Thundertree
Thundertree began as a Christian rock quartet called Good Idea in 1967. The original line up included Bob Blank on sax and vocals, David Linder on guitar, John Miesen on keyboards and Rick Lia braaten on drums. David Linder left the group early on and was replaced by Billy Hallquist. After Terry Tilley joined the group on bass the new lineup renamed themselves Thundertree. In 1968 the band road tripped Chicago to record a 45 at the Chess/Checker/Cadet Records studio. The A-side is “Inside, Outside” managed to get airplay on a nationally syndicated religious radio program sponsored through the American Lutheran Church. Inspired by their modest success John Miesen and Bob Blank wrote a six song Christmas story, rock opera called “1225″
John Miesen landed Thundertree an album deal with Roulette based on the strength of “1225″ and the group went into the studio to record a side of new material. On the eve of those sessions, Bob Blank left to accept a singer songwriting deal with Tetragrammaton Records. Dervin Wallin was brought in to replace him and four days later Thundertree manages to land a gig opening for the Box-Tops at the Sioux Falls Arena in South Dakota. After the album is completed the band was lucky enough to be an opening act Johnny and Edgar Winter, Rotary Connection, The Clique and Ted Nugent.
In 1970 the Thundertree’s modern treatment of the Merle Travis song, “Sixteen Tons.” makes it on to the Alpha Productions promotional album “Gathering at The Depot”. The same year the band was the only nominee for the prestigious Connie Award for “Album of the Year” and they won!
Eventually Dervin Wallin was replaced by Jeff Shapiro after he was offered the lead vocalist spot with The Litter. John Miesen was replaced by organist Gerry Magee and Mike Mackey of Triad took the place of Hallquist before the group called it quits.
