I started playing music in a little apartment in Brooklyn, NY. I sat on the lap of my grandma Jo, in 1973, while she played and sung piano music from the 1920’s and before. At home, my mother’s record collection was full of Broadway musicals. My sister and I did a couple of duets from those musicals for camp talent shows. Mom helped us with the staging.
When I was nine, my grandmother said she was giving us her piano. I started lessons that month. I walked to my lessons through the rough streets of the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the late 70’s and early 80’s. I carried music books in a tattered plastic shopping bag. I got to my lessons early to let my hands warm from the cold. I was eager but lacked discipline. I was nine, after all! My piano teacher knew I wouldn’t go the strict classical route. She introduced me to chords and popular music. She gave me the skills to play accompaniment to any song I wanted to. She introduced me to a world of music theory.
I did musical theater in Middle and High School. I am grateful for the friends I still have from those experiences, but I didn’t have the fearlessness I needed to break out as a performer back then. That would come when I took a summer job in Washington State at a YMCA camp in 1992.
I met my good friend and songwriter Jay Glick. He started me on guitar, and encouraged me to play and write songs. Jay had vision. He sung right from where he lived. He called his songs, “Songs of Truth.” He and I went to my first open mic, and we busked for the first time at Pike’s Market. I bought a tape deck (look it up!) so we could record and overdub tracks together. (I have the tapes somewhere…wonder how they sound…) In any case, I was hooked.
My father encouraged me to get my first guitar, a gorgeously simple Seagull S6 from Manny’s Music Manhattan. My guitar and I travelled back to Washington and then back to the still rough streets of New York City. I played that guitar wherever I could. Later that year, it was smashed through a hydrant by a street person who was not impressed with me or my playing. I must admit that I played a part in the incident. I was a lot more wound up in my youth. It was becoming clear that city life was not helping my growth as a person. A change was in order. I needed to find a path for my life. I moved to Vermont.
I spent my first year in Vermont “getting it together.” I borrowed a classical guitar and began working my skills. There were many opportunities to sing and play with other folks at social gatherings. I even went back home to pick up my busted guitar.
I heard tell of this Turkish engineer/philosopher/banjo and fiddle player/builder and repairer of instruments. He just so happened to live in the same small town I landed in. I went to see Ahmet Baycu up in the north side of Shrewsbury Vermont. “This is what we’re going to do, Chief. We’re going to pull the back off. I have this Mahogany here that will be perfect for the back. It will sound better than when you got it. Not to worry.”
Within a year I got involved in my first group, and informal weekly get together. Mary Barron was in that band too! For a brief moment we were called “The Flowering Broccoli” with Mike and Kathy Luzader. We then became “Monday (or Thursday) night Jam.” playing fiddle tunes. We almost became “The Plumb Bobs” back in 1998, but we went with “Cold River Band.”
I joined Extra Stout — Vermont’s Premiere Irish Band — along with Mary 1997, where I continue to learn a lot from band founder, Pat Max. He taught me that practicing is only part of it. You have to put yourself out there in front of people as often as you can. Don’t wait until you are ready. You will get ready by doing it.
I met Jonathan when he joined Extra Stout some 12 or more years ago. I had already switched to playing my Martin guitar, but as fate would have it, Jonathan brought his Seagull S6.
I have had the fortune of playing with Cold River Band, subbing for The Saltash Serenaders, subbing for The Turkey Mountain Window Smashers, Extra Stout, George’s Back Pocket, The Muddy Rhodes Blues Band, The Shrewsbury Community Blues band, Salt River Revue.
I also enjoy a weekly session at Pierce’s Store on Thursday Mornings. We get together and play whatever songs come to mind. That’s where I really met Aaron Schneider, bassist of the Plumb Bobs. He and I play with the Blues band as well.
I love playing with The Plumb Bobs. It is not just a dream come true. It is a dream that I didn’t even know I had when I was growing up.