This is the condensed version of the story of Echo Grove as seen through the eyes of me…Johnnie. I am writing this story for this page because Paul put a link leading here so someone had to do it. I am not a storyteller or a writer, but who gives a shit? So here is the story of those four lovable moptops from Cleveland, Ohio… Echo Grove.

It all began in the latter part of 1977. Actually, it began in 1973 or so when Bobby Malinky and I used to think we were musicians playing to the stereo in his parent's basement. He would beat on his lone snare while I would put a dehumidifier (my amp) next to me and strum his three-stringed acoustic. It's funny how things never change; I had to borrow his guitar. That was the true beginning of this whole mess, but at the time it was just an 8 and 9 year old doing what all children do at that age.

Back to 1977- I wanted to start a band. Playing the bass was going to be my thing, but a friend of mine had the money first so I had to pick the guitar. So a bass player and guitar player were on the search for a drummer and another guitarist. "I know a drummer" I thought, "he lives in another part of town, but who cares…we have parents". My family moved from where I knew Bobby two years previously, but I had talked to him once or twice in that time. I called him up and told him what my plans were. He said he would want to do it and to add insult to injury he knew of a kid at school that was taking guitar lessons and he would ask him if he wanted to join up. Well… that was the beginning of the whole thing. Black Velvet was the name, taken off a box that I was kicking down the street one day. Ron was the bass player and the kid that Bobby knew from school was John Atzberger. We were musically inept and resorted to writing our own music which was a good thing because it forced us to work on songs to make them sound like something. That forced habit was to play a major role in this band thing for years to come.

Within the first year of the band a guitar player was added because…well I can't think of a reason, but I'm sure that at the time there was one. His name was, and still is, Paul Fresty. Eventually Ron was out of the band due to circumstances I don't quite remember (He had to leave for dinner one day and never came back - Paul), but it did happen and the Stonehenge line-up became what it was to be, for the most part, until the first phase of the band was over 8 years later.

Stonehenge played when and where we could and there were many memorable times in there somewhere. We played mostly cover songs that changed with our discovery of different styles of music. We always seemed to stay with our roots of raw, no bullshit, in your face Rock and Roll. We were together in almost everything we did for much of that time. Developing into what we would become psychologically (I use that term very loosely here) into our adulthood. 12 or so years later I have not seen a change with the basic attitudes and views of the four of us and we are still very much the same people we were back then. We had a very unique childhood and the four of us to remain good friends and band mates for twenty years is a remarkable feat. It is also remarkable that, given some of our lifestyles, we are all still around to enjoy what we are doing now.

I am getting off track here so let me get back on it. We lived the part. The whole lifestyle that people think of when they think of rock bands is what we lived and it became almost a nightmare. It eventually led to the end of Stonehenge Mach 1.

After we split we all pursued other interest and continued to keep up with the music. This is another rarity in the amateur music world. I once knew many musicians as a youngster. Many of them give it up somewhere along the line to live the "normal" conventional life that you read about in Readers Digest. Nothing wrong with that, but it wasn't my ideal way to do things.

The one time we did get together and play some music was about five years after the split and that is when Paul had a wedding. We all enjoyed playing in front of the families and friends and you can see by the few pictures that were taken that we where having fun. It is a pity that no one had video cameras rolling at the time.

After the wedding gig we all continued to pursue our individual interests. Paul worked on his career and maintained his musical interests. While living in Florida, he frequented a studio and did some writing and recording. In New Orleans he built himself a small studio in a spare room and worked on more original music, and continued to refine his musicianship skills. I personally could tell that his guitar playing was really starting to sound more like him than it did in the past. Atzy and Bobby went on to form a number of bands together. One being a semi-successful cover band of a group who I really don't care for, but it made them enough money to earn them a bit of extra money. Me on the other hand did as little as possible. I stayed in my house and wrote songs. Once in a while I would form a band so I could hear what the songs sounded like and the feeling of playing with other musicians was still always a bit fun.

We all stayed in touch and there was even a short period of time when Bobby, Atzy and I played together going by the name of Pig. It was soon ended due to umm? I don't know why, it just ended. Paul obviously would have been there too, but he was living in New Orleans at the time. Or it could have been Florida. Then again it could have been Pittsburgh. He was trying to find himself I guess. Or at least was trying to find something that was trying to find him. In any event he wasn't around.

In Sept. of 96, I went to visit Paul in New Orleans and one of our main objectives of the visit was to play and create a little music together. We wrote a few songs and recorded them in Paul's "spare room" studio. Smell My Finger studio I believe it was called. Also during that visit Paul and his wife, Tonya were discussing the possibility of moving back to the Cleveland area. If the did, we concluded that the old band will try to reform and we would have fun doing it…Damn It!

Well, I guess you can figure out the next few months. We got it all together and everyone was in agreement that this would not be Stonehenge Mach 2. Original music with a few covers and we would play a few gigs. We even thought about recording a few and set up some studio time. We started in the studio in July 97 and did a session of 8 basic tracks. We kept booking time and by the end of the basic sessions, we had 18 songs recorded. Just about enough to do a double disc debut album. As fast as they were being written they were being recorded. Eventually we had to say enough was enough. At first I don't even think we went in the studio with the intentions of putting an album together. As time went on the songs were beginning to sound pretty good and we decided to put together our first record. Twenty years into the making and I guess we all knew it would come eventually. We then chipped 18 songs down to 11 and "Psycho Magnet" was born. We even decided to put an old Stonehenge number from Nov. 1983 at the end of the disc for nostalgic reason.

So there is the condensed Echo Grove story as told to you by me. The whole story itself would take 50 installments and most of it would have to be censored and cut. When you are with people for that long a lot of things happen. In our strange way we are like four brothers, very close in age and all a bit out of our gourds. If it were a boring twenty years with a combination such as this, I would have to say that we weren't breathing. I consider myself extremely lucky to be in the situation we are in. Not many people even end up with one friend that they knew as a child let alone three. And how many people can say that they get to do something they love doing so much with the same people they started doing it with?

I hope that our fascination and excitement still rings true in the music and the listener can join us in the fun. Thanks for reading and have a good time…. Johnnie