Disclaimer: This is a perfectly biased, one-sided view of how it all went down. For a more objective viewpoint, please consult your nearest Dark Horse relative (because if you’re reading this page, there’s a good chance that you’re either in this band or you are closely related to someone who has been).
Dave Carver, Judy Quist, and Brad Vause began performing together starting in the fall of 1985. They were part of a dance band called Mint Condition. For five years, the band consistently delivered a popular cover set that was well received everywhere they performed. Then, during the first half of 1990, some interesting developments began to take shape.
Dave, who doubled as the band’s manager, began spending more and more time working off shore developing his own business. The band’s momentum and enthusiasm slowed to a trickle. During some of the down time Brad began to infuse some original material into the practice set. By late summer he was feeling like he needed to withdraw his material and either retire it completely or at minimum, find a home for it somewhere else. He pulled his songs out of the set. At the next band practice, his deed did not go completely unnoticed, but nothing was said in front of the entire group. However, the next day Judy called to ask him what had happened to the songs. When Brad explained that he sensed that there was little enthusiasm for his material, he was told in no uncertain terms that he was wrong. She said that the songs were worthy of an audience and that if the rest of the band wasn’t interested in developing and publishing them, she would be willing to try to help find people who were excited to make the effort.
By September, they had found two musicians who were willing to conduct an experiment. A date was set to come together to jam for a while on a new song Brad had written entitled, “The Love of Gold”. Guitarist Brent Whetton and drummer Bill Davis had never seen each other before. But they played together impressively and energetically, as if to say that they were interested in far more than a one-time experiment. Before long, an original set began to take shape and subsequently, a band was formed, jobs were booked, and plans were made to do some recording at a studio.
The group played under two different names before settling on a third, which came directly from the dictionary:
dark horse – a little known contestant that makes a surprisingly good showing.
When Dave returned to full time work back in the continental U.S., he found that his local music landscape had changed considerably. The dance band still existed, but with barely a pulse. The original music experiment, on the other hand, had just released an album and was indeed making a surprisingly good showing. Before long, Brad and Judy approached Dave about joining the new group and becoming the manager. He took a good long time to really think it through. Ultimately, he accepted the invitation.
When Dave saw that some of the content came packaged under titles such as “Lucinda’s Ultra-Modern Fashions”, “Indelibly Unclear”, and “Choose to Lose”, he felt like the new music perhaps needed a new genre. He called it i-ROK, which was short for intellectual rock and roll. Appending “(The i
The Love of Gold (1991)
(No cover photo available. Trust me, it was good.)
Life On Earth (1995) The Winner's Circle (1997)
Soar (1999)
Sly & Witty (2000)
Not a Word (2001)
(cover photo is available, but it was not so good.)
Then, late in 2004 or early in 2005, Dark Horse (The i-ROK Band) finally ran out of gas. They decided that the only way that they could keep the band going would be to slow down, back off on the marketing, and just try to play music and enjoy themselves. The key would be to get audiences to also relax and enjoy themselves. It would require going back to the popular cover set.
Bill Davis took this opportunity to move on to new horizons. The percussion section would be
“Do you think that there is any way that this guy would consider throwing in with us?”
Within a few days Dave made the inquiry and Reese came on board.
Not long after the band had increased again to five members, it reduced back to four as Brent Whetton was gradually pulled away by ever increasing family responsibilities.
As the cover music began to replace the original, Brad thought it appropriate that the name of Dark Horse be retired with its music. He thought the name going forward should be “Judy and the Fossils”. Dave favored the name “Three Man Beasts and a Girl”. To Judy, there was nothing to talk about. The i-ROK subtitle would be dropped and the band would continue to be called Dark Horse. I guess you know who won that argument.
The Dark Horse of today continues to feature Dave on guitar, Brad on keyboard, Judy on vocals, and Reese on drums. They are still playing a popular set of best-loved classic rock and country cross over cover songs and they are loving every second of it. Nostalgia lives on and at least for now, there's no end in sight.
