FCF of FUNK

Billie D. Senger III was born in Baltimore, Md. in 1957. Billie started playing Guitar as a way of putting his energy and talent to good use. 
He started playing in various Funk, R&B, Rock and even Country Bands to make a dollar and share the stage and release his inter self.
In 1979 he decided that he wanted to front his own band and be in control of every detail that he could. That Band was "LEAF" and that is when he helped his brother “Joe Senger” buy his first Ludwig Drum Set, and made him join the band... 

In the 1980's they started 4 track recording in their house in Northeast Baltimore. (3013 Belair Rd) The house was a party spot for all in the neighborhood, and it became a concert hall for most with different musicians dropping by from time to time to jam, share a story, and party. 
The neighborhood was becoming diverse and so was the music we played.

In late 1982 they released their first 45RPM Record ( Food Stamps / How Do I know ) 

This record was exactly what they were, Side one - FUNK, Side two - ROCK.
They released another Record in 1983 that was a 45 size 33 RPM EP which included 2 Christmas songs. This was the first recording with someone other than  (Joe Senger) and Billie Senger. It was a Bass player named Pete Moulden.

They continued to play and record a full Album "TOO MANY JUNKIES" into the 90's, but they never released it. It was kind a like the Boston thing, they kept recording great music with fellow Bass Player Byron Bowen, but they just never have the funding, or seem to complete the Album because of too much partying, drama, and just living different lives.

Billie continued to live in the house in the late 90's, and they jammed on and off and Joe started working on different projects that included his guitar work. (Stranded Max, The Distractions)
Billie continued to work downtown at a Record Shop called Music Liberated. This was the heart of downtown and the beginning of the Hip Hop age. "he would never get to know that one day, Hip Hop would embrace him"
He would eventually move to an apartment right around the corner from the record shop and we continued to jam on and off.

Billie wasn't always a drinker in his younger days, but became one over time and they use to drink a lot of beer back when they rehearsed and recorded. But later in life Billie began to drink rum very heavily and the rum was beginning to take control of him.
Billie had a triple by-pass, and was told to stop drinking and smoking but never listened to the doctors or took his meds. 
He began to have delusions of grandeur from drinking too much and would call Joe all hours of the night with crazy stories. He would tell him to come get all of his guitars, or his equipment because someone was coming to take it. Over and over he thought many people were coming to take what he had. But to Joe, he was just paranoid. As much as Joe loved his brother, it was hard to get him help, and he talked to him over and over again about getting the help he needed. But he would not listen.

Joe took a job in Florida, and moved his family there. He would keep in touch with him, but there were times when they would not speak for a few months, but they would always get back in touch and talk. At one point after a few months of not talking, Joe tried to call Billie. Joe could not get in touch with him and Billie's cell was not working.
Joe was very nervous about what was going on and decided to fly up to Baltimore to visit family and to see him and get back in touch.

When Joe arrived at his building downtown, He had a very strange feeling that something was just not right. He looked up at his forth floor apartment and noticed there were no window coverings, and he knew that was strange because of his recent paranoid behavior. Joe walked into a shop that was next store to his brothers apartment and asked if they had seen him.
That's when he learned that his brother had died several months before. He was found in his apartment after the first responders broke in, and he must have been there for weeks.  

The Landlord who knew Joe did not even try to contact him and tell him of the news, he told the police he did not have any family he knew of. Instead he had a plan and sold all of his brothers belongings. 
Guitars, Music Equipment, Drums, Records/CDs, he had a very large Model Train Collection, and so on and so on. He also threw what he could not sell in the dumpster. This guy was no good. 

Joe and Billie's sister tried to take the Landlord to court, but without all the information to prove what items he had, they had no chance of winning the case so they had to give up.

But the hook in this whole story is that the Landlord sold all of their brothers records to a shop (True Vine Record Shop) in Baltimore which contained several copies of our LEAF 45 Record.
This record began to sell on the internet for as much as $250 per copy and they had no Idea.
Joe received an email one day from this guy (Ian Nagoski) from the record shop and he told me that Joe Vaccarino that was writing a book in Baltimore called Baltimore Sounds told him to contact Joe. He also told Joe that he had a Master Tape from one of the recordings and that Joe could come get it if he wanted it. Joe did go visit to reclaim the tape. 

