by Gary Johnson

Musicians Larry McCray and Drew Abbott visited the Historical Museum recently to receive their framed induction certificates to the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.

 

 

 

Larry McCray, who currently resides in Bay County, has emerged as one of Michigan’s top blues artists during the past three decades. Born in Arkansas in 1960, his family moved to Saginaw in 1972 to take advantage of the economic opportunities offered in Michigan’s automotive plants. It was there that Larry was introduced to the guitar and the transformative music of important blues artists by his older sister, Clara.

After graduating from high school, Larry took a job at a local General Motors assembly plant and began performing at area bars and music clubs with his brothers Carl (bass) and Steve (drums) as the McCray Brothers.

Larry’s guitar and vocals attracted the attention of Point Blank Records, and his first two albums for the label, “Ambition” (1990) and “Delta Hurricane” (1993), garnered critical acclaim for creating an exciting contemporary blues sound by fusing blues, rock, and soul.  

Throughout the years, Larry continued to help define blues rock by collaborating with artists such as fellow guitarist Albert Collins, who was also signed to Point Blank. Playing music on national stages also allowed him to meet and get to know on a first name basis blues heroes such as B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Albert King, Junior Wells, and Luther Allison.

In recent years, Larry has begun working with Joe Bonamassa. “Blues Without You” was released in 2022, and he has a new album on Bonamassa’s label set to come out in 2025.

Drew Abbott was inducted into the MRRL HOF as the lead guitarist for Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band. Drew is a native Michigander who started his musical journey on drums before switching to rock guitar following the advent of The Beatles.

He first gained attention as the lead guitarist in Third Power, a three-piece band that recorded one album in 1970. After Third Power disbanded, Drew joined Bob Seger’s Silver Bullet Band in 1974 and appeared on Seger’s “Seven” album.

Starting with the “Beautiful Loser” album in 1975, Drew was featured on six consecutive platinum albums by Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band. The list included both the “Live Bullet” album, recorded at Detroit’s Cobo Arena, and the “Night Moves” studio album from 1976, “Stranger in Town” (1978), the Grammy-winning “Against the Wind” (1980), and a second live album, “Nine Tonight,” released in 1981.

 

 

He left the Silver Bullet Band in the early ‘80s over a disagreement regarding Seger’s use of session musicians on his studio recordings. Drew moved to Traverse City to start a family, and he went on to play in several different bands in the years since.

Drew and Bob Seger were reunited in 2004, however, when Seger asked him to take the stage at his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

 Learn more about the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.

 

 

 

Part 3:  1916 to 1919.  Family life, Grade School Years

Written and told by Helen Kavanaugh Tobbe (1905-2002) and transcribed by her youngest child, Kate Tobbe Ptak

My brother Jack was a cute little kid. He was about seven years younger than Jr. and I were. One day, when he was in third grade, he was walking home from school with his friend, Carny, who was from a very poor family. They were walking past Grandma's house and Carny needed to get to a bathroom soon, so Jack invited Carny into Grandma's to use the bathroom. Grandma wasn't home at the time. The two boys spotted freshly baked bread and a crock of jam. Jack, who was a very friendly, hospitable child, invited his friend "poor Carny", to have some bread and jam with him. They spread that jam nice and thick on their slices of bread. The jam was Grandma's Spring Tonic, made of honey, figs, and senna (which is a strong laxative). After the snack the boys went on home. Jack didn't mention his visit, but Grandma knew someone had been there, so she called and warned Nellie that someone was going to be very busy for a while. Well, Jack and “poor Carny” didn't make it to school for two days - they were too busy. Those boys really cleaned out their systems. “Poor Carny's” family was too poor to have indoor plumbing, so he really had a lot of running to do!

 W.P and Nellie's Children. Bottom right: Helen (11/20/1905-3/4/2004), bottom left: Jack (1/20/1912-8/30/1939), top right: WP Junior (1/25/1907-2/14/1997), top left: Margaret (4/3/1908-4/9/1996)

I remember Sundays when we were young. Of course, there was Mass in the morning, dinner, usually a roast chicken dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy, (our main meal of the day) at noon, then we had to go back to church for Vespers and Benediction at 2:00. We used to pray that the pastor wouldn't be feeling too good so we'd just have Benediction, as we had other plans starting at 3:30. When we got out from church, we would run like hell all the way to the movies to get there on time. Pearl White starred in a serial, The Perils of Pauline, that showed from 3:30 till' 5:00 PM. Each Sunday the movie would close with poor Pauline hanging from the cliff or running from a Chinaman.

What were our school days like? In first grade we studied reading, spelling, phonics, catechism and math. In later years, geography, history, English, music and art were added. Of course we had homework, but we would wiggle out of as much as we could. St. James School was located on 12th Street and just down the street from the school was a blacksmith shop where we stopped every day after school. Did we stop in to watch the smithy work? No, to hide our geography books which were too heavy to carry all the way home. He never minded or squealed on us. Of course, our geography grades were seldom in the passing stage.

We also went home at noon every day for dinner. One time, Jr. and I were walking home for dinner with some cousins. As we approached the cousins' house, we could smell freshly made bread and homemade catsup. Somehow, we wiggled our way in for dinner with them. No one let Nellie know that we were there, and she got worried when we didn't get home as scheduled. Nellie checked with the school and found that we were back in class, OK, so knew that we were all right, but Jr. and I sure caught hell when we got back home later that afternoon.

Grandma's house was on the way home from school, and we loved to stop after school when bread had been baked that day. We also knew the cost - running errands; to the bakery, or maybe six blocks to the drug store, or to the AOH (Ancient Order of Hibernians) with the insurance dues. Many times, we took a longer route home.

We had a sweet old nun for eighth grade who was so cross-eyed we never knew just who she was pointing to when calling on students for answers. We got lots of exercise half getting out of our seats only to find it was Joe in the next row she was calling on.

One subject taught in the 8th grade was Indian Lore. WP had brought home a statue of an Indian which he placed on top of the mantel in our living room. Nellie hated that "awful" thing, so when she heard about the Indian Lore lessons, she quickly donated the statue to the class.

I was fourteen when I started driving. There was no such thing as a driver's license in 1919. WP had bought an old car for us, an Oakland. We and our friends referred to it as the Puddle Jumper. The top had worn out, so the car was a permanent convertible. One friend, Mary Brysselbout, was a few years older than I. She could play the organ and piano by ear. She played the organ at church for early Mass. I would take her to church in the Puddle Jumper. If it was raining that particular day, Mary would open her umbrella to keep both of us dry. The car didn't last very long with our family as Jr. smashed up the car by driving it into a ditch.

Photo of a 1916 Oakland Car Model 32 B.  Mudi's "Puddle Jumper" probable looked something like this, without the top.  (Source: IMCDb.org)