The Binder Brothers

THE BINDERS NEW CD - BINDER NATION - 32 YEARS IN THE MAKING!!!
The Binder Brothers go way back. The pre-Binder roots go back to Lorne Park Secondary School, circa 1970 when Bruce was playing drums with the Mississauga band, Shadowfax. Grant Heckman sat in to play "Miss Anne" and "Johnny B. Goode" and, even though he was too shy to look at the audience, his lead playing was pretty good. Then it was David Glendenning on bass in a group called "The Lenton Proxmire Trio" for a couple of gigs. Then Dean Connor came on to play a little rhythm guitar, and the next thing you know, everyone was working out three part guitar harmonies to early Wishbone Ash songs. By then the name "The Binder Brothers" had popped up and the boys decided to run with it. When we found Ian McKinnon in 1974 to play drums, then Bruce moved to bass and things really got cooking. Still loved the harmony guitar material, like The Allman Brothers and Johnny Winter with Rick Derringer. There was a bit of Boston, "Rhiannon", "Hold The Line", "So Into You", "Life In The Fast Lane" and "Badge". Always a bit off centre and challenging. But then came about a decade when we were without Ian. He moved to Vancouver and then Singapore with Digital Computers.

The Binders were in a 'bind' and had to look elsewhere for someone to play the drums. We used Dave James, Jim Boudreau, Wayne Stone and Maureen Brown over that period. All great drummers. But we always held a spot open for the return of the best drumming 'executive' in TO. The Binder Brothers have recorded before. There was 500 copies pressed in 1980 of "Waiting Outside Your Door" and "Trying All Night", and all have disappeared. Our name is on the Baystock Battle of the Bands trophy three times.

We even got to jam with Donnie Walsh when he was a judge in the second year. In fact, he brought his harmonicas the next year that we won and we were about to launch into a set of material, when someone stupid pulled a fire alarm in The Design Exchange and the evening had to be cut short. Big disappointment. It's not easy to keep a band going for 32 years. But when you are friends first, have the same musical interests and have progressed equally as musicians over the years, then it's not so hard after all. We love getting together and knockin' the socks off the dancers is just a bonus. Enjoy the CD. There may be more where that came from. -Bruce Binder