The Commander Cody Band Hits Chan's This Friday

This Friday, "The Commander Cody Band" will land in downtown Woonsocket for a rolling good time at .  

Look in any book on the History of Rock & Roll, and you will find Commander Cody and his lost Planet Airmen. The band's founder and leader, George Frayne, took the stage name Commander Cody after being inspired by a 1950s film serial featuring a character Commando Kody, King of the Rocket Men in "Lost Planet Airmen."  

Cody, a pioneering band leader, artist and musician invented a whole new style of music in the 1970s, fusing stripped down basic rock and roll, rhythm and blues, jazz, bop, country, western swing and rockabilly. In short, the sound is country rock with an edge.

The band landed their first record deal in 1971 after sending a tape to Paramount Records. Their debut album, "Lost in the Ozone" delivered them a Top 10 hit with the single "Hot Rod Lincoln." Albums that followed include "Hot Licks, Cold Steel and Trucker's Favorites," and "Country Casanova" which contains the a version of the old Tex Williams swing favorite, "Smoke Smoke Smoke that Cigarette" that cracked the country charts. Their last album for Paramount, "Live from Deep in the Heart of Texas" was later named by Rolling Stone as one of the best 100 albums of all time.  

In 1974, the band signed on with Warner Brothers Records and put out their next album "CCHLPA" which featured the Billboard Top 40 classic rocker, "Don't Let Go." The band produced two more albums, "Tales From the Ozone" and "We Got a Live One Here" before parting ways in 1977.    

"We used to be a giant swing rock band back in the late 1970s, which we still are, but we've trimmed down a bit," explained Cody in a phone interview. "Our repertoire still includes some of our classic hits, 'Smoke Smoke Smoke that Cigarette' and 'Hot Rod Lincoln.' And my voice keeps getting better and better now that I've quit smoking. It's been 6 years and I feel great," he added.

"I'm still as sleazy as ever, although I did just get married this past year after a ten year courtship with my lovely wife Sue Casanova," he said. "Our original band members still get together but most of us have been fronting and recording with our own smaller groups. We will sit in with each other from time to time and do an occasional band reunion performance."   

"I'm cleaning up his act," new wife Sue Casanova chimed in.  

After ten years of dating, they tied the knot in a simple intimate ceremony at Red Rock Canyon at dusk.

"It was beautiful and meaningful," said Casanova. "We had forgotten flowers so I picked them up as we walked the desert path to the overlook where we said our vows. We could have gone with a big raucous rock n roll wedding but it would have never been as precious to me. It was my daughter and her friend, Cody and myself."  

In 1997 The Commander Cody Band relocated to the east coast and are still wowing crowds at giant biker conventions, festivals and college concerts all over the United States and Europe. They've been known to still get into those sleazy, down home uptown roadhouses and bars too.  

"Dopers, Drunks and Everyday Losers" is the band's latest album. 

"This album is about my father who worked on Madison Avenue in Manhattan back in the 1960," Cody said. "I think it is a rocking hilarious album. You know, I was known to steal cadillacs from the Elvis Mansion." 

Presently Cody has been artist in residence and pianist extraordinaire on The Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise extravaganzas and an accomplished artist who has had showings of his work.  The band members today are Mark Emerick on guitar, Steve Barbuto on drums, Chris Olsen on pedal steel and Randy Bramwell on bass. According to Cody, "I'm still trying to pound my piano into submission."

Showtimes are at 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m.