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Paul |
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Guitars
In 1956 the guitar had come of age age.
From Les Paul and Mary Ford to ELvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Kingston Trio, Harry Belefonte, Bill Haley, Chuck Berry
... and Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis, Wes Montgomery . ... and I had a job at the Gibson guitar distributor (Chicago
Musical Instrument 7300 N. Cicero Ave., Lincolnwood).
Bob Harris taught (Karnes Music in Evanston) jazz and blues and Chicago was, a jazz and blues town.
But Chicago was also a country and western town with Bob Atcher's National Barn Dance in Schaumburg not 15 miles
from my High School.
Blues and ice cold jazz were the thing at the Sutherland Hotel lounge at 64th and Drexel Ave.
Times were good and everybody had V8 cars (fast cars). It was the best times in the 20th century -- especially
if you were 16 years old.
Johnny
Rector (a fantastic jazz guitarist) also worked for CMI and taught me
a slew of jazz chords. He got me hooked up with Vince Chewning's Band (another CMI employee) and later with Art Van Damme's
band. Johnny was a great mentor.
Johnny Rector'
I did "my time" in the Navy. After that I went to Loyola
University on the GI Bill and played guitar in small groups (blues, polka,
rock, jazz). You needed a union card -- James
Petrillo was the musicians union in Chicago.
I moved to Carbondale in 1969; 400 miles south of Chicago in the Illinois "hill" country. Carbondale
is closer to Memphis than to Chicago. Kentucky and S.E. Missouri are across the river. It's definitely "country-western"
music. Back then Roy Acuff hosted the Grand Old Opry every Friday night on WSM Nashville.