The Gang coupled stellar musicianship with an energetic live show that included Schwartz hanging upside down off the shoulders of Jeric! The band was huge in Cleveland and Kent, where Fox was living at the time. In June of '67 Bill Jeric replaced Ron Silverman. Both sides are really powerful, with Glenn's noted guitar virtuousity in strong effect, it's hard to understand why the labels weren't climbing over themselves to sign the group. The band made their first attempt at recording sometime around April of '67 when they recorded a couple songs at Cleveland Recording, the Zombies 'Indication' and 'Sometimes I Think About' aka 'Willie Jean'. Fox, together with bassist Tom Kriss, guitarists Ron Silverman and Glenn Schwartz, and keyboard player Phil Giallombaro, they took the Cleveland scene by storm in early '67 with a repetriore that favored more of the 'underground' sounds including British blues-rock and more obscure songs by the harder rock-n-roll bands of the day. After going through some musicians (including Schwartz's old Pilgrims bandmate Dennis Chandler) the lineup was in place. The original James Gang was founded by drummer Jimmy Fox, who had spend some time in Tom King and the Starfires. The James Gang is really three (or more!) bands, the original band, the Joe Walsh fronted trio, and the various incarnations after Walsh left. The James Gang was one of Cleveland's signature rock-n-roll bands, almost anyone could name songs like 'Funk #49', 'Walk Away', favorites of the classic rock canon, and still sounding fresh today.

James gang band