And just where did this name come from you might ask. There was a classmate of Joe’s that used to accompany the band when they played out. He helped with the set up and tear down. His name was Brent Shaw. While Brent was in Boy Scouts he had slept too close to the campfire on a camp out and one of his boots caught fire. Though he was not seriously injured, he gained the nickname “Burnt Shoe” from the incident. Pat Lonergan came up with the idea to name the band after Brent figuring no one would ever figure out the connection. Nobody could come up with a better name so Pat’s idea was adopted. Over the years those unknowing souls figured the name was a cult thing or had to do with drugs—nothing was farther from the truth.
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| Date formed: Sept. 1971 |
| Last date for lineup: 1972 |
| Joe Boesen: Guitar, vocals |
| Howard Bothner: Drums. ac. guitar, vocals |
| Dave Carlson: Guitar, vocals (Fall 1971-72) |
| Brent Larson: Bass, vocals |
| Pat Lonergan: Organ |
| Brian Oeffner: Guitar, vocals (Sept–Nov. 1971) |
It is not remembered what Howard had for a drum set at that time. It was most likely a popularly configured kit with kick, snare, 2 shell mount toms and a floor tom along with hi hat and cymbals.
Dave, who replaced Brian when he left for the service, played rhythm and some lead guitar. He had a white Fender Stratocaster and, later, a Gibson Firebird V which had two pickups and was finished in a dark mahogany color. It is not clear what Dave was using for an amp.
Brent played a Fender Precision bass with a red finish. For an amp, Brent was using Kustom 200 with a 3 x 15 black tuck and roll Kustom speaker bottom.
Pat played a Farfisa Deluxe Compact organ into a Sabre amp he purchased at Klocksiem’s in Ogden for around $1000.
Brian was played mostly rhythm guitar and had a three pickup, red sunburst Teisco solid body guitar and a Jordan amp. The solid-state amp had 2 12–inch speakers and was purchased at Klocksiem’s in Ogden for around $250.
As far as songs went, many of the tunes from the previous band were still performed. Doing current popular songs was somewhat of a priority, although by this time the band was slowly moving towards “listening” music in addition to “dance” music. The addition of songs like “Aqualung”, “Teacher”, “Nothing to Say”/Jethro Tull; “Halo of Flies”, “Under My Wheels”, “Schools Out”/Alice Cooper evidenced this trend. The band still did songs like “Bad Moon Rising”, “Fortunate Son”/CCR, “Funk 49”/James Gang, “Cottage Cheese”/The Crows, “Paranoid”/Black Sabbath, “Purple Haze”/Jimi Hendrix Experience, and “Down By the River”/Neil Young.
The Bus Stop was located in the basement of the building where the Greyhound buses stopped in Ames. It was headed up by George Belistos and was related to Youth & Shelter Services later on. It was an informal place where teens and young adults could drop in if they were facing drug problems or emotional/personal problems. Counselors were on hand to help out. Coffee, juice and homemade cookies were served with music provided by records, tapes or the occasional band. Pillows and bean bag chairs were all about for seating. When bands played there it was for donations only. The hat was passed and that was their pay for the evening.
As to the end of this line up, no specifics are remembered. For whatever reason Pat left the band only to rejoin for a short while in 1973. Brent left the band too, but it's not clear if it was his job that took him out of the area or something else like school. Burntshoe did continue on with new replacements in place. This is dealt with on the next lineup page—just click “next band” below.
Brent went on to play in other bands that were doing Christian material. The Christian “rock” music scene was just getting started around this time with coffee houses being one of the common places to hear this music. Shekina Glory, Lion of Judah and Dove were some of the bands he played in. Brent currently lives in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and works for Campbell Mithun as a broadcast business manager. Previous to that he had worked as a director at KCCI in Des Moines, the CBS affiliate in central Iowa. He is currently playing with a group called the Brass Menagerie which does a wide range of music.
Brian Oeffner, as mentioned earlier, went into the service. While stationed in Germany he played a little doing mostly acoustic stuff. He is currently working for the Iowa National Guard in Des Moines.
Since there are two more versions of Burntshoe in Garage, I'll save the current information on various members not mentioned here for the last line up of the band.
One final note: the background image for the Burntshoe pages is the poster the band used during it's existence. It was designed by Brian Wolf who also had done the lettering on the van the band used.
