Get a cup of tea before you start reading .... it's Looooong ......


I have loved every phase of my ever expanding musical career ... including this latest chapter - teaching. As I look back on the bands, large and small - they all had their ups and downs, but the common denominator has always been the music, and the audience. I've never been as happy as when I'm on stage. The studio is cool, but I need the reaction from the people to fully appreciate the process.

Here's a brief timeline of how the music shaped my life, fed my family, and kept my accountant busy:
1955: born ... screaming at 2am. A night owl from the start
1959: singing my baby sister to sleep with a rousing rendition of "over the seas, let's go men" ... woke her up more than soothed her to sleep
1961: got a guitar for Christmas. A cheap, plastic Sears toy that I sat on and busted that same day. My hero (Dad) took it back to Sears and got it replaced. He failed to mention how his little fata$$ son was at fault, and not the manufacturer.
1964: February 9th, Sunday night with a million others in the USA watching Ed Sullivan .... saw the Beatles. Thought to myself .... "I could DO that!"
1965-69: formed small garage bands with schoolmates. I played 12 string acoustic, Mike Revak played lead guitar, George Shay on Bass and Mike Harkins on drums. We played our first paid gig as eighth graders at a college graduation party. We knew 7 songs, so we repeated them 2 or 3 times. $5 each, all we could eat and got to look (oogle) at the college girls. Life was good, and I was a professional, paid musician.

1969: Started High School: played Freshman football with buddies ... didn't realize the band was cooler than the jocks just yet. After weeks and weeks of hearing "Boyd - give me 20!" "Boyd, hit the dirt!" "Boyd, start runnin’!" ... I finally figured out that sports was not my love ... especially since on the other practice field, the marching band would practice and there were about a hundred girls in the band-front with batons and rifles .... oh, baby. I went to join the band - the director asked what do I play. I responded "Guitar" ... he said "We don't have a cord long enough to reach the football field .. play drums"... so I did. Well, the drummers were just a tad "too cool" for school ... smoking, drinking, didn't have to pick up their feet as high as the other players .... just a separate society within the band. So, I go back to Mr C, the director, and asked for something else. He handed me a small briefcase ... a clarinet. I took one look at it and said "This is a sissy instrument!" ... he looked back at me, and with ZERO emotion in his voice told me "This is MY instrument, son". (removed foot from mouth) I took it home and showed my Dad. He took out a few Pete Fountain records (remember RECORDS?) and said "listen to these" … I did, and fell in love with the sound. I began my quest to be the best clarinetist I could be. Over the next 3 years at HS, I reached 1st chair clarinet, played the solo from "Rhapsody in Blue" at Graduation, earned a scholarship to Temple as a music major, and still found time to act in plays, gig on the weekends (piano, bass, guitar and drums), and fall in love with my high school sweetheart (not a redhead) Marie, who is the mother of my son, Christopher, and someone I deeply admire and respect to this day. Our kids are friends, our lives still connect at family functions and I consider Mark (my husband-in-law) to be a Godsend to our family.

So .... here I am entering Temple U as a clarinetist during the Disco years. Hmmmm ... what to DO with this instrument? If I am so bold to believe that I'm good enough, my options are:
1)local Philly/NY theater: ... naw - I could never play the SAME THING day after day for years on end. I'd go nuts.
2)Philadelphia Orchestra ... those guys pretty much have a job till they die ... tough breaking into THAT club.
3)teaching school ... NO WAY - all day long with a bunch of high school kids? I just LEFT that world. (sign of things to come, perhaps?)
4)form a top 40 band and play the circuit locally, marry Marie, make babies and music.

