Stronger Than Dirt

The band that became known (or totally unknown) as Stronger Than Dirt® formed on November 1, 1997. A band typically forms sometime before their first gig so they can, I don't know...rehearse, but they didn't have time for that because dinner was ready.

The original rhythm section of Mugsy (drums) and John (bass) formed the backbone of a weekly open jam at Big Shots in Sayreville, New Jersey (the town Bon Jovi refuses to step foot in ever again, even though his name is on the sign). With a rotating cast of musicians, the jams ran through most of 1997. Some of the regulars (Dr. John, Scottie and/or Van), in a rare sober moment, got together to rehearse a few times and decided to call themselves Stronger Than Dirt®, but no gigs were ever booked. It was that bad....

	In October of that year, an acoustic guitar duo called No Clue (Rich and Bruce) actually had no clue and wandered into Big Shots looking for a gig (silly them). Finding nothing but beer, smoke, vomit and noise, they looked for a quiet spot in the corner to hide. Unfortunately, John and Mugsy were already in that corner with their instruments. The resulting collision led to a jam session.
Seeing that nobody in the bar killed each other (or themselves) while they were playing, the guys decided to call themselves a band. Realizing that that name was taken, they had to come up with another.

They had two obvious names to choose from: Stronger Than Dirt® and No Clue. Guess which one they chose..........that's right: No Clue! Luckily, they realized another band in Jersey had the same name and changed to..... right again: Louie and the Bowties. That lasted about a week because they couldn't stop laughing long enough to play, so they settled on Stronger Than Dirt®, which is fortunate because it matches this website. Soon the band was on a perpetual tour of central New Jersey, changing direction whenever they hit water.

One night in December 1998, Mugsy was unable to make a gig, so Steve filled in on drums. But when Mugsy came back Steve wouldn't leave, so he (Mugsy, not Steve - stay with me now) moved to harmonica. The band continued to play around, gathering considerable attention from their wives (except the single ones).

Jump to February 2000. It was a cold night at the Step Inn Ballroom. The band was minding their own business when they were approached by a hippie. Knowing hippies can sense fear, the band huddled together and stood their ground. "What do you want, hippie man?" the band asked, defiantly. "My name's Doug," said the hippie. " I play keyboards. Can I sit in?" Try as they might to resist, the band saw no way out. "Sure! You can set up over there," they said, pointing over there, and he did.

The band gigged more and more, making a lot of noise along the way. In March 2001 Mugsy and Doug left the band: Mugsy due to creative differences, and Doug.....well, we really don't know what happened to Doug. He just kinda stopped showing up. Hippies tend to do that.

Waiting in the wings was Karen and her tattoos. She'd sat in a few times, belting out a song or two at seemingly random gigs (often it was the same song the band was playing), but made her official debut in March 2001. That summer the band played their first weekly gig on the Jersey Shore at Krone's Lavallette Inn.

In September 2001, Dirt played the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, prompting developers to make plans to knock it down. Cooler heads prevailed, and the Pony will be allowed to stay on condition that Stronger Than Dirt stays out of it.

In May 2002 we welcomed in Tammie to our mess, ..er....band, replacing the departing Karen, who discovered that she didn't have time to run a store, be in a band and create magic potions at the same time. (Karen now spends her time studying law and collecting back surgeries). We dug Tammie up at Murphy's in Old Bridge (now Old New York), saving her from a life of Karaoke Wednesdays.

In November 2002 we added Robin to the mix, giving Dirt a two-girl front. The very bitable Robin came to us via Spanish cable TV where her name was Soliel (that's French for "sun"). Why a pale white girl was dancing on Spanish TV under a French name is still a mystery. Six months later, Robin moved near Atlantic City for some reason, making travel to gigs long, boring and sometimes dangerous. After dodging one-too-many drunks racing north on the southbound Parkway, Robin decided she had to leave the band in November 2003. Today she's the mommy to a cute little girl and an cat that's frightened by computers.

To fill the gap left by Robin, we found Rhea and her then unborn child, Number Two. Rhea and son joined us fresh from the band Shore 2 Pleaze, whom they left due to spelling differences. After 15 months of gestation, Baby #2's hearing kicked in and he began his escape during the third set of a Dirt gig at Rug's and Riffy's in April 2004 (hell, if I could leave I would, too). For some reason Rhea finished the gig before driving herself to the hospital - probably because she didn't want Tammie to lose her gear if she left.

In May 2004, Tammie ran off to join the circus (or to get married - I always get those confused), leaving Rhea with a bunch more songs to learn, which took her about five minutes.

In October 2005 Rhea squeezed out #3 (or was it #13?), proving once and for all that the rhythm method does not work! Rhea left us in June 2006 for life in Pennsylvania (why Pennsylvania?) after 159 gigs and nearly half as many laughs. Since leaving Dirt she rescued The Jersey Shades (but blew the reward money by hiring Dirt to play her 30th birthday party), got knocked up with Baby #4, joined the band Kindred, got knocked up with Baby #5, quit Kindred and joined 9 South, then left them and joined some band in PA, then quit them and joined Mo Rock. {I'm out of breath}. If anybody wants a child you can probably borrow one of hers. She'll make more. She stills fills in with Dirt when asked.

Filling her shoes (well, actually wearing her own) was Eryn, an excellent singer/songwriter who came to us from Soul Project (from New Orleans) and Jody Joseph & The Average Joes (not from New Orleans). In her spare time, Eryn formed her own Eryn Shewell Band with John, doing her own material. She released her first album Window Pane in August 2008 with John on bass.

In August 2007 we said goodbye to founding member Rich after ten years and 539 gigs, but he wouldn't leave. It took us until October to finally ditch him, so now he's played 543 gigs, but who's counting (besides me)? After receiving his gold watch from STD, Rich joined 9 South. Don't know if that's a highway, an exit or a shoe company.

Replacing Rich was Rich. Confused? Were you confused when Dick Sargant replaced Dick York? This is no different. This so-called "new" Rich came to us from various bands including Piece of Candi (he was not the blonde chick singer), Crown Regal, Spider Daniels and Black Cat Bone. New Rich debuted with Dirt on October 26, 2007. Since nobody was seen running from the room screaming we assume he did OK, so we kept him.......until he left in April 2008.

Dirt was reduced to four, the smallest number larger than three! Rich (the first one) and Rhea (the pregnant one) dropped in at random to help, but the band missed having a permanent fifth member to point their fingers at when things went wrong. So in August 2008, Andy stepped in to accept all blame. Andy used to fill in with Dirt many years ago and is a life-long member of Swoop (formerly One Fell Swoop, the Jefferson Swoopship and the Garden State Arts Center). He likes to mash songs together without warning, keeping the band on its collective toes (we'll be a ballet band soon).

In January 2009 Eryn left Dirt to work fulltime on her own band. Once again Dirt needed a singer, so once again they conducted an extensive worldwide search (of New Jersey).....once again. Many great candidates auditioned, and at the last minute Melissa showed up. When not singing with Dirt Melissa works with hoes. No, she's not a pimp (as far as I know), she's a heavy equipment operator. She also fronted her own band Awry, whose second album So Over U was released in March 2009 (and is pretty damn good if you ask me....you did ask, didn't you?).

So after all this, who the hell is in the band today? Bruce, John, Steve, Andy and Melissa. What's next for Stronger Than Dirt®? You didn't actually ask that so I won't actually answer.