August 15, 2025 • 56 mins
A native of McMurray, Pennsylvania, Gary Prisby began teaching himself guitar at age seven and sang publicly for the first time at 16. With over 50 years of musical experience and nearly 40 as a pro, he’s performed in bands like Reckless Abandon, Bush & Gary, Smokin’ Section, and more, featuring at festivals such as the Pittsburgh Blues Festival and on Pittsburgh radio. Today, he performs mostly solo acoustic shows—mixing blues, classic rock, alternative, and original songs—and since 2018 has made music his full-time career, while also volunteering through the Music Smiles program.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
All right, let's start righty, I knows it.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
This is an ovidio.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Oh and you are, Oh, bless your heart. This is
the Coda Podcast, chronically Pittsburgh's music scene, and welcome in.
I'm Johnny heart Well your host along with Andy Pugar.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Today we're going to talk acoustic rocking blues with Carrie Prisbee. Gary.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
How the heck are you?
Speaker 5 (00:31):
Bud?
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Morning?
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Johnny? How you doing?
Speaker 4 (00:33):
I'm well?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
You doing all right? I'm okay. How's the family?
Speaker 4 (00:36):
All right?
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Everyone's day? This is going to be thirty minutes of
me asking you, Hey, how you doing?
Speaker 6 (00:40):
How you doing?
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Are you doing? Okay?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
So Gary, we're talking.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
When I was looking up your website and you had
your playlist like things that you you play, and it
went from everything from Ace to zz Top. There's like hundreds,
So I was wondering if I could play name that
and you could you play it? Absolutely not. I've forgotten
(01:07):
a lot of this. There are so many that you
need to go back and refresh, like, oh, okay, you
know I've played these artists over the years, so I
add them to the list. Okay, Well, I mean there
was a lot. I was like, man, there's a lot
of music there, so people let my gigs stump the
band a lot, do you Yeah? All right, all right,
(01:28):
So usually what we do is we kind of start
at the beginning, kind of like, what was the first
musical memory from you, Gary, When's when did you really
realize that music was part of your life?
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Nineteen sixty nine?
Speaker 7 (01:43):
Wow, I was seven years old, Okay, and you might
have seen on my bio on my website. I come
from a large family. I was the youngest of nine,
and so I had teenagers for older sibils who were
very into music. And Crosby Stills Nash's first album came out.
(02:07):
I was hooked me too, absolutely two?
Speaker 4 (02:10):
All right? So why what what was it about Crosby
Stills Nash Was it Young or just just Crosby's.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Time, just the three of them?
Speaker 4 (02:16):
Yep?
Speaker 1 (02:17):
And then I got a bonus a year later, the
four of.
Speaker 7 (02:19):
Them, Crosby Still Snash Young put out an album after that,
so that.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
Was that was a bigger deal. So was that your
record or was that one of your one of my siblings? Yeah,
so what are you can't just say I'm one of
nine and then not bring up like, what is it
like to be one of nine A zoo A zoo.
What's the age difference between fourteen years? Wow?
Speaker 7 (02:45):
Okay the oldest and I our birthdays are four days apart. Well, yeah,
fourteen years and four days apart.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
But you know, I mean, when you have nine kids,
odds are you're celebrating a birthday virtually every month? Right? Yeah? Wow? Okay? Uh?
So were any of them musical?
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yes?
Speaker 7 (03:06):
Yes, which we got that from mom. Artist singer, uh,
very great, great artist. And she didn't do much work that.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (03:21):
She We had one pastel that she had done that
hung in the house forever, but that was the only
piece of work that I'd ever seen of hers. But
it was gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. Is it still do you
still have it? Someone has it? One of one of
the kids has it?
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (03:38):
All right? So was she also musical?
Speaker 1 (03:40):
And she she sang around the house constantly?
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
And what was her name? Adeline?
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Adeline? Oh, that's a beautiful name. Yeah. And what kind
of music did she gravitate towards? Anything? She sang the
older tunes, obviously, And one of the tunes that I
will play at my gig sometimes is an old.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Blues tune.
Speaker 7 (04:08):
Spoonful and when I years later looking for material to play,
I came across that song and I thought, I know
this song? Why do I My mother used to sing
this song. It's just it was just such an odd
how does it go?
Speaker 4 (04:29):
That?
Speaker 7 (04:29):
Spoon then spoon then spoonful And that was the just
repeating in my head, and like, why was my mother
singing this song?
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Well, probably every time she had to administer and medicine
to one of their kids was down spoonful. And and
so your siblings and there's how many nine hundred and four? Yes,
did any of them gravitate towards And.
Speaker 7 (05:00):
One of my brothers is a singer and guitarist, also
an artist, mm hm. At least two of my sisters
played guitar and they all have to sing.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
Yeah, so the house was full of music, yeah, yeah,
And what were you listening to? What radio station? What?
What kind of music were you listening to?
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Well, we listened to w DV a lot growing up.
Speaker 7 (05:34):
Records in the house, Carol King, James Taylor, Chicago, of course,
Crosby still Snashing Young, the Allman Brothers.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Oh, just.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
So did you stood the test of time? You obviously gravitated.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
So the vocals like right, you know, the like you
know when you when you talk about Crosby, Stills, Nash
and Young talking about the harmonies the greatest harmonies of
all time Beatles, there's just a handful that you go, wow,
those are amazing harmonies. But when it comes to the
blending of vocals, those three Crosby Steels Ash, does it
(06:15):
get any better than that? So, and you played with
your one of your brothers quite a.
Speaker 7 (06:22):
Bit, Yes, for a time, Bush, Yeah, we practiced together,
and he showed me the ropes on the guitar. And
I also had a one of my sisters had a
spiral notebook that she had written down chords where you
put your fingers, and that's how I started. Nobody nobody
(06:45):
showed me like I would steal her little notebook and
go down in the basement and lay it out and
lay this guitar which is probably only two or three
feet long, but at the time you can't it's too
big to hold on to your on your lap and
say it lays down and it slides off and you're
pushing your fingers on and they're flapping off as you're
(07:06):
trying to figure chords out.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
And so did you have the community guitar or did yes?
Speaker 7 (07:12):
Okay, yes, you know it stayed in my sister's room.
So seven years old, I want to play her guitar.
I want to play her guitar.
Speaker 8 (07:26):
Can I?
Speaker 4 (07:27):
Can I come in and play your guitar? Do you
remember the first song you learned?
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Yes?
Speaker 7 (07:35):
And I'm sure it was awful because I listened to
it about a year ago to try and relearn it
because my siblings were coming into a gig to watch
me play, and it was April Comes She Will by
Simon and garfone, And after listening to it recently, I thought, well,
that's not how I remember it, and I kind of
(07:59):
relearned it and I couldn't tell you how it goes today.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
I learned it for that gig.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
And when did you get your very own guitar?
Speaker 7 (08:08):
I bought my first guitar when I was sixteen. There
was a Lucian's Greenhouse farms was just down the road
from where we lived, and me and a friend of
mine that lived on my road picked produce there for
(08:29):
a few summers and I saved nearly every penny that
we made for two years so I could go out
and buy this guitar. And we made seventy five cents
an hour, and the second year we made a buck.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Yeah, so wow, that was a big deal. Yeah, that's
a that's a pay raise of twenty five percent. Yeah,
not bad. Was it an acoustic or was it electric?
It was an acoustic. Yeah, yeah, I no longer have it.
Oh you don't. That was my next question.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
So you said we talk about anything. I won't mention
any names.
Speaker 7 (09:10):
I played in different configurations of people, bands, duos. I
was in a band that was a lot of fun,
but I still had like duo projects on the side.
And a guy I was working with at the time,
I left all my gear at his house.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
And he sold it for drugs. You leave it there,
it's his guitar. Yeah, and I never saw it again.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
Oh jeez.
Speaker 7 (09:40):
Yeah, And we reconciled years later. Me and the friend,
we are very good friends today.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
Okay. Yeah, Well, speaking of starting bands, do you remember
the first band that you started or were in? Oh?
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Sure, sure.
Speaker 7 (09:58):
And the lead guitars from that band came from Columbus
last night to watch me play.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Oh really.
Speaker 7 (10:04):
He was visiting a friend in town. He said, well,
I'm going to make it this day so I can
go see Gary. The band was Reckless abandon and I
was sixteen and I'd never sung in front of anyone before,
not family members, So that was that was another big deal.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
Where was your first gig and do you remember any
of the songs that you performed? Well?
Speaker 7 (10:32):
I want to say the first gig was a graduation
party at the lead guitarist's house.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
The first song did you sing?
Speaker 7 (10:46):
I sang in the band, Yes, me and the drummer sang.
The first song I remember playing with them was take
It Easy by the Eagles.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
That's a good one, yeah, And.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
It went very well.
Speaker 7 (11:02):
They were quite surprised that I sang, and I was
quite surprised that I pulled it off, that I yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
That I.
Speaker 7 (11:10):
I didn't have any reservations about it for as much
as even to this day, my level of stage fright
is way up there. Really, Yeah, why I don't know.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
You know, well, how many gigs do you do on
any given year and you still have it? Oh?
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Really? Yeah?
Speaker 7 (11:33):
You work a lot, one hundred and fifty plus gigs
a year, you.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
Know, and you've been doing it for a minute or
two forever. Yeah, And you still want to say still
certain gigs, certain gigs. You're just like you're chomping at
the bit. This is going to be fun, you know.
So and So's here, so and So's there. Uh, it's
just gonna be a great evening. All right. So you're
performing in front of you said just the other day,
(12:01):
in front of the guitarist of your first band, right,
did you have butterflies of reconnecting?
