Original
Lineup
Perry
Johnson ~ Guitar, Vocals
Mark
Seidenverg ~ Bass
Darryl
Siguenza ~ Drums, Vocals
Michael
Silversmith ~ Guitar, Vocals
Later
Members
Tony
Bortko ~ Guitar, Keyboards
Chuck
Gardner ~ Guitar
Rick
Pearce ~ Guitar
Brad
Sinsel ~ Vocals
Michael
Smith ~ Guitar, Vocals
Tony
Bortko
b:
1953 - d: 4 December 2006
About late 1969, Darryl and I got back to playing together with guitarist/vocalist and amazing songwriter Michael Silversmith. Soon after we found Perry Johnson for Lead guitar. This band was Mojo Hand. We played the NW scene for years as rock evolved from the hippie days to "show rock", hard rock, metal, and disco (uggg). I think you could say we were a heavy metal blues/rock band. We played almost all originals with some blues and 50's rock standards. We started out as the house band at the El Roach tavern in Ballard. Eventually we played all the Seattle clubs such as the Grapevine, Pipeline, Aquarius, G-Note, Walrus (others I don't recall now). Tacoma - New Yorker, Olympia Captain Coyote's, Vancouver - The Body Shop, Portland - No Dogs Alloyed. There was kind of a circuit. We went form club to club with occasional concerts. One highlight was the summer of (I'm guessing '72) when we played the Grapevine all summer. WE ROCKED! We had a really cool thing going with a great following. One night Buddy Miles came in and jammed with us. During that summer we played the Buffalo Party Rock Festival. We were second headliners behind Charlie Musselwhite. That may have been the best gig we ever played. It was so intense! I can still remember how it felt. We rocked hard, the crowd rocked, we were all one. It was such as cool experience! After our encore's Charlie Musselwhite actually said, "How in the world can we follow that!" Nice compliment. He did and he was great.
There was an interlude where we moved to Los Angeles and tried to make it big. I'd have to guess that was 1973. We eventually moved up the Berkeley and became the house band for a fraternity... then Michael got busted for draft evasion.
We moved back to Seattle and took 6 to 9 months off. We got back together and played quite a bit at a place called Brother's on the west side of Queen Anne Hill. We played on and evolved members picking up guitarist Rick Pearce. Eventually we hired Brad Sinsel as vocalist and Tony Bortko as rhythm guitar/keyboards. That band became TKO.
Mark Seidenverg, October 2005
Mojo Hand's original songs included tunes such as Rock and Roll Soldier, Motel Suite, Too Bad for Gypsies, and Here with Nothing. We also did some re-makes of old blues tunes. A NW favorite was John the Revelator.
Mark Seidenverg, January 2006
