"Our last concert was in front of 17000 loyal Dakota fans".

Yes, that's the words from the criminally overlooked talent of Jerry G. Hludzik, vocalist/guitarist from the cult group Dakota. It's also an indication of how loved they were in spite of their seemingly non-existent success.

Dakota is one of those bands that never have achieved major status, despite their records' quality, but still they've remained a very much loved act by fans of the Westcoast/AOR-genre. This cult band's status peaked in 1986, when they did their last major concert, in front of 17000 loyal Dakota fans. Their cult status has in a way remained in Europe, which has lead to a "new" release of their somewhat obscure "The Lost Tracks", but with some changes on it. Mainman, Jerry G. Hludzik tells the story:
"The group did break in 1986 but Rick (Manwiller, long time "unofficial" 3rd member) and I continued. We changed the name of the group to Secret City, guitarist Eric Rudy was added and also drummer Robbie Spagnoletti. This was between 1986-89. Then John Lorance became a part of the band. We tried to change the sound and approach but it fell short. We shopped for a record deal, but there was none to be had, we just couldn't get arrested. Then, I think it was in 1994, I was contacted by Magnus Söderkvist & Empire Records, because he somehow had heard that we had released an independent LP ("The Lost Tracks"). Then some cross-talk through European phonelines led me to Khalil Turk & Escape Music.
I ended up licensing the project to a man I've never met, but over a year of correspondence and telephone calls have gained much respect and trust. He's definitely a man of his word. Khalil and his partner Barrie Kirtley have delivered so far everything they've promised and that's rare and admirable in this business! I just got the green light from Escape Music to start on the next Dakota record. I'm very excited, I have been writing new songs for the last year."

-Rick Manwiller has in many ways been with the band, but still he has never reached that level of becoming a fully fledged 3rd member, how come?
"Rick had been in the group from 1981-86, and I always felt that he should have become a full member. When "All Thru The Night" was written I encouraged him to write lyrics for the musicial bridge section and we ended up using them. I thought this was a good way of welcoming to the group, but as the story goes from where I sat, my vote and Kelly's vote were not necessarily unanamous! Rick came at a perfect time when I felt we needed new blood.
I remember calling him in Bermuda telling him when he got home that there was a job waiting for him if he wanted it. Kelly sort of welcomed the new blood - but not at his expense! I think also from the very beginning Kelly was threatened by Rick's talents. Rick is a very talented singer/songwriter/musician, and that's the way I saw it. From where I sat, he always was a full member in my eyes. When we did break in '86, Rick and I were doing 90 % of the writing and Kelly was never available to work like in the old days. Like I said I think he was threatened by Rick and just laid down! Our last major concert was July the 6th 1986 in our hometown in front of 17000 loyal Dakota fans! Dakota was a band I actually started after...do you remember there was a band called The Boys in the early 70s? Well, Kelly and I played in that band in the early 70s, so Kelly and I played together for almost 17 years! From The Boys we went on to Jerry/Kelly, and from there to Dakota, and basically in '86, Kelly and I as partners, had done anything we could possibly do, and it was time for a change. He left the group and basically got out of the business for 6 years. He became a car salesman, but recently he got back into music, and he's doing Country, living down in Nashville. I saw him 2 1/2 years ago when I re-cut "All Thru The Night" from the album. I had seen him 6 months prior to this down in Nashville and it was like the first time we had seen each other in a long time. On the "Mr Lucky"-album, Kelly was only involved in 3 of the 11 songs. He sang lead on "Heaven And Hell", back-up on "Don't Stop Believin" and he sang back-up on "The Next Time" and played some guitar on that one too. Basically the "Mr Lucky"-album was myself and Rick, not me and Kelly."

