‘Ram Jam’ is the debut studio album by the New York rock band Ram Jam. The band consisted of Bill Bartlett (guitar), Howie Arthur Blauvelt (bass), Pete Charles (drums) and Myke Scavone (lead vocals). Bartlett was formerly lead guitarist for the psychedelic bubblegum group the Lemon Pipers, best known for their smash sixties hit “The Green Tambourine” while Blauvelt played with Billy Joel in several bands. “Black Betty,” Ram Jam’s overmodulated smash, was written by none other than Huddie Ledbetter, the famous Leadbelly. It is a neat comment on popular music in 1977, that the summer’s most engaging, silly record was written by a deceased, black, blues genius.
