The Frost (Freeport)

Freeport Journal-Standard, March 27, 1968

The Frost were a short-lived group of high schoolers from northern Illinois.  A few of the young musicians however would go on to have long and distinguished careers in music far beyond their "garage" beginnings.

• Greg Adams - rhythm guitar, organ, piano
• Tom Miller - drums, tambourine, lead vocals
• Mike Noble - lead guitar, organ, drums
• Ted Patrou - bass guitar
• Curt Roads - drums

Most of the band members were from Freeport, Illinois while guitarist Mike Noble was from nearby Cedarville.  Noble and Adams had previously played together in the NonChalants which later became the Noblemenn.

The Noblemenn: Mike Garrity, Rick Nichol, Mike Noble, Greg Adams

The Frost started performing at local dances and teen clubs in early 1968.  That March the band participated in the "Parade of Bands," a three day event held in the sportswear department of the local Penneys.  According to the advertisement (top), the Frost loved to do "take-offs on the Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, The Byrds, The Hollies, The Who and more."  That same month, the Frost recorded their only single at Dexter Witt's Radex Recording Studios in Freeport.

The group recorded an original composition, "Behind The Closed Doors Of Her Mind," written by Noble and Adams, as well as a cover of the Capitols' "Cool Jerk."  The title was misprinted on the label as "Cook Jerk."   (The youth center in Freeport was known as the JERC, later renamed the Spot).

"Behind the Closed Doors Of Her Mind" and the Radex single quickly faded into obscurity.  In 2020 however, the Chicago label Numero Group included the original song on a new compilation, Louis Wayne Moody High.  The collection was promoted as "fourteen moody melodies of surf kings, guitar Bettys, talent show psychers, and pre-S.D.S. soft poppers. Walls of jangly guitars, maudlin organs, and melancholy harmonies deliver the bummer to ring in the summer."

 

The Frost does not appear to have stayed together past 1968.  For a few of the band members however, their musical journeys were just beginning.  Both Noble and Adams relocated to Nashville in the early 1970's.  By 1974, the two were touring the country with Dave Loggins in support of his hit single, ""Please Come to Boston."  Noble had already played with Roy Orbison at this point in his early career.

Since then, Mike Noble has performed and recorded with numerous big name acts including Darius Rucker, Vince Gill, Barry Gibb, Jason Aldean and many others.  He appeared in the movie Coal Miner's Daughter and was Don Williams' longtime guitarist.  He is also an accomplished songwriter and has an Emmy for composing the score for the PBS documentary Untamed Legacy.  Since 2010, Noble has been a member of the Grand Ole Opry house band.

Another member of the Frost went in a very different direction.  By 1970, drummer Curt Roads was playing with Hound Dog Moses, a Freeport band that had migrated to Champaign-Urbana.  The band mixed rock, blues and psychedelia with elements of Eastern and classical music.  Their live performances often consisted of long improvised jams combined with a psychedelic light show, earning them the reputation of being Champaign's version of the Grateful Dead.

Hound Dog Moses:  Loren Brandenburg, Johnse Holt, Curt Roads, Sheft-Hat Khnemu Ra (James Cole)

During this period however, Roads was becoming more and more interested in synthesizers and electronic music.  In fact, "Curt Rhodes (sic) and his electronic moog synthesizer" were listed as opening for Hound Dog Moses at a concert back in Freeport in November 1971.

Even though Roads never officially attended the University of Illinois while living in Champaign, he started to compose electronic music at the university's Experimental Music Studio.  It was there that he saw his first computer.  According to Roads, "It was love at first sight."  He would soon leave drumming in a rock band behind and dedicate himself to computer music full time.  For this pursuit, he would leave Illinois and head to California.

Fast forward to today, Dr. Curtis Roads is a renowned composer, researcher and educator in electronic and computer music.  He is celebrated for his pioneering work in the development of granular synthesis and microsound.  Roads has written several important books and articles on these subjects and many others.  His compositions have been collected on CD since the late 1980's.  Most recently, the French label Elli Records released a compilation of some of his work, Electronic Music 1994-2021.  In 2024, Roads retired as Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) after 28 years.