Northwest Dance & Music Venues

Turkey Run - Cascade Club, Springfield, OR, December 1974 - Photo Courtesy of Linda Jiler-Adler
Cascade Club
AKA:  Springfield Auditorium
32nd and Jasper Road
Springfield, Oregon

Some of the bands that this place during those great years of NW music were:
 
Bobby Bare
Leon Smith and the Basics
Donny Brooks
James Brown and the Famous 
Johnny Brown
The Champs
The Checkers
Flames
Del Rays
Dick and Dee Dee
Dorsey Burnett
Johnny Burnett
The Cascades
The Gems
Joe Hinton
The Jademen
Jan and Dean
Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Merritt and The Crowns
The Kingsmen
Paul and Paula
Paul Revere and the Raiders
Ricky Nelson
Roy Orbison
Little Junion Parker
The Pentatones
The Satans
The Shirelles
Chris and the Sundowners
Johnny Tillitson
Turkey Run
Ike & Tina Turner Review
Bobby Vee
The Ventures
The Versatiles
Wailers
Jerry Wallace
Wheel of Fortune


Turkey Run at The Cascade Club, 1 March 1975
The Cascade Club out on Jasper Rd. in Springfield was owned and operated by Pat Mason, a major N.W. agent and promoter.  Pat booked dozens of national acts and N.W. local bands on a weekly basis.  The Cascade was mostly closed during the week serving as a recoding studio, or layover for traveling bands Pat was booking.  It was usually packed on weekends with the combined music of regional bands or national chart makers.

    Here are only some of those N.W. bands:
        The Gems (from Walla Walla, the preferred back-up band of most national acts)
        Jerry Merritt and The Crowns (out of Portland; Jerry Merritt played for about 3 years as Gene Vincent's guitar player 1958-61.)
        The Wailers (white soul out of Seattle)
        Chris and the Sundowners (folksingers out of Portland on Pat Mason's label, Lavender Records and later Dolton Records, Hollywood.)
        Leon Smith and the Basics (out of Springfield/Eugene area; had some play on their single "Little 40 Ford")

If a recording artist had a record being played on top 40 radio in the 60's they probably performed at The Cascade Club.

Jim Christiansen, May 2007


Courtesy of Bob Stoutenburg
Courtesy of Bob Stoutenburg



Courtesy of Bob Stoutenburg
We also backed 'Jan and Dean' , and Bobby Bare in 1963, on their Northewest tours.  Jan and Dean were kinda sad without their reverb and echo.  Bobby Bare had '500 Miles'  and 'Detroit City' around that time.  Under the pseudonym Bill Parsons, he recorded "All-American Boy".  The crowds really loved that song.

We would play at the Division Street Corral one night, then the Cascade Club, the next.or vice-versa.

Duane Gusse, 'The Gems', May 2007



As The Checkers, we played at the Cascade Club almost every weekend and backed many of those same artists booked by Pat Mason

Dick Dahl, The Checkers, January 2014


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Last Update:  24 March 2015
Credits: Dick Browne, Cliff Rehwoldt, Jim Christiansen, Duane Gusse, Marshall Adams, Linda Jiler, Bob Adler, Bob Stoutenburg, Dick Dahl, Bob Stoutenburg