After the Spoiled Broke Up - and before Gravel
Bryan Elliott on Rockin' Firs, Slightly Salted, The Few and Pounding Serfs
After the Spoiled broke up, I followed Nilo to Guam, where he had family and I was looking for adventure after a year at Western and before starting an art program in Phoenix. I returned to the area in 1984 having learned enough guitar to get by, I was eager to form a new band.
With Frank Barcott (guitar), Dale Robinson (bass), Nilo Madeja (drums), Mike Harris (harmonica), and me (vocals and guitar) we came up with some pretty cool covers to play. Nilo wanted to be called the Rockin’ Franks, but we settled on the Rockin’ Firs. This band was short-lived. We might’ve played a couple shows at the depot that summer. Dale, Frank and I were living on Guemes Island and because of different work schedules we just kind of jammed when we had time.
I started hanging out with Jason Ballard at his house on Cap Sante. Jason had written some original songs that intern inspired me to do the same. That was the first for me. Once we started collaborating on words and music things begin to click. We’d sit across from each other with acoustic guitars and work on harmonies. So fun. Tammy Madenwald was a high school girl who would come over with her guitar, and also had some of her own songs. By sharing our songs, working on harmonies, and just enjoying each other’s company, we became The Few.
After playing a few shows, we were lacking percussion. We called on our good friend Dale Robinson to join us. He could keep time on anything laying around and added to our harmonies.
Bret (Lunsford) recorded The Few on a boombox in a cabin on Guemes we were renting at the time. That recording later became an early K cassette release.
We eventually went down to Olympia and recorded with Calvin Johnson and Pat Maley. That session produced a 7-inch single that was also released on K. It seemed like we played a lot of shows. With our simple set up we could play anywhere. My favorite performance was at a hospital in Seattle, where Dale was being treated from breaking his back from a fall off a cliff on Guemes. We played all our songs for all the staff and many, many residents. Dale kept time on the bongos - horizontal from his hospital bed. When Tammy left for college, we kinda lost our spark. That’s when Dale, Frank, and I started playing again … and formed Slightly Salted.
Towards the end of The Few, I’d been writing some songs that I thought needed a more gritty sound. Frank Barcott had an old Gibson hollow body (and still does). They had the ideal rockin’ sound. He also had been working on a couple songs that were a blast to play. Dale Robinson had come up with a drum kit consisting of a cardboard box and a snare drum. The three of us started playing regularly again. It was so fun to be working on a new original sound and material. We called ourselves Slightly Salted after an ad we saw in the classifieds for a double wide mobile home that we previously rented: “Double wide mobile home, water slightly salted.” I think it was $250 a month.
I’m not sure how many actual shows we played, but we played for ourselves, and around the campfire a lot. Our friend, Jonn Lunsford, returned from college and started playing with us. With Jonn also on acoustic guitar, it freed me up to play more mandolin and fill out our sound a bit. He also brought in a couple of songs to add to our list. We were four really good friends playing our songs together and enjoying life. We were Pounding Serfs.
