The band DONT WALK, and yes, it was all caps just like the sign, was formed in 1985 with members from the band B3D, Jim Herrmann (rhythm guitar and lead vocals), Carol Daubert (drums), and Doug Schmidt (lead guitar), then adding Jeff Morrison on bass guitar. Jeff also handled some of the lead vocals as well, as Jim and Jeff would trade off bass and rhythm guitar duties. Doug also sang "Sultans of Swing", which we unfortunately we don't have a recording of. He killed on that guitar part.
DONT WALK recorded two demos, one in 1985 as they were getting started looking for gigs, and another in 1986 as they had gotten better and felt they needed a better demo to reflect that. Each demo had four songs, all covers because this was a band trying to get gigs in bars. In both cases our friend Vic Anderson, an amazing musician Jim knew from Boeing, did the recording on a Tascam 234 cassette deck that later Jim would buy when Vic moved on to an 8 track reel to reel in his studio. In fact, the second demo was recorded at our practice house, 1333 N. Holyoke Wichita, and then we went to Vic's studio later, dumped the 4 instrument tracks to his 8 track reel to reel and then finished the vocals there in his studio. This is why they sound quite a bit better. We were going to just have three songs on the second demo, but at the very end we decided to try one take at Truckin', and we nailed the instruments in one take. So, we had to include that, and it turned out to be one of the best songs of all the DONT WALK demos.
First Demo:
- Back in the USSR - The Beatles
- Feel Like Makin' Live - Bad Company
- Flirtin' With Disaster - Molly Hatchet
- Tush - ZZ Top
Second Demo:
- Old Man Down the Road - John Fogerty
- Lonely Old Night - John Mellencamp
- What Kinda Love is This - Amazing Rhythm Aces
- Truckin' - Grateful Dead