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          The History of Farm

Farm was formed in Southern Illinois in 1970.

The members were Mike Young, Del Herbert, Roger Greenwalt, Gary Gordon, Jim Elwyn and Steve Evanchik. Young, Herbert and Greenwalt were all from Mt. Vernon. Gordon and Elwyn were from Sparta. Evanchik was from Christopher.

Farm guitarist Del Herbert reminisces about the humble beginnings of the band.

"A part of that band was already playing in Sparta. Jim, Gary and a drummer named David Hess. I think that the drummer was going to college during that summer.

I had played with them before, with their drummer.

Allen Bourque was playing keyboards sometimes. That band was practicing and playing. I played some gigs with them in 1969.

They were a basically a three-piece band and I think that their name was "Farm." So, they already had that name.

I remember playing with Mike Young and Joe Cooper in a Mt. Vernon band called Shade.

The Shades of Sound was a band that I was in while I was in junior high. I don't remember who thought of that name. Mike was also in it and Joe was in it for a while. Roger Greenwalt and Allen played with us at times.

In 1969, when it was just Mike, Joe and I, we decided to just call the band Shade. Because that was just a part of the Shades of Sound.

Our band and the guys from Sparta just kind of "incorporated." They needed a drummer, I'm guessing.

I recall the first job that we played was in Sesser. I don't think that we practiced before we played there.

They just played with our drummer, Mike. Then Mike, Joe and I would play what we knew as "Shade." They played what they knew as "Farm." I just kind of jammed with them. It ended up that we just jammed. I just played along. I'm still doing that. They played their songs and we played our songs.

I don't think that anyone ever actually said "let's get together." I don't know where it came from.

But, we did get together and played our first gig at Pinckneyville. Hundreds of people showed up. We played part of a set and they sent us home. We were playing at the high school and there were way too many people inside the building. They even sent in a riot-squad to control the crowd.

But, we had practiced for that job. We had even started writing our own songs. New songs.

That was how it started. After that first gig, people would walk up to me and say, "Man, you guys were good!" I would say, "thank you" and they would say, "no, I mean you guys are REALLY good." So, I thought, "well, I guess that's working." The guy that said that to me was wanting to play in a band with me at that time.

I actually met my wife at one of the earliest Farm gigs. I think that we were playing in DuQuoin and she came to hear us."

Herbert said that the band had a unique way of coming up with new material.

"We learned each others' songs and found that it was just as easy to make up stuff. Somebody would just start something and everyone else would just follow. We all would come up with our parts, but Gary would come up with a lot of the other stuff, because you really have to follow the singer. Not that we sing that much."

Herbert said that Farm really preferred playing in front of a live audience.

"We spent hours and hours playing together down in Mike Youngs' basement. We would play there and it would sound so good. Then, when we would go out and play and it seemed to sound even better. I guess that we were drawing off of the energy of the crowd.

I think that with Farm, the support was part of the phenomenon. One of the biggest parts. Back then, our country was really polarized because of what was going on (in Vietnam). There wasn't that much in the way of local entertainment, except for a local radio station, KSHE in St. Louis, that we couldn't get here very well.

As far as local entertainment, we won kind of by default.

Then, the fact that we would go out and play live. People would be riding around from the Mug to the Maid-Rite and Farm would be playing somewhere so they would break the route and show up where we were playing."

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The music of Farm has been heard on various radio stations throughout the years.

KSHE-95 in St. Louis designated the Farm album as a "KSHE Classic." Parts of Farm recordings have been used in radio commercials over the years as well.

On November 22, 2006, all six members of the band were interviewed on the "Classic Album Playback" on a local station.

In Spring of 2006, the three members of Farm who reside in Mt. Vernon appeared on the Mt. Vernon JayCees radio show. Here is the story that ran in the newspaper, promoting the event that was broadcast on local radio.

By JACK CLARK

MT. VERNON - It was just a matter of time. It was the story that was destined to be told. For countless Southern Illinoisans, the band called Farm was truly an icon.

Tonight, a lot of questions will be answered about the band's past and their future as the Mt. Vernon Jaycees Radio Show will be featuring three members of what was widely known as one of the greatest "Boogie bands" around the midwest.

