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By Tom Tourville
The decade of the ‘70s produced some great Iowa based rock bands, but none was more talented and popular than the Headstone band. They had a large following of die-hard fans all saying, “there is no better band playing the Midwest than Headstone.” They very well might have been right.
Headstone got its start in 1968 based out of Cedar Falls/Waterloo, Iowa as a local high school band by the name of Nightraven. The group claimed hyper talented musicians and it didn’t take long for Nightraven to gain popularity in North Central and Eastern Iowa. The band consisted of Tom Tatman-rhythm guitar, Bill Larson-bass, Tim Nolan-drums, Jeff Peterson-lead guitar and R. J. Miller on lead vocals.
Unfortunately this line-up was short lived, but with the new musicians they added they became even better. With the new players a new name was in order, Headstone! In 1969 the band made membership changes and added new members who included: Turk Krause-drums, Randy Krause-guitar, Ron Dewitt-guitar, John Thompson-bass, and Michael Wolf-vocals. The one constant member from Nightraven to the new Headstone, was Jeff Peterson. In fact, Peterson was the lone member who stayed with Headstone from its inception in 1968 until the band broke up in 1980.
For the most part, the band members were college students at UNI in Cedar Falls and played most of their careers out of the Cedar Falls/Waterloo area. They soon signed with Fort Dodge, Iowa’s Doug Smith, formerly of the Notorious Noblemen, and joined Smith’s new Minneapolis, based booking agency, Magnum Productions. As a result of going to work with Smith, they would now tour the entire Upper Midwest and build a rock solid reputation as one of the hottest rock groups “out there today.”
Because of a 1970 booking in Sioux Falls, S.D., they were signed with Sioux Falls United Audio Records and released their excellent single, “She’ll Be Gone/You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere,” (UA Records #7015). There were only 500 copies of this record pressed, making it one of the more collectible Iowa rock records from the ‘70s. In 1976 they would enter West Minister Studios in Otho, Iowa. This session saw the release of “Dancing Shadows/This Time Around,” on Magic Records, Magic #8493.
During the decade that was the 70’s, Headstone worked with such national groups as: Black Oak Arkansas, BABY, Brownsville Station, Head East, and Molly Hatchet. Many of those shows were put together by Doug Smith of Magnum Productions.
My old friend, Brownsville Station’s, Cub Koda, who passed away some years ago, always told me, “Whenever Brownsville Station played Iowa, we weren’t always excited about having Headstone open for us.” Then he told me why. “Headstone was such an awesome band, when they opened, many times we couldn’t come up to the energy they created on stage. Sometimes it made for a long evening.”
Headstone was exceedingly popular at the Hollyhock Ballroom, so much in fact that between 1970 to 1980 they played the Hollyhock EIGHTEEN times! They were also regulars at the Lake Benton’s Showboat and Lake Shetek’s Valhalla Ballrooms as well.
What are they doing now, Jeff Peterson is still in music and plays with long time friend, Bob Door doing a two man blues show. Truk Krause is drumming with his wife’s dynamic blues group and Iowa Blues Hall of Famers, Molly Nova & The Hawks. Dewitt lives in Cedar Rapids and is one of the state’s finest blues guitarists. Larson lives in Mankato, and Tatman owns the very successful Catamount Recording Studio in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Noland has a photography business in Cedar Rapids, R.J. Miller is a college professor, and Randy Krause is in real estate in Altoona, Iowa.
Headstone, they are remembered as one of Iowa’s best.
Until Next Month
Take Care & Remember The Music
Tom Tourville has been writing about Midwest rock & roll for close to 47 years and has published over 32 books based on Midwest rock music history. His most recent book on House of Blues Records has been nominated by the Association for Recorded Sound Collections Awards for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research. Tom is a well-respected music writer for regional Midwest and national publications. He lives at Lake Okoboji, Iowa, and can be reached at tourvillea@aol.com.