Speaker 1 (12:08):
I saw him walking.
Speaker 7 (12:10):
I saw through the windows of the venue, him walking
through the parking lot.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
And I thought, here we go, you know, but I
kept it together.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
Johnny, does he still perform?
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Not very much? Okay, not very much.
Speaker 7 (12:26):
Yeah, he had moved to New York City back when
we were together in just out of high school. He
went off to find his fame and fortune and NYC
and he played there for it. He played there all
those years that he was there. But I guess that
(12:48):
got old, you know, thirty years of that. Yeah, you know,
the first band, it was reckless of abandoned. And how
long did you play? Did you have any aspirations of
songwriting and you know, recording and all that, you know,
the fame and fortune of Yeah, aspirations following through is
a big, a big problem with me. I started writing songs,
(13:13):
probably when I was sixteen or eighteen, Progressively more songs
every year, more songs every and then less songs every year,
one song a year, and it got to the point
where I would write one song a year.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
But it was awesome, at least I thought it was.
Speaker 7 (13:33):
You know, when you write, when you're writing, at least
from my viewpoint, you've got to write a lot of
garbage to find the diamonds, you know, And then I guess,
after a while the garbage quit's coming out, and if
it's only one, it's going to be a good one.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Why don't you know what you're doing?
Speaker 4 (13:50):
Right right? Okay, so reckless, abandoned? What are other than
the Eagles? What else were you playing at the time? Oh,
a lot of a lot of everything.
Speaker 7 (14:00):
Beatles, Bad Company, Are you a speedwagon?
Speaker 4 (14:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (14:11):
All the you know, all what we consider classic rock today.
Of course, nowadays classic rock to a lot of people,
isn't that old.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
We played?
Speaker 7 (14:23):
People would call that oldies now right, you know my
version of oldies is fifties.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
Well it's funny, you know, I worked for ninety four
point five, which is historically it was oldies, And they're like, well,
you're playing journey.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Now, I'm like, hello, we're not old, Johnny. No, No,
we're wiser. Yes, well I wouldn't go that far.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
Yeah, yeah, I've never been wise, so what makes you
think I would be wiser? Okay, all right? So from
that band? And did you do other side projects and
other duos while you were doing Reckless Abandoned?
Speaker 1 (15:01):
No, we were. We were pretty young.
Speaker 7 (15:04):
In fact, the the lead guitarists that came to visit
yesterday when he went to New York.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Did you know he was coming to the gig?
Speaker 7 (15:14):
He has threatened previous times and never never shown. So
when he hit interested on the Facebook event, I'm like, whatever,
you know he's done that before, So so it was
it was a nice surprise. But when he left for
New York, he took the band name with him and
(15:36):
reformed Reckless uh in the Big Apple.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
So and did he have any success with the with
the band? Did he record anything?
Speaker 1 (15:47):
He had?
Speaker 7 (15:48):
He had recorded a few CDs. Yeah, good stuff reminded
me of Buffalo Springfield Neil Youngish Eagleish. Yeah, it was
refreshing music.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
I thought, have you ever branched outside of Pittsburgh?
Speaker 1 (16:05):
I have not. No, he asked me to go to
New York with him. I was too chicken. Why I
was comfortable, you know, young eighteen years old.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Yeah, well, how has this city influenced your music and
the way you play?
Speaker 1 (16:33):
That's a good question.
Speaker 7 (16:37):
I I think the comfortability of being here with people,
I know, people you've formed relationships with.
Speaker 6 (16:55):
Pittsburgh's a lot about that.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yeah, it is. I just didn't feel that I wanted
to leave it.
Speaker 7 (17:07):
I'm not and I can't say that I'm a big
Some people are big raw raw Pittsburgh. You know, everything's
black and gold in their house. And I'm not that way.
But I love living here, you know, I really do.
Oh it's a great place to play music, I think.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
And what are word? Can you name some of the
places you played back in the day? Oh wow.
Speaker 7 (17:36):
I was fortunate enough to get to play on the
Decade stage a few times. And back then you paid
to play there, right, Yeah, well a little crappy bands did.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (17:56):
I don't remember exactly how that worked out. And anyone
that might be listening to this podcast may see you
absolutely did not have to pay to play there. Well,
let's put it this way. It always cost us money
to play there. Of course, then most bands by the
time they get paid and pay their bar tab in gasoline.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
It cost you money to play anywhere.
Speaker 7 (18:20):
So so the decade I got to play.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Not as a gig, but.
Speaker 7 (18:29):
Acoustic Rock Challenge, the very first one, well, the Rock
Challenge in general, a graffiti. Me and my brother Bush
played and we took second place in the duo division category.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
So that was And what was your set list? What
did you play? Did you play?
Speaker 7 (18:48):
We played one of my tunes in like six of
my brother's tunes. It's all original, like blues oriented material.
That's always great fun. He's a great songwriter, all right.
Tell me about your relationship with your brother. He wrote
(19:11):
he wrote a book of poems once and gave it
to me as a present, and I won't be able
to quote the one poem and they're just short, little
but he said that he saw a lot of himself
in me and liked me anyway. But he's a great guy.
(19:41):
In fact, I'm going to get to see him this weekend.
He's coming into town for a couple of days, so
the family will get together.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
But he was great to have as.
Speaker 7 (19:54):
A guitar partner, you know, like I said, showing showing
me how to get around the neck on the guitar
and just different chords and turning me onto a lot
of different music. He is a big blues fan as well,
so I think that's where does he still still play
(20:15):
no in his house? Yeah, I met, I met out, you.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Know, like you. No, No he does not.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
Yeah, like your full time music, he doesn't do that. No, No,
he always did it.
Speaker 7 (20:28):
He had played out at one time, but just as
something to go do and a little musical outlet, you know.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
When you were writing songs. Did you write songs? You
wrote songs with him too.
Speaker 7 (20:41):
We never collaborated on anything, yeah, which is which is odd,
But I kind of keep to myself, and I would
imagine he just kind of kept to himself, you know,
and there was never never an offer or uh, hey,
I've been working on the song, what do you think
of it?
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Which now I find that odd. Probably back then.
Speaker 7 (21:05):
I just found it normal, you know. But I've only
collaborated collaborated quote unquote with one other person, and that
was a guitar player I worked with in a seven
piece blues band that I was in at one time,
(21:25):
Smoking Section, and they are still around.
Speaker 6 (21:28):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
But I was in the original lineup, there were seven
of us.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
Like God, I still played the smoking section the Steelers
song all the time. Yeah on the air. Were you
part of that or is that after you?
Speaker 1 (21:43):
That must have been after me?
Speaker 4 (21:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Yeah, But I still see those guys once in a while.
Speaker 7 (21:48):
But I had so the other guitar player had an
idea for a song, and he says, I recount the
story much differently than he did, but he showed me
a chord progression and he gave me one line that
he wanted to keep.
Speaker 6 (22:06):
You mean a melodical line or a lyrical line.
Speaker 7 (22:11):
A lyrical line, okay, but he had the melody to
it as well, and he gave me that line. And
the next day I went home and wrote a song
in like twenty minutes around that one line, and.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
I play that at every gig.
Speaker 6 (22:26):
What's the song?
Speaker 1 (22:27):
The song is? Put the blame on me?
Speaker 8 (22:29):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (22:29):
I know that song? Yeah. And he didn't have a
name for it. He's you know.
Speaker 7 (22:33):
His line was, oh, baby, you don't have to talk
to me that way, and I thought I can relate
to that.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
Well, you brought a guitar. Is there anything that you're
looking forward to playing? What do you want to what
do you want to play on this?
Speaker 1 (22:52):
I would play any original, Okay, I'd be great.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
So what do you? What do you? What are you
in the mood for?
Speaker 7 (23:00):
Then a little lower it's early in the morning, but
I would play one that I played this at every
gig as well.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
It's called broke Down. All right, bring out the guitar. Annie,
you're gonna have to move that to that. You can
stretch that out a little bit so we can hear
see there we go. That should be good.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
All right, anything else you need? I need you to
take the arms off this chair.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
That sounds really good.
Speaker 8 (23:36):
Gary, Let's come up and see if I can keep
from sliding off.
Speaker 7 (24:20):
Now I'm broke down so long now, it's I'm broke
down so long now. Yes, I'm so tired of living.
Just want to leave my body in the ground. If
(24:41):
I have me a job, it didn't pay. I worked
and slaved him my life away and I ain't got
nothing this very day. Now, I'm broke down so long. Now,
(25:03):
it's I'm broke down so long now. Yes, I'm so
tired of live in just want to lay my body
in the ground. I have me a woman on the
edge of town. She lived with the devil man. He
(25:27):
put her down. She cried me a river I damn,
they're drowned.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
I sit now, wom curl hands.
Speaker 7 (25:38):
You see you got to get away, child, run away
with me.
Speaker 5 (25:45):
Put a man done, shot him, said her.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
So free.
Speaker 7 (25:51):
Now I'm broke down so long now. Yes, I'm broke
down so long now. Yes, I'm so tired to live in.
Just want to lay my body in the ground now,
(26:29):
warm broke down so long now, Yes, I'm broke down
so long now.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Yes, I'm so.
Speaker 7 (26:42):
Tired to live in. Just want to lay my body
in the ground. Yes, I'm so tired to live in.
