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Dirty Al Duncan has been playing Rock ’n’ Roll since he was 11
years old.
He asked his parents for a drum set
and they, of course,
came home
with a piano! So he took lessons and joined the school rock
band.
Playing came
naturally to him and the thrill of performing
on stage set the hook. But it was seeing Deep Purple
with
Ritchie Blackmore in
1974 that would forever change his path from keyboardist to
guitarist!
Al cut his teeth in the early 80’s San Francisco punk scene
playing with The Afflicted for about a year and a half.
After that, he returned to Minneapolis where his playing
first started. At First Avenue, a local Minneapolis club,
one of his heroes,
Johnny Thunders of New York Dolls fame,
was playing a gig and this chance encounter resulted
in the
two hitting it off and Al
was asked to join the U.S. tour in
1986 supporting Johnny’s then current album,
“Que Sera
Sera”, playing 2nd guitar.
Dirty Al and Johnny remained friends until Johnny’s death on
April 23, 1991. After the tour, he did a short stint in a
local
Minneapolis band called The Trash Harlots. Around that
time, another notable New York guitarist and punk rock
pioneer,
Sonny Vincent of The Testers, asked
him to come and play with Bobby Stinson of The Replacements
and
Cheetah Chrome
of The Dead Boys. Al actually plays lead
guitar on the Sonny Vincent song “Drinking Of You”.
Dirty Al
has remained close
friends with them all to this day.
Returning to San Francisco, Al had
another project, The Lipstick Killers, which only lasted a
year or so.
In 2001 he met Paul Farragher and they continued
to play in various projects including Helldorado which
eventually
evolved into Freight Train. After the departure
of their first drummer in September 2005, Dirty Al and Paul
pressed on,
searching for a replacement which finally came in May 2009.Thus,
Freight Train was on the track, once again
performing live
throughout the Bay Area and now
releasing
their
long-anticipated full length debut album,
Burnin’ Down
the Station.
Paul Farragher, a native of San Francisco, has been a member
of the local music scene for nearly 25 years.
Hooked early on by the energy of |Rock n’ Roll, Paul
frequented many of the awesome live concerts
the
Bay Area is
renowned for. At the age of 13, Paul’s parents gave him his uncle’s
Montgomery Ward
acoustic guitar and that planted the
seed that would eventually drive him over the line from fan
to player.
Two years later, the passing of his
great-grandmother
gave him another push: She had left him a gift
of $100
which
he spent on an electric
Les Paul copy at the pawn shop.
Paul finished high school, a couple of years later at the age of 19, the decision had been made:
he was going
to be a bass player. But with the
over-abundance of guitarists he decided to set himself
apart.
So with that
in mind he made another trip to that same pawn
shop and there it was: a Fender Jazz copy bass.
When he picked it up
something happened and Paul knew right
then and there.
“This is what I’m supposed to be doing!”
It felt as natural as breathing.
It wasn’t long until Paul formed his first band Jaded Lace.
They played
locally for 3 years at all the local rock clubs
including
the infamous Stone
on Broadway.
Other bands he co-founded were 14 Mission, Sick
Sense and Helldorado.
During pre-production of
Freight Train - Burnin' Down The Station, Paul brought in
the idea of covering the
The Godz classic "Gotta Keep A
Runnin" Not only did Freight Train record the song to
include it on
Burnin' Down The Station but Paul also sings the lead vocal
on it.
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