Today's issue is something that I do quite a lot of lately and enjoy very much. The topic is MUSIC. Specifically aimed at Guitar music/playing.
For me, it started a long time ago now, about when I was 14 years old. I had a job at a local Super Valu grocery store. I was able to work on Saturday's as a bag boy. In those days, grocery stores used paper bags and job as "Customer Service" as they call it now, was to bag up the newly purchased products and take the bags to the customer's car. NO TIPPING! It was my start in the world of self sufficiency. I rode my bicycle to and from (about a mile or so from home) and put in a full day at $1.00 an hour. I was in hog heaven making that much money. I even started a savings account!
To backup a bit, I had bought my first guitar from Sears Roebuck. It wasn't the top of the line by any means, but it was a start. It was an arch top acoustic guitar and came with a case, a pick and a strap. I bought a cord book to so I could learn what it was all about, and started to learn what was what in the guitarist world. The house we lived in was a two story with partial vertical sidewalls then peaked. My sister had the front room, the only bathroom was at the top of the stairs (tub and sink only) and "the boys" room was in the back. Dad built my bed in the side wall and was like a ship's captains bed with storage underneath. My brothers slept on trundle beds. Mom and Dad's room was on the main floor. Dad loved remodeling so it wasn't long before he knocked out some walls, closed in half the porch and did some knotty cedar tongue and groove boards in the living room and it's new extension (from the porch acquisition).
I practiced my guitar in my room and of course I got to keeping time by tapping my foot. I learned pretty fast that sound carries throughout the house! Mom would call up to me "Gary! Take your shoe off and put a pillow under it!" I got a chuckle thinking about that. It got to where I was getting the chord patterns down pretty good, so I saved some more allowance and bought a songbook. It had chord diagrams over the words, so it was pretty easy to understand. Folk music was coming into popularity by then, so I used Peter, Paul, and Mary songs, and what was to become my all-time favorite group, the Kingston Trio. I had a couple friends down the block that I would hang out together some. One day Tom Pederson came over and asked me if I wanted to join their new folk group. After an over-the phone-audition, I was approved. Then Tom asked if I could teach him how to play! ha ha ha I was not really advanced enough to teach him, but said I would. So after a couple lessons, I had taught him absolutely ALL I knew. Within weeks he had bypassed my abilities.The upside was, our group now had two guitar players! We had so much fun. The leader Dan Nelson was our spokesman and lead singer. He couldn't chew gum and walk at the same time, so we let him to the talking. Our fourth member was Alan Benson who lived next door to Tom, wanted to learn to play guitar also, so I let Tom teach him. That was the start of "the Northstar Singers". Throughout our high school days we had a blast. One day at practice I showed the guys my new Kay 5 string banjo! Since we had Tom and now Alan playing guitar, we could use a banjo. After that practice, Tom asked if he could borrow the banjo. I said "sure". The next practice he was playing the (my) banjo like a pro! So I went back to the guitar and let him play banjo. Needless to say, Tom is a gifted, very talented musician. He can play anything with strings attached. The boys all went to the local High School and I went downtown to Minneapolis Vocational Trade School. Dan got us into a few places we were not really ready for, but for the time, he got us into the Minneapolis *Aquatennial Summer festival. It is really a big thing for Minneapolis, with all it's lakes, and parks. We got into the roving entertainment unit and played at Hospitals, Prisons, and even played regularly at the Festival's "Skippers Club", that was set up downtown in the Radisson Hotel in the evenings. It was a great time of growth, and becoming friends with other folk groups, watching what they were doing and how they were doing it! Tom had started watching the other groups banjo players to learn how they were doing as well. I think it was that fall, we entered the State Fair Folk Competition. Again we were excited and having the time of our lives. Turns out, as an added bonus, it was a competition. Can't remember what the prize was, but we were happy and excited to just be a part of the program! We played some outdoor afternoon "gigs" and the night of the competition came. We had two songs to sing. We brought out our best. Started out with "Shanandoa". For you guitar players, I was using a capo on the 2nd fret. Both Tom and Alan were playing guitars as well. It went off very well. We were excited. So much so that I started the next song (Ride Up) it was a galloping, spirited song with Dan the singer of the verse's and the rest of us came in on the chorus. Oh....Tom changed to his Banjo (of which he had an banjo instrumental break in the middle of the song) Tom didn't use a capo....the song didn't require one....for anyone....