-So did you do any major touring back then?
"We've toured with a lot of acts, but to name a few - Joe Cocker, Bad English, Cheap Trick, Molly Hatchet, Hooters and the biggest and longest stint was in 1980, the U.S. Game Tour with Queen. 2 1/2 months of big time rock n' roll which I'll never forget. 20000 people per night in all major venues around the U.S., what could be better? We got great reviews too! Queen treated us like part of the show, not just an opening act. Thanks guys! Other than all the miles travelled and being away from my family it was a time in my life I'll never forget! The whole thing with Dakota, I always felt that someday those songs would resurface. I always felt that Dakota was a group that always, not by our own hands but by others, we we're always made fall short. We never got the promotion we needed. Like when we were on that Queen tour in 1980. That tour was the biggest tour in the US that year, all they (the record companies) had to do was to put some promotion in. Our record label was feuding with our management and our producer, Danny Seraphine (also Chicago drummer at that time), and we just never got the attention! If you're lucky enough to get that promotion, you can become a household word, if not, then you're just somebody that fell short. You see, all through the years, and all I've done in the past, I've always held in a very high regard. This is something I started a long time ago, developing the sound of Dakota. Do you remember that era when this New Wave era were popular? Many people said to me like, Why don't you write in that style? But I never felt like I wanted to sell out. There was a time period when we starved on the road, because we were doing Dakota music which was big a few years earlier, but now we couldn't get ourselves a label, we couldn't get arrested. But we held out, just barely got by and then in 1984 we cut the "Runaway"-album (on MCA). But that's a lot of years between 1980 and '84, being on the road and trying to keep the band together. I think that's also has a lot to do why Kelly and I split up when we did. You know being away from our families, those 4 years on the road, playing our music, it was fun but we made peanuts. Being on the road, especially after being on that Queen tour, to go low-budget, is not easy to stomach. People's tempers flare, everybody gets kind of weird after awhile."

-Dakota has undoubtley created their own sound, but there are some influences that makes at least me to think about bands like Van Zant, .38 Special, Chicago, and other bands in a mishmash, do you think that these bands have in some way influenced your sound?
"Sort of, but (they say you are what you eat!) I've listened to groups like Steely Dan, Eagles, CSN, Hollies, Chicago, .38 Special, Toto, Kansas for years, and it's hard not to sound similar to groups you've been influenced by. Hopefully there are groups out there that were influenced by the sound of Dakota!"

-Would you say that "Mr Lucky", basically is "The Lost Tracks", or?
"Some cuts are there and some cuts were done after. You see, around that time in 1986, we had a song that we put on a local radio station, "All Thru' The Night", and it ended up being 7 weeks on their top 5 list of requested tracks! But they had to take it off the air, because we had no product out. You see, people called the radiostation asking where they could buy it and stuff, so we eventually put out "The Lost Tracks", just locally, for the fans. Mostly all of the recordings are different on "Mr Lucky", compared to "The Lost Tracks". They were done very low-budget though, because we didn't have the money, we didn't have label support, or the studio to do them hi-tech, but sometimes when you do that stuff, you loose the feeling."

-Could you comment some of the tracks from the album...

Remember Me
"It was written during the '84-'86 period some time, and then the recording of it was more in '88-'89. So that's a recording that's basically recorded with Secret City - or the line up from SC. It was Rick and myself, and it was Eric (Rudy) playing guitar, so it was recorded after "The Lost Tracks"-album. Same song, but a different recording, different players, a more up-dated version, still, with a drum-machine though. But that's all we could afford within the framework of our budget. Back then a lot of recordings had drum-machines on them and it was acceptable."

Don't Stop Believin'
"It was actually supposed to be on the "Runaway"-album (from '84) but it didn't make it. Danny Seraphine is playing drums on it, Neil Stubenhaus plays bass, Rick plays keys, Ritchie Zito plays guitar on it, and I have saved that recording, but I've made a new mix of it and put it on the album, and it's probably the best recording on this album. The fact that it was done in 1984 and it still stands up!"

These Eyes
"Rick and I wrote that one and basically that was the one that was most under-produced on the record. I wish that I could give that another shot, because I think that's a strong song."

-So the nearest future, what does it look like then?
"In the spring sometime, I'll release my new album. Hopefully I can come to Europe for a tour. I actually never thought that we were liked in Europe, because our record companies CBS and MCA in the States, never really tapped into Europe, they never attempted. Over the years I have talked to people from different parts of the world that knew of Dakota and we were one of their favourite groups! I'm kinda chocked. The new record will be in the same Dakota sound, same flavour, because that's what this group is, we'll never change direction, but recorded with the technology of 1997. I'm very thrilled. With this album ("Mr Lucky"), I wanted to build a bridge between the past and the future, and some song titles that I've been working on lately are "Somebody's Hero" and "Hot Nights", and they are very much written in the Dakota style, but it's Dakota in the 90s!"

I'm looking forward to hear it!

Larry Schörling