Michigan Music History Podcast -- MMHP989 · Scott Baker, Gary Johnson, Fred Reif, Mike Beattie

Michigan Music History Podcast--Bobby Balderrama: Smooth Jazz Charts and Mysterians Doc Part 1 of 2

·1 hr 1 min·4 clips

A drummer stopped mid-song on 'Wipeout' because he got tired playing it live.

The show opens at the Michigan Rock Legends Hall of Fame in Bay City, with Bobby Baldurama back at the table. The hosts greet him as a special guest and set up a second round of conversation after an earlier visit a couple of years back. Bobby is introduced as the original guitarist and founding member of Question Mark and the Mysterians. The room quickly turns to the newer smooth jazz record he has been putting together. Talk also lands on a documentary now in the works, with Daniel Ralston connected to the project and interested in the Michigan story. The hosts frame it as part of a bigger look at Bobby, Q, and the band's history. Bobby answers in a loose, conversational way that fits the room. The conversation stays warm and familiar, with a lot of back-and-forth instead of polished narration. From there, the episode drifts into older memories about bands, service, and how careers got interrupted or redirected. Bobby and the hosts talk about the draft and how it affected a lot of teen bands. The conversation brings up members joining the service and ending up in Germany. One story centers on hearing 96 Tears on the radio overseas and realizing the band was getting played far from home. That memory leads into another local band story involving the New Trance and a single recorded with Art Scheele. The discussion makes clear how common it was for young players in the 1960s to get swept into military service before a band could fully take shape. The episode stays with those memories as part of the music history. It lets the details unfold in fragments, corrections, and shared reactions. The first half ends with the sense that there is still a lot more ground to cover. The closing setup points directly to part two, where the history of Question Mark and the Mysterians will continue.

As heard by us

A loose Michigan music conversation that moves from Question Mark and the Mysterians to a smooth jazz record and wartime memories.

Bobby Baldurama draws on a deep stretch of Michigan music history in a conversation recorded live at the Rock Legends Hall of Fame in Bay City, Michigan.

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Why you'd press play

You want Michigan rock history from a live hall-of-fame conversation with Bobby Balderrama.

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