NEWS   Howie Fritz (g/v): Howie is one of the most amazing blues guitar players I have ever played with...he used to play on campus in Howie and the Rain...by 1994, The Rain consisted of Andrew Scott and Erik Greb and I would fill in...At an annual Springfest-type festival at Drew in 1994, Howie was billed right after The Remnants, so Erik, Andrew and I stayed on stage after our set and jammed with Howie. At one point, Howie popped a string, and his guitar went immediately out of tune. So, he picked up his other guitar, and popped a string on that one, too. Then, he used Erik’s backup and, low and behold, another string popped!!! So, Howie kicked on all of his effects pedals, making his guitar sound very very strange and began to wail away at these big, long, pulled notes that sounded like they were coming out of another galaxy. I almost stopped playing and remembered staring and thinking to myself “this is what it must have been like for Noel Redding to be playing along with Jimi Hendrix!” I think I may have found him on the web here, but I’m not sure….

--Matt Mueller