I don't want to go all live in. Yes, I'm
(27:03):
so tired live in. Just when the name my body
in the.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Ground, that's amazing.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
Thank you. All right.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
So now I've got a million questions for you.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
All right, So when did you We talked about, you know,
some of the fundamentals that you know that and that
you were that in some of the bands that had
an impression on you, Crosbie Stills, Nash and obviously we
talked Mario Speedwagon and the Beatles, and and when did
you discover the blues?
Speaker 7 (27:44):
Wow, I would have to say, well, the Allman Brothers
back then. You know, my brother was heavily into them.
My cousin was heavily into them.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
So I got to hear that in the house and
that was what was awesome.
Speaker 7 (28:04):
And I never, well, I never became much of a
guitar player, at least in my you know, we're all
our own words critics. But to play at that level,
you know, like I love listening to it, I can't
really replicate it.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
Well, your guitar work was very impressive, and I was
wondering because, uh, you let that music breathe with so
many artists don't do, and you just let that guitar,
let that those notes ring a little bit before you
come in with another lyric, and that just gives that
that song gravitas. Yeah, it's nice to hear it is well,
(28:50):
speaking of all my brothers. How just a real side
because one of my coolest events that I've ever I
was at. I used to broadcast from the backstage Grammys
all the time. And it's a huge restaurant. It's not
the backstage is gigantic. It's a restaurant. It's huge. It's
got a hundred tables, and I see a guy all
(29:11):
by himself with a cowboy hat at at the bar
and he's by himself, and I'm like, that's Dicky Bets.
Nice and I got all nervous. I was like, I'm
mister Betts. And he looked at me and goes, you
know who I am? I said I do, And I said,
I'm Johnny hart Well from Pitts and Pittsburgh Love Pittsburgh
(29:32):
best fishing city in the world. He started talking about
all the little streams that he and I know nothing
about fishing, But if Dicky Betts wants to talk fishing,
you just let him talk. He talked for ten minutes
about little streams up in Elk County and Claring County
and fishing and stuff like that. I'm like, it's a pleasure.
(29:55):
So that's you know, when it comes to all my brothers,
I mean, you know, even before like Dwayne and then afterwards,
still just an amazing, you know, great group of people.
But getting back get getting back to Gary. So where
did you where'd you learn that style? Where did you
that that bluesy style? When did you start experimenting with that?
Speaker 7 (30:22):
I think it's just kind of crept in a little
bit here, a little bit there, and again I think
playing alongside my brother and.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Listening to.
Speaker 7 (30:39):
The songs he wrote and the artists he listened to,
Muddy Waters, Uh Elmore, James, you know, and a lot
of that. You know, the Almonds covered a lot of
that stuff too, so you got to hear their take
on what would have probably started out as a traditional
(31:01):
acoustic blues song. You know, mostly every song ever written
probably started out on a piano or a guitar, not.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Not a band, you know, so get you go back.
Speaker 7 (31:15):
To those old recordings and you get to listen to
one voice in one instrument and see how they navigate
around that.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
You know, do you ever miss listening to music where
it's just one voice and one guitar. I get to
hear it every time I play a gig, But I
mean when, But you know, from a recording style, it's like,
you know, now everything's pro tools and you go back
to Sun Records, it was simple. You had a band
(31:45):
in a room, they sang it, they recorded it, they
put it out and it and it still has an
emotional impact on all of.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Us very much. So.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
So when you write songs, do you hear the music?
Do you hear the lyrics? Where how does what's what's
your writing process?
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (32:04):
I hear the I hear the whole band in my head,
you know, And even even at gigs when I'm playing
my songs or even playing a cover tune, you always think,
what do they hear? They hear my voice and a guitar,
(32:24):
but are they hearing the the original version or are
they are they singing along with it in their head
like I do when I play the cover tune or
or or one of my own, Like do they do
they hear?
Speaker 4 (32:39):
Oh this?
Speaker 7 (32:40):
I've had people tell me, oh, that song so and
so that you wrote that would sound great with a
slide guitar solo in it, or.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
So they they.
Speaker 7 (32:50):
Hear things going on while you're playing, which is cool,
that's awesome.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
Well, obviously I looked at your list of covers and,
like I said, everything from to zz top, how do
you break down a band into voice and guitar? A
lot of a lot of songs will.
Speaker 7 (33:17):
Sometimes it just stands out like you could you could
listen to something overproduced by the Beatles, and but then
you've got other acoustic songs by the Beatles to compare
that to and say, well, how would they have done
this if they didn't have all that production behind it.
And some songs just stand out to you it's like, oh,
(33:37):
this would be a great tune to play. I play
a song occasionally by Alex Claire called Too Close. Don't
ask me what year it came out the late twenty
teens maybe, but it's definitely a blues tune at least
(34:02):
that's what I heard when I first heard it, and
it's all synthesizers. And then the moment I heard it,
I thought I need to sing this song. You know,
I had a great melody line, just told a good story,
and like I said, sometimes they just hit you and
(34:23):
you know that, oh this this is a song for
the acoustic guitar.
Speaker 4 (34:29):
When you were with your brother, did you do any
harmonies with him?
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Sure?
Speaker 7 (34:33):
Sure, Yeah we sang and we sang a lot of
CSN stuff and Eagles and uh, you know, the big
harmony bands. But then we sang other things like John
Prine A Little Feet, you know, to this day and
(35:00):
even then, I like singing songs that I like to sing.
Why don't you play this? And I always tell people
that song sucks and it's it's usually the really popular
ones you know that I steer away from.
Speaker 4 (35:19):
Is it because you've heard it so often? Or is
it just it doesn't give you the an emotional punch
that you're looking Yes and yes and three they're overplayed.
You know.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Do I have to sing Brown Eyed Girl today? Absolutely not.
Speaker 4 (35:34):
You know what, I did not want to see the
Eagles when they came to town because I've played the
Eagles to death all my entire career.
Speaker 7 (35:45):
You know.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
When I first entered into radio, they said, you know,
I hope you like the music that you start out
with because it will follow you for your entire career.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
And they were right.
Speaker 4 (35:54):
But when I saw the Eagles perform live, I was like, Oh,
this is something different, And that's what impressed me. I
learned to relove the songs because I could see the
artistry right of that production and the music. And you're like,
oh okay, And I'm not a musician and so like
(36:18):
to see you play guitar and sing. It's just like
it's like magic to me. I just don't understand how
you do it and where does it come? Where does
it come from? In you?
Speaker 1 (36:33):
Right here?
Speaker 7 (36:34):
Wing to his heart, Life's joyce, life's agonies, life's pain,
I think that's where a lot of music.
Speaker 6 (36:49):
Comes from, well, the blues, particularly.
Speaker 7 (36:52):
Personal personal pain. Not that I've lived this wretched life
or anything, but you know, just everybody goes, every experience
will lend itself to.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
A piece of music if you let it.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
You know, how many songs do you still play? Like,
how many of your original songs do you play on
any given night?
Speaker 7 (37:18):
I've never played I don't think more than six half
a dozen of them.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
And what is it? What is it about those six songs?
Speaker 7 (37:30):
I feel there's some of my best work, and it's
been it's been told to me that I should play
more of them at every gig, but not by many people.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
Well, in their defense, they're not. They those songs aren't
going to be familiar to most people. Like if you
play Brown Eyed Girl, you're going to get an emotional
response because that's a song people know and love. But
when like, for example, that that song that you just played,
that's an I had never heard that song before, and
it had an emotional reaction from me, you know, talking
(38:13):
about a woman inside of town. You know, it's a
it's a it's a great blues story. But yeah, yeah,
but but but hearing your guitar and you're playing. I
followed the story and I was like, Okay, that is
a great song. Do you have another great song that
you can share with us?
Speaker 1 (38:30):
Sure?
Speaker 7 (38:31):
Sure, it's got to be great, though, Okay, I'll make
it as great as I can make.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
All right, now, what is the what's the name of
this one? So this one is the one we spoke
about earlier. Put the blame on me, and I.
Speaker 7 (38:47):
Credit Rick Romanelli for this tune because it wouldn't exist
without Rick's one line.
Speaker 4 (38:52):
All right, all right, Rick, you get a little shout
out on this one.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Don't forget to retune the louis, which I do a lot.
Speaker 7 (39:36):
Sorry that I hurt you, baby, and sometime love it's toughue.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
Don't drag me through the dirt now, girl house.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
I've had enough, No baby, and you don't have to
talk to me that way. Just make sure your state's
quean before you try it up.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
But all the blame on me.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
Divin worlds, Divin lines don't add up, so good.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
Let not same old line.
Speaker 5 (40:16):
Change it if I could, But no, baby, you.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
Don't have to talk to me that way. Just make
sure your state is clean before you try it up.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
But all the blame on me.
Speaker 5 (40:40):
No, baby, Yes, I'm sorry that I hurt you, girl,
(41:05):
sorry that I lied, But it takes.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
To to make love work and to to let love die.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
So baby, bitter, you don't have to talk to me
that way. Just make sure your state is clean for
you try to fun all the blame on me. Just
(41:34):
make sure your state is clean before you try to
fun all the blame on me, before you try to
fun all the blame on me. No baby, bit.
Speaker 3 (42:00):
H m hm.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
H m hmmm, don't see.
Speaker 4 (42:22):
I love the song, but I can't relate simply because
it's always my fault the blame. Yeah, that's I'm usually
I'm the person to blame. I just got married about
a month ago, So yeah, thank you.
Speaker 6 (42:37):
Can I ask can I ask gry question?
Speaker 1 (42:39):
Absolutely?
Speaker 6 (42:40):
Talk about the relationship you had with the Blue Society
and going to Memphis to represent them.
