When it comes to popular music, Marin County

has its share of household names  -- Huey Lewis,

Sammy Hagar, Santana, The Greatful Dead, and

so many more. 

But if you've ever studied the liner notes on a

Huey Lewis album, know your Seventies Dixie

Rock history, or enjoyed the house band at Rancho Nicasio, the name Mike

Duke may ring a bell.  Duke has been a part of the inner-fabric of the Marin

music scene since the early ‘80s, playing piano and singing at New George’s

in San Rafael, the Sweetwater in Mill Valley, and writing hit songs for Huey

Lewis and the News. 

Originally from the South, Duke played with the Seventies Dixie Rock band

Wet Willie before it broke up, and with The Outlaws, a Florida-Southern Rock

band.  One day while recording an Outlaws record in LA during the early early

‘80s, a music executive heard Duke playing his song

Hope You Love Me Like You Say You Do on a piano and

exclaimed, “Hey, that’s a hit!” 

Duke didn’t think much of the compliment but gave the

exec a demo just in case.  Before long, the song made it

into the hands of Marin’s Bob Brown, manager for Huey

Lewis and the News, and the band included it on their

1982 release Picture This.  The single reached #12 on

the pop charts. 

Duke was just getting warmed up.  His follow-up song

Doing It All For My Baby was released in 1986 on the

News’ album Fore!.  That song reached #4 on The

Billboard Hot 100 and the album reached number 1 on

The Billboard 200.  “Huey was about to have a baby at

the time,” explains Duke of the impetus for the song.  “It

wasn’t specifically about that...but it didn’t hurt!”

Originally, just before The News catapulted to fame and fortune, Lewis

encouraged Duke to move out from Texas to Marin so the two could write

songs together.  Duke accepted the offer but when he arrived here, Lewis

and the band were nowhere to be found.  “They had just sky-rocketed,” says

Duke, “So they were almost never home anymore.” 

The only time the two could meet was when the band came back to The

Plant in Sausalito to record new material such as their 1983 hit album

Sports.  “Huey and I wrote some lyrics in the back ping pong room by the

Galaxian machine.”

Adjusting to his new life in Marin, Duke joined the local music scene and

played for fun at The Sweetwater.  He sometimes found himself thrust into

the company of some of music’s finest performers. 

“One time Jeannie Patterson (owner of The Sweetwater at the time) calls me

up and says ‘Help!’” Duke remembers. “’Billy Preston’s coming tonight and I

need your piano.’  She wanted me to be his opening act and let him use my

electric piano.”

Duke was a bit intimidated.  “I thought, ‘Oh God, Billy Preston, ‘The Fifth

Beatle’, Piano Player Extraordinaire! He was Ray Charles’ protégé for

awhile!’”.   Nevertheless, Duke obliged and considers it a career highlight. 

Not only did he open the show for Preston but he sat in with the band and

their special guest, Clarence Clemmons, who had lost his saxophone strap

that night and had fashioned a new one out of a coat hanger.  “He called it

his ‘Ghetto Strap’” chuckles Duke.

Today, Duke is one of the managers at the Rancho Nicasio bar and

restaurant in Nacasio. He runs its general store, plays piano and sings in the

Rancho All-Stars house band.  He’s also the Rancho’s resident music expert

and helps educate the public about the club’s upcoming music acts.

“People will call up say, ‘What is Zie Day Co?’ and I’ll say ‘Zydeco is ...’ and

I’ll describe what the music is.  But it’s getting harder and harder to describe

(the music) because all these styles are blending together,” says Duke.  “We

recently had a rock and roll band that plays bluegrass with a blues twist. 

They were using a banjo but they sounded like Rock ‘n Roll.  The singer had

a pierced nose and pierced ears -- big wooden pieces in his nose and ears --

and I asked these guys, “Is it okay if I tell people you’re sound is ‘Weird Ass

Blue Grass’?  They said ‘Yeah, that sounds funny’.”

Although Duke left Marin for a period to tour around the country with Delbert

McClinton he says he’s lived in Nicasio and Novato for a total of about 15

years.

I asked him if there was anything about Marin he really misses since first

moving here in the early ‘80s.

He says, “It seemed like the music scene was a little bit more open and

there were more places to go.  New George’s is gone.  Sweetwater is

collapsing.  So the venues that you could play music at are collapsing or

gone.  It’s more expensive to run a night club with music.  It’s harder to book

acts because professional acts can’t work for nothing and they’ve got to go

where the gigs pay.  It costs a lot to take a band on the road.   There’s no

longer a club in San Rafael to go see bands play music.  The Mystic

Theater in Petaluma is soaking up the acts that would have come here.  We

can cross our fingers and hope that the Larkspur Theater works and the

Throckmorton Theater works, although they’re not doing music primarily.

And we can hope that other Marin venues will be music-friendly and that

people can go out and see music there.”

To hear Duke’s demo version of Hope You Love Me Like You Say You Do

and the original version of Doing It All For My Baby he gave to Huey Lewis,

turn up your speakers and click the Play buttons on the right side of this

page.  That's Duke himself singing.   And don't forget to check out Duke and

The Rancho All-Stars at Rancho Nicasio.

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