We have already covered my post Desert Storm music growth with First Henderson United Methodist Church in Henderson, Nevada. Things like that don't just pop up and work. There has to be a beginning (hmmm....name of my blog) somewhere and this will be an account of my journey with music.
Being the oldest son of three boys (7 and 9 years younger) and my older sister Suzanne being two years older than I am, I was kind of on my own to choose what I wanted to do with my "non-school" time. It was in the late 50's — early 60's when I felt the urge to play a guitar. Being on a pretty tight budget, I started saving what I could to get my first guitar. It was from a Sear Roebuck catalog! A Silvertone (if I remember right) Arch top guitar. It had two "f" shape sound holes, looked great and had steel strings. Bought a chord book and started to figure it out. No lessons...just a Mel Bay Chord book and me. My practice space was in my brothers and my upstairs bedroom. It wasn't long before Mom made me take my shoe off and put a pillow under my foot. Seems my tapping to the beat was resonating to the downstairs and creating an unwanted noise! Learning from Mel Bay, I was able to figure out that there were basically three chords to a song. It was a painful time of learning though. Tender finger tips vs tight steel strings = bloody fingers if played too long at a time. Since I felt I needed to learn and was really interested in make something worth listening to, I forged along with bloody fingers, toughening them up pretty quickly, developing callouses and stopping the pain. Some may think that rather strange behavior, but when one is focused on a result, sometimes it hurts a while during the process. I am sure my Mom and the rest of the household understood that concept from the get go . . . only with the sound not necessarily the physical part.
In 1962 I was able to buy a Goya classical style guitar (nylon strings...softer)
from one of our Church Youth Group Councilors
Early 1960's was the beginning of the FOLK era of music. There were also a couple TV programs on at the time that stimulate a lot of interest in Folk. Hootinanny and Shindig come to mind. Shindig was more rock and roll, but still interesting to watch and learn. The big folk groups sprouting up were the GREAT Kingston Trio (my heroes), Peter Paul and Mary (a very close runner up) New Christy Minstrel's, and quite a few others.
We recently moved to South Minneapolis from our home in Circle Pines (never did see a pine tree anywhere close, but that's another story for another time) we lived several blocks from Roosevelt High School, but when it came time to go, I chose Minneapolis Vocational High which was downtown.
While at Vocational, I joined the choir. There were two other "Gary's" there. We started a trio . . . singing folk music. Our name was so unique that it boggled our minds. "The Gary's Three". Real catchy huh? At the time, I had my first real job as a bag boy at a local grocery store. The Produce manager was a professional guitar player as a second profession. The Gary Three had a spot in the choir program one day at a church across the street from the school. My Produce friend volunteered to loan me his Les Paul custom, cherry red, gold plated guitar and a small amp to play at the concert. "It's insured" he said. I was scared I would damage it, but was verrrry, verrrry careful. What a friend. He also taught me some guitar music theory that came in handy in my future.
There were a couple guys living down the block that became great friends....Tom Pederson and Alan Benson. One day Tom came to me and said "We are starting a folk group, we need a guitar player, what do you think?" I said sure. Tom called the leader Dan Nelson and I actually AUDITIONED over the phone (of all things). Dan said "You're in!" From there I taught Tom everything I knew about guitar, and in a couple weeks he was playing better than I was. Turns out Tom is a gifted and natural musician. Whatever stringed instrument he picked up, he was playing well, rapidly. I have always admired his ability to comprehend so quickly. I struggle to this day to play adequately. So we were off and running as a bonafide "Folk Group". We called ourselves "The Northstar Singers". Being from Minnesota, we thought that was a catchy name...it was good enough for the the Professional Hockey Team....the NorthStars.
