Don Slater, Larry Fritts, Gene Swift
The Days of Grace
Richland, Washington
1967 - 1968
Members
Larry
Fritts ~ Guitar
Don
Slater ~ Organ
Gene
Swift ~ Bass
Larry
Fritts ~ Guitar
Don
Slater ~ Organ
Gene
Swift ~ Bass
Out of the blue, Don, Gene, and I decided to form a band and arbitrarily choose instruments for ourselves. We loved rehearsing (which was a good thing) and we eventually played a few church gigs and our junior high prom, for which we were joined by a singer and drummer. We played a lot of Motown songs and soul, believe it or not. Shortly after our big gig, the three us turned out the lights in Don's garage and spontaneously improvised for the first time, which totally spooked us.Larry Fritts, April 2003
As Larry says, we just decided to do a band, but a little before that we got around a piano in Larry's parent’s living room and made a set of drums out of cardboard boxes and pan lids and then called the local pop radio station. We re-wrote the words to “Little Red Riding Hood” for a popular disc jockey and they let us play it live on the air. Larry was on piano, Don and me on drums and we all sang…” Hey there H. Guy Emerson, of all the D.J.’s you're my favorite one…you’re everything that a radio fan could want…”. Well the next day at school we were as famous as you can get in Junior High. That band taught us all how to improvise and set the tone for all of our future musical directions. Gene Swift, April 2005
