Mark Vytas Adomaitis

Steel Wolf: Friendly, Lithuanian, …and Rock & Rollers!

Mark Vytas Adomaitis is the drummer and vocalist for Steel Wolf. To obtain your copy of Boozer Friendly, send your name, address and a check for $7. 99 plus $1.75 for postage & handling, made out to Steel Wolf to: Steel Wolf, 3 Elizabeth Street, Floral Park, N.Y. 11001. Visit Steel Wolf on the web: http://there.is/steelwolf.

Taking their name from Lithuanian folklore and then translating it from “geležinis vilkas”, the rock and roll band Steel Wolf, comprised of Mark Vytas Adomaitis (drums, vocals), Michael Jaillon (guitar, piano), and Ellis Spanos (bass guitar) play concerts on a regular basis. They highlight songs from their entertaining compact disc, Boozer Friendly, which is further filled with Lithuanian trademarks.

From left, guitarist Michael Jaillon, drummer and vocalist Mark Vytas Adomaitis, and on bass guitar Ellis Spanos. Photo: Mark V. Adomaitis

Long-time BRIDGES readers will recall Joe Kaliff describing Steel Wolf as "exuberant", when he reported on them back in June 1983 (Vol. 7, No. 6). The band was a six-man band at that point, but soon split in half. One half became The Brothers Kezys Orchestra, a very popular Northeast Lithuanian wedding band. The other half kept the name and began writing original material.

On February 16, 1986, Steel Wolf began recording a series of well-received demo tapes (one even included a heavy guitar version of the Lithuanian National Anthem!) They performed regularly at Židinys, the Lithuanian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, to enthusiastic responses but went on hiatus in the late eighties to begin careers and families. In 1995, Steel Wolf reformed, began writing, and subsequently recording their latest a sixteen-song compact disc.

The album starts out powerfully. The guitar on the song, “Naktipiečiai” (Evening Snack), sounds like thunder. (Perkūnas (The Thunder God) would be proud!) It also contains humorous lyrics about the band’s favorite nighttime snack: "Too bad donuts don’t go with sauerkraut! His face is glazed and sticky like glue! In the morning, he’ll have pusryčių (breakfast)”.

Other Lithuanian delicacies are sung about in “Night Of 1,000 Koldūnai (meat dumplings) ”. During this song a female voice (Elizabeth Grad) softly croons, “Where did they come from? Who made them first – those delicious koldūnai?” A scary-sounding electronic voice responds with the “myth”: “Mindaugas prayed to pagan gods living in a tree. A wolf of steel told him to kneel and a recipe”. Then, over stunningly beautiful classical piano music, the instructions for making koldūnai are given in an Orson Welles-type voice over: “With water from the Nemunas, beat together eggs and flour…" Steel Wolf's koldūnų recipe challenges my grandmother’s!

The sepia-toned photograph of a young, platinum-haired maiden clothed in a traditional Lithuanian costume serving Karalius Mindaugas champagne with black bread illustrates the cover of their CD. Steel Wolf reveals its boozer-friendly lyrics using a bouncing beat that gets everyone on the dance floor. Interestingly, the penalty for overindulgence is acknowledged on “Rosacea Tripwires”, a soothing folk song complete with mountain dulcimer expertly strummed by Steve Guglielmo. On “(An Occurrence at) Owl Creek Bridge”, which is based on the classic short story by Ambrose Bierce, Steel Wolf let their Lithuanian heritage shine through by utilizing a polka beat during the guitar solo.

All these fine points are what help Boozer Friendly sell in Long Island music shops and get airplay on university radio stations such as Hofstra, C.W. Post. Nassau Community, and Stony Brook. They have also been heard on “Laisvės Žiburys”, the New York-area Lithuanian radio show. My relatives in Lithuania have even fallen in love with Steel Wolf. They greatly appreciate the band’s focus on exposing Americans to Lithuanian traditions.

Currently, Steel Wolf has gotten their white shirts and “juostelės” (their stage outfits) out of the cleaners and have taken their Lithuanian spirit on the road. One stop this summer will be Camp Neringa in Vermont. Here, they will perform their legendary “all ages” show in which the band edits out all adult themes from their lyrics and includes some of the popular dance numbers they performed in their early days. Also, a full-length video documentary about the band’s history is due out this summer.