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Current and key archival music from Northeast Ohio
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It's arrived:
The Great Lost Backdoor Men Album
"STRAIGHT OUTTA FAIRVIEW"

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Handsome Productions, in conjunction with Cleveland recording label Banana Records, is pleased to announce the release of a very special album by Cleveland's Backdoor Men. The record is now available
on CD, and will soon be available on vinyl. Visit the Handsome Store if you'd like to purchase a copy.CD Price is $12, including shipping; check back for vinyl, which should arrive May 1st.
Here's the liner notes:

Circa 1985, the original music scene in Cleveland was changing. The Dead Boys were disbanded, save for the occasional reunion gig, Pere Ubu had gone international, and the innovative original music that had ignited in the mid 70s was on the wane.  

Cleveland’s Backdoor Men were in their twilight too. But Terry Hartman and Dan Cook, the two songwriters who were the band’s raison d'etre, weren’t quite finished. Their partnership had been briefly on hiatus while Hartman left for a year to form his excellent power pop outfit The Tornadoes. When that band collapsed, he returned to his writing partner and lifelong friend to pick up the BDM torch with the band’s classic line-up. Together they wrote a final set of new material, with an eye toward releasing a full length album before calling it a day.

The band enlisted Mike Docy, an old Fairview friend of Hartman and Cook and a great audio technician, to set up his tape rig in the garage at the drummer’s home in Fairview Park - the leafy suburb where Hartman and Cook grew up together. Face to face in the small basement, the boys recorded the songs they hoped would be their last shot on a ticket to bigger things.

The results were less than pleasing. The band had never been particularly strong instrumentally despite the excellent material that Hartman and Cook had generated, and when they listened, they knew… It wasn’t going to cut it. Half-hearted attempts were made to shop it around to a number of the labels that had sprung up in punk’s heyday, but while there were flickers of interest, ultimately there were no takers. “Straight Outta  Fairview,” as it was to be called, was shelved.

 But the songs proved timeless and now, after a 2025 project to re-record it, you’ve got the record in your hands. Stem separation technology preserved most of the original vocals of Terry Hartman, who passed away in 2021. All other instrumentation and vocals were re-recorded, with the original lineup and the assistance of some additional stellar CLE and Portland talent (Cook’s home for two decades). 

So here it is! Enjoy the psychedelic pop of Cleveland’s Backdoor Men, and two of the city’s best songwriters, Terry Hartman and Dan Cook.

This record is dedicated to Laura Hartman.

Cleveland, Ohio
Spring 2026

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More Recent Handsome Titles...

With Friends Like These Paul Nickels	One Hand Clapping Paul Nickels
Jump & Shout Terry Hartman and the Tornadoes	Dora Lives Leroy Fail
Live at the Red Horse Hollow Terry Hartman and the Backdoor Men	Notes on a Cocktail Napkin Terry Hartman and Peter Laughner

The Roster of Handsome Artists & Friends

Jinni Fontana

Owen Mason

Alex Hanhauser

Paul Nickels

Butterfield 8 

The Backdoor Men

Terry Hartman

Peter Laughner

Dave Borucki & and the Old Brown Shoe Revue


Mark Bluhm

The Clifton Beat

Inner Ring Conspiracy

John Castrigano


Leroy Fail

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And here's something completely different:

Covered Bridge Kodachrome Collection by Traugott F. Keller

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