The program was recorded on Sunday afternoon at the Jaycee clubhouse and will air on local radio beginning at 9 p.m. tonight.

The show will inform area listeners about what the Jaycees are doing in the community. Past and present members will be reminiscing about their experiences while in the organization.

The featured guests will be Del Herbert, Roger Greenwalt and Mike Young, all founding members of the King City's most famous rock band of the late 60s and early 70s.

Herbert, Greenwalt and Young were all from Mt. Vernon. Gary Gordon and Jim Elwyn lived in the Sparta area, while Steve Evanchik hailed from Christopher. They came together from at least three different bands in Southern Illinois.

Herbert played lead guitar for Farm. Most anyone who grew up in the area can recall Herberts' guitar-riffs on the song, "Let that boy boogie." Herbert played acoustic guitar as well.

Gordon played "bottleneck" and rythym guitar and handled vocals. Jim Elwyn was the bassist and was also a vocalist.

Steve Evanchik was most widely known as a mouth-harp player, but he also contributed other instruments like congas, timbales and cymbals.

Roger Greenwalt was the keyboardist and Mike Young was the drummer.

Greenwalt said that talking about the band publicly is something that they had never done before.

"I think that this was kind of a first for all of us," said Greenwalt. "We've sort of been rock 'n roll recluses, so to speak, for the last 25 years. Of course, we've been together and done things together, but we've never really been out and gone on record with any of this, as far as stating anything. As far as the past or the future. So, this is kind of a new thing."

The band members have not played all-together for over 30 years, but that doesn't mean that they have been idle for that time.

"Even though Farm hasn't existed for a long time, we have all not only stayed in touch, but most of us have been playing, sometimes some of us together, since then," said Herbert. "So its like parts of us are still together. Roger and I play together at Grace Community Church. I know that Mike plays drums at Logan Street Baptist Church. We still play pretty much on a weekly basis. I think that we are all better musicians today than we were back then. Everybody is still playing. Everybody has done other projects."

The Farm lead-guitarist said that one particular line from the most-popular Farm recording is appropriate in describing the bands short time together. Farm produced one self-entitled album in 1971.

"In a way, its like the song 'Let that boy boogie,' you know, he's gotta come out," Herbert said. "It's like we grew together and then it was over. I think that by the time that I was 20, the band was done. It was just one of those things."

As far as rumors go, Farm has had its share, the biggest probably being that the members had hard times working out problems between them.

"As far as I can remember, we never had any cross words," said Herbert. "Not any between each other, which could be good or bad.

Rather than say something derogatory to a member, we had too much respect and compassion for each other."

Herbert said that the band was really a small part of the overall scene in Southern Illinois at the time.

"It was a good time. It wasn't just about the band. It was about this area, about the fans and about the times," said Herbert. "It was the fact that when we played, we weren't even old enough to play in a bar, someplace that could make money off of a band. I mean, you can't sell that many Pepsi's at a rock concert."

Sometimes the bonds that are made at a young age, prove to be more enduring than anyone would expect.

"In a way, the band is still together," Herbert said. "We've been there for each other during hard times. Everybody is always asking about the other person. It's not like it's over. There was something about our age and the times and the crowds that would come and see us. I think that there is a part of that still alive."

Many area music fans will recall that some of the band's members formed a band called Nebula upon the dissolution of Farm.

"At that time, we had different influences. But when Farm broke up, some of us formed Nebula, which was way, way to the hard-core of rock music," said Herbert. "At that time, Gary Gordon and I had been together and they are still playing folk music, blue-grass, you know, traditional music and whereas Steve has always been into basically the harmonica, the boogie-woogie blues kind of thing. The point is that it is still there, the same feeling."

In 1993, the band got together again and re-recorded their original album. Those cuts will be heard, along with cuts from the original album during the course of tonights radio program.

There exists a possibility that the band will reunite for a show in August of 2006. Herbert, Greenwalt and Young discuss that topic in length during tonight's broadcast.

"Whether the reunion happens or not, what has come out of it is the realization that we are still together," said Herbert, "and even though we boogied in other directions, we're able to support each other. We still inter-mix and have that mutual respect that we had when we were kids."

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