‘Strength and power’ - Rick Bacus describes his career in music, recording albums for CBS Records with Morningstar

Rick Bacus, a native of the Kansas City area, played clarinet in school but was inspired to become a rock guitarist after seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan in 1964. He went on to earn his bachelor’s degree in music education and joined the band Morningstar in 1973. Morningstar was signed by CBS Records and released two albums in the late 1970s. Courtesy of Rick Bacus

Morningstar was a band that came out of Kansas City and achieved the sought after achievement of being signed to a professional recording contract in the 1970s. But the music industry of that period, explained the band’s lead guitarist and principal songwriter, Rick Bacus, was defined by changing interests in styles of music and resulted in the band being dropped from their label after their second album.
 
A native of the Kansas City area, Bacus attended Shawnee Mission North High School in Merriam, Kansas. Coming up in a family of amateur musicians, Bacus for many years played the clarinet but after seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show, chose to learn bass guitar.
 
“I continued playing the clarinet in a band in school but was also playing in local rock bands in high school like The Fables and the Amelia Earhart Memorial Flying Band, the latter which had Sly James, the mayor of Kansas City, as our vocalist. This band later became Manchester Trafficway.”
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Bacus added, “After I graduated high school in 1969, I kept playing in local bands but also enrolled at Baker University (Baldwin City, Kansas) to study for a music education degree,” he added.
 
During his first year in college, Bacus continued playing bass guitar for the band Stonewall, with whom he played for the next couple of years.
 
“After I left Stonewall in 1973, Alan Cohen took my place as bassist,” Bacus said. (A few years later, Cohen joined the rock band Missouri and remained with the group through the recording of their two studio albums.)
 
Bacus continued, “I joined Morningstar in late 1973, and the band had been going since 1969. I was lead guitarist and songwriter, and we went full bore into creating music and writing songs.” He added, “But I had to take a break for a few weeks in January 1974 to travel to Vienna, Austria, for a school music study program.”
 
Returning to the band, he finished college in mid-1974, earning his degree in music education. Bacus explained that the band’s keyboard player, Mike Waggoner, had essentially quit Morningstar as a musician but was working as their manager to shop the band to various record labels.
 
With Bacus demonstrating his range of musical ability on guitars and keyboards, and assisting in songwriting, the rest of the band consisted of Jerry Chambers on guitars and vocals, Greg Harris on drums and Greg Leech on bass. In 1976, they added Michael Edmunds to the band as lead vocalist and guitarist.
 
Morningstar was signed to CBS records in 1977 and recorded their debut self-titled album the same year. Bacus recalled that many of the tracks were recorded at Quadrafonic Sound Studios in Nashville while a few others were done at another location.
 
The front cover of the album featured a mace (medieval) weapon and the band’s name, the history of which is explained on the back cover.
 
“Morningstar, while commonly thought of as the elysian name for a bright planet (usually Venus) seen just prior to sunrise, was the deceivingly pleasant name of the medieval instrument sometimes called the mace. Named Morningstar because it looked like a globe with rays streaming from it, it symbolized strength and power.”
 
It continued, “This Morningstar also shall command immediate, total respect. Their music, like their namesake, reflects the power of the day.”
 
Morningstar returned to the studio in 1978, and the following year their second album, “Venus,” was released. The album was recorded at Studio in the Country in Louisiana.
 
“The album cover was stunning because it was done by Richard Corben, the same artist who did the cover for the Meatloaf ‘Bat Out of Hell’ album,” he emphatically added.
 
Musical styles changed radically in the late 1970s and suddenly it appeared as if all focus was on disco and dance music. Morningstar was one of 65 bands that were dropped from the label the very same day.
 
“Steve Hodgden (a member of the popular Chesmann and Chessman Square band) once told my bandmate Jerry Chambers that we were three minutes from disco,” Bacus laughed. “And he was right. Disco and dance music exploded around that time and bands like us, who were very successful just a few years earlier, were being thrown to the side.”
 
The years of playing music in the Kansas City area introduced him to fellow musician Janet Jameson, who played with groups such as Cole Tuckey and The Janet Jameson Band. A talented violinist, she has for many years been performing with Shooting Star.
 
Bacus and Jameson began dating, married and together had a son Eric. When Morningstar came to an end, Bacus spent about six years performing with various configurations of Jameson’s band. For many years, he did a lot of freelance studio and recording work. Additionally, he shared his musical talents for seven years performing in the Eric Clapton tribute band "Journeyman," playing a number of festivals. 
 
“I was also a music director for a church, but the church folded during the COVID pandemic,” he said. “Since then, I began teaching guitar lessons in Shawnee, Kansas, and now have about 28 students.”
 
Bacus and the Morningstar band strived to create arena rock music that would be embraced by large audiences, but when having the privilege of viewing their journey in hindsight, it was simply a matter of timing.
 
He said, “We might have been successful had we hit the scene with our music in the mid-1970s. But the music business is who you know, what they can do for you and how much support they can give you. But it’s all been a good experience and I love that I got to be part of it all.”
 
Stonewall and Morningstar have both been inducted into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame.
 
Jeremy P. Ämick is the author of the soon-to-be released biography of the band Shooting Star.”   

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Morningstar’s second album was released in 1979, at a time when most record companies were focusing their efforts on dance and disco groups. They became one of 65 bands dropped from the label on the same day. Courtesy of Rick Bacus