Dan was a born salesman and went to work after a few weeks to get us some gigs. Minneapolis has its summer festival called the Aquatennial, which being the City of Lakes, was a pretty appropriate name. They had a platform for local talent called the "Skipper's Club". We got booked there during the celebration and met a bunch of other local folk groups and learned a lot from them. We also were a part of a road show that went to the local hospitals and prisons (scary part of the tour). What that did was hone our performance skills and Tom exploded as a guitar player. One day at practice I showed the group my new purchase...a Kay (brand) Banjo! I told them I would start playing that after I signed up for a few lessons. After that practice, Tom asked if he could borrow it for a few days. "Sure, I'm not signed up yet for lessons." Yup...Tom became our banjo player. He had also been teaching Dan how to play guitar so we still had two guitars and now a banjo and Dan's lead voice.We went on to play in a lot of places we really weren't qualified to play in but did anyway. Dan was a promoter that had no hold ups at all! He was good at what he did, that's for sure. He got us into a Statewide Folk Competition at the State Fair and we were really excited! The day came. There were people with clipboards along the back of the tent staring at us up front on stage. Our first song was "Oh Shenandoah" which, the three guitar players, play with a device on our guitars called a "capo". It raises the key that is sung in, for ease of playing. We did a good job, I think on that song, and proceeded to our next song which was a galloping, fast moving song called "Ride Up". It was a gospel type song that had a rousing banjo solo part in it. I started it out on the guitar. I neglected to take the capo off my guitar neck so I was starting the song in the wrong key, effectively eliminating Tom from playing his solo part! As soon as I started and Tom and Al joined in, they knew what I had done and Al quickly put his capo back on. However, Tom did not have one for his banjo, so could only chord, instead of finger pick as he was hoping to do. All this time, Dan is singing his heart out and is oblivious to the predicament. It comes to Tom's solo and Dan introduces his with "RIDE!" Tom grins and continues to chord. Dan, a little concerned again prompts Tom with "RIDE!". By this time Al and I are laughing profusely and were just able to keep the strumming going. The Clip Board People in the back are smiling, thinking we are having a great time and unaware that we really are, but have this "challenge" going on. After about three "RIDE"'s from Dan, we got back into the song and finished. We came somewhere in the top twenty folk groups in the State, so it was a pretty good day!
Roosevelt High was having a Talent Show and we were in the program because that is where the Group (except me) went to. Knowing Tom real well by this time, I told him one of my shop teachers has volunteered to loan us his upright Bass Fiddle, if Tom would like me to pick it up on the way to the program. He said "sure" so I brought it with me in Dad's station wagon, and Tom plunked around a few minutes in the Green Room before going out on the stage and playing like there was no tomorrow, and as he had been playing Bass for years. What a gift! Shortly after graduation, I was off to see the world in the Navy and the Northstar Singers recruited a girl singer. Dan promoted the group to a local TV station and they had a 13 week Sunday afternoon show. Through the places we had been singing, we developed other folk groups as friends and they used them as guests. I was able to see a couple of the shows, and they were pretty darn good!
So that is where we started at. It seems I couldn't stay away from music and playing guitar. After being assigned the USS Shangri-la (CVA-38) and after a Mediterranean Cruise, we went to Philadelphia Naval Ship Yard for a six month overhaul. There is a place called Rittenhouse Square in Southwest Philly and it had a Coffee House that had an open night that allowed a jam session of sorts. I found myself there quite often, learning new songs, and having a great time, even though my hair was the shortest there, they accepted me as a fellow Folk player.
Seems everywhere I went, music was with me. From the Shangri-la, I was transferred to shore duty in Norfolk Virginia. It was the biggest all Navy print shop that the Navy has. It was at a small satellite base that belonged to the Commander-In-Chief US Atlantic Fleet. There were a couple male dormitories but no female berthing facilities available, so the Female Sailors had their barracks down the road a piece at the huge Naval Operations Base, where all the ships are docked. We had our own personnel office and mess hall on our little base. One day I went over to Personnel to see about tuition aid for night school at the local college. That is where I met my wife of now, almost 46 years. During our courtship I was in a country band. Not doing too much as it was hard to find a place to practice. When Pat and I decided to get married, that solved that problem! We had an apartment! That worked well for a couple weeks. Being newly married, I learned my focus needed to be shifted to other areas than band music! After one last gig, I retired from music for a bit.
The point, so far, to this story is this: When you find something you like to do and it seems to give you peace, go for it. It may be painful at the first, but tough it out and move forward. Learn your love. Enjoy your passion. Do what you can to focus on the details to make you an artisan at it. God gives each one of us gifts to use to His benefit. It is our responsibility to find what that is. Once you find it, learn it, produce it, then your passion will be fulfilled.
More music tomorrow.
Blessings,
Gary
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