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Tiverton rockers rockin’ into the big time
By Marcia Pobzeznik / Newport Daily News correspondent

TIVERTON – They’re the kinds of stories music promoter Al Gomes loves to tell and this one starts with a father-son team of rock guitarists from Tiverton who play in a band called the Mill City Rockers. They’re good enough to be on the initial 2006 Grammy Awards ballot.

The Fall River, Mass.-based band has been placed in six categories and is listed next to celebrities such as Paul McCartney on the 48th annual ballot for the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Finalists for the awards will be announced Thursday.

John Florio, 59, and his son, Anthony, 30, say it will “probably be a miracle” if they make it onto the final ballot.

“All I know is my name is on the ballot with Paul McCartney and Eric Clapton. They’re heavy hitters,” John Florio said while sitting in his living room in the High Hill section of town near Fogland Beach scanning the ballot on his computer screen.

He stopped scrolling when he saw his band’s name. “See,” he said, touching the screen, “we’re on it with Joe Crocker and Celine Dion. And there we are under the Dave Matthews Band.”

The Mill City Rockers are in official ballot consideration for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Rock Song and Best Rock Album for its song and album, “Big Cloud Thunder,” as well as two other songs.

The band got its start in the mid 1980s, and Anthony Florio is the most recent addition to the group.

“It hasn’t hit me really,” he said. “It’s exciting to be on it. We’re two guys from Tiverton, you know what I mean?”

The band was submitted by Gomes, who with his partner A. Michelle owns Big Noise, a Providence-based artists and repertoire firm that oversees and promotes musical projects. Since 1998, Big Noise has done work for Christina Aguilera, and currently works with Rhode Island native Billy Gilman, a 17-year-old country singer. The firm also has had a hand in the career of Little Anthony and the Imperials, who sold 40 million records, and has also done work for the band Chicago, Gomes said.

Because he’s a voting member of the academy, Gomes was allowed to submit nominations. He’s worked with the Mill City Rockers for 19 years. The band’s nominations were put on the ballot after being given the OK by the Grammy’s screening committee.

This is the second time Mill City Rockers – which also includes members Kerry Cudmore, vocals/bass; Jim St. Pierre, guitar; and John Desaulniers, drums – made it onto the ballot, but it’s the first year for the father-son team.

“We’re the first father-son rock guitar players in the same band to be on the Grammy ballot,” John Florio said proudly. “It’s sweeter the second time,” Gomes said, “but doubly sweet because it was with his son.”

Rock guitarists they are, but not full time.

“We all have day jobs,” John Florio said.

“We just can’t make enough money to make it full time,” Anthony Florio added. The elder Florio works in the power plant at Rhode Island School of Design in Providence. His son is a manager at a local Ocean State Job Lot.

John Florio is a self-taught musician who started playing around with one of his uncle’s guitars when he was a teenager growing up in Chicago. And, as he says, “Life got in the way.”

He joined the Navy, went to Vietnam and later was stationed in Newport, which is how he ended up staying in this area. Music, he says, is his passion, but he wouldn’t be where he is without the other band members.

Anthony Florio started his musical career playing piano, but hated it. Practicing was too boring, he said, so he took up guitar.

He remembers times when he was younger when the family would be awakened at 3 or 4 in the morning by guitar music. It was his father who had gotten up from a sound sleep to write music he apparently envisioned in his dreams.

John Florio still writes music, but not in the middle of the night. “I’m too old,” he said.

The band plays at a lot of motorcycle events and has traveled around the country going to “biker things.” It also performs at festivals in Fall River and the surrounding area.

For John Florio, the Grammy nomination is like living a dream, but he doesn’t have to wake up in the middle of the night to enjoy it.

“You don’t know where dreams will take you,” he said. “Never give up on yourself. That’s what this is all about. If you have to give up on your dreams, that’s when you start getting old.”

Anthony Florio’s dream is to play his guitar for a huge audience of enthusiastic fans.

“I want 50,000 people screaming at me,” he said. “I want to hit the big time.”

