Years before some band in the British Isles that may or may not have included ex-Mott The Hoople front man Ian Hunter, used it as their moniker, Rich Rags was an obscure but talented band of musicians and songwriters out of Clearwater, Florida.

The fact that they didn't maintain their bandness long enough to spread the word to a larger audience via a recording contract says more about the "industry" than it does about what Rich Rags did so well: Music.

Starting out as a concert band and de-evolving into a bar band is just part of the contrary nature of Rich Rags. Their quirky writing style -- not pop, not punk -- helped usher in a genre of music that didn't get a name until many years later: Alternative.

A proud appreciation for that Music has kept us loosely in touch over the years as we have continued our endeavors, musical or otherwise throughout North America. At some point in early 2004 with all original members intact we agreed that it might be worthwhile to create something to chronical this relatively brief meeting-of-the-minds. With the untimely passing that year of original guitarist John Donniacuo, however, it appears that this will not likely come to pass.

Rich Rags -- was the name taken from a Rockford, IL rock band with nothing in common but drummer Jeff Levy. Mark, Nancy and JC were fresh out of their folk/rock band "Matt & Mark" (briefly renamed "Sweet Madness") because the appeal of loud, in-your-face rock had been growing for some time. The original music was always first and foremost, and with the addition of heavy-handed Jeff and gifted guitarist John Donniacuo (JD) we started working on just that. Jeff corralled us into a studio with the promise of a 4-song EP release (something with which some of us were unfamiliar) we were going to call "Factory Worker", after a song of that title. We did indeed get four tracks created, but it lacked enough lustre to merit a record. I was not making the transition of writing folk to creating rock anthems as fast as I would have liked. While Jeff and JD both had writing creds, I was the primary writer at the time, which stalled us slightly. JD was getting restless and announced that he was leaving the band, but stayed around long enough to help us break in a new guitarist, which we found in Kacy Ross from Iowa. Several years our junior, Kacy had a fantastic sense of both music and lyric, which was quickly noticed by JD, who opted to remain. We were then a three-guitar army. And let me tell you, with Kacy and JD playing harmony leads, we started sounding great! Songs began getting added fairly quickly, some Kacy brought in but many we were piecing together from Kacy's raw ideas. Lyrically poignant and musically diverse and energetic, I was awed and humbled by this talent. All we needed to do, usually, was polish up Kacy's quirky submissions only slightly. We went into the studio again, this time with some rip-roaring songs that we completed nearly in one take, and Dentist Office Music was borne.

Shortly we had a set list of nine or ten original songs - barely enough for a set. We all agreed that if we could avoid it, we'd like to NOT play bars, the songs made us feel we were destined for something bigger, and we really didn't have any "covers", which was expected in clubs of that era. So for our first gig we played out at a New Year's Eve party in someone's back yard in the little hamlet of Dunedin, north of Clearwater. Our set went wonderfully, and as it turns out we were nearly glad when the cops came to shut us down. We'd played everything we'd rehearsed!

It is difficult to accurately portray the feelings and insider buzz that was beginning to permeate around this time. We quickly started accumulating a lot of hangers-on, most of which were welcome because it was easy to see that they were as excited about what was percolating as the band itself. We secured a studio "garage" in Pinellas Park, and started working even more furiously on material so that we would be able to play more than a 35 minute set. We all agreed that what we were writing was too vital – we had all been in bands playing cover tunes to varying degrees – so our practice time was devoted soley to developing and refining our originals. And I became the George Harrison of the band, Kacy being both Lennon AND McCartney. Quite frankly I wasn't too upset about it. I was able to help with the arrangements and some of the occasional "rough edges" and the innovation and lyrical imperative that was emanating from him was nothing short of genius. A mutual friend (see Hobo Joe) had some influence at the University of Florida and got us our first official gig - a concert opening for CARNEGIE (The Mark and Clark Band) at Lake Alice Field (Gainesville) in the dead of winter, 1979. We had our own two-room catered trailer, there were blast heaters on stage, and we sounded great! It really felt like the big time.