How the Railroad got its Funk back

Kirk Baird

Friday, April 26, 2002 | 9:35 a.m.

What: Grand Funk Railroad.

When: 8 p.m. today.

Where: Palace Station's Pavilion.

Tickets: $19.95, $25, $30.

Information: 367-2411.

Just as the group's biggest hit suggested, Grand Funk was -- and still is -- an American band.

Performing tonight at Palace Station's Pavilion, the original trio of guitarist/vocalist Mark Farner, bassist Mel Schacher and drummer/vocalist Don Brewer came together in 1969 in Flint, Mich., a union town where a General Motors plant was the chief employer.

Named after Detroit-based Grand Trunk Railroad, Grand Funk Railroad signed to Capitol Records the year it formed.

And within a few albums, the band was as big as The Beatles -- at least, it sold out New York's Shea Stadium faster than any other band, including the Fab Four.

Fueled by the hit songs, "Closer to Home," "Locomotion" and "Some Kind of Wonderful," as well as the band's signature song, "We're an American Band," which Brewer wrote on his apartment couch as an ode to the group's experiences on the road, Grand Funk Railroad was clearly in its heyday.

Then, as Brewer tells it, disco changed everything.

"In 1976 ... that was part of the reasons for us breaking up. Disco came in and we just weren't viable anymore," Brewer said recently from the West Palm Beach, Fla., airport, where he and the other band members were waiting to catch a flight to a show in Tucson.

"The reason a lot of bands that made it in the '70s stopped in the '80s (was) because there wasn't an audience for them anymore."

It was not until 1995, nearly 20 years after Grand Funk Railroad broke up, that the original trio decided to give a reunion a shot. The band recruited a keyboard player and began playing live.

"One of the first things that we decided to do when we first got back together was, 'Let's go out and try it, a few shows in '96, and see if there's an audience.' We don't want to go out and look like fools and just play bars and that kind of stuff, he said. "To me, that's degrading.

"But if there's a real audience for you and people find you entertaining, I think, 'Why not?' "

And, Brewer said, right from the start Grand Funk Railroad fans came to see the band, which was mainly playing festival shows and fairs. A VH1 "Behind the Music" episode also gave the group added national publicity, especially informing those who were not aware the band was back and touring again.

Everything was going well for the trio.

At the end of 1998, however, Farner announced he was leaving the band to pursue other musical projects.

"It was not an opportune time," Brewer acknowledged. "We were really escalating to a new awareness about Grand Funk being back together. We'd done the anthology ("Thirty Years of Funk: 1969-1999") and did the VH1 special and things were going well and he kind of caught us off-guard that he wanted to go on his own.

"I think he just didn't want to be in a band."

This left Brewer and Schacher with the decision of whether to keep the group going.

"Mel and I just kind of sat back and said, 'Well, what are we gonna do?' We really didn't entertain the thought of going back out on the road right away," he said. "But one thing kind of led to another ... "

The "one thing" being vocalist Max Carl, who had formerly fronted 38 Special. After meeting with Carl and listening to him sing, Brewer was convinced Grand Funk Railroad had its new lead singer.

Then he recruited a guitarist, Bruce Kulick, and another keyboard player, Tim Cashion, and by the end of 2000, the newest incarnation of Grand Funk Railroad was back on the road.

The new lineup was accepted by the fans, Brewer said, with the band drawing an average of 6,000 people to its concerts last year.

"I think it's another incarnation of Grand Funk that has the capability of putting out hit records and being new again," he said. "So that's where we're going with it."

Plans include a new CD/DVD combination to be released this year, featuring three new songs the band has written, two of which it plays in concert.

"(The new material) has gone over great," Brewer said. "We get a huge round of applause instead of everybody getting up and getting a beer. That's the criteria we're using now: If we can pull it off live, it must be OK."

Whether this lineup of Grand Funk Railroad is permanent, even Brewer isn't sure.

"You never know," he said. "As Max likes to say, the divorce rate among bands has got to be like 99.9 percent. But right now everything is going real well and the chemistry is there and we're having a good time touring. We're moving forward."

As any American band should.