Cahoots
After disbanding Cactus Jack in early 1980, Jim Bartholomew (ie. me) joined forces with Chicago blues legend Jim Schwall to form Cahoots, another step in our exploration of country, blues and rowdy honky-tonk music. What began as a conversation over beer and oysters, blossomed into a six-piece band with the depth and breadth to fully-explore the edges of American music.
Jim Schwall achieved a national reputation as a blues guitarist with the Siegel-Schwall band and had continued to diplay his talent as a writer, singer and blistering guitarist in roadhouses and college bars primarily in the Midwest. When the aptly named Jim Schwall Band inevitably imploded in late 1979 (as Jim once put it, “I came in one night sober and I realized the band wasn’t very good.”), Jim began free-lancing and joined singer/writer Al Jolly in a booking at the Florida State Fair. Coincidently, playing the Fair that year was Jim Bartholomew, whose band Cactus Jack had been performing at the same clubs on the same circuit as Schwall. For the next ten days the boys from both groups got to hang out, listen to each other play, and forge a friendship over their love for roots music, beer and raw oysters. When their sojourn in Florida ended, they went their separate promising to meet and play together again someday.
The opportunity arose following the Last Go Round for Cactus Jack as 1980 began. After a brief time off the musical merry-go-round, Jim Bartholomew realized that there was room in the Chicago club scene for a band that could combine Country, Blues, Rock and Folk under the recently established Americana Music banner. Jim’s manager, Al Curtis, who was also booking Jim Schwall as a solo performer, suggested they talk about forming a band. In another fortuitous twist, Curtis Bachman, who had played Bass with Cactus Jack, and who had previously played with Jim Schwall, had recently returned to Chicago following an ocean tour playing on cruise ships and was looking for a gig. It seemed inevitable that these compadres would end up in Cahoots.
After agreeing that the new band needed firm country roots, Jim Bartholomew called on an old friend, “Catfish” John Gear, a seasoned veteran of the Chicago country music scene. Catfish was a renowned steel guitarist and also had once played six-string along with Jeff “Skunk” Baxter. But John Gear was unquestionably Country. He had literally written the book (or at least one of them: “Picking Squirrels”) on how to play the steel guitar and was often known to trade licks with nationally known road musicians when they passed through town. If you visited a country bar or listened to a country band in the Chicagoland area in the past decade, chances are great that you’d seen the Catfish. Almost painfully shy, but with a huge stage personality, his contribution to the band in its early days was immense. Rounding out the quintet was drummer Dave Byars, who Jim Schwall had previously played with in the band Skillet. Dave (kind of like his Muppet equivalent, Animal) had great skill and enthusiasm and brought it to every performance. Even so, Dave, who commuted from Normal, Illinois, was often said to be the only normal member in the band.
This special group of musicians came together in Chicago and soon began to spread their unique blend of roots music in the suburbs. Returning to Durty Nellies, the band now called “XXXX” (after all, they were all ex-members of well-known groups), found that their individual reputations and fan base from pevious bands was still strong. Over the next year they worked hard, partied hard, and in their relatively short time together ripped it up at Chicago clubs the Iron Rail and the Clearwater Saloon, and throughout the Midwest.
They were not only a party band but also showed their stellar musicianship on original tunes as well as covers by the great song writers of their era. They shared years of hard earned experience as working musicians and what they were achieving together was celebrated in the new name they chose: Cahoots. Cahoots was a true collaboration; a band of down to earth players that cut their teeth in the trenches, on stages large and small, in steamy dives on the back roads of the Midwest and under the bright lights and big shows of the City.
