By Darvin Graham

TIMES-REPUBLICAN

Looking back on 2021, one of the highlights in local music was a tribute to one of Iowa’s most righteous rock ‘n roll bands.

On Sept. 5, the Iowa Rock ‘n Roll Music Association recognized the band Hot Jam as a member of the state’s Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2021.

Hot Jam was a Marshalltown three-piece formed in the early 1970s that brought a brand of no-nonsense power rock to Midwest audiences, not unlike the work ZZ Top was doing down in Texas.

The band cut its teeth playing in bars and concert halls in central Iowa and later would become a regional touring act hitting midwest circuits throughout Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Illinois and the Dakotas.

The group began with guitarist and vocalist Roger Mathies and drummer Al Lund of Marshalltown — and a revolving door at the bass guitar position — playing in a three-piece outfit.

Things fell into place when Lund and Mathies connected with bassist Dave Hofer from Tama around 1974.

Hofer recalls first seeing Lund and Mathies playing at The Challenge bar in Marshalltown and pitching himself to them as the perfect fit if they were ever in need of a bass player.

They soon came calling, and Hot Jam was off and running.

Over the course of the decade, Hot Jam shared the stage with a number of iconic bands including Heart, Trooper, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Head East, Brownsville Station and Rick Derringer.

Things accelerated for the band around 1975 when Lund and Hofer were at a turning point in their careers and decided to come to terms with their intentions.

“We said if we’re going to make this thing go, and if we want to keep playing music, we’re going to have to put more energy into it and start playing more and getting further out,” Lund said.

Midway through their run, Mathies stepped away, and he was replaced by guitarist and vocalist Jerry Carberry of Mason City.

Carberry was working at the Mason City Music Center at the time and had been playing with some small acts in northern Iowa when Hot Jam came calling.

“Jerry gave us a bit of a different angle when he started with us,” Hofer said. “His guitar style is kind of like Joe Walsh, real flowy.”

Hot Jam Live

While active, Hot Jam was at its best live and in person. The band’s high energy shows drew packed houses at ballrooms and venues all over the midwest.

“When we played back then, those shows were events,” Hofer said. “It wasn’t just people casually showing up for live music. It was an entertainment event that audiences were excited to be there for.”

Lund recalled a show in Minneapolis where they planned to play Steppenwolf’s “Born To Be Wild” as part of their set.

Not only did the band set up some motorcycle sound effects to play as an intro to the song, but they rented three mopeds that they drove onto the stage to kick off the tune.

“People had fun when they would go to our show,” Lund said. “We would always bring out, you know, 100 pounds of dry ice, crush it up and drop it in there. We’d do a venue like the Surf Ballroom, and you’d have fog waist high across the dance floor and people would go crazy because that wasn’t very common.”

During the 70s, the sweet spot for rock bands like Hot Jam were mid-sized ballrooms that could fit a substantial crowd.

Locally, Hot Jam could be found every so often at bars like The Challenge in Marshalltown or Double D in Tama. Hofer recounted a one-off concert the band organized in Marshalltown where they opened for Illinois touring band Head East at a Marshalltown High School (MHS) dance.

The closest ballroom, however, was the Turner Ballroom in Keystone, about 20 miles east of Tama. It became a frequent haunt for Hot Jam.

Their shows featured all the hallmarks of what one might expect from burgeoning rock stars – big sound, big lights, cool hair, cool clothes, pyrotechnics and “a sound that will scorch your feet and melt your soul.”

At the height of the band’s career, they traveled with a 22-foot International moving truck to haul not only their music gear but a full show setup with a large PA system, lights, dry ice for fog and other stage equipment.

The band also traveled by air when Lund, who acquired his pilot’s license in 1978, chartered a small plane to get the band to and from a college gig in South Dakota.

“My mom wouldn’t go for a ride with me, but the band trusted me to get them up in the air and get them back out and it worked out OK,” Lund said.

Even though Hot Jam amassed a substantial original song catalog, the band never released a full length album.

Hot Jam lays it down

From 1975 to 1978, the group released three singles. The first was headlined by the classic John Loudermilk blues song “Tobacco Road” with a cover of T-Bone Walker’s “Stormy Monday” on the B-side.

Hot Jam’s amped-up rendition of “Tobacco Road” earned airplay on local radio stations and became a concert favorite for many of the band’s fans.

A year later, the band released another single, this time with an infectious 12-bar blues original titled “I Love to Boogie” on the A-side. The record is rounded out with a cover of Grand Funk Railroad’s “I Don’t Have To Sing The Blues” that’s all teeth and gasoline.