Speaker 7 (42:47):
Yeah, great organization of people there still promoting the blues.
Somebody needs to you know, it's it's becoming. You know,
we've taken it back seat.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
People you know talking about blues on the podcast Good
and Well.
Speaker 9 (43:04):
Pittsburgh has a lot of blue Yeah, you Ryan, You
know I was fortunate enough to stumble onto the the
Blue Society of Western Pa.
Speaker 7 (43:16):
One year at UH when Carnegie used to have they
had their own little blues festival. I remember that at
the end of every summer. I think the flood took
care of that. And I stopped by a booth. They
had a booth set up there, and I met Jim Weber, Okay,
(43:37):
and uh, Jim knew who I was. I don't know how,
but Jim knew who I was, and he encouraged me
to and to the challenge that was coming up in
a couple of weeks, and I did, and I believe
it was that one was at the Thunderbird and I
(43:58):
played four of my original tunes. And I remember this vividly.
I was I was always a bridesmaid at the blues challenges.
I lost that competition by a point.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
I found out.
Speaker 7 (44:16):
Oh, yeah, we won't go into that.
Speaker 4 (44:19):
But you know, but you've you've had some serious success
and yeah, I mean the city paper has certainly recognized
your your accomplishments.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
Yes, And.
Speaker 7 (44:31):
When I played with Smoking Section back then, we were
voted number two blues band in Pittsburgh, which was great
because we had just gotten together and we had played
uh the first Pittsburgh Blues Festival.
Speaker 6 (44:49):
Okay, so we.
Speaker 7 (44:51):
Thought, oh, great things are happening for us, and then
that was that was the height of our success that
first year. You know, city paper recognized us, Pittsburgh recognized us,
and it was it was kind of a slow descent
after that.
Speaker 4 (45:07):
Do you like playing solo or do you like the
band atmosphere? And what's yeah the difference. Yes, you just
like playing music.
Speaker 7 (45:15):
Yeah, bands are a lot of fun, they really are.
They are just as many headaches as there are fun times.
So you know, you're married to five or six other people, so.
Speaker 4 (45:31):
And just when you think they all think alike, you
realize nobody has the same thought.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
Correct. Correct.
Speaker 7 (45:41):
I'm trying to think of a good band anecdote, but
you know, I probably can't really relate any of them
over the air, but one one particular, again no names,
but we were We had a rough gig at Sunny
Jim's one night, and internally the great the gig was great,
(46:05):
you know, there was there were struggles on stage and
the sax player would always tune his sacks to the
keyboard to make sure, you know, and one that particular gig,
he had a cigarette in his hand when he went
(46:27):
to tap on the key and ash fell.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
On the keyboard and that was the end of that.
Speaker 7 (46:36):
Let's let's just say that that evening ended on a
quite a sour note, as they say, But.
Speaker 4 (46:44):
Have you ever experienced any other spinal tap moments? Nothing
comes to mind? What's the what's the worst gig you've
ever had? Do you remember your worst gig?
Speaker 3 (47:02):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (47:02):
Wow, goodness, it had to be a solo gig.
Speaker 8 (47:10):
You know.
Speaker 7 (47:18):
Again, I should write them down as they happen. You know,
I should have kept the log of these these events.
Speaker 4 (47:24):
Have you ever had one where nobody showed up?
Speaker 1 (47:27):
Well?
Speaker 7 (47:27):
Absolutely? Okay, there you go. This now, this one's glaring
at me. How could you forget this gig? My wife,
my wife, we weren't married at the time, but she
came with me to watch my three piece band KPg
(47:48):
play at a bar in not too far from Seven Springs.
And I can't remember the name of the bar. It
was a well known place and a huge venue and
we got a gig at this awesome everybody plays here
(48:09):
right Well, that night it was the bar owner, the
three of us in the band, and my wife, my
girlfriend Peggy. Oh you couldn't hear a pin drop because
there was no one there to drop the damp.
Speaker 6 (48:31):
How did that happen?
Speaker 7 (48:32):
Nobody shook We booked this gig, well, I say we.
I didn't do the booking then, so I'm not taking
credit for that one. But it was Winterfest.
Speaker 6 (48:42):
Oh so everybody was up at Seven Springs.
Speaker 1 (48:45):
Yeaheah, yeah I did. At one time.
Speaker 4 (48:47):
I was supposed to be broadcasting live at like it
was like almost like a rave party and it was
a top forty station and they couldn't they couldn't wait
for us to have this party.
Speaker 1 (48:59):
And literally nobody showed up.
Speaker 4 (49:02):
They had a DJ, a huge sound system, they had
a you know, it was like an old roller ring
and it was ready for and free beer. People didn't
even show. You know, you're in trouble. Yeah, those events
you just gotta go. All right, We'll just chalk that
up as an experience. Move on. Yeah, all right? So
(49:24):
is there anything you want to do musically that you
haven't done?
Speaker 7 (49:32):
I would like to learn another instrument I've never This
is the only one I know. I always wanted to
be a drummer. But the left hand has no idea
what the right hand is doing and doesn't even know
that there are two other limbs below that.
Speaker 1 (49:53):
There's no coordination there.
Speaker 4 (49:55):
Uh you had you mentioned that you have quite a
large family. Did anybody else play any thing other than
guitar in the family.
Speaker 1 (50:01):
No, No, just guitars.
Speaker 7 (50:05):
Yeah, my brother brought home an old, upright piano one year.
He used to work for South Hills Movers there for
a stretch, and I imagine it came from a move,
you know, not not illegally, you know.
Speaker 4 (50:26):
Yeah, I actually had a couple of pianos because you
know a lot of people. Everybody wants to.
Speaker 1 (50:32):
Buy a piano until they own one, until.
Speaker 4 (50:34):
They own one, and then trying to get rid of it,
forget it right, right, you have to get neighbors and
friends and family to move it because they're they're so
big and large. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (50:42):
Yeah, So he dabbled in the piano here a little bit,
but that never did. I kind of watched him and
figured out you needed three fingers to play a chord,
and again, your right hand and your left hand need
to be independent and ornated together at the same time.
Speaker 1 (51:01):
And that's just kind.
Speaker 6 (51:02):
Of think You do that on the guitar.
Speaker 1 (51:04):
Coordinate you do, you absolutely do. But that's why I
only got so far.
Speaker 4 (51:11):
You mentioned like you write less frequently. Now, Yeah, when's
the last time you actually had a song in your head?
Speaker 7 (51:22):
I wrote a song a year ago, and before that,
I wrote a couple of songs in two thousand and nine,
and I'm not happy about that.
Speaker 1 (51:35):
You know, it's such a great.
Speaker 7 (51:38):
Gratifying thing when you can produce something like that and
to have it just vanish is puzzling. It's kind of stressful,
you know, in a way, because it's a release to
be able to sit down and write. Your thoughts were
(52:00):
random things that pop into your head. Now I started
texting those little random thoughts to myself, so I'm getting
a little mini backlog of just blips and blurbs.
Speaker 6 (52:16):
Yeah, you might find it. You'll be prolific all of
a sudden, too.
Speaker 1 (52:20):
Well, that's what I'm hoping.
Speaker 6 (52:21):
Yeah, Okay, well together on that, Yeah, do you still
listen to.
Speaker 4 (52:30):
Other bands and other music? And and what what kind
of music do you still listen to?
Speaker 7 (52:36):
We were just talking on the way in and I
told Annie, I said, I do not listen to the radio.
Speaker 1 (52:42):
And that's okay, Gary, that's all right. I got three kids,
I gotta feed my children. That's all right, sorry, Johnny.
Speaker 7 (52:53):
But I found a band a couple of years ago,
Lark and Poe. I don't know how I found them.
They're from Georgia, two sisters, the Lovell sisters, Rebecca and Meghan, and.
Speaker 1 (53:13):
They play.
Speaker 7 (53:15):
Everyone plays a mix of genres these days. It's alternative, blues, country,
tinge things. Look them up Lark and Poe. I got
to see them in concert, which we don't go to
many concerts anymore. They came to the Roxy and McKee's
(53:37):
Rocks a few years back, and that was just a
big deal to go see something new and fresh that
I hadn't experienced before. And they're on my They play
in my car every time I get in. You know,
you know what's great about you know, there's not the superstars.
(53:59):
There's no super stars now, you know what I mean?
Radio used to have and so you don't have that.
But if you have a genre of music that you're
passionate about, you can find you find them. You can
find it anywhere on Spotify and YouTube and all. There's
so many other different places where you can find different
kinds of music. And so I don't think, you know,
(54:23):
people say you know, you know, we're losing a lot
of our great artists, like the classic art classic rock
artists are dying off.
Speaker 4 (54:32):
But it's not like people don't still love music. We
all do. I think a lot of us do. Not everybody,
but most most people still love music. And if and
if you like a certain genre of music, and there's
always like you said, there's you know, you said, the folk, blues, guitar,
benjo music, you can find it. That's your thing.
Speaker 1 (54:54):
There's somebody out there for you. Absolutely google it. Yeah,
just google it.
Speaker 4 (54:59):
Yeah, all right, So this is something how we kind
of end all our podcast. What would you like your
legacy to be? Wow?
Speaker 7 (55:15):
I would have to say that I wasn't afraid to
do what I loved. I've been waiting all my life
to play music. I'm getting emotional and I'm doing it.
I do it for a living now. I've been doing
(55:35):
it for a living, you know, solely for eight years.
I've been playing out in bars in Pittsburgh for forty
five years.
Speaker 3 (55:46):
You know.
