Rockasteria: Sep 4, 2023

Monday, September 4, 2023

Burnt Suite - Burnt Suite (1972 us, misty rural stoner psych acid rock, 2023 digipak reissue)

Growing up in Canton, Connecticut was an ideal out in the country type of town. Like a lot of kids during that period, Isaw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show, heard all the girls screaming, and decided to make music my life! In seventh grade I had a trio with some friends, they were older than me. And then in 8th grade a quartet called the Hellions. And then in 10th grade Woody Andrews, Jym Cifaldi, and I started performing and writing songs together. We were all about the same age, very creative! We originally named the band, Strange Brew, after the song by Cream. But the principal of the high school didn't want the word 'brew', relating to beer, advertised on the walls of the high school for dances. So we changed the name Burnt Suite meant...hot music.

BJW stood for Billy, Jimmy, Woody. We made it up. We decided to record an album of the songs we had already written. Woody's father was a singer and director of plays and helped us produce The record. We actually got $1000 loan from the local bank in Canton to record the album!! Woody's father most likely co-signed for us. Both my father and Woody's father were always extremely supportive. We were still seniors in high school when we did that record. So it had to be 1970 or 1971 when we began recording. We actually took advance orders from other kids in high school to help finance the record.

We mostly performed locally at local events and dances. We sold the records our selves at the venues. We didn't really have somebody helping us to present our selves nationally. The band broke up because I decided I wanted to move to Massachusetts and be near the ocean and Cape Cod. I just needed to spread my wings, travel, and experience other parts of the country!

by William Florian