A History of
CHRIS DUARTE GROUP FAN CLUB
TEE-SHIRTS
by Craig Keyzer
This is a brief visual history
of the various tee-shirts that were designed by or sold through the Chris
Duarte Group Fan Club. Starting back in 1992 a variety of shirts have been
produced, the goal being to distribute many designs so that a CDG show might
be like a Grateful Dead concert with a kaleidoscope of tee-shirt designs
worn by fans. 1,085 shirts were sold through the fan club and another 800
were distributed outside of the fan club. So if you see someone wearing
one of these shirts, introduce yourself and compliment the wearer on his
incredible taste (in music that is!). The following shirts were sold through
the fan club, but numerous other designs (not shown here) have been sold
on the road by the Chris Duarte Group or were designed by others for specific
events.
This was the first Chris Duarte
Group shirt and was designed in August of 1992. Chris Duarte's mom, Kay,
had these printed up. 500 were made. I designed this shirt two years before
the fan club came into existence..
This shirt was specifically printed up for a
Christmas show at the Continental Club in Austin, Texas, on 12/24/94. 300
were made and given free to those in attendance. It was printed with flourescent
ink that glowed under a black light.
These two shirts were leftover stock that a
promoter sent to me to sell through the fan club. These were officially
the first tee-shirts available for sale through the fan club newsletter
and appeared in the 4th newsletter on 5/23/95. The one at left features
Chris erupting out of the ground with a full moon, a rainbow, lightning
bolts and a storm (we all know that the Chris Duarte Group often creates
their own weather patterns when they play). The one at right was from a
multi-city Texas tour that Chris Duarte and Ted Nugent did together in 1994.
The fan club sold 150 of the shirt at left and 35 of the Chris/Ted shirts.
The famous "Star logo" shirts were
printed up by Joe Priesnitz, the Chris Duarte Group manager at the time.
50 were sent to me to sell through the fan club (10 white and 40 black shirts).
These appeared for the first time in the 6th fan club newsletter on 9/6/95.
This shirt first appeared in the 8th newsletter
from 2/27/96. 120 were made and also featured small photos of bassist John
Jordan and Frosty, the CDG drummer at the time.
This was the first two-sided shirt. The back
had a purple and orange image of Chris and the front had a small star logo
right over your heart! 112 of these were made on grey shirts and appeared
in the 12th newsletter from 3/12/97.
By popular demand the "Star logo"
shirt was brought back in 1997. It had a single large two-color Silvertone
logo appearing on the front of a charcoal-grey shirt. The two colors blended
into each other with the type printing in white. Several color combos were
printed up (see above) for a total of 287 shirts sold. These first appeared
in the 13th newsletter from 4/18/97.
The back of this shirt features Chris Duarte's
1963 Fender Strat against a rendition of the large tattoo that covers Chris's
back (including the Freightliner truck logo which he has on his right shoulder).
This was also a 2-sided shirt and the front had a small white Star logo
that was placed over your heart. This shirt appeared in the 21st newsletter
back in 6/28/99. 275 of these were sold through the fan club.
The "Poppin' with the Groove" shirt
was another 2-sided shirt and was done on white tee-shirts and white baseball
jerseys with burgundy sleeves. The front featured a close-up shot of Chris's
hands and the back featured Chris, John Jordan, and drummer Jason Patterson.
156 of these were made and appeared in the 24th newsletter from 6/15/00.
This was the last tee-shirt that the fan club printed up.
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