Photo via Steve Cohen - stevecohenblues.com
Steve Cohen of Leroy Airmaster
Steve Cohen of Leroy Airmaster
Back in the ‘80s, the Up & Under Pub (1216 E. Brady St.) was the place to be on Sunday afternoons if you liked the blues. And even if the blues wasn’t your favorite music, the weekly open jam hosted by Leroy Airmaster was a good opportunity for socializing, having a drink and steeling yourself for the coming work week.
The Up & Under went under in 2020 and has since been rehabbed as a new venue, Nashville North. Acknowledging history, the club recently launched Wednesday Blues Night. On December 18, Leroy Airmaster will return to Nashville North with plans to perform on one Wednesday each month in the early months of 2025.
The band’s harmonica player and vocalist, Steve Cohen, is enthusiastic about the venue’s new incarnation. “It’s not a dive bar,” he says. “It’s got a big stage where Up & Under’s pool table once was. They have a good PA and a sound man.”
Formed in 1970 by Whitefish Bay High School students as the Stone Cohen Band, Leroy Airmaster is remarkable for retaining its core members of Cohen, guitarist Bill Stone, bassist Dave Kasik and drummer Marc Wilson. They debuted at a school assembly and, too young for bars, performed at coffee houses. They were avid music fans. “Bill’s mom took us to the Scene [a Downtown club] to see Cream and Jimi Hendrix; and to the Avant-Garde Coffeehouse to hear Magic Sam and Johnny Shines,” Cohen says. “Bill’s parents had blues records and seeing names like Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters as the authors of songs on our rock albums, we began to seek out that music.”
They were mentored by their neighbor, guitarist Jon Paris, who went on to perform with Johnny Winter and Link Wray; and influenced by the Knu Bluz, a psychedelically tinted blues band led by future Short Stuff harmonica player Jim Liban.
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From Rugby to Blues
Leroy Airmaster discovered Up & Under in 1980, when it was primarily a rugby bar, and helped transform it into one of Milwaukee’s top blues joints. During the ‘80s, Leroy Airmaster played three to four nights each week.
“The scene was such that people went to bars a lot for music,” Cohen recalls. “There were quite a few places to play without having to travel too much. Each neighborhood bar had its local following, and bands that were well known could draw fans. The ‘80s were a great time to be a musician. By 1990 I could feel it starting to go away.”
Although the founders are back together, Leroy Airmaster’s lineup shifted across the years, including during the time Cohen spent in a Lake Tahoe tribute act. Recent years have found Leroy Airmaster playing festivals, sometimes in the company of Milwaukee musicians from the ‘60s and ‘70s such as Sam McCue and Junior Brantley. “We’re always thinking of creative ways to give the audience something extra.”
Although they once released an album of original songs, Leroy Airmaster focuses on giving their own spin to classics by Freddy King, B.B. King, Sonny Boy Williamson and other blues masters who recorded for Chess Records in the ‘50s. As for their Nashville North shows, “We hope to attract our old fans but also to educate kids on just how good the blues can be,” Cohen says.
Leroy Airmaster will perform Wednesday, Dec. 18 at Nashville North, 1216 E. Brady St.
