West Virginia Creeper - Don Bolton or Steve Davis?

[Bob Blair]

Until today I thought I knew that Steve Davis was the "West Virginia Creeper". Heck, I still know that to be so - it's a seriously well documented fact. But in the Spring '07 "FretBoard Journal" there is a lengthy interview with Bill Kirchen, and he says that someone named Don Bolton was the Creeper. I then found a few random references to Bolton by googling "West Virginia Creeper".

So are Don Bolton and Steve Davis the same guy?

[Jason Odd]

no, that's weird.
I got the impression that Bolton was part of the '67 version of the group when it was more like a circus troupe of random hippy silliness where performance was more like a happening.

[Bob Blair]

So maybe Kirchen just remembered it wrong. I'd never heard of Don Bolton before yesterday.

By the way, it's a great article. Another thing Kirchen said was that somewhere along the line Jimmy Day did a stint with the Airmen. I didn't know that either.

[Jason Odd]

I see his name listed as the creeper on some sites, I think a Detroit rock webpage started this.
Steve Davis was the group's bass player, he went to pedal steel as the group grew increasingly country-rockabilly.

I'm sure that I asked Kirchen about the credit for Bolton as the Creeper and he told me that Don was like a soul singer who was aligned with the group in Detroit, some time around '68, before the migration west.
So, like I'm confused by all of this... because I originally asked him if Davis and Bolton were the same dude.

On a side note, during these dicussions Kirchner also told me aobut how he briefly played bass for bluegrass band High Country (Butch Waller's band 1968-96) and guitar for roots combo The Ozones (his band) with forumite Mylos Sonka.. all before the rest of the Cody band moved West in '68.

[Stu Schulman]

I remember seeing a "Midnight Special" t.V. show that had Commander Cody with Jimmy Day on Steel,and Jimmy Had a very long beard,I think that Jimmy replaced Bobby Black?

[Billy Wilson]

Bobby told me that Jimmy Day had said to him, if you ever don't want that job, hook me up. Which Bobby said that being with those guys was like the endless party and had had enough. Aparently once Day was in there the LPAirmen couldn't keep up with Jimmy Day's party style and that was it. Oh, to be a fly on the wall.

[Dave Zirbel]

We opened for Kirchen a few months back and Bill said that Jimmy was bit wild even for the Airmen.

He's still my hero!

DZ

[Olaf van Roggen]

...and what about Ernie Hagar?
Did he just recorded one album with them or was he with the band for a while?
By the way I love that album with Ernie Hagar,he plays terrific on :"California okie".

[Bob Blair]

I really like the way Ernie played on that too Olaf. He was with the band during a period where Bobby Black went off and did other things. I think that might have been when Bobby went to Nashville for a bit.

[Steve Davis]

Don Bolton was a piano playing singer I met in Ann Arbor and played with in a "frat" band. He style was kind of "Philidalphia Soul" and we had fun. It was on the same "frat band scene" where I met George Frayne and became their bass player. We were the Beevers and played mostly at fraternity parties. George, John Tichy, "Feet" O'Reilly and I lived in a house on Arch Street in Ann Arbor during that period. I have seen over the years Don listed as the Creeper in some books. I hope he is well and if anyone knows his whereabouts please let me know.

[Donny Hinson]

I have seen over the years Don listed as the Creeper in some books.

Well then...I guess it goes without saying that if we want to be properly recognized and/or remembered, we should use our right name!

[Steve Davis]

My real name was on my Draft Card. San Francisco was my home, Creeper was my name.