In 1978, now with Carberry behind the six-string, Hot Jam put out its third single, “Just In Time,” at Hedden West Studios in Schaumburg, Ill.

The title track trades the band’s straightforward boogie rock for contemplation and emotional harmonies. On the B-side, the song “You Can’t Do That (To Me)” is a heavy, brooding number that chugs along with power chords that conjure up the likes of heavy metal acts such as Judas Priest or Van Halen.

The release of “Just In Time” was intended to be a precursor to Hot Jam’s debut full-length album. Shortly after the single dropped, the band laid down several demos at Earth City Studios in St. Louis, preparing to create a more robust portfolio of original material to shop to record labels. But a record deal never materialized, and before the end of 1980, the band decided to part ways.

Despite their untimely misfortune, opportunity came knocking later in life when Lund unearthed a box of 24-track recordings from Earth City Studios while cleaning out his basement.

In 2013, he sent the tapes to Catamount Studios in Cedar Falls, where he and the band worked with producer Tom Tatman to restore the recordings in digital format. Many of those songs can now be heard online at Hot Jam’s Bandcamp website, www.hotjam.bandcamp.com.

Lund also said one of his sons is currently working on a project to compile Hot Jam’s original songs into a double vinyl album release.

Hot Jam at the Hall

With Hot Jam’s members scattered across the country over the past 40 years, the thought of Hall of Fame recognition was not on the forefront of any of their minds.

“We had made a couple attempts to get nominated in the past, and so I’d pretty much written the Hall of Fame off as a pipe dream, that’s it’s not going to happen,” Carberry said. “And then all of a sudden, here we are. I think I could speak for all of us to say that’ we’re thrilled to death to be a part of this.”

The Iowa Rock ‘n Roll Music Association annually inducts musicians, bands, DJs, ballrooms and others who have significantly contributed to rock and roll music in the State of Iowa. Since

t, more than 300 entities have had the honor of being inducted. Inductees must have a minimum of 25 years of experience in the music industry.

As part of the Hall of Fame weekend experience, Hot Jam was given the opportunity to get the band on stage and perform a few songs together.

It was Sept. 5 at the Roof Garden Ballroom in Arnolds Park, and it was the first time Hot Jam had taken the stage in over 40 years.

While Hofer and Carberry had continued playing their instruments years after Hot Jam disbanded, the situation was not the same for Lund.

“I was kind of the weak link since I hadn’t played drums in 40 years,” Lund said. So I had to go buy another set of drums and start practicing. I was a little leery at first but I spent a couple months every night in the basement for an hour listening to our songs and working them out. Eventually I convinced myself that we’re playing all original songs anyway, so people won’t know if we’re doing it right or wrong. And I was able to just go play and have fun.”

During their reunion set, which lasted close to 30 minutes, the band opened with two upbeat songs in “You Can’t Do That (To Me)” and “Don’t Hold Back.” Then it was the title track off their 1978 single, “Just In Time,” that brought a slower, more thoughtful atmosphere over the show.

In a special finale, original Hot Jam guitarist Roger Mathies and Lund’s son Troy on drums joined Hofer onstage to play the band’s hit cover of “Tobacco Road.”

“From my perspective, we had basically three years,” Carberry said. “And in those three years, we did a lot. We recorded a pretty fair amount. We played a lot; you know not every show was 1,000 people or more, but there were certainly plenty like that. We just tried to do the biggest thing we could do, and that was our goal. And I’d say we at least somewhat succeeded at that.”

Along with the forthcoming vinyl album, Hot Jam’s legacy has been preserved in a few different ways. The Iowa Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Arnolds Park contains a Hot Jam memorabilia display including one of Hofer’s original bass guitars and a custom made jumpsuit worn by Lund onstage, among several other items.

The band has also been active on Facebook over the past year as the Hall of Fame experience came and went. The social media platform contains a good collection of concert posters, stage passes, promotional materials, band photos and other images harkening back to the Hot Jam heyday.

Earlier this month, with the assistance of Troy Lund, the band posted some concert footage from 1978 on their Facebook page that was discovered alongside the 24-track Earth City Studio audio recordings.

The concert was a dance fundraiser at Hilton Coliseum in Ames. The Super 8mm film contained no audio, and so some post production work was done to set the footage to the band’s song “You Can’t Do That To Me.”

Hot Jam can be found online at www.facebook.com/hotjam1977 and the Iowa Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame at www.iowarocknroll.com.