Mark Opsasnick’s incredibly researched book, Rock the Potomac, is chock-full of stories and biographies of the people and groups who were part of the history of rock ‘n roll and country music in the DMV. “Rock the Patuxent” provides excerpts from the book that highlight the greater Laurel area.
Don Duvall
Keyboardist Don Duvall grew up in Laurel and was introduced to music with piano lessons at the age of five. He started playing guitar at age 13 in the late 1960s while attending Laurel Junior High School. He played bass in his first band, a rock and roll group called the Colonials that mainly covered material by Paul Revere and the Raiders and performed at dances at the Fort Meade Teen Club.
While attending Laurel High School in the early 1970s, Duvall switched to keyboards and played in a succession of rock and roll bands including C.O.D., the Syke Machine, and Ramp. From 1973 to 1979 he played with area rock and roll bands Constellation, Patchwork, Flying Start, and Fringe. He then spent most of the 1980s playing keyboards for such pop-rock bands as Friends From the Start, Joy Ride, and Itchy Fingers. From 1986 to 1988 he performed as a solo singer-keyboardist act, simply billed as Don Duvall, headlining at night clubs all over Maryland including the Pirate’s Cove (Galesville), the Holiday Inn Express Waldorf (Waldorf) and Johnny’s and Sammy’s Restaurant (Salisbury).
From 1989 to 2004 Duvall played keyboards in Classified, a Gaithersburg-based outfit that developed into one of the area’s most sought-after pop-rock bands. For much of his time with the band the lineup was Duvall, singer-guitarist Michael Nelson, singer-bassist Bob McCoy and drummer Michael Gibney. Classified was a popular attraction at the Silo Inn (Olney), the Bethesda Marriott (Bethesda), and Harrington Raceway and Casino (Delaware). In 2004 Duvall joined the Main Event, another Gaithersburg-based popular music group, and remained with them into 2017. The Main Event served as the house band at Timpano Italian Chophouse in Rockville for more than seven years.
Dave Koplow
Singer Dave Koplow was born in Washington, D.C. and spent his teen years in Potomac, Maryland. During his time at Herbert Hoover Junior High School in the early 1970s he was the lead singer in a rock and roll band called the Burning Sensation (which also went by the name Burn) that performed at parties and local teen dances.
In the late 1970s, while attending Winston Churchill High School, Koplow sang in a rock and roll band called Paragon, which covered such artists as Led Zeppelin, Peter Frampton, and Mountain. He then sang in a rockabilly group called the Trouble Boys before leaving the area to attend Boston University, where he sang in an acoustic folk-rock duo that went by the name Jim Daly and Dave Koplow.
After finishing college, Koplow returned to the area but faded from the local music scene. After a long hiatus, he took the stage at Chief Ike’s Mambo Room in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, D.C. in February 2012 and sang three songs with a Grateful Dead cover band called the Wharf Rats. A month later, he again sang with the band, this time at the New Deal Café in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Koplow then decided to resume his singing career and in February 2013 he joined a blues rock band from Colesville, Maryland called Intone Nation. He is still with the band today and among their regular stops are the New Deal Café (Greenbelt), Sullivan’s Steak and Beverage Company (Laurel), Oliver’s Old Towne Tavern (Laurel), T-Bonz Grille and Taphouse (Ellicott City), and the American Legion Laurel Post 60 (Laurel).
Tony Denikos
Singer-guitarist Tony Denikos was born in Washington, D.C. and raised in Laurel, where he began singing folk songs in grade school at local fairs and school functions. He took up guitar at the age of 14, was largely self-taught, and championed the music of Ray Charles, Louie Jordan, Roger Miller, the Beatles, the Animals, the Grass Roots, and John Prine, among others. He initially played bass with several local rock and roll bands in the middle 1970s.
Late in the decade, while attending Laurel High School, Denikos was a member of the hard-rocking band Hat Trick, which covered such artists as the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Robin Trower, and performed at area dances, parties, and Laurel night clubs such as the Turf Club and Nuzback’s Bar.
After spending a summer performing as a solo folk-rock singer-guitarist at a night club called Close Quarters in Virginia Beach, Denikos returned to the D.C. area and spent the 1980s and 1990s headlining night clubs throughout the region as a solo artist (often performing as “Tony De”). Mixing original material with covers of such artists as Neil Young, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bruce Springsteen, and John Prine, he appeared at venues from D.C. to Baltimore to Annapolis, and all points in between.
In recent years Tony Denikos and the Working Poor, as the group is now billed, has regularly headlined at such Maryland night clubs as the Music Café (Damascus), the Arts Barn (Gaithersburg), the Blue Side Tavern (Frederick), and the Cat’s Eye Pub (Baltimore). Some of the area’s top musicians have worked in Denikos’ combos, with his regular lineup being rounded out by guitarist Gantt Kushner, bassist Mark Riddle, and drummer Rick Weisenmiller.
Denikos has four country rock albums to his credit: Naked & Smiling, Time Tells Tales, Already Gone, and Under the Church.
Billy Grammer
Billie Wayne “Billy” Grammer was born on August 28, 1925 in Benton, Illinois, strummed his first song on the guitar at age four, and began learning chords from a cousin and playing country music a year later. As the eldest of 13 children, he obtained his musical inclinations from his father, who played fiddle and trumpet.
In 1947 Grammer received a letter from a friend in Virginia who told him of Connie B. Gay’s WARL radio program, “Town and Country Time.” Grammer hitchhiked to Arlington and secured an audition with Gay, who immediately hired him to be a singer-guitarist with a band he was finalizing called the Radio Ranchmen.
In 1948 Grammer took side jobs working with singer-fiddler-guitarist Blackie Skiles at the Dixie Pig Restaurant and Barbecue in Bladensburg, Maryland and was a regular performer at Joe Turner Arena on its various C&W music extravaganzas throughout this period.
Grammer was a featured attraction on “Town and Country Time” and “Town and Country Jamboree” television programs from 1955 to 1958, as well as “The Jimmy Dean Show” and “Don Owens TV Jamboree” later in the decade. In the summer of 1956, he replaced guitarist Roy Clark in Jimmy Dean and the Texas Wildcats.
Grammer’s ascent to national stardom was accelerated through the release of the single “Gotta Travel On.” “Gotta Travel On” first entered the Billboard charts in November 1958 and eventually placed on four different music popularity charts. In less than five months, “Gotta Travel On” had sold more than 900,000 copies and Billy Grammer was on his way to stardom. “Gotta Travel On” proved to be an enduring song indeed, as it was later covered by such artists as Jerry Lee Lewis, June Carter and Bob Dylan, who recorded a version of it for his 1970 double album “Self Portrait.”
Grammer continued to perform live concerts. On May 15, 1972, Billy Grammer and the Travel On Boys performed at the campaign rally in Laurel for then-Alabama governor and Democratic presidential candidate George Wallace. The band was playing Wallace’s exit song, “Under the Double Eagle,” when Wallace was shot and paralyzed from the waist down. Several years after retiring, Billy Grammer died of a brain hemorrhage in 2011 at the age of 85.
Rock the Potomac is available at booklocker.com/books/10190.html.
Mark Opsasnick was born in Washington, D.C. and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Maryland. To date he has authored nine books and innumerable articles on popular culture, rock and roll music, and unexplained phenomena. He resides in Prince George’s County and gives talks and presentations on local music history, in addition to emceeing and hosting live music shows throughout the Delmarva region.
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