Speaker 4 (55:47):
Yeah, not a lot of people can say they do
it full time. Yeah. It's just a great thing to
be able to have that at my disposal, you know, Uh,
I know, a handful of people that do it, and
they're probably the happiest people I know. Yeah, it's a
(56:10):
great thing.
Speaker 7 (56:11):
Mm hmm
All right, let's start righty, I knows it.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
This is an ovidio.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Oh and you are, Oh, bless your heart. This is
the Coda Podcast, chronically Pittsburgh's music scene, and welcome in.
I'm Johnny heart Well your host along with Andy Pugar.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Today we're going to talk acoustic rocking blues with Carrie Prisbee. Gary.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
How the heck are you?
Speaker 5 (00:31):
Bud?
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Morning?
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Johnny? How you doing?
Speaker 4 (00:33):
I'm well?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
You doing all right? I'm okay. How's the family?
Speaker 4 (00:36):
All right?
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Everyone's day? This is going to be thirty minutes of
me asking you, Hey, how you doing?
Speaker 6 (00:40):
How you doing?
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Are you doing? Okay?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
So Gary, we're talking.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
When I was looking up your website and you had
your playlist like things that you you play, and it
went from everything from Ace to zz Top. There's like hundreds,
So I was wondering if I could play name that
and you could you play it? Absolutely not. I've forgotten
(01:07):
a lot of this. There are so many that you
need to go back and refresh, like, oh, okay, you
know I've played these artists over the years, so I
add them to the list. Okay, Well, I mean there
was a lot. I was like, man, there's a lot
of music there, so people let my gigs stump the
band a lot, do you Yeah? All right, all right,
(01:28):
So usually what we do is we kind of start
at the beginning, kind of like, what was the first
musical memory from you, Gary, When's when did you really
realize that music was part of your life?
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Nineteen sixty nine?
Speaker 7 (01:43):
Wow, I was seven years old, Okay, and you might
have seen on my bio on my website. I come
from a large family. I was the youngest of nine,
and so I had teenagers for older sibils who were
very into music. And Crosby Stills Nash's first album came out.
(02:07):
I was hooked me too, absolutely two?
Speaker 4 (02:10):
All right? So why what what was it about Crosby
Stills Nash Was it Young or just just Crosby's.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Time, just the three of them?
Speaker 4 (02:16):
Yep?
Speaker 1 (02:17):
And then I got a bonus a year later, the
four of.
Speaker 7 (02:19):
Them, Crosby Still Snash Young put out an album after that,
so that.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
Was that was a bigger deal. So was that your
record or was that one of your one of my siblings? Yeah,
so what are you can't just say I'm one of
nine and then not bring up like, what is it
like to be one of nine A zoo A zoo.
What's the age difference between fourteen years? Wow?
Speaker 7 (02:45):
Okay the oldest and I our birthdays are four days apart. Well, yeah,
fourteen years and four days apart.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
But you know, I mean, when you have nine kids,
odds are you're celebrating a birthday virtually every month? Right? Yeah? Wow? Okay? Uh?
So were any of them musical?
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yes?
Speaker 7 (03:06):
Yes, which we got that from mom. Artist singer, uh,
very great, great artist. And she didn't do much work that.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (03:21):
She We had one pastel that she had done that
hung in the house forever, but that was the only
piece of work that I'd ever seen of hers. But
it was gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. Is it still do you
still have it? Someone has it? One of one of
the kids has it?
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (03:38):
All right? So was she also musical?
Speaker 1 (03:40):
And she she sang around the house constantly?
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
And what was her name? Adeline?
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Adeline? Oh, that's a beautiful name. Yeah. And what kind
of music did she gravitate towards? Anything? She sang the
older tunes, obviously, And one of the tunes that I
will play at my gig sometimes is an old.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Blues tune.
Speaker 7 (04:08):
Spoonful and when I years later looking for material to play,
I came across that song and I thought, I know
this song? Why do I My mother used to sing
this song. It's just it was just such an odd
how does it go?
Speaker 4 (04:29):
That?
Speaker 7 (04:29):
Spoon then spoon then spoonful And that was the just
repeating in my head, and like, why was my mother
singing this song?
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Well, probably every time she had to administer and medicine
to one of their kids was down spoonful. And and
so your siblings and there's how many nine hundred and four? Yes,
did any of them gravitate towards And.
Speaker 7 (05:00):
One of my brothers is a singer and guitarist, also
an artist, mm hm. At least two of my sisters
played guitar and they all have to sing.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
Yeah, so the house was full of music, yeah, yeah,
And what were you listening to? What radio station? What?
What kind of music were you listening to?
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Well, we listened to w DV a lot growing up.
Speaker 7 (05:34):
Records in the house, Carol King, James Taylor, Chicago, of course,
Crosby still Snashing Young, the Allman Brothers.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Oh, just.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
So did you stood the test of time? You obviously gravitated.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
So the vocals like right, you know, the like you
know when you when you talk about Crosby, Stills, Nash
and Young talking about the harmonies the greatest harmonies of
all time Beatles, there's just a handful that you go, wow,
those are amazing harmonies. But when it comes to the
blending of vocals, those three Crosby Steels Ash, does it
(06:15):
get any better than that? So, and you played with
your one of your brothers quite a.
Speaker 7 (06:22):
Bit, Yes, for a time, Bush, Yeah, we practiced together,
and he showed me the ropes on the guitar. And
I also had a one of my sisters had a
spiral notebook that she had written down chords where you
put your fingers, and that's how I started. Nobody nobody
(06:45):
showed me like I would steal her little notebook and
go down in the basement and lay it out and
lay this guitar which is probably only two or three
feet long, but at the time you can't it's too
big to hold on to your on your lap and
say it lays down and it slides off and you're
pushing your fingers on and they're flapping off as you're
(07:06):
trying to figure chords out.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
And so did you have the community guitar or did yes?
Speaker 7 (07:12):
Okay, yes, you know it stayed in my sister's room.
So seven years old, I want to play her guitar.
I want to play her guitar.
Speaker 8 (07:26):
Can I?
Speaker 4 (07:27):
Can I come in and play your guitar? Do you
remember the first song you learned?
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Yes?
Speaker 7 (07:35):
And I'm sure it was awful because I listened to
it about a year ago to try and relearn it
because my siblings were coming into a gig to watch
me play, and it was April Comes She Will by
Simon and garfone, And after listening to it recently, I thought, well,
that's not how I remember it, and I kind of
(07:59):
relearned it and I couldn't tell you how it goes today.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
I learned it for that gig.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
And when did you get your very own guitar?
Speaker 7 (08:08):
I bought my first guitar when I was sixteen. There
was a Lucian's Greenhouse farms was just down the road
from where we lived, and me and a friend of
mine that lived on my road picked produce there for
(08:29):
a few summers and I saved nearly every penny that
we made for two years so I could go out
and buy this guitar. And we made seventy five cents
an hour, and the second year we made a buck.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Yeah, so wow, that was a big deal. Yeah, that's
a that's a pay raise of twenty five percent. Yeah,
not bad. Was it an acoustic or was it electric?
It was an acoustic. Yeah, yeah, I no longer have it.
Oh you don't. That was my next question.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
So you said we talk about anything. I won't mention
any names.
Speaker 7 (09:10):
I played in different configurations of people, bands, duos. I
was in a band that was a lot of fun,
but I still had like duo projects on the side.
And a guy I was working with at the time,
I left all my gear at his house.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
And he sold it for drugs. You leave it there,
it's his guitar. Yeah, and I never saw it again.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
Oh jeez.
Speaker 7 (09:40):
Yeah, And we reconciled years later. Me and the friend,
we are very good friends today.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
Okay. Yeah, Well, speaking of starting bands, do you remember
the first band that you started or were in? Oh?
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Sure, sure.
Speaker 7 (09:58):
And the lead guitars from that band came from Columbus
last night to watch me play.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Oh really.
Speaker 7 (10:04):
He was visiting a friend in town. He said, well,
I'm going to make it this day so I can
go see Gary. The band was Reckless abandon and I
was sixteen and I'd never sung in front of anyone before,
not family members, So that was that was another big deal.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
Where was your first gig and do you remember any
of the songs that you performed? Well?
Speaker 7 (10:32):
I want to say the first gig was a graduation
party at the lead guitarist's house.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
The first song did you sing?
Speaker 7 (10:46):
I sang in the band, Yes, me and the drummer sang.
The first song I remember playing with them was take
It Easy by the Eagles.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
That's a good one, yeah, And.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
It went very well.
Speaker 7 (11:02):
They were quite surprised that I sang, and I was
quite surprised that I pulled it off, that I yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
That I.
Speaker 7 (11:10):
I didn't have any reservations about it for as much
as even to this day, my level of stage fright
is way up there. Really, Yeah, why I don't know.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
You know, well, how many gigs do you do on
any given year and you still have it? Oh?
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Really? Yeah?
Speaker 7 (11:33):
You work a lot, one hundred and fifty plus gigs
a year, you.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
Know, and you've been doing it for a minute or
two forever. Yeah, And you still want to say still
certain gigs, certain gigs. You're just like you're chomping at
the bit. This is going to be fun, you know.
So and So's here, so and So's there. Uh, it's
just gonna be a great evening. All right. So you're
performing in front of you said just the other day,
(12:01):
in front of the guitarist of your first band, right,
did you have butterflies of reconnecting?
Speaker 1 (12:08):
I saw him walking.
Speaker 7 (12:10):
I saw through the windows of the venue, him walking
through the parking lot.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
And I thought, here we go, you know, but I
kept it together.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
Johnny, does he still perform?