1975: I chose #4. After 2 years of college - I decided that full time music was more in the cards, so I left school, got married and kicked my career into high gear.
Bass players who sang were not as common in our area, so I never had a problem finding a working band. We played the hits, stayed local and went home to our families every night. It was a living, and it provided 6-7 night of work each week for almost a decade. By 1978, the night shift, and the youth factor hit Marie and I pretty hard, and she was tired of going to sleep alone every night, and that led to our decision to separate. She went home to Mom, and I stayed in the house. Dad had lent us the money for the down payment, so it seemed fair.
From 1975 till 1985, there were duos, trios, 14 pc swing bands, 10 pc funk/dance bands, and the occasional solo piano bar thing. Work was plentiful, I was single and the business was good to me. (at least, I thought it was)
Mid 80s: DJs and drunk driving laws put a dent in the live scene, so the bands kept shrinking .... I figured, the last guy standing will be the keyboardist, so I concentrated on that for a while. Karaoke put the final nail in the coffin of many bands in the area, but the solo (power single, we were called) had no problem working the same rooms. I played rooms that 5 pc bands used to play, and got almost the same money. In some cases ... even more, because I had a great local following.
Late 80s: Still hanging on to a few band scenarios, mostly me and a guitarist, or a sax ... drums were all electronic now. My go to rig was a Rhodes, a Moog bass, Clavinet, String machine and whatever "synth du jour" was making the scene. Big, bulky setups, with long setup times, and took loads of stage real-estate. Still, the work was there, and money kept coming.
1989: Full time soloist now ... the Rhodes and Clav are retired to home studio, and I'm using all arrangers now ... singing through the built in speakers in most. I had one of the earliest harmonizers, and became known for the vocal sound that I put out. I also started doing little dinner theater" shows ... Phantom of the Opera, Lez Miz, Oklahoma, South Pacific ... just 7-8 minute medleys (in costume) at a featured time each night. This became another "calling card" for me. It was something no one in the area was doing, so the crowds continued to come out.
The 80s saw a second marriage (1984-2002), three daughters, loads of gear, but somehow ... I managed to find 4-5 nights each week to play and sing for my supper. There was also the advent of the Nursing Home jobs ... these were brand new back then, and a great source of income for the full timer who was off during the day. 1 hour job - 4 hour pay. Sweet. Add to that about 15-25 weddings, parties and corporate affairs each year, various studio sessions (making demos for friends) and you have a career.
2005: I turned 50 (gulp) ... I'm single (again), work is plentiful, but getting stale ... harder to find more than one night in a row in the clubs, and the every night setup/teardown is gettin’ old. One winter day, I get a random phone call from a singer I worked with in the 80s ... she says "come down to Florida for a few days and we can catch up" .... (big mistake)
3 days in the sun, too many gallons of wine to count, 2 nights in the hot tub and I was brainwashed into thinking I actually KNEW this woman, and wanted to be with her. (I shoulda bought a SPORTS CAR!) The attention was too much for this tired, chubby, lonely old man to handle, and since I still had young(ish) kids ... I didn't want them to see Daddy shacking up with the woman, now known as "The Miami hurricane" ... so (another gulp) I married her. (I know, I know ... shush)
From that first phone call till the day I came home to an empty house after work one night was SEVEN MONTHS. What a whirlwind lesson in stupidity. There may even be a mark still on my forehead, where the "stupid stick" hit me. My fault for not finding a redhead, I guess. There was ONE redhead in this story, but that's a whole different book for another time.

2005 was like a Lifetime Movie - horrible marriage to the Wicked Witch of the South, I was carjacked, shot at, and almost broke from the left over bills from the "Miami hurricane" ... she left quite an impact on my wallet, but thankfully, my heart is unscathed. Just that silly "S" on my forehead is all that's left. I hope my furniture is happy in Miami, cuz I'll never go down there again! (shiver!)
But, I digress ... the best part is about to happen! I read an ad in a music newsletter for a teacher in my area. "Non traditional school seeks full time, well rounded music teacher for multi-instrumental and vocal classes. DEGREE NOT REQUIRED. WOAH ..... did that have MY NAME on it? Am I ready to finally, set up house in one building and share the many years and stories of the biz with young musicians? I took the plunge and that's where I am today. It's my 8th year as a teacher, and I still find time to play all summer at my favorite places, I have a few monthly jobs during the school year in local eateries, and the band work, private parties and dances come in with surprising regularity. Don’t forget that we produce 2 plays and 3 concerts with school each year too – GREAT FUN!

So, it's 44 years since that $5 graduation party I played on guitar, and after Friday night's job with the Topics ... I feel like I'm just learning the darn instrument! Sigh ... we're never too old to learn, and the thrill of the achievement is SO worth the effort. Sorry I rambled on so long, but I'm avoiding taking the Christmas tree down ... so may snowmen … so little time …
Oh, GOODY! It's lunchtime ... it can wait another 30 minutes or so.
Thanx for listening!