‘One of the best bands that the New England scene has to offer.’
– 94 WHJY-FM

‘Solid songwriting and playing recalls the Allman Brothers, the Heartbreakers, and Derek and the Dominos.’
– The Providence Journal

‘Bluesy roots rock soaked Southern style in a Gibson BBQ sauce. You’re in for a tasty treat.’
– The Providence Phoenix

‘Talented musicians all; as tight musically as it gets. Tasteful guitar leads, bass lines that continully move, and vocals that are fat and soulful. MCR have it all together live. Their style, skill and professionalism make this band one to watch in the future.’
– The Rock Rag

‘The product of a dream of musicians who have a deep love for music. The right combination of musicians. A dedicated band.’
– The Somerset Spectator

‘No hold barred, steamrollin’ rock ‘n’ roll with a no-questions-asked attitude.’
– The Providence NicePaper

The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences also placed Mill City Rockers on the Official Ballot for the 2005 Grammy Awards:

Category 2 – Album Of Year
Mill City Rockers – Mission

Category 3 – Song Of the Year
Mill City Rockers – Just Happens That Way

Field 4 : Category 16 –
Best Rock Performance by A Duo or Group with Vocal
Mill City Rockers – Just Happens That Way

Field 4 : Category 16 –
Best Rock Performance by A Duo or Group with Vocal
Mill City Rockers – Ridin’ Free

Field 4 : Category 19 – Best Rock Instrumental Performance
Mill City Rockers – In Your Face

Field 4 : Category 20 – Best Rock Song
Mill City Rockers – Guitar Hero

Field 4 : Category 21 – Best Rock Album
Mill City Rockers – Mission

REVIEW : Mill City Rockers:
‘Mission’ (Big Noise Records)
Full Throttle
June 2003 – Vol. 3, Issue 2

If you haven’t heard the Mill City Rockers or seen them at one of the Motorcycle expos, you’re missing probably the best hard rocking band in New England. I’ve seen them a dozen times as they play their classic rock covers and their own original songs, each show as good as the last. The crowds are always pleased and they can keep any party rockin’. MCR has released four albums since 1991 and they are available through their website www.millcityrockers.com which has more information about the band. The band hooked me up with a copy of their new CD, ‘Mission’. MCR has been helping get the word out about Full Throttle while touring around the Northeast.

‘Mission’ has become a staple in my truck’s CD player. The blend of classic rock and modern hardcore just plain rocks. The opening song, ‘Guitar Hero’ sets a fast-paced outlaw mood that resonates straight through to the last song, ‘Real Damn Hot’. Listening to the CD, you’ll get hooked by the grunge-style rhythm guitars of John Florio and Anthony Florio and by Jim St. Pierre’s raspy vocals. John Desaulniers keeps a steady beat thoughout the song with just enough accents and fills in keeping with the best classic rock songs. ‘Ridin’ Free’ has the kind of strong vocals that won’t be able to keep out of your head, a good sing along song, followed by ‘In Your Face’, a kind of Lynyrd Skynyrd instrumental on overdrive. The live performance at the Cycle Productions Boston Expo with Kerry on back-ups sounded awesome. Her high notes complimenting Jim’s low ones on ‘Just Happens That Way’ comes the closest to reproducing the pair’s live harmonies.

Beginning to end you won’t be disappointed, so order one or pick up a CD at one of their shows!

REVIEW : ‘Mission’
by Mill City Rockers (Big Noise Records)
By Edward Batchelder
City Cycle Motorcycle News
July 15, 2001 – Vol. 11, # 6

Everybody’s got their favorite mental soundtrack for riding. For me, dodging my old Honda through the frantic chaos of New York City traffic, it was the jangly, syncopated rhythyms of ’50s be-bop jazz; for you, it may be Steppenwolf’s anthemetic ‘Born To Be Wild.’ It’s volume increasing inside your head as you crank the Harlet’s throttle on an early morning straitaway out in the country somewhere. For all I know there may even be someone out there who plays Kenny G’s ‘It’s A Wonderful World’ on his cerebral CD player, though I can’t possibly imagine what he’s driving.

For most bikers though, the tunes in their head probably sound a lot like Mill City Rockers – throbbing, ominous guitars with plenty of fuzz; spiky, high-pitched leads; drum and bass work that sounds like a boxing match; and a singer with a permanent, screaming discontent with the corruption if the world. With tunes ranging from the heavy metal ‘Above The Law’ (a complaint about the attitude of cops and politicians) to the more bluesy Allman Brothers-tinged ‘No Warning’ (the girl left with the best friend once again) to the maniacal instrumental rave-up ‘Ha!,’ the group’s latest release, ‘Mission,’ covers all the crucial bases.

There’s even some slower ballads like ‘Still On The Sill’ and ‘Understand What I See,’ though the guitars are just as heavy. My fave is the hard-driving ‘Just Happens That Way,’ which is whipped along by vigorous drumming from John Desauniers and the dynamic interplay with John Anthony Florio’s pulsing rhythm guitar. Jim St. Pierre’s singing works itself up to a higher intensity than usual, and there are some great sultry, wailing harmonies from Kerry Cudmore (the way she moans out, ‘Ah Come On’ is worth the price of admission alone). The band updates their mostly seventies sound with Admen scratching in the breaks, and best of all, there’s even two versions of it- the second has the obscenity bleeped out so you can play it for your mother…that is, if your mother happens to be a hog-riding head-banger like these boys.