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Not very much? Okay, not very much.
Speaker 7 (12:26):
Yeah, he had moved to New York City back when
we were together in just out of high school. He
went off to find his fame and fortune and NYC
and he played there for it. He played there all
those years that he was there. But I guess that
(12:48):
got old, you know, thirty years of that. Yeah, you know,
the first band, it was reckless of abandoned. And how
long did you play? Did you have any aspirations of
songwriting and you know, recording and all that, you know,
the fame and fortune of Yeah, aspirations following through is
a big, a big problem with me. I started writing songs,
(13:13):
probably when I was sixteen or eighteen, Progressively more songs
every year, more songs every and then less songs every year,
one song a year, and it got to the point
where I would write one song a year.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
But it was awesome, at least I thought it was.
Speaker 7 (13:33):
You know, when you write, when you're writing, at least
from my viewpoint, you've got to write a lot of
garbage to find the diamonds, you know, And then I guess,
after a while the garbage quit's coming out, and if
it's only one, it's going to be a good one.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Why don't you know what you're doing?
Speaker 4 (13:50):
Right right? Okay, so reckless, abandoned? What are other than
the Eagles? What else were you playing at the time? Oh,
a lot of a lot of everything.
Speaker 7 (14:00):
Beatles, Bad Company, Are you a speedwagon?
Speaker 4 (14:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (14:11):
All the you know, all what we consider classic rock today.
Of course, nowadays classic rock to a lot of people,
isn't that old.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
We played?
Speaker 7 (14:23):
People would call that oldies now right, you know my
version of oldies is fifties.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
Well it's funny, you know, I worked for ninety four
point five, which is historically it was oldies, And they're like, well,
you're playing journey.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Now, I'm like, hello, we're not old, Johnny. No, No,
we're wiser. Yes, well I wouldn't go that far.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
Yeah, yeah, I've never been wise, so what makes you
think I would be wiser? Okay, all right? So from
that band? And did you do other side projects and
other duos while you were doing Reckless Abandoned?
Speaker 1 (15:01):
No, we were. We were pretty young.
Speaker 7 (15:04):
In fact, the the lead guitarists that came to visit
yesterday when he went to New York.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Did you know he was coming to the gig?
Speaker 7 (15:14):
He has threatened previous times and never never shown. So
when he hit interested on the Facebook event, I'm like, whatever,
you know he's done that before, So so it was
it was a nice surprise. But when he left for
New York, he took the band name with him and
(15:36):
reformed Reckless uh in the Big Apple.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
So and did he have any success with the with
the band? Did he record anything?
Speaker 1 (15:47):
He had?
Speaker 7 (15:48):
He had recorded a few CDs. Yeah, good stuff reminded
me of Buffalo Springfield Neil Youngish Eagleish. Yeah, it was
refreshing music.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
I thought, have you ever branched outside of Pittsburgh?
Speaker 1 (16:05):
I have not. No, he asked me to go to
New York with him. I was too chicken. Why I
was comfortable, you know, young eighteen years old.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Yeah, well, how has this city influenced your music and
the way you play?
Speaker 1 (16:33):
That's a good question.
Speaker 7 (16:37):
I I think the comfortability of being here with people,
I know, people you've formed relationships with.
Speaker 6 (16:55):
Pittsburgh's a lot about that.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yeah, it is. I just didn't feel that I wanted
to leave it.
Speaker 7 (17:07):
I'm not and I can't say that I'm a big
Some people are big raw raw Pittsburgh. You know, everything's
black and gold in their house. And I'm not that way.
But I love living here, you know, I really do.
Oh it's a great place to play music, I think.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
And what are word? Can you name some of the
places you played back in the day? Oh wow.
Speaker 7 (17:36):
I was fortunate enough to get to play on the
Decade stage a few times. And back then you paid
to play there, right, Yeah, well a little crappy bands did.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (17:56):
I don't remember exactly how that worked out. And anyone
that might be listening to this podcast may see you
absolutely did not have to pay to play there. Well,
let's put it this way. It always cost us money
to play there. Of course, then most bands by the
time they get paid and pay their bar tab in gasoline.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
It cost you money to play anywhere.
Speaker 7 (18:20):
So so the decade I got to play.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Not as a gig, but.
Speaker 7 (18:29):
Acoustic Rock Challenge, the very first one, well, the Rock
Challenge in general, a graffiti. Me and my brother Bush
played and we took second place in the duo division category.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
So that was And what was your set list? What
did you play? Did you play?
Speaker 7 (18:48):
We played one of my tunes in like six of
my brother's tunes. It's all original, like blues oriented material.
That's always great fun. He's a great songwriter, all right.
Tell me about your relationship with your brother. He wrote
(19:11):
he wrote a book of poems once and gave it
to me as a present, and I won't be able
to quote the one poem and they're just short, little
but he said that he saw a lot of himself
in me and liked me anyway. But he's a great guy.
(19:41):
In fact, I'm going to get to see him this weekend.
He's coming into town for a couple of days, so
the family will get together.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
But he was great to have as.
Speaker 7 (19:54):
A guitar partner, you know, like I said, showing showing
me how to get around the neck on the guitar
and just different chords and turning me onto a lot
of different music. He is a big blues fan as well,
so I think that's where does he still still play
(20:15):
no in his house? Yeah, I met, I met out, you.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Know, like you. No, No he does not.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
Yeah, like your full time music, he doesn't do that. No, No,
he always did it.
Speaker 7 (20:28):
He had played out at one time, but just as
something to go do and a little musical outlet, you know.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
When you were writing songs. Did you write songs? You
wrote songs with him too.
Speaker 7 (20:41):
We never collaborated on anything, yeah, which is which is odd,
But I kind of keep to myself, and I would
imagine he just kind of kept to himself, you know,
and there was never never an offer or uh, hey,
I've been working on the song, what do you think
of it?
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Which now I find that odd. Probably back then.
Speaker 7 (21:05):
I just found it normal, you know. But I've only
collaborated collaborated quote unquote with one other person, and that
was a guitar player I worked with in a seven
piece blues band that I was in at one time,
(21:25):
Smoking Section, and they are still around.
Speaker 6 (21:28):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
But I was in the original lineup, there were seven
of us.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
Like God, I still played the smoking section the Steelers
song all the time. Yeah on the air. Were you
part of that or is that after you?
Speaker 1 (21:43):
That must have been after me?
Speaker 4 (21:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Yeah, But I still see those guys once in a while.
Speaker 7 (21:48):
But I had so the other guitar player had an
idea for a song, and he says, I recount the
story much differently than he did, but he showed me
a chord progression and he gave me one line that
he wanted to keep.
Speaker 6 (22:06):
You mean a melodical line or a lyrical line.
Speaker 7 (22:11):
A lyrical line, okay, but he had the melody to
it as well, and he gave me that line. And
the next day I went home and wrote a song
in like twenty minutes around that one line, and.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
I play that at every gig.
Speaker 6 (22:26):
What's the song?
Speaker 1 (22:27):
The song is? Put the blame on me?
Speaker 8 (22:29):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (22:29):
I know that song? Yeah. And he didn't have a
name for it. He's you know.
Speaker 7 (22:33):
His line was, oh, baby, you don't have to talk
to me that way, and I thought I can relate
to that.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
Well, you brought a guitar. Is there anything that you're
looking forward to playing? What do you want to what
do you want to play on this?
Speaker 1 (22:52):
I would play any original, Okay, I'd be great.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
So what do you? What do you? What are you
in the mood for?
Speaker 7 (23:00):
Then a little lower it's early in the morning, but
I would play one that I played this at every
gig as well.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
It's called broke Down. All right, bring out the guitar. Annie,
you're gonna have to move that to that. You can
stretch that out a little bit so we can hear
see there we go. That should be good.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
All right, anything else you need? I need you to
take the arms off this chair.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
That sounds really good.
Speaker 8 (23:36):
Gary, Let's come up and see if I can keep
from sliding off.
Speaker 7 (24:20):
Now I'm broke down so long now, it's I'm broke
down so long now. Yes, I'm so tired of living.
Just want to leave my body in the ground. If
(24:41):
I have me a job, it didn't pay. I worked
and slaved him my life away and I ain't got
nothing this very day. Now, I'm broke down so long. Now,
(25:03):
it's I'm broke down so long now. Yes, I'm so
tired of live in just want to lay my body
in the ground. I have me a woman on the
edge of town. She lived with the devil man. He
(25:27):
put her down. She cried me a river I damn,
they're drowned.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
I sit now, wom curl hands.
Speaker 7 (25:38):
You see you got to get away, child, run away
with me.
Speaker 5 (25:45):
Put a man done, shot him, said her.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
So free.
Speaker 7 (25:51):
Now I'm broke down so long now. Yes, I'm broke
down so long now. Yes, I'm so tired to live in.
Just want to lay my body in the ground now,
(26:29):
warm broke down so long now, Yes, I'm broke down
so long now.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Yes, I'm so.
Speaker 7 (26:42):
Tired to live in. Just want to lay my body
in the ground. Yes, I'm so tired to live in.
I don't want to go all live in. Yes, I'm
(27:03):
so tired live in. Just when the name my body
in the.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Ground, that's amazing.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
Thank you. All right.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
So now I've got a million questions for you.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
All right, So when did you We talked about, you know,
some of the fundamentals that you know that and that
you were that in some of the bands that had
an impression on you, Crosbie Stills, Nash and obviously we
talked Mario Speedwagon and the Beatles, and and when did
you discover the blues?
