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It was 1987. The Blue Baboons were breaking up and Lee Gregory was about to be a drug addicted keyboardist without a band. A year before they’d been on Star Search, were opening for major acts, and had a new record out. The “Babs” were considered serious contenders for the rock and roll brass ring. One of the local bands that performed as an opener for the Baboons was a group called The Debutantes, featuring a guitarist/keyboardist named Kent Beatty. An offshoot of the Baboons was called Zsa Zsa Blue, and Kent did some keyboard tracks for them to use in their shows.
On Dec 7th, 1989, at about 10am, being drug free became a reality for Lee following a month of inpatient treatment. Raising a family and building a stable financial life took him away from the music business for a number of years, although he was writing songs and learning to record during those years. Songs written during that period appear on Lee's solo album, "Baubles and Trinkets", as well as the first two Darby Picnic albums.
Fast forward to 2012 or so. Lee was playing in a band again, this one a cover band called Mojo Overload. At some point he went off to play with someone else, and Kent Beatty was Lee’s replacement in Mojo. After a few months, Lee came back, and Kent stayed on. Mojo Overload had a good run, but it was a cover band, and the drive to create original material led to Lee leaving, eventually deciding to focus solely on recording. A couple of years later Kent called up and invited Lee to lunch. Kent was quite adamant that there was music to be made and the two of them should be working at it, but it seemed the time hadn't come quite yet.
It was 2015 and Lee was recording his solo album, which led to the first formation of Darby Picnic. Kent was called in to handle guitar duties. However, within a few months, Jerry Wainhouse, drummer for the band and Lee’s best friend, had a heart attack and couldn’t continue to perform. At the first show with the replacement drummer, Jerry and Lee spoke for the last time. Jerry passed away days later from sepsis following emergency surgery, June 2016. Darby Picnic and a reformed Mojo Overload spent Jerry’s birthday performing a tribute to him at Louie G’s, July 1st, 2016.
The band continued to play local clubs for the next four years. The lineup was Lee and Kent, plus Troy Moss on guitar, Terry Hickey on bass, along with a parade of drummers. Eventually, Rickie Ray Heinzman joined and remained until the band stopped doing shows in 2020.
The first album was called The CBB sessions, recorded in part at Crash Bang Booom studio in Milton, WA. Dave Smith engineered the album. Lee and Dave produced jointly. It originally included a cover of a Blue Baboon song, "Rhythm Of The Times". Besides Lee and Kent's songs, Troy Moss also contributed three songs to the project. One of them, "Midnight Train" is the most played video on the Darby YouTube channel.
The final show was at The Valley in Tacoma, WA with local favorites Vanilla and Steve Aliment. The pandemic came along soon after that.
For the second album, "Dark Confessions of Prophets and Madmen, several songs had been tracked at Decade Sound in Tacoma with Shad Woodman engineering. The songs were getting more complex, and so extensive re-tracking and overdubs were done at Lee's always evolving home studio, The Loft. When Covid came along, the mixing stage had already started. With this album, the two were beginning to hit their stride as producers, but it seemed like live shows weren't going to be in the bands future. There were ever present conflicts in scheduling, and with touring not being an option, Lee and Kent decided to forge ahead as a studio outfit. Happily, the other fellas have all gone on to start their own groups.
Album #3 - "We're Not Normal" was released in April 2023, although the songs were released one at a time over the course of several months. Kent and Lee did everything themselves on this one - all the instruments, the engineering, mixing and mastering. Their current single, "Planet Queen", (written by Marc Bolan of T-Rex) is receiving airplay in several countries.
For these two guys, the strong sense of brotherhood is the most important thing, and their working relationship is balanced well. Kent has also built up a home studio that matches Lee's room, so access to recording is immediate and free. They regularly are together at one studio or the other, writing, recording, experimenting. There are plans already for the next two albums, and a handful of songs are written. A return to live shows is also being planned. Whatever happens, Darby Picnic is going to continue making music. What else would they do?
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