Half of the Bongos!

When James Mastro joined the Bongos, the first thing he & fellow Bongo Richard Barone did was drive to Mitch Easter’s Drive-In Studio in North Carolina The pair recorded an LP but not for the Bongos. The songs came out on an LP called NUTS & BOLTS. There was a helpful sticker that said ‘Half Of The Bongos!’ which I always thought was funny because how many people knew who the Bongos were in 1983? OK, me - but I'm pretty sure I was the only person in Chattanooga that did.

I always figured that Barone & Mastro did the extra-curricular recordings to keep busy during the time it took to get band’s RCA contract set up and signed.

Whatever the reason was, NUTS & BOLTS is a pretty good record. Some of the songs should have been saved for full band recordings though. Others are just fine the way they are. It’s been said that these recordings were demos but I don’t think they were. Richard Barone recorded 6 songs for his side of the LP. Mastro had 5, one a cover of Tommy Roe’s “Dizzy”. None of the songs were recorded by the Bongos but Richard Barone did include “Flew A Falcon” on his excellent COOL BLUE HALO album in 1987.

So what were the other half of the Bongos doing?