Speaker 7 (27:44):
Wow, I would have to say, well, the Allman Brothers
back then. You know, my brother was heavily into them.
My cousin was heavily into them.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
So I got to hear that in the house and
that was what was awesome.
Speaker 7 (28:04):
And I never, well, I never became much of a
guitar player, at least in my you know, we're all
our own words critics. But to play at that level,
you know, like I love listening to it, I can't
really replicate it.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
Well, your guitar work was very impressive, and I was
wondering because, uh, you let that music breathe with so
many artists don't do, and you just let that guitar,
let that those notes ring a little bit before you
come in with another lyric, and that just gives that
that song gravitas. Yeah, it's nice to hear it is well,
(28:50):
speaking of all my brothers. How just a real side
because one of my coolest events that I've ever I
was at. I used to broadcast from the backstage Grammys
all the time. And it's a huge restaurant. It's not
the backstage is gigantic. It's a restaurant. It's huge. It's
got a hundred tables, and I see a guy all
(29:11):
by himself with a cowboy hat at at the bar
and he's by himself, and I'm like, that's Dicky Bets.
Nice and I got all nervous. I was like, I'm
mister Betts. And he looked at me and goes, you
know who I am? I said I do, And I said,
I'm Johnny hart Well from Pitts and Pittsburgh Love Pittsburgh
(29:32):
best fishing city in the world. He started talking about
all the little streams that he and I know nothing
about fishing, But if Dicky Betts wants to talk fishing,
you just let him talk. He talked for ten minutes
about little streams up in Elk County and Claring County
and fishing and stuff like that. I'm like, it's a pleasure.
(29:55):
So that's you know, when it comes to all my brothers,
I mean, you know, even before like Dwayne and then afterwards,
still just an amazing, you know, great group of people.
But getting back get getting back to Gary. So where
did you where'd you learn that style? Where did you
that that bluesy style? When did you start experimenting with that?
Speaker 7 (30:22):
I think it's just kind of crept in a little
bit here, a little bit there, and again I think
playing alongside my brother and.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Listening to.
Speaker 7 (30:39):
The songs he wrote and the artists he listened to,
Muddy Waters, Uh Elmore, James, you know, and a lot
of that. You know, the Almonds covered a lot of
that stuff too, so you got to hear their take
on what would have probably started out as a traditional
(31:01):
acoustic blues song. You know, mostly every song ever written
probably started out on a piano or a guitar, not.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Not a band, you know, so get you go back.
Speaker 7 (31:15):
To those old recordings and you get to listen to
one voice in one instrument and see how they navigate
around that.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
You know, do you ever miss listening to music where
it's just one voice and one guitar. I get to
hear it every time I play a gig, But I
mean when, But you know, from a recording style, it's like,
you know, now everything's pro tools and you go back
to Sun Records, it was simple. You had a band
(31:45):
in a room, they sang it, they recorded it, they
put it out and it and it still has an
emotional impact on all of.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Us very much. So.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
So when you write songs, do you hear the music?
Do you hear the lyrics? Where how does what's what's
your writing process?
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (32:04):
I hear the I hear the whole band in my head,
you know, And even even at gigs when I'm playing
my songs or even playing a cover tune, you always think,
what do they hear? They hear my voice and a guitar,
(32:24):
but are they hearing the the original version or are
they are they singing along with it in their head
like I do when I play the cover tune or
or or one of my own, Like do they do
they hear?
Speaker 4 (32:39):
Oh this?
Speaker 7 (32:40):
I've had people tell me, oh, that song so and
so that you wrote that would sound great with a
slide guitar solo in it, or.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
So they they.
Speaker 7 (32:50):
Hear things going on while you're playing, which is cool,
that's awesome.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
Well, obviously I looked at your list of covers and,
like I said, everything from to zz top, how do
you break down a band into voice and guitar? A
lot of a lot of songs will.
Speaker 7 (33:17):
Sometimes it just stands out like you could you could
listen to something overproduced by the Beatles, and but then
you've got other acoustic songs by the Beatles to compare
that to and say, well, how would they have done
this if they didn't have all that production behind it.
And some songs just stand out to you it's like, oh,
(33:37):
this would be a great tune to play. I play
a song occasionally by Alex Claire called Too Close. Don't
ask me what year it came out the late twenty
teens maybe, but it's definitely a blues tune at least
(34:02):
that's what I heard when I first heard it, and
it's all synthesizers. And then the moment I heard it,
I thought I need to sing this song. You know,
I had a great melody line, just told a good story,
and like I said, sometimes they just hit you and
(34:23):
you know that, oh this this is a song for
the acoustic guitar.
Speaker 4 (34:29):
When you were with your brother, did you do any
harmonies with him?
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Sure?
Speaker 7 (34:33):
Sure, Yeah we sang and we sang a lot of
CSN stuff and Eagles and uh, you know, the big
harmony bands. But then we sang other things like John
Prine A Little Feet, you know, to this day and
(35:00):
even then, I like singing songs that I like to sing.
Why don't you play this? And I always tell people
that song sucks and it's it's usually the really popular
ones you know that I steer away from.
Speaker 4 (35:19):
Is it because you've heard it so often? Or is
it just it doesn't give you the an emotional punch
that you're looking Yes and yes and three they're overplayed.
You know.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Do I have to sing Brown Eyed Girl today? Absolutely not.
Speaker 4 (35:34):
You know what, I did not want to see the
Eagles when they came to town because I've played the
Eagles to death all my entire career.
Speaker 7 (35:45):
You know.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
When I first entered into radio, they said, you know,
I hope you like the music that you start out
with because it will follow you for your entire career.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
And they were right.
Speaker 4 (35:54):
But when I saw the Eagles perform live, I was like, Oh,
this is something different, And that's what impressed me. I
learned to relove the songs because I could see the
artistry right of that production and the music. And you're like,
oh okay, And I'm not a musician and so like
(36:18):
to see you play guitar and sing. It's just like
it's like magic to me. I just don't understand how
you do it and where does it come? Where does
it come from? In you?
Speaker 1 (36:33):
Right here?
Speaker 7 (36:34):
Wing to his heart, Life's joyce, life's agonies, life's pain,
I think that's where a lot of music.
Speaker 6 (36:49):
Comes from, well, the blues, particularly.
Speaker 7 (36:52):
Personal personal pain. Not that I've lived this wretched life
or anything, but you know, just everybody goes, every experience
will lend itself to.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
A piece of music if you let it.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
You know, how many songs do you still play? Like,
how many of your original songs do you play on
any given night?
Speaker 7 (37:18):
I've never played I don't think more than six half
a dozen of them.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
And what is it? What is it about those six songs?
Speaker 7 (37:30):
I feel there's some of my best work, and it's
been it's been told to me that I should play
more of them at every gig, but not by many people.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
Well, in their defense, they're not. They those songs aren't
going to be familiar to most people. Like if you
play Brown Eyed Girl, you're going to get an emotional
response because that's a song people know and love. But
when like, for example, that that song that you just played,
that's an I had never heard that song before, and
it had an emotional reaction from me, you know, talking
(38:13):
about a woman inside of town. You know, it's a
it's a it's a great blues story. But yeah, yeah,
but but but hearing your guitar and you're playing. I
followed the story and I was like, Okay, that is
a great song. Do you have another great song that
you can share with us?
Speaker 1 (38:30):
Sure?
Speaker 7 (38:31):
Sure, it's got to be great, though, Okay, I'll make
it as great as I can make.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
All right, now, what is the what's the name of
this one? So this one is the one we spoke
about earlier. Put the blame on me, and I.
Speaker 7 (38:47):
Credit Rick Romanelli for this tune because it wouldn't exist
without Rick's one line.
Speaker 4 (38:52):
All right, all right, Rick, you get a little shout
out on this one.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Don't forget to retune the louis, which I do a lot.
Speaker 7 (39:36):
Sorry that I hurt you, baby, and sometime love it's toughue.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
Don't drag me through the dirt now, girl house.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
I've had enough, No baby, and you don't have to
talk to me that way. Just make sure your state's
quean before you try it up.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
But all the blame on me.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
Divin worlds, Divin lines don't add up, so good.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
Let not same old line.
Speaker 5 (40:16):
Change it if I could, But no, baby, you.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
Don't have to talk to me that way. Just make
sure your state is clean before you try it up.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
But all the blame on me.
Speaker 5 (40:40):
No, baby, Yes, I'm sorry that I hurt you, girl,
(41:05):
sorry that I lied, But it takes.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
To to make love work and to to let love die.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
So baby, bitter, you don't have to talk to me
that way. Just make sure your state is clean for
you try to fun all the blame on me. Just
(41:34):
make sure your state is clean before you try to
fun all the blame on me, before you try to
fun all the blame on me. No baby, bit.
Speaker 3 (42:00):
H m hm.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
H m hmmm, don't see.
Speaker 4 (42:22):
I love the song, but I can't relate simply because
it's always my fault the blame. Yeah, that's I'm usually
I'm the person to blame. I just got married about
a month ago, So yeah, thank you.
Speaker 6 (42:37):
Can I ask can I ask gry question?
Speaker 1 (42:39):
Absolutely?
Speaker 6 (42:40):
Talk about the relationship you had with the Blue Society
and going to Memphis to represent them.
Speaker 7 (42:47):
Yeah, great organization of people there still promoting the blues.
Somebody needs to you know, it's it's becoming. You know,
we've taken it back seat.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
People you know talking about blues on the podcast Good
and Well.
Speaker 9 (43:04):
Pittsburgh has a lot of blue Yeah, you Ryan, You
know I was fortunate enough to stumble onto the the
Blue Society of Western Pa.