Available at fine music stores. Pick it up and play it loud.

REVIEW : By Diesel
The Horse

Mill City Rockers complete their ‘Mission’

‘Mission’ (Big Noise Records), the latest effort from the Mill City Rockers, rocks, which explains why they are not the Mill City Philharmonic or the Mill City Glee Club. With their Molly Hatchet meets Allman Brothers meets Steppenwolf-esque sound, MCR has created a genuine road song soundtrack.

As soon as ‘Guitar Hero,’ the record’s opening track, starts pulsing through the speakers, it is obvious the music is about the freedom only available on two wheels, by and for those who have spent some time with their heels in the wind. ‘Above the Law,’ ‘Ridin’ Free,’ and ‘No Warning’ epitomize the resonant vocals, thunderous rhythms, and screaming solo work that is ‘Mission.’ MCR brings it down a notch with its power ballads ‘Still On the Sill’ and ‘Understand What I See.’ And if you sit still while the Rockers crank out the southern rock frenzy ‘In Your Face,’ the album’s only instrumental track, you are flirtin’ with disaster.

Although some of the tracks struggle to differentiate themselves from each other, the synergy makes for a just-push-play record that embodies the presence of a live performance. ‘Mission’ is the music you listen to traveling down the open road with all the windows down or while working in the shop and finishing that big project.

So, if you are looking for some easy listening to enjoy over a nice merlot after a hard day at the office – try Chicago. If you long for deep lyrics masking socio-political messages, you, too, are in the wrong place. Mill City’s ‘Mission’ is good ole blow-up-your video rock and roll.

REVIEW : By Bill Gannon

Keep an eye out for major happennings from New England motorcyclist band Mill City Rockers. Most riders know MCR for their appearances at many Biker bashes throughout the Northeast including their donating their time and talents for worthwhile causes including ABATE of Massachusetts’ Freedom Benefit. Now they’re on a ‘Mission’ — their recent compact disc release sponsored by Vanson Leathers and Drew Drums. ‘Mission’ is a great album and if you¹ve seen them perform, you will want a copy. You can order one direct from the band or at any of their live shows. Check out the Mill City Rockers and partake in their ‘Mission.’

RIDING FREE
By Andy Smith, The Providence Journal

Mill City Rockers founder and songwriter/guitarist John Florio calls the band ‘blues-influenced, raw, guitar-driven rock with a ’70s flavor.’ For variety, Skip Healy occasionally contributes a flute part; at other times, there’s a hint of Southern rock. Lyrics range from the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ surrealism of ‘Fuzzy Little Tail’ (the narrator turns into a rabbit), the Arthurian legend of ‘Black Knight,’ the gritty realism of ‘On the Run’ or ‘All the Same to Me,’ and the religious imagery of ‘The Light.’

‘We’re a band on a mission to have a positive influence on people’s lives,’ says Florio. ‘I wouldn’t call it a Christian band, but there are some spiritual elements.’

The band goes back to 1988. Florio and drummer John DeSaulniers were members then, although DeSaulniers left the band for a time before returning about seven months ago. Lead singer and bassist Jim St. Pierre has been with the band since 1990, and John’s son Anthony Florio and Kerry Cudmorecompleted the current line-up months ago.

‘My bandmates really catch the spirit of what the music is about,’ Florio said of the current line-up. ‘We plan to write about life’s experiences and continue to play. We’d love to get a record deal and reach a wider audience, but if we don’t get it, we’ll still keep playing.’

The band’s latest CD is called ‘Mission’ (Big Noise). They have also contributed an all-new track to the Big Noise compilation, ‘Digital Side of the Moon.’

Mill City Rockers: Mission
By Bob Gulla, The Providence Phoenix

Produced by Tony Ricci and Mill City Rockers, ‘Mission’ is a dozen straight-ahead rock tunes propelled by classic-rock guitars and the rock-solid vocals of bassist Jim St. Pierre. The band is obviously inspired by southern, blues-based rockers like Molly Hatchet and mid-period Lynyrd Skynyrd (“Above the Law,” “Ridin’ Free,” “In Your Face”), while also hinting at the guitar throttle of Hendrix (“Guitar Hero”) and other ’70s rockers on songs like AC/DC (“Another Way”).

