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Dynamite


Cleveland, 1973-5

Dave Smalley and Jim Bonfanti formed Dynamite shortly after they left the Raspberries. They added Dennis Stredney (late of Freeport) on guitar and hit the Cleveland club circuit. 

After playing as a three piece for a few months, the band added Dennis' Freeport bandmate, Kevin Raleigh, and recorded some demos of original songs written by Raleigh and Bonfanti. Eye-and-earwitness reports have the band sounding somewhere between the Raspberries and early Michael Stanley Band. The band was pretty popular in the Cleveland area and even got a mention in the national mag 'Rock Scene'.

In 1975, the band reorganized as Windfall. Raleigh later joined the Michael Stanley Band.

This Dynamite was the second band by that name from Cleveland within two years. There is nothing in common between the bands except the name. When the second Dynamite was formed, they asked the original Dynamite band to use the name (although they had disbanded). The Scene paper mentioned at the time they formed that one member of Dynamite Two was disparaging the reputation of Dynamite One - he recanted in a later issue of the Scene!