Mojo Hand
Seattle, Washington
1969 - 1973

Members

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
 

In Memory of

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


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Last Update:  3 November 2011
Credits: John C. Strawn, Volkert "Kert" Volkersz, Mark Seidenverg, Bob Wolf, Jimm McIver
Band # 1659