Brownsville Station

A Detroit area rock & roll band formed in 1969 by guitarists Cub Koda and Mike Lutz, Brownsville Station's original members also included T.J. Cronley (drums) and Tony Driggins (bass), with Henry Weck replacing Cronley on drums in 1971. Initially influenced by Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and other '50s rockers, their early albums included inspired covers and genre-faithful originals, all presented in Marshall stack, double bass drum bigness. Far more effective as a live act (with Koda's on-stage banter influencing everyone from J. Geils' Peter Wolf to Alice Cooper), the group finally hit paydirt in late 1973 with its number three hit, the Koda and Lutz-penned "Smokin' in the Boys Room." After the group disbanded in 1979, Koda went on to a career as a solo recording artist (see separate entry) and as a journalist for several music magazines before succumbing to kidney disease in the summer of 2000. Lutz went on to produce artists for Atlantic and Epic/Sony Records, performed with the band No Mercy, and co-wrote songs and toured with fellow Michigan rocker Ted Nugent. Weck also went into engineering and producing, working with artists in the Atco and Atlantic Records stable, including the band Blackfoot. Lutz and Weck joined forces again in 2012, releasing a new album, Still Smokin', that same year, and then returned to the road as Brownsville Station in 2013 with a lineup that also featured guitarists Billy Craig and Arlen Viecelli.