Chicago singing legend Jimy Rogers' soulful high-energy vocals have long been an important trademark of the Chicago sound. Rogers founded his original band, The Mauds, in his teens. As the first of the blue-eyed soul bands in Chicago, their concert appearances attracted the attention of the major record labels and they signed with Mercury Records. As the first all white group to record at the legendary Chess Records recording studios, home to Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon, they paved the way for another up and coming white band, the Rolling Stones.
The Mauds recording of "Hold On" was a hit with solid radio air play until it was censored for suggestive lyrics and pulled off the air. As Ray Charles pointed out, "In our culture, the lyrics always had two meanings, the literal meaning of the words and the underlying sexual connotation. This is how we used to sneak it past the casual listener and sometimes the radio programer. You didn't have to think very hard about a line like "I'm gonna pet her poodle" to figure out it ain't no song about walkin' the dog!"
The Mauds continued to create and record other hits including "Soul Drippin'" featuring horns and keyboards by another cover band: The Chicago Transit Authority. Inspired by the collaboration on the original song CTA dropped their cover tunes and started to write their own material. "This is what we have to do" was their new mantra. The group was later forced by the city's mass transit line to change their name to Chicago.
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The Mauds also had a hit with "Knock On Wood" written by the Stax Records team of Eddie Floyd and Steve Cropper . Jimy worked with, and rubbed shoulders with with such luminaries as Curtis Mayfield, Buddy Guy, Jerry Butler and Otis Redding. One of the greatest honors in Rogers career was being asked to play a memorial concert the night Otis Redding was killed. Later signed to RCA, he worked with Lou Adler and had a short stint playing arenas as the band "Flash". Rogers also sang on on commercials and studio projects for famed producer Dick Marx.
Rogers moved to California, working with Irvin Azoff who brought in Al Kooper to develop a project for Columbia Records that never came to fruition because of Kooper's legal diffculties with the label over Lynard Skynard. Al Kooper called Rogers "the next Mick Jagger."
After taking time off from performing, an opportunity came to put the Mauds back together for a reunion performance, and a 2000 Millenium party. This band included grammy-winner Al Ciner from the American Breed, also known for his guitar work in Rufus, ("Tell Me Something Good"). The Mauds continued playing and recording, most recently as a 10-peice band, including sold-out performances at Ravinia Festival and Park West, until 2006, and are currently on haitus.
Jimy Rogers can currenty be seen and heard performing and recording with a soul/blues band called Blue Truth. "We've takin' it back to the early Chicago electric blues, which influenced so many of the British invasion bands. We stirred in some soul and brought the sound into the 21st century".
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