Biography
The ensemble that would initially perform under the name Spades first assembled as a six-piece unit in Winter Haven, Florida, within Polk County, then chiefly identified with Cypress Gardens and its underwater mermaid performances. A few years later the membership had settled into a quartet anchored by guitarist Tom Nay, bassist Jim Carlton, keyboardist Jon LaFrandre, and drummer Halsey LaFrandre. That lineup held together long enough to record the psychedelic single “Count Back” in the closing weeks of 1967. Carlton’s departure the following spring left a trio in which Jon LaFrandre supplied keyboard bass lines after the manner of Ray Manzarek. John Keramidas took over guitar duties from Nay in 1969, and the group disbanded in 1971, still limited to local opening-act appearances in the Tampa region. “Count Back” later appeared on Gear Fab’s Psychedelic States: Florida in the ’60s, Vol. 2.