Sunday, September 20, 2009

Shades - Etna Green - Girl group

Yes, there were more girl groups in Indiana! For your consideration we present the Shades. The band hailed from Etna Green (tiny little town between South Bend & Ft. Wayne).

From left:

Janice Gard - Bass
Suzannah Blodgette - drums
Cinda Stouder - Guitar

The girls managed to make three 45's, from 1964 to '66.

Denny
I Won't Cry
Prancer's got some red spots
Santa Claus is coming to town
Send Him Back to Me
Tell Me Not To Cry




The Shades won a contest and ended up in Amsterdam for a show! How would you like to play in front of 5000! Pretty heady stuff for the girls I'm sure.
As usual, all comments welcome. Let's fill in the blanks here!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great find! How could these girls escape to the chief-compilers? If you don't mind, I'll put three of the tracks on my next "Girls with Beat"-installation mentioning your fab site in the booklet... (look for it at http://michaelvee.livejournal.com )

thanks a lot and keep on diggin'

ciao from Milano!

Italianbeat said...

Very nice discovery! Also their cover of "Santa" is pretty original. Thanks

Anonymous said...

I've put two of your discoveries on my latest selection dedicated to girl-groups / girl-singers

have a look at http://michaelvee.livejournal.com

thanks a lot and keep on with your great work!

Stang said...

Hey...I'm showing this blog to my mother. She is the Cindy Stouder from the Shades and my son just told her that she showed up on a Google. So she was delighted when she saw your blog had featured their work. My mom is a retired postmaster, living in Etna Green, Suzie Blodgett is a nurse practitioner in Peru, Indiana and Janie Gard was studying to get a degree in psychology before she lost her sight several years ago. Then she unfortunately passed away last year.

Anyway, wanted to pop you a post and let you know you made my mom's day.

Thanks,

Cord Julian (cord.m.julian@medtronic.com)

Dennis D. said...

My God, I knew everyone of those girls. I had NO idea they were into music, let alone in a band.

Dennis from Tippecanoe

Anonymous said...

Not only do I know them..I'm related to two of them..and I have one of those records. Grew up rockin out to em! :-) This is absolutely awesome!!

Anonymous said...

Knew and know them well. Sounded great and I even took them to a couple of their recording sessions. Their song Prancers got some red spots was played quite often on the radio back then. Wish we could hear it again.\
Friend of the girls

C. Michaels Photos said...

Did the band ever play at The Shades State Park? Was there any connection between the park and the band?

Unknown said...

I am related to Janice

Unknown said...

I used to go to the back door of their studio and listen to them as a younger girl. Such beautiful music.