Monkey Bidness Music

From 1983 until 1984, Bill Cole, Jere Ellis and Wardlaw Steele recorded as a trio. In 1985, Jimmy Calloway, Bill Cole and Jere Ellis called themselves "Howard, Howard and Fine", inviting friends, Peter Keeble and Wardlaw Steele to join them.  By 1993, they were Cole, Ellis an Steele again and Wardlaw invited John Nichols to join the group as keyboardist and another vocal. Based entirely on the way they liked to end songs suddenly and in weird places they called themselves, "Backstroke, the band that always pulls out."  

 

One night, for a gig, with Chip Smith aboard playing lead guitar, they all happened to show up after work in their shirts and ties and, "Bidnessmen" was born.  They continued on, adding and losing Dan Bulla on bass and Kinny Cosner on drums along the way (in the first attempt to move Billy out front).  Later, when Wardlaw moved to San Fransisco in 2000, he invited Bill Davidson to join the band in his place.

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Together with a group of friends they called, "Associates," Bidnessmen recorded two albums, "Open Faux Bidness," in 2000, and "Bidnessmen and Associates," in 2007.  Two albums of original music, crafted at Jere's Barking Dog Studio, in Nashville, TN and Peter Keeble's Broken Door Studio, in Sewanee, TN.

 

"Open Faux Bidness" contained fourteen songs, mostly collaborations - some old and some new and some old made new - written by Billy C, Billy D, Jere, John and Wardlaw ... "Bidnessmen and Associates" saw more Bill Cole originals, John Nichols' collaboration with Susan Breining (now Oven), as well as some of Jere Ellis' best songs, and John Nichols' and Dale Brown's big arrangement of Bill Davidson's local classic, "San Bernardino".

There is also a live album out there - a collection of recordings of covers and originals, made at gigs and in live recording sessions at both Broken Door and Barking Dog Studios.

In 2010, during the sessions for what would have been their third studio album, Bill Cole and Peter Keeble (who had joined again as a full time member) decided to leave the band, and Bidnessmen were no more.  The four songs they had finished are here, as a collection called, "Goin' Out of Bidness."