to survive. Turned out that he was the first to spin out (twice) and not come back (once) so who's to say what's what with obvious capacity.
He probably could've been a genius if he'd given two shits about much of anything, but then genius is about giving more shits than anyone else about at least something. Still Coupie had the tools required for the position of genius, and that's worth noting.
One thing he did care about was surviving [and thriving] within the daily game of "king's court" as it was played up in Gray, and it was there where his brilliance shined right through. Coupie was an expert at busting your balls, and it could be tough to like him at times; especially those times when it was you in his crosshairs. That said, it was never difficult respecting the man for his talent and his intellect.
One thing's for sure, Big Al's years of building a new sound for his WASBB definitely profited due to the fact that Coupie was on hand from day to day.
Fern
It's hard to say anything about Fern other than he was the nicest guy you'd ever expect to run into in a place like Big Al's Gray NY funhouse. He played keys for the band's 2nd and for its last incarnation, and if anything ever balanced out all the hedonism and raw carnality enough to allow God's blessing on the whole of those WASBB years, it was Fern.
Like all good things in this shit world, he left us too soon, but you can check out his talent and soul here; plenty that reveals this quiet, gentle guy, and what he brought to the table amid all the pushing and shoving for notice that was the constant current blasting through that carnival.
Fern was kinda like that Marilyn Munster chick - in a normal guy among space aliens sense of what that means. Okay, so that probably won't make sense to some folks, but to others, it'll describe his niche within the WASBB freak tent like nothing else ever could.
Let's just say that [not unlike Chester] if Fernie hadn't ever shown up, the band would've had to invent him. He was the one patch of open space that needed to exist to give you an accurate take on the rest of what was going on around you. Like an unspoken assurance that leaned in and whispered, "no, seriously, it's not you.".
Kevin
Kevin was the band's original guitar player, and he kept in touch over the years. The reason he gets the include here is because he wrote the book "Black Flies in the Backyard With Snowshoes", [Big Al's official response to all the stupid shit that's ever been written about him and his band] and is sort of the band's primary historian as a result.
He left in 1985 for Boston MA and started his own career in the blues world, but 5 to 6 times a year [right up until Al took his carnival on the lam in 1989] Kevin would slink on back to hide out, lick his wounds, and play with the other pups up there in Big Al's Blues Wonderland. So, like I said, he might've left early on, but he never really left . . . if that makes any sense at all.
He plays guitar okay, but he writes like something really bad just crawled up inside his ass and the goddamn thing's just spoiling for the SWATs to come try and drag it back out again.
The truth is that in the end, someone was going to have to tell the story of Big Al Cancelino and the WASBB. Still, no one expected it was going to be him.