Though the band generally stays on the straight and narrow in the songwriting category, occasionally they veer off and throw in a surprise or two. On the ballad “Understand What I See,” Barabe’s pedal steel provides a nice counterpoint to St. Pierre’s rhythm chords. His bottleneck also spices up “No Warning.” The rhythm section of St. Pierre and powerhouse drummer John Desaulniers provide the band with strong support. Recorded, mixed, and mastered at Triad Recording Complex, the disc has ample breadth and fidelity, and good performances.

GIRL SINGER IN A BIKER BAND
By Kerry Cudmore
June 15, 2003

The term “freak parade” was coined at a private biker clubhouse in Massachusetts. Our band, the Mill City Rockers, arrived at an old mill building to find the bar located at the top of a flight of stairs, three stories, straight up.

The gig was a Halloween party, and as I stumbled through the door at the top of the stairs, wrestling with the 60-pound speaker I was carrying and teetering in my high-heeled boots, I found myself witness to the marriage of Dracula with a very convincing witch. My Girl Scout-trained mind reeled: What’s the etiquette for a situation like this?

The star of the freak parade was a generously bearded biker wearing a well-above-the-knee white nurse’s uniform complete with high heels, cap and stethoscope. He wore a thong (there is no doubt about this, we were flashed). On a more spiritual level, Jesus was in attendance, bearing a heavy cross. Since then, the term “freak parade,” of which I am an avid observer, has been hard for me to shake.

I’ve gone from being a shy kid, raised in middle-class suburbia, whose most risque accomplishments included being crowned State Sweetheart of the Future Farmers of America, to being a dedicated motorcyclist and member of a biker band.

My musical career began with guitar lessons, choirs and glee clubs; progressed to operatic vocal training, a six-woman folk band, an alternative rock band; and finally to my own solo compact disc. I met the Mill City Rockers during a recording session at the studio where I was interning in my spare time. The sound engineer had given the session a hard sell: “You’ve got to get in here for this one, these guys are real characters.” They were.

We talked music during the all-night session. One thing led to another and I found myself singing backup vocals on three tracks of that CD one mere week later.

My bandmates are a weird assortment of pseudo-brothers. These guys have been together for more than a decade and know precisely how to push each other’s buttons. John, the eldest and founding member of the band, is maniacally driven by the Mill City Rocker’s cause. He’s about as Italian as you can get – he’s frequently, and sometimes coarsely, outspoken – and believes his music is the vehicle for a higher, spiritual purpose. He is determined to share it with whoever will listen.

Jim is the lead singer and bass player. His voice is deeply resonant, his bass playing a relentless, aggressive attack (he manages to break bass strings regularly). He is enthusiastically easygoing, mischievous and quick with a grin. His favorite get-the-crowd-going routine (at least in adult-only establishments) involves shouting “HEL-LO,” with the appropriate, in-the-know response being an emphatically delivered “BLEEEEP YOU.” The patch on his vest just about sums it up: “Smile if you got some last night.” He also happens to be the love of my life.

J.D., the drummer, the most intricately tattooed of the bunch, is a flawless beat-master. They once recorded him with the band, then checked his timing compared with an electronic click. He had maintained precise tempo throughout the song. He tends to do his own thing, wandering off between sets with his girlfriend to check out the vendors’ wares. He’s a dedicated motorcyclist and I’ve seen him ride to gigs on his Harley Sport-ster in some of the coldest, rainiest conditions going.

Hanging out with the Mill City Rockers has brought me places I never, even in my wildest imagination, thought I would be.

Foremost on the list is Cole Slaw Wrestling at The Cabbage Patch, outside Daytona, Fla. We arrived at the event after riding through a coleslaw-wrestling traffic jam for nearly 45 minutes. Spectators were assembled three deep around a fence enclosing the event, heavily armed with cameras and video equipment. By the time I nudged my way to a spot where I could see, there they were. The two bikini clad female contestants were poised in a ring assembled of hay bales draped with a tarp and filled with the oiliest, grayist coleslaw you could imagine. Standing knee-deep in the stuff, covered head to toe, chests heaving in exhaustion, they would scramble until one finally pinned the other to a count of three.

Partial, if not total, inebriation seemed a requirement for participation, and in between rounds the women were doused with cold water from a garden hose. Good clean fun. Months later, the only appropriate word I can conjure up is nasty. Just plain nasty.