One such joint on Chicago’s North side was The Phoenix, an infamous club with a five o’clock license and no shortage of vices that a big city has to offer. In its different incarnations as a LGBTQ (before the term was used) nightclub, a Puerto Rican Disco and most recently as “Chicago’s Biggest Honky-Tonk” (with an in-house Mexican Restaurant and a gen-oo-ine Mechanical Bull), The Phoenix was a high-profile establishment in Chicago’s hottest and wildest neighborhood. With the movie “Urban Cowboy” shining a spotlight on Texas-style Country Music, being chosen to serve a residency as the house band was the kind of opportunity that would hone a band’s skills to a razor’s edge or blow it to smithereens. In the case of Cahoots, it managed to do both. Performing four lengthy sets a night, six nights a week, in a concert setting in front of some really rowdy crowds was the perfect atmosphere for Cahoots to become one of the best and hardest-working bands in Chicago.
After a rocky beginning – the clubs re-opening was delayed for two months when the owner’s license was “unavoidably held-up” by the kind Fathers at City Hall – the club soon became the place to go for country music in Chicago. Inevitably, the intense schedule and unique opportunities also led to internal changes in the band. Billy “the Backbeat” Shaffer replaced Dave Byars on drums (Normal is a long commute), and Catfish left soon after.
In still another case of what could only be Kismet, Willie Wainwright, an exceptional fiddle-player, chose this moment to return to Chicago. Willie and Jim Bartholomew had met in downstate Illinois when Willie played with the Dixie Diesels, prior to their re-location to Texas, where they began touring. Willie had returned to Chicago and chanced into The Phoenix looking for a gig. He was hired on the spot. His knowledge of Texas music added authenticity and flair to Cahoots’ arrangements and his playing ability and good-looks made him an audience favorite. The final addition to the band came when Cary Donham agreed to add his talents as multi-instrumentalist on keyboards, harmonica and vocals. Cary was also a fine songwriter whose overall approach added still a new dimension to the band.
With three established songwriters and a wealth of material to choose from, Cahoots developed a sound characterized by a Chicago Tribune beat writer as “urban Eagles”. During the course of their stay at the Phoenix, Cahoots played to packed houses, often opening for performers like Bobby Bare, Mickey Gilley, Lacy J. Dalton and other national acts. The culmination of their Phoenix run was having Jim Bartholomew’s song, “I Feel Like Running”, voted the #1 new country song of the year by the Phoenix clientele.
Unfortunately, as often happens, continued problems with the City combined with a changing market for Country Music in Chicago to end what was a hectic, profitable and chaotic run for The Phoenix. Cahoots took the show back on the road, but the monetary pressures of supporting a six piece band led to its dissolution by the end of 1982. Before Cahoots closed the book, though, an opportunity arose for Jim Bartholomew and the band to capture some of their magic in a recording studio.
From the very beginning of the band, songwriting and recording had been of primary importance to Jim Bartholomew. With an established recording artist in Jim Schwall, and a plethora of skill and experience among other members, it was only natural that a primary focus of Cahoots would be to spend whatever time they had expanding their activities in the recording studio. After months of recording their own songs with friends and bandmates, doing demo recordings for other songwriters, and singing on local radio and TV commercials, an offer came through Jim’s manager, Al Curtis, to serve as arranger and producer for an album by a popular Colorado country act, The James Family.
Handed a list of suggested songs and a limited budget, Jim wrote arrangements and booked studio time. The members of Cahoots and selected Chicago friends recorded instrumental tracks at Hedden West Studios in Schaumburg and recorded vocal tracks with members of the James Family in Golden, Colorado (at a studio most-recently used by the newly emerging Tom Petty Band). Jim Bartholomew produced the sessions using noted engineer Ian Burgess and crafted an album of Country standards that is an unknown gem and became a hit in the Rocky Mountain area around Denver. The collaboration that began with the album also led to the production of a number of advertising spots, one of which won a Denver radio industry award.
Thus ends the story of Cahoots. Jim Schwall went on to continue playing and recording amazing music until his untimely death at 79 in 2022. He also ran ann unsuccessful (but very seriouis) campaign for Mayor of Madison. Willie Wainwright is playing music in Hawaii; Cary Donham is a published author living in Paducah, Kentucky. The powerhouse rhythm section of Billy Shaffer and Curtis Bachman are both retired and living in Chicago after long and illustrous careers in music. Jim Bartholomew is still in Roselle, playing, singing, writing, and remembering.
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