About The Badlees
The Badlees are an American roots rock band from Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania that formed in 1990. They released several independent albums and achieved national success with their 1995 album River Songs. In 1998, after recording a follow-up album, Polydor/Atlas was sold to the Seagram Corporation, which delayed the release of the album and eventually led to the Badlees being dropped from the roster.
The group has continued to perform and produce albums independently, releasing the double album Epiphones and Empty Rooms in 2013 and their self-titled 2022 album The Badlees. The Badlees and its individual members have inspired, mentored, advised, produced for, and performed with artists throughout the Pennsylvania music scene.
Three students from Mansfield University in north-central Pennsylvania met while attending the school's music department in the early 1980s. Singer and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Feltenberger was a vocal performance major, drummer Ron Simasek was a music education major, while saxophonist and future Badlees manager Terry Selders was a music merchandising major. While at Mansfield, the three played in various pickup bands with names such as The Leaky Sneakers and Secret Service.
After graduation, the three initially went their separate ways. Selders went to New York City where he managed a recording studio. Simasek went to Florida at first but then later joined Selders in New York where he became drummer for the band Kaos. Feltenberger entered the teaching profession and reunited with the band that he formed in high school with his brother Steve Feltenberger on bass and guitarist Clint Barrick.
In 1988, Jeff Feltenberger contacted Terry Selders about making a professional recording with his band. Selders was in the process of forming an independent record label with producer Bill Grabowski and thought Feltenberger's music would be a good fit for their first project. He convinced Simasek to join in as drummer and the new band, known as Bad Lee White went into Grabowski's studio to record the initial album for the new A Street Records. The studio was called Susquehanna Sound and was located in Northumberland, Pennsylvania. There, the band worked with the studio's chief engineer, Bret Alexander.
Alexander was a high school football standout who went on to play defensive end for three seasons at Bucknell University. A guitarist in the band Masque, back in his home town of Canton, Pennsylvania, Alexander took a credited internship at Susquehanna Sound while a student at Bucknell and eventually gained employment at the studio after graduation. While working on the Bad Lee White album, Alexander added some guitar overdubs, and the band asked him to join as a permanent member.
What Goes Around by Bad Lee White was released on A Street Records in November 1988. It contained four originals, three co-written by guitarist Jeff Feltenberger and producer Bill Grabowski, with "Boomerang" written by another A Street prospect, Charlie Crystle. However, A-Street soon ended its short run as an independent label, which kept What Goes Around from reaching a second pressing.
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