Not realizing that my capo was still attached firmly in place and that by starting out the song in a higher key and Tom wouldn't be able to play his rousing and spirited break, I lead out with my guitar intro. Well, right away Tom and Alan figured it out and grabbed their capos and put them on to match where I was. Unfortunately, Dan didn't know anything because he was playing the room with his booming voice not noticing that his back up instrumentalist guys were sweating bricks on the inside, but we all had a smile on our faces. It came to the break where Dan shouts "RIDE!" Tom stayed chording his banjo as banjoist do, Alan and I are doing what we do, and smiling up a storm. Dan tried again, and then again on final time with a question mark attached to his voice, we then continued on with the song to the finish. We were laughing the whole time, and the officials (of the competition) were standing in the back with their clipboards and pencils smiling (a good sign). We got a nice round of applause, and didn't smell any tar or see any bags of feathers being prepared for us, so I figured we weren't THAT bad. As it turned out, we came in the top 20 in the State, so we called it good and continue doing what we were doing. Lesson learned: If you make a mistake when on stage, just keep moving on and keep smiling.
*The Minneapolis Aquatennial is an annual outdoor event held in the U.S. city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, during the third full week of July. Originating in 1940, the Minneapolis Aquatennial celebrates the city's famous lakes, rivers, and streams.
In our senior year, Roosevelt H.S. (where Tom, Alan and Dan attended) was having their Annual Talent Show. At one of our practices, Tom mentioned our group needed a Bass Fiddle. I then talked to one of my shop instructors (and counsellor) about our folk group and mentioned that we were looking for a bass for the Roosevelt talent show. He told me he has one, and would be able to loan it to me if I needed it. What a God thing that was. So the night of the show, I drove across town in my Dad's station wagon, loaded up the Fiddle and took it to the green room where Tom pluncked around on it a little bit hearing what it sounded like and when we were called to the stage, here Tom comes with a Bass Fiddle, never before played anywhere, and played it like he was a master. Folk music sounds so much better with a Bass Fiddle holding down the bottom of the music. Like I said, Tom Pederson is a gifted and master of making music.
It was shortly thereafter that school was out, we graduated! YAY!!! And I had commitments with Uncle Sam and His Navy, so off I went to the Philadelphia Naval Receiving Station and ultimately assigned an Aircraft Carrier USS Shangri-la CVA-38 to be deployed to the Mediterranean Sea. I was assigned to the Print Shop (my specialty) which was very rewarding. I was blessed to see places most folk either read about or see in the movies, like Mt. Vesuvius (easily seen from Naples, Italy) and the Leaning Tower of Pisa to name just a couple. While I was gone, the Northstar Singers finagled their way with one of the local TV stations to host a Sunday afternoon music show spotlighting other local Folk Groups. Those that we had played along side during the Aquatennial events. The show played out it's 13 week run and everyone was happy.....except me.....I wasn't there!
After I returned from the Med. Deployment, I was transferred to Norfolk, VA to Commander-in-Chief US Atlantic Fleet HQ. It is a short distance off of the Norfolk Naval Base in it's own smaller base. That is also where the Navy has it's own, all Navy staffed Printing Plant. I came to it as a Third Class Lithographer Petty Officer. While there I decided to go to night school at Old Dominion College and start working on a college degree. There was a personnel office on base so one day decided to see about the Tuition Aid program. THAT is where I found my future wife. She helped me to navigate the maze of paperwork to get my request submitted. She did a wonderful job, too good of a job, because after several weeks (it seemed like days) I asked her to marry me, and she said yes! Actually, what I said was "If I asked you to marry me, what would you say?" After some thoughtful time she responded this something like this: "If you were to ask me to marry you, I would probably say yes." So now after 49 years, and neither of us have either asked nor answered "the" question. Just before this happened I had another band ramping up for a square dancing gig. That was our last job as a band, as my focus was changed forever (as the vows say) I have never been happier. We made some very nice Navy friends and because I had been advanced to 2nd Class Lithographer, I qualified for Navy Housing.
After my return the guys had moved on to their careers. When we returned to Minneapolis our traveling days were over for a while, as I returned to work with my Dad at the printshop. My brothers, Guy and Greg and a friend of the family Mike, decided to get a group together with Tom (who was still hanging around Minneapolis...even to this day) and a female singer. That was a fun time. We now had a drummer, female voice, a bass guitarist, and three guitarist. I did some of the singing, and we all had fun. Got a few gigs, and enjoyed making music...which at this time was more on the popular side, nothing radical. So that is one more band to "hang my hat" on.
So we will leave at this point and will take up from here in my next "issue".
I hope you enjoyed reading about how music has been a part of my life since I was a young teenager. The music continues everywhere I go.
The Point of this story is: Follow your dreams. It may not be what you make your living at, but it will manifest itself in your lifestyle to enhance the quality of your life.
So Keep on smiling, keep on laughing, and keep on singing.
Blessings,
Gary
No comments:
Post a Comment