Beetcafe.com
rockford illinois entertainment guide
Date: 07/31/2003
Spotlight on Bass - Vic Herold
by Lisa Palmeno
lpalmeno@earthlink.net
Hello again, bass fans and area musicians. It is my sincere pleasure to be presenting "Spotlight on Bass" to you on beetcafe.com. The spotlight will go on as planned and promised. The owners of this website have graciously granted me permission to run these and other music stories on a more regular basis and for a longer duration. For those of you who are new readers of the spotlight series and as a refresher for those who thought the series might end, I invented spotlight to give coverage of those musicians who are seldom get press and recognition. In an effort to be fair, I will draw names from the hat to decide who is to be next. If you would like to be included, or if you have a favorite bassist you would like for me to cover, you may contact me be e-mail at lisa@beetcafe.com or call me at (815)962-8201. Additionally, I plan to eventually begin a series on drummers and saxophone players. I hope you enjoy reading the spotlights, as I have been having a great time collecting info and writing them. Please let me know what you think! I am interested in talking with anyone who has a love of and knowledge about bass guitar so that I can give better coverage as well as learn.

SPOTLIGHT ON BASS: VIC HEROLD

Vic Herold is back in town, now working with Bellinia
(formerly Bea Brady). The blues bassist whose credits range from international tours and gigs with famous artists to movie soundtracks, recently produced Bellinia's new CD Begin Again.

Herold is a professional musician who only plays for a
living. Starting his career at age 18 in Western Canada, he began touring with country bands. He made the move to Austin, Texas, and the blues, in 1985. He returned to Canada shortly thereafter and started touring with a country rock show, always heading for Chicago when time would allow.

He has played and recorded with Homesick James, Otis Rush, Jimmy Rodgers, Professor, and Fenton Robinson, and has filled in with Buddy Guy, which he says was "a thrill." He has performed at Chicago Blues Fest several times, and has also shared the stage with Betty Everett and the Chicago Blues Young Bloods with Casey Jones, John Male, and Steve Miller, who is a personal friend of Herold's. Movie credits include work on Walt Disney's V.I. Warshawski which starred Kathleen Turner. Other credits include three songs and a movie shoot at The Green Mill, done at 4 a.m. with Shirley Johnson and Casey Jones, The Professor and Maurice John Vaughn. Herold has even tried his hand at country music with Gordy Walker and Sugarfoot.

Herold met Bea Brady while auditioning for Ike Turner's band, and ended up touring extensively with the late Professor Eddie Lusk, who passed away in 1993. Brady and Herold formed their own band and moved to Rockford. Bellinia are now touring to promote their first release. They held their CD release party March 1 at Paragon and plan to continue touring and fulfilling commitments to the numerous corporate gigs they have booked in the Midwest.

Both agree that although there have been changes in name and band members with Herold hiring rotating musicians to support them, the music remains the same. They changed their name to "Bellinia" because it is actually Bea's given name.

Herold's playing approach stems from his main influences. "I listened to all the blues records and went to Chicago and saw the real deal and took it from there," he explains. One of his favorites in blues is a friend of his from Chicago, Bob Stroger. He says he listens to so many people, but definitely cites Ron Carter and Art Love as top picks. He is happy he has had the opportunity to play with those he has listened to and admired. As for genre preferences, he admits he'll "play anything now, reggae, pop, it doesn't matter," but confessions that blues is in his heart.

Herold's axe is a Fender precision 4-string. The same bass from the day he started playing, the instrument has chunks missing from it and has been left on elevators and in hotels. He chuckles that he can't seem to lose it and he has sautered it many times. Why that bass only? "You know," grins Herold, "it's like I'm a one-woman man, so I'm a one-bass man."
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