Gig luck gone horribly wrong. One of the dream gigs finally arrives. The band drives the nonstop 20-plus hours to Daytona Bike Week. Finally get some sleep, take a walk on the beach, visit some friends and make our way to the gig. Only to find out that a freak storm has left the generators buried under 3 feet of water and the event’s insurance company has shut the place down. We’re turned away at the gate. We still haven’t seen payment, and we probably never will.

Rice on the barbie. There’s a private, semi-annual party we often play. It’s usually a benefit for some worthy cause – much-needed financial assistance for the victim of a motorcycle crash, or money to help veterans’ programs. Unfortunately, despite the noble intentions of these good-hearted people, it also includes one of my least favorite rituals.

After a night of barbecue, beer and music, the evening concludes with the burning of a Japanese motorcycle. Mind you, these are hard-core to-the-bone Harley enthusiasts. This is proof-positive. I can’t help but feel for the bike they throw on the huge bonfire; I ride a foreign motorcycle and am a dedicated fan of sports bikes, which are almost exclusively foreign. It breaks my heart, and I have to walk away as it pops and wheezes and sputters in the flames. I can’t help but think there’s somebody out there who just wants to ride, who would cherish this motorcycle.

Biker models: Hired to display scantily clad, buxom bodies in fashion shows, draped across custom show bikes, or on Polaroid duty, where a biker can pose with them for a nominal fee, often donated to charity. They sell posters and calendars, flirt and strut their way through the venue. Their dressing room for the fashion show is inevitably located right next to the stage, and I have to admit it took me a while to gain my composure and maintain my usual level of self-esteem surrounded by these beauties. I am about as far away from buxom as you can possibly get, but they were dealt different cards than I was, and capitalize on what they have. I guess I do, too; they’re just different cards.

Our trademark moniker, “America’s Favorite Biker Band,” has been embraced by reviewers and fans. We open every performance with the band’s original song, “Ridin’ Free,” a tribute to the biker way of life.

Other biker anthems inevitably requested at gig after gig are “Born to Be Wild,” “Mustang Sally,” and Blue Oyster Cult’s testosterone-driven “Godzilla”:

Oh no, they say he’s got to go go go, GODZILLA!

Oh no, there goes Tokyo go go GODZILLA!

Women roll their eyes each time this song is played; men yell “GODZILLA!” during each chorus. I find the effect of this song fascinating. Every man present, including my bandmates, temporarily reverts to his teenage posture and angst throughout the length of this classic. Squint your eyes and you can see them in their teenage bedrooms, festooned with funky psychedelic paraphernalia and supermodel posters, fists pumping in time with the beat.

Bar decor: It’s sometimes, ummmm, interesting. Women’s underwear is acceptably displayed hanging above the bar. There is absolutely no segregation or discrimination, equal opportunity abounds. Expensive, frilly, lacy underthings hang beside functional day-to-day cotton underwear. B cups, C cups, double-A, double-D, it doesn’t matter! They are displayed in places of honor and regarded with appropriate reverence.

Lone girl in a rock band of guys? It’s like hanging out in the locker room. Fart jokes. Three Stooges references. Belches. I chant “lalalalalalala,” while bouncing my hands against my ears to drown out whatever off-color or gross reference I’m absolutely certain I don’t want to hear. But they take care of me. I know without a doubt, if anything ever went awry, these guys would back me up.

It’s being scrunched into a vehicle with the four of them for a straight-through drive to some biker event in South Carolina, or New York, or New Jersey or wherever, just to pack it all up as soon as we’re done and drive back the same way we came. Or on an average weekend, when we’re relatively close to home, leaving at 5 o’clock on a Friday night to return, collapsing into bed, bleary-eyed and exhausted, the following day at 5 a.m. Then getting up a few hours later to set up for the charity bike run we have to play. All for a few hours on stage.

Why is it fun? Everybody wants to be a rock star, don’t they? I get up on stage in front of people who want to hear me sing, who applaud and hoot and whistle. Little girls ask me for my autograph. I travel places I’ve never been and meet people from all over the country. I perform with superior musicians who flatter me by considering me worthy of sharing the stage with them. Who wouldn’t want this?

I’m a biker. I ride my motorcycle whenever I can. Parked next to the stage, it’s the Ducati Monster 900. A limited edition with an extremely sexy chrome tank. It turns the heads of even devout Harley enthusiasts, and I love it. Every biker knows the feeling when somebody walks up to your bike to get a closer look. And I can’t help myself. I claim it.

“That’s yours?!” they exclaim. “Yep.” “You ride that?” “Yes I do.” And yes, I’m the girl … in America’s favorite biker band.

Kerry Cudmore is a freelance writer and musician who rides and writes in Westport, Mass.

© 2003 Hartford Courant.