Silver Laughter 1976: Jon, Paul, Ken with Mick above

There has been some speculation as to what songs we will be performing at the Iowa R&R Hall of Fame Induction on August 31, 2014. Sorry, it is going to have to be a surprise. However, I do believe we will be doing all originals, most of them from our two albums.

Here is another one of our songs from the “Handle With Care” album called “Turn Your Face Away”. I am not sure if this song was written previous to my arrival or whether it was written by Jon and me. I know the middle 8 is a cooperative effort. It was previously posted back in January of 2013 with no comments, so here are some.

This selection has a Latin flair with Ken’s acoustic lead, fills and vocals. Ken sings the middle 8 (“So you said goodbye…”). The rest of the lineup for the performance was Jon Ludtke (lead vocal and rhythm guitar), Paul Staack (drums and vocals) and me (bass and lead vocal double tracked). It is an energetic version of the album cut on which Kim Ludtke played the drums.

Recorded live at The Ranch & Co. in Port Byron, IL (close to the Quad Cities), the audience does not have our usual loud response at the end, but we played there many times during a two year period, so I am guessing the microphones did not pick up the ambient noise.

The photo has a lot of contrast with very light and very dark areas. Apparently we loved those rustic settings for our background. This was taken just before the release of “Handle With Care”, and was one of our first photo sessions with Paul Staack as our drummer.

Mick Orton

Categories: Hall of Fame, History, Music, Photos

Tags: 70's music, Handle With Care, Jon Ludtke, Ken Wiles, Kim Ludtke, Mick Orton, Mike Orton, original music, Quad Cities, Silver Laughter