The owner of the record shop later called me to tell Joe that a company in London Called BBE Records had released the song "Food Stamps" on a compilation Titled "Strange Breaks and Mr Thing" and they were looking for the owner of the rights for which Joe had the sole ownership after his brothers death. Joe contacted BBE and settled the contract with them.
He (Ian Nagoski) later wrote a story about what happened (Link) 
“LEAF: The Twisty Story of a Baltimore Record”

The 45 was also re-released by Fraternity in New York and you can find it online in Green Vinyl.  
“Sitting somewhere between psych rock and freak funk, this reissue of a rarer-than-rare single from the unknown Baltimore band Leaf will please aficionados of both camps. Recorded in the early '80s but unknown until recently, the privately pressed single was only discovered after the death of the bandleader Billie Senger, who played all the instruments except for the drums (handled by his brother Joe Senger). About those drums: A massive break on each song ensures that funky DJs will be doubling up on this for years to come. 

Joe later placed a craigslist ad after his brothers death to find out if anyone had bought his stuff that may contain our original music recordings, and surprisingly he received call from a guy which Joe cannot remember his name but said that he had something that I would want, which was all the Tapes from our original recordings. He had bought a lot of the equipment and did not want to part with it, but he wanted Joe  to have the original recordings..... WOW, so Joe flew to Baltimore and met him in a bar in Towson to recover our tapes which are not in great shape, but someday he thought he would release them.

That time has come….. for LEAF - Too Many Junkies (A Rock & Funk Time Capsule) to be release.

In October of 2023, Joe sent the 8 Track Reel to Reel tapes Keith Leedham at the Tape Farm located just outside of Nashville,Tn, 

The Tape Farm specializes in digital transfers of “Pro-sumer” analog, ADAT and other tape formats. Keith had to “Bake” the tapes to restore them, a process called Tape Baking - Over time some older tapes may develop Sticky-Shed Syndrome. In the late 1970’s tape manufactures changed the formulation of a binder that held the magnetic recording surface to the mylar backing of tape. Over time moisture can cause this binder to become sticky and cause the magnetic recording surface to shed off of the mylar backing when used. A process known as “Tape Baking” can make affected tape temporarily usable for up to a week, giving us time to do the transfer.

Oddly enough, the tape transfers were completed on Halloween 2023, which would have been Billie's 66th birthday.

Joe is teaming up with Rick Grice of “Endangered Wise Men” Studio in Jacksonville, Florida for mixing and mastering.  

They are currently working in the studio mixing and mastering the album. There are a couple unfinished tracks that Joe is going to finish. One particular track was just Guitar and Drum tracks that Billie and Joe recorded,  Joe does not remember any lyrics from this song and believes it was just an idea that Billie was putting down to eventually pen some lyrics and finish. However Joe has recently penned some lyrics himself for this song and will finish for the Album, the song will be titled “Trouble” Joe said, the lyrics just came to me quickly, it's really about our relationship and our surroundings, we were always finding “Trouble” but we jammed… “there is something about brothers in music and the connection they can have. But it's not always blood, but there is a strong bond between blood brothers.” he stated. 

Joe is excited about the album and even put his own project aside to make this happen, “it was just time” he said. I wanted people to hear what my brother created, what we created along with Byron Bowen on Bass Guitar. There will be some strong tunes on this record. It may be from 30 plus years ago but it stands the test of time!

Still the amazing thing to all of this was getting the tapes back in 2006, from a random people who could have said, I'm not contacting this guy, the hell with him, but he didn't.  Joe wishes he had his name to dedicate this album to him as well. 

These songs are really polarizing and focused on social issues, race relations, but also fun kick ass rock songs that are tongue and cheek.  

Release date and presale dates to come…. support original music, you will be glad you did.