Ok, next chapter. I'm now about 22/23 and I have spent a little time in college, lived and played in Kansas City, played a in Iowa, Missouri (Kansas City, St. Louis), Kansas, Colorado, Minnesota, (Minneapolis and Duluth), and Central Illinois (of course home town Springfield).
I'm back living at my parents and get a call from Bloomington IL Willie, tall cat from Georgia with heavy accent. He plays pedal steel, harp, and sings. He has a 4 night a week steady at a club in Bloomington IL with her girlfriend and wants me to play guitar and sing. I can stay with him and his girlfriend. I said yes and the gig lasted about 4 months. I was able to get some gigs in southern IL for Willie and me with Rex Robinson added on bass and Chuck Wilson on drums. Rex was 16 and and Albert King had wanted him to go on the road with him, ha. Rex was Robby Robinson's brother who we talked about before and who brought me to LA (for a later chapter). After those 4 months and some of the odd gigs around Springfield, I started working for Bob Littrell's music store on week days as Bob had a day job besides the store. I managed the store during the week, taught guitar there, had some jams. It became a real hang for the Springfield music scene.
Let me say somethings about Springfield IL. It is the capital of Illinois so a whole lot of government was housed there which brought a lot of Chicago people down, was where Abraham Lincoln was raised and lived, had law offices, and was part of the legislature, was elected president, and is buried. Springfield is also infamous RT 66 so an easy hop from Chicago to St. Louis and all points beyond as mentioned in the song. Because of these attributes there has always been a remarkable music scene there that spawned some great players and brought in a fair amount also. My story has interactions with a lot of these musicians but there were others that impacted Springfield that were not in my immediate playing universe at the time like now New Orleans bassist James Singleton, singer/guitarist/trumpeter) Frank Laurie ( Shy Guys, Hollidays, Chicago Mauds), trumpeter Dave Hoffman, guitarist Gene Bennett, guitarist Sam Crain, Hank and Jeff Helton and their band, Marty Ushman and his bands with guitarist Steve Woods, Blues Man Bill Evans, Keyboardist Eddie Snow, Trumpter/Teacher/Band Leader Dick Garretson, guitarist/studio owner Rich Denhart, keys Lanny Montgomery, drummer Denny Best, drummer Art Carey, guitarist Frank Huston, sax man Gail Pellitier, sax man Bill Janssen, Louis Armstrong drummer Barret Deems, drummer Melvin Crisp, guitarist David Lumsden, guitarist/vocalist Andon Davis, and so many more. A great place to look for more info is is on the Facebook group Springfield Music History.
During that time Robby asked me to move to Jacksonville Florida where his group fresh from playing touring with legendary trumpeter/singer Phil Driscoll had reorganized with a steady . It was Robby, brother Rex on bass, Illinois drummer Lynn Hamman (played with Frankie Valli and Kenny Rogers for years) and a vocalist I can't remember the name of. I have to say that at the time all these cats were really heavy players who could play all styles and could pretty much cut it with anybody. BUT I had family sickness issues so turned the gig down (mistake in retro). So I had been gigging around Springfield with friends and formed a group called Fat Tuesday with Gary Bloom singing, Dirk Kiefner on keys, and Willy Samuelson on bass. We had a soundman Bruce Baldoni who was and is a wonderful crazy guy who had an old victorian house that he let me make my bed. We played all the bars that had music in Central IL. I knew I was bidding time waiting for the Vietnam war to get over but I was constantly practicing and trying to learn more guitar. I was also singing a WHOLE lot and that helped a whole lot with the gigs. I believe time wise that was the period that Blues Rock Guitarist David Lumsden (who I am still working with to this day as a promoter and marketer) was running a club, Victoria Falls, that brought in high level regional rock bands like guitarist/singer Jules Blattner from St. Louis, Big Twist and the Mellow Fellows, Duke Tomatoe and the All Star Frogs, various guitarist Joe Cooke bands, and was a late hours club that was the hang after a lot of cats got done playing their gigs. We also had the famous Springfield Lake Club that had all the big bands and vocalists from the 1940's and 50's play that by then was bring in steadies of some of the top disco bands of the time and it was a late night hang also. Whew some heavy drinking and partying during that time that I'm not proud of but some great music made.
Enter Bobby McFerrin! As I look back on my life there were people that I hooked up with that made profound impacts on my psych. Obviously over the years Bobby has impacted many lives the same way. I used to call him the "pied piper" because people would hear or hang with him and just follow him around. So I hadn't been back in Springfield for too long
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