The Bullfrog Boogie
In April of 1978 I met Lloyd “Abe” Abraham in Minneapolis where he was living with his wife Lisa and young son Jesse. I was looking for musicians to put together a working version of the Billy Buffalo Band, and he was the first one I found. Abe was from Oklahoma and played guitar, dobro, and harmonica. He also had an amazing voice for blues and boogie stuff, and could sing great harmony on any of my country & bluegrass material. We started practicing in my garage, and managed to land a few band gigs. ( See A Penny For Adeline Substack ). As time went by we decided that our duo format was more manageable than a four or five piece band, and started calling ourselves The Hillbilly Soul Brothers. We played a variety of original old time mountain music and Afro American blues music we loved.
The Hillbilly Soul Brothers Lloyd “Abe” Abraham & Shadric Smith
The Fort Museum. Photo by Fred Larson
One of the first songs that developed out of our friendship was a little rocker called The Bullfrog Boogie. Abe also had a great sense of humor and when his boy Jesse would fart they would refer to it as a “bullfrog”…..this became the starting point for me writing this little story song.
Abe & Jesse Abraham
We worked up a duo version with Abe singing harmony and rocking out on his Gibson Firebird. It sounded like this:
Around this same time period I moved back out to Colorado Springs, and started a country band called Out Of The Blue. We had a great young pedal steel & harmonica player named Jon Mitguard and a singing drummer named Geoff Geiss. We found a funky bass player named Jim Bingham who could also sing. Abe joined us for awhile as lead guitarist and singer.
Out Of The Blue Band Circa 1980 Colorado Springs. Photo by Mary Ann Nardo
L to R Geoff Geiss, Jim Bingham, SS, Jon Mitguard, & Lloyd “Abe” Abraham.
We recorded a live version of The Bullfrog Boogie about this time at a club in Colorado Springs called Bilbo Baggins. ( See Goodbye To The City Substack ) Denny Osburn sat in and played some fine piano on this track.
Somehow the Eighties flew by and by 1990 I was back in Iowa, working for a monument company as a truck driver, and playing country dance gigs on the weekends. I got the itch to do some more recording and one night headed out to Junior’s Motel Studio in Otho with some friends to record a batch of original songs. Kirk Kaufman engineered the session “live to 2 track” with no overdubs….which became my Dogtown Blues album…..now available on all streaming services.
Dave Steen rocked the guitar parts, Kris Karr played drums, harmonica & sang harmony ( simultaneously! ), Todd Mason played bass, and Denny Osburn added his fine piano. Our version of The Bullfrog Boogie sounded like this:
Jesse Abraham grew up around music and eventually started making music with his dad in their Tulsa home studio, calling themselves “Abraham”. Unfortunately “Abe” passed away in 2013, but they managed to release two albums of original music, and have enough in the archives for several more. He and I have reconnected lately and have even collaborated on some music by trading files over the internet. He has definitely inherited many of his father’s musical talents. Thank for the inspiration Jesse Bullfrog!
Jesse and Lloyd “Abe” Abraham
Please enjoy my other Substack posts with songs and stories from Out Of The Blue. Special thanks to Dartanyan Brown for encouraging me to start this journey….please check out his Substack stuff soon!