Speaker 7 (43:16):
One year at UH when Carnegie used to have they
had their own little blues festival. I remember that at
the end of every summer. I think the flood took
care of that. And I stopped by a booth. They
had a booth set up there, and I met Jim Weber, Okay,
(43:37):
and uh, Jim knew who I was. I don't know how,
but Jim knew who I was, and he encouraged me
to and to the challenge that was coming up in
a couple of weeks, and I did, and I believe
it was that one was at the Thunderbird and I
(43:58):
played four of my original tunes. And I remember this vividly.
I was I was always a bridesmaid at the blues challenges.
I lost that competition by a point.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
I found out.
Speaker 7 (44:16):
Oh, yeah, we won't go into that.
Speaker 4 (44:19):
But you know, but you've you've had some serious success
and yeah, I mean the city paper has certainly recognized
your your accomplishments.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
Yes, And.
Speaker 7 (44:31):
When I played with Smoking Section back then, we were
voted number two blues band in Pittsburgh, which was great
because we had just gotten together and we had played
uh the first Pittsburgh Blues Festival.
Speaker 6 (44:49):
Okay, so we.
Speaker 7 (44:51):
Thought, oh, great things are happening for us, and then
that was that was the height of our success that
first year. You know, city paper recognized us, Pittsburgh recognized us,
and it was it was kind of a slow descent
after that.
Speaker 4 (45:07):
Do you like playing solo or do you like the
band atmosphere? And what's yeah the difference. Yes, you just
like playing music.
Speaker 7 (45:15):
Yeah, bands are a lot of fun, they really are.
They are just as many headaches as there are fun times.
So you know, you're married to five or six other people, so.
Speaker 4 (45:31):
And just when you think they all think alike, you
realize nobody has the same thought.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
Correct. Correct.
Speaker 7 (45:41):
I'm trying to think of a good band anecdote, but
you know, I probably can't really relate any of them
over the air, but one one particular, again no names,
but we were We had a rough gig at Sunny
Jim's one night, and internally the great the gig was great,
(46:05):
you know, there was there were struggles on stage and
the sax player would always tune his sacks to the
keyboard to make sure, you know, and one that particular gig,
he had a cigarette in his hand when he went
(46:27):
to tap on the key and ash fell.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
On the keyboard and that was the end of that.
Speaker 7 (46:36):
Let's let's just say that that evening ended on a
quite a sour note, as they say, But.
Speaker 4 (46:44):
Have you ever experienced any other spinal tap moments? Nothing
comes to mind? What's the what's the worst gig you've
ever had? Do you remember your worst gig?
Speaker 3 (47:02):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (47:02):
Wow, goodness, it had to be a solo gig.
Speaker 8 (47:10):
You know.
Speaker 7 (47:18):
Again, I should write them down as they happen. You know,
I should have kept the log of these these events.
Speaker 4 (47:24):
Have you ever had one where nobody showed up?
Speaker 1 (47:27):
Well?
Speaker 7 (47:27):
Absolutely? Okay, there you go. This now, this one's glaring
at me. How could you forget this gig? My wife,
my wife, we weren't married at the time, but she
came with me to watch my three piece band KPg
(47:48):
play at a bar in not too far from Seven Springs.
And I can't remember the name of the bar. It
was a well known place and a huge venue and
we got a gig at this awesome everybody plays here
(48:09):
right Well, that night it was the bar owner, the
three of us in the band, and my wife, my
girlfriend Peggy. Oh you couldn't hear a pin drop because
there was no one there to drop the damp.
Speaker 6 (48:31):
How did that happen?
Speaker 7 (48:32):
Nobody shook We booked this gig, well, I say we.
I didn't do the booking then, so I'm not taking
credit for that one. But it was Winterfest.
Speaker 6 (48:42):
Oh so everybody was up at Seven Springs.
Speaker 1 (48:45):
Yeaheah, yeah I did. At one time.
Speaker 4 (48:47):
I was supposed to be broadcasting live at like it
was like almost like a rave party and it was
a top forty station and they couldn't they couldn't wait
for us to have this party.
Speaker 1 (48:59):
And literally nobody showed up.
Speaker 4 (49:02):
They had a DJ, a huge sound system, they had
a you know, it was like an old roller ring
and it was ready for and free beer. People didn't
even show. You know, you're in trouble. Yeah, those events
you just gotta go. All right, We'll just chalk that
up as an experience. Move on. Yeah, all right? So
(49:24):
is there anything you want to do musically that you
haven't done?
Speaker 7 (49:32):
I would like to learn another instrument I've never This
is the only one I know. I always wanted to
be a drummer. But the left hand has no idea
what the right hand is doing and doesn't even know
that there are two other limbs below that.
Speaker 1 (49:53):
There's no coordination there.
Speaker 4 (49:55):
Uh you had you mentioned that you have quite a
large family. Did anybody else play any thing other than
guitar in the family.
Speaker 1 (50:01):
No, No, just guitars.
Speaker 7 (50:05):
Yeah, my brother brought home an old, upright piano one year.
He used to work for South Hills Movers there for
a stretch, and I imagine it came from a move,
you know, not not illegally, you know.
Speaker 4 (50:26):
Yeah, I actually had a couple of pianos because you
know a lot of people. Everybody wants to.
Speaker 1 (50:32):
Buy a piano until they own one, until.
Speaker 4 (50:34):
They own one, and then trying to get rid of it,
forget it right, right, you have to get neighbors and
friends and family to move it because they're they're so
big and large. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (50:42):
Yeah, So he dabbled in the piano here a little bit,
but that never did. I kind of watched him and
figured out you needed three fingers to play a chord,
and again, your right hand and your left hand need
to be independent and ornated together at the same time.
Speaker 1 (51:01):
And that's just kind.
Speaker 6 (51:02):
Of think You do that on the guitar.
Speaker 1 (51:04):
Coordinate you do, you absolutely do. But that's why I
only got so far.
Speaker 4 (51:11):
You mentioned like you write less frequently. Now, Yeah, when's
the last time you actually had a song in your head?
Speaker 7 (51:22):
I wrote a song a year ago, and before that,
I wrote a couple of songs in two thousand and nine,
and I'm not happy about that.
Speaker 1 (51:35):
You know, it's such a great.
Speaker 7 (51:38):
Gratifying thing when you can produce something like that and
to have it just vanish is puzzling. It's kind of stressful,
you know, in a way, because it's a release to
be able to sit down and write. Your thoughts were
(52:00):
random things that pop into your head. Now I started
texting those little random thoughts to myself, so I'm getting
a little mini backlog of just blips and blurbs.
Speaker 6 (52:16):
Yeah, you might find it. You'll be prolific all of
a sudden, too.
Speaker 1 (52:20):
Well, that's what I'm hoping.
Speaker 6 (52:21):
Yeah, Okay, well together on that, Yeah, do you still
listen to.
Speaker 4 (52:30):
Other bands and other music? And and what what kind
of music do you still listen to?
Speaker 7 (52:36):
We were just talking on the way in and I
told Annie, I said, I do not listen to the radio.
Speaker 1 (52:42):
And that's okay, Gary, that's all right. I got three kids,
I gotta feed my children. That's all right, sorry, Johnny.
Speaker 7 (52:53):
But I found a band a couple of years ago,
Lark and Poe. I don't know how I found them.
They're from Georgia, two sisters, the Lovell sisters, Rebecca and Meghan, and.
Speaker 1 (53:13):
They play.
Speaker 7 (53:15):
Everyone plays a mix of genres these days. It's alternative, blues, country,
tinge things. Look them up Lark and Poe. I got
to see them in concert, which we don't go to
many concerts anymore. They came to the Roxy and McKee's
(53:37):
Rocks a few years back, and that was just a
big deal to go see something new and fresh that
I hadn't experienced before. And they're on my They play
in my car every time I get in. You know,
you know what's great about you know, there's not the superstars.
(53:59):
There's no super stars now, you know what I mean?
Radio used to have and so you don't have that.
But if you have a genre of music that you're
passionate about, you can find you find them. You can
find it anywhere on Spotify and YouTube and all. There's
so many other different places where you can find different
kinds of music. And so I don't think, you know,
(54:23):
people say you know, you know, we're losing a lot
of our great artists, like the classic art classic rock
artists are dying off.
Speaker 4 (54:32):
But it's not like people don't still love music. We
all do. I think a lot of us do. Not everybody,
but most most people still love music. And if and
if you like a certain genre of music, and there's
always like you said, there's you know, you said, the folk, blues, guitar,
benjo music, you can find it. That's your thing.
Speaker 1 (54:54):
There's somebody out there for you. Absolutely google it. Yeah,
just google it.
Speaker 4 (54:59):
Yeah, all right, So this is something how we kind
of end all our podcast. What would you like your
legacy to be? Wow?
Speaker 7 (55:15):
I would have to say that I wasn't afraid to
do what I loved. I've been waiting all my life
to play music. I'm getting emotional and I'm doing it.
I do it for a living now. I've been doing
(55:35):
it for a living, you know, solely for eight years.
I've been playing out in bars in Pittsburgh for forty
five years.
Speaker 3 (55:46):
You know.
Speaker 4 (55:47):
Yeah, not a lot of people can say they do
it full time. Yeah. It's just a great thing to
be able to have that at my disposal, you know, Uh,
I know, a handful of people that do it, and
they're probably the happiest people I know. Yeah, it's a
(56:10):
great thing.
Speaker 7 (56:11):
Mm hmm
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