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The Robert Lee Band 

Best Variety and Best Funk Band:

Bobby Balderama Talks About His New TV Show & Future Plans

 
Robert Lee Band members Ron Dizier and Randy Hurry accepting awards

By Scott Baker

  From the Robert Lee Band and Lilliana, to ? and the Mysterians, Robert 'Bobby'  Balderama has covered a lot ground in the Tri-cites since the 1960s.

Taking the majority of wins in the Blues category at the Review Awards at Shooter's on May 2, the Robert Lee Band has become hot property on the current blues scene.

While Balderama wasn't on hand to attend the event, Robert Lee Band drummer Randy Hurry and bassist Ron Dozier started stacking the awards up at their table throughout the evening.

"I won the Best Blues Male Vocalist and Randy Hurry won the Best Blues Drummer and Frank Rodriguez won the Best Blues Keyboardist and Ron Dozier won the Best Blues Bass Player,'' said Balderama last week. "Then we won The Best Funk Band and the Best Variety Band. That was good."

It was an over-the-top evening for the guitarist who has won on and off over the years in different categories.

"We won a couple of years ago the Best Funk and Variety Band, but this is the first time we ever won a Blues category."

After working the Robert Lee Band much of last year, Balderama has been splitting his time this year between creating a new public access, music-based television show and recording a new album with? and the Mysterians.

"Right now what I've been working on is a TV show and I've been spending a lot of time learning the software and the computer, because it's a lot of video editing," said the guitarist.  "It's not really easy to learn. I learned Pro Tools recording system and I know Windows XP really good, but when you get into video stuff it's not really easy. I have a producer I'm working with, because I kind of envision it how I want it to be and he's the kind that's like behind it, you know. He's doing the editing for me and stuff."

Utilizing every musical angle he can, Balderama wants to go behind the scenes of not only groups and artists, but also on entertainment writers and music's many technological sides.
"We've got one half-hour show done and we're talking to Charter right now," said Balderama.  "I'm hoping for Wednesday nights around 10:30 (for the airing) on the access cable channel. What we're doing is interviewing bands, singers, songwriters, anything to do with music, including people who write about music."

"What I want to do is go to clubs and interview the spokesman of the band and film the band live and get a live recording. I don't want to get into videos. I think it's kind of boring watching those after a while. Once you've seen one, you don't want to watch it again. I think what's more important is when you can capture the band live and interview them there too. It's where the action is. It sounds more interesting to listen to and watch. I like that format."

Hoping for a mid-June start on Charter cable, Balderama has episodes taped with writer Kristofer Engelhardt and musician Robert Bradley lined up already.
"I'm the host of the show and my co-host, her name is Stevie Watson. We're going to advertise (for) all the clubs, who's in the area and playing. People can watch Wednesday night who is going to play the following weekend."

"I want to do everything: rap, gospel, Christian music, country. I don't want to do just one style of music, I want anything that has to do with music. I want to do music technology. Go into the music stores. I think that there can be a lot of interest created. Not just entertainers, but also the people behind the scenes that do the PR, promotion, or writers that write about it. I think people need to know about them."

As for the recent ? and the Mysterians reunion and album, Balderama is looking forward to a productive year on that circuit again.

"I've been working with ? and we've been working on a new CD. We've been putting that together and hopefully it will be out by the end of the year. We've got a bunch of gigs coming up; we're going to be playing down in Detroit at some car show. I think we're going to be opening up for Styx down there. It's going to be fun."

"And as for the Robert Lee Band, we're going to be opening up for the Beach Boys here in Bay City. So that will be fun too. I'm hoping I can interview one of the guys. I don't know how they are about it though."

In the meantime, Balderama is keeping his fingers crossed for the Santana show coming to DTE next month.

"I might have a chance to jam with Carlos Santana in June. I've been talking to the bass player Benny Rietveld and he wanted to help us out with? and the Mysterians and a couple of albums we did back in the '60s. He was interested in doing a re-mix and put it on CD. Me and him have been Emailing each other back and forth and I told him in one Email, I don't know if I stepped over my bounds or not, but I told him I had a dream one time that I was jamming with Carlos Santana. What a dream, you know? "

"And I haven't heard from Benny in about four or five months (and) all of a sudden I got an Email from him and he said when they're playing in the area, for me to come out and I can jam on a song.  Hopefully - it's not confirmed or anything, but I'm gonna show up. I emailed him (that) I'll be there."

"Carlos knows about the band Question Mark and the Mysterians and stuff like that, so hopefully I'll be able to jam. It's like a dream coming true."

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