Musical Bio
The Bard Rocks began by playing sax in his school's band, but it was singing with other kids in hootenannys at a church camp that got him excited abut folk music. Listening to the TV show of the same name which was so popular during the 1960’s Great Folk Scare widely exposed him to professionals.. He'd stay up to all hours on Saturday nights searching the dial on a 40 year old radio for stations all over the US that played folk music. He bought a bunch of folk song books and learned hundreds of songs from them. If he had never heard a piece performed, he figured out something that sounded right to him and did it that way. Then there were the recordings by the Kingston Trio and the other pop folkie groups of the day. Junior Wilson, whose parents owned the local music store, turned him on to Bluegrass. By college, he continued to play in concert band, but on bass clarinet, which he taught himself as he'd done with stringed instruments. And there he began to explore source music, either old recordings of those who had learned their music by listening to the old folks in their families, or field recordings made by ethnomusicologists. He still listened to modern singers but, as they broke from tradition, he was drawn more in the other direction. Without a history of oral transmission, it took an exceptional song hold his interest. Nothing has changed though his horizons broadened - guardedly - to embrace certain well-written but old-sounding modern pieces, without a sacrifice of his original love of the old songs and pieces. If you could look at his voluminous collection of recorded music, you'd see that old recordings, "source music" if you will, predominate.That's the short story. The long one continues below.
In college, Peter Leavens, introduced him to the New Lost City Ramblers and the bands who first recorded their music. He was already a fan of Doc Watson’s phenomenal playing and relaxed singing. He heard about how influential the Carter Family was and liked what he heard. Then came the Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem, and Irish was added to an increasingly eclectic mix. College papers led him to damsels & snow white steeds in the old Child Ballads. By grad school, he discovered Mississippi John Hurt and a plethora of old and little-known blues and ragtime players. Later on came the yodeling of Jimmie Rogers. Older country songs appeared after a friend gave him a Hank Williams tape. Familiar with country music as the only radio station he could find during midnight milking was a country one out of Canada, it was Hank’s music that got him playing it. A friendship with Sean Blackburn & Liz Masterson led him to rediscover cowboy music. And the old-style gospel was always there, its place firmly cemented because it is just so... so singable. Humorous songs were popular with the college Outing Clubs that he first sang with and will never be far away from him.
So, who does he copy? Who does he sound like? Well, ...... he sounds and plays like... hmmm.... like The Bard Rocks. He has never wished to follow in another’s footsteps, or to imitate, though sometimes he has wished that he could. His playing can take on the ragtime bounce of John Hurt, the thumb-led melody of the Carter family, or whoever, but it is stays his own definable sound, sophistication submerged, never so polished that it loses rough-edged authenticity. He takes what he likes, what strikes him in both the ear and the heart, and adapts it into something of his own, but always in keeping with the music’s intent. It might be a new take, but it will still sound old.
The Bard Rocks Musical Education (the l-o-n-g version)
In 4th grade he took up the saxophone and played in the school band for the next 8 years. Not a good band, but he stuck to it. In college he found the Concert Band was what he was looked for, professional quality, with a demanding conductor. But this band was already too highly saxed, so at the conductor's request, he taught himself bass clarinet. What this means is that the Bard is musically literate, something Ms. Cathcart Bennett, the local elementary music teacher, learned to her surprise. Accustomed to giving him the gentleman's C (she gave only 3 grades: A to most everyone, C to those that she had no hope for, and F to those who hassled her), she had a semester of teaching everyone to read music. Having already done that for 2 years, reading music was a piece of cake for The Bard. Does he read tablature? Of course not. But we get ahead of ourselves once again.
Then, when he was 14, an epiphany! He attended a Bible camp at Haverford College. What did the kids there do for fun? They had Hoots! And they were a hoot, too. Until then, he had strictly avoided singing. Never, period. Here’s how far this went: his 4th grade buddies hated him one fine spring day as Mrs. Jones had insisted that the class could not have recess until each one of them sang a song. This progressed fitfully, until it was his turn. It became a battle of wills: the (adamantly silent) Bard Rocks vs. Mrs. Jones. No recess that day. Anyway, at age 14, he finally discovered that singing was fun. Too bad Mrs. Jones never learned he made that discovery - what would she have thought?. With a crowd singing lustily, no one could hear him - it was safe. When he returned home, he just had to get a guitar. Non-musical parents caved in, supportive as ever, and a cheap Kay archtop showed up, not quite what he had envisioned, but beggars can’t be choosers. He began to teach himself to play with the help of a (yes) comic book that had folk songs and some chords in it. You could get stuff like that then. The local bus station had them, and some folk song books as well, all in the magazine section. He hung around the local music store, bought cheap records whenever he could find them ($4 for an album was a luxury for the rich, folks who had jobs; his limit was $2). He never missed Hootenanny on TV, and was convinced that when he finally got to college, there would be people playing folk music in every corner. Turned out, it wasn't like that at good old U of D, but he did find kindred souls in the Outing Club and began leading songfests with them. He wrote research papers on folk music, did a lot of scholarly reading and listening at that time, a practice he continues today. Add some courses in music appreciation, 8 semesters of concert band and some classical music opportunities. Actually, a large portion of his musical education, whether it be folk, jazz, or classical, came from the back of album covers! He reads every word.
A school teacher upon graduation, he picked up his first Martin guitar and later began playing autoharp, an instrument he could play melody on after only 5 minutes of practice. They don't call it "auto" for nothing. After grad school, he graduated from college songfests as well and entered a period of basically what amounted to hiding under rugs and playing in closets when no one was around. Dairy farmers don’t have much time to play music with others, but he did join the North Country Fiddlers and worked once in a while on stage as an accompanist. Later on, mandolin was added and the fiddle was started, then quickly abandoned. Nothing sounds so beautiful as a violin properly played - and nothing worse when poorly played. He couldn’t listen to that crap!
When he moved his farming operation to the Mohawk Valley, he discovered a richness of folk music that, until then, he had only dreamed about. Oh, how wonderful were those nights at the Old Songs Festival or Caffe Lena. Then, The Bard Rocks met the PSG (Pickin’ ‘n Singin ’ Gatherin’). Now there were other amateurs and semiprofessionals to play with! Momentum gathered. Banjo was added to the mix. He began to host get-togethers at his house, which continue to this day.
When he sold his Johnstown farm in 1999 and moved to his present location, he feared losing his musical community. But the opposite happened. In his fear, he searched deeper and further. Trained since college to read bulletin boards, he saw a card for an Irish group. “Hey, I like Irish music.”, he thought, “Maybe I can get together with them!” So he called. The reception was guarded, but they finally said to come on over for a practice. Oh, embarrassment, this was a group that sometimes performed for real (like, green) money and he had just implanted himself into their band, unasked and unexpected. And they permitted it!, eventually allowing him to lead. Looking back at a distance of quite a few years, that chance marriage of The Bard Rocks and the Valley Bog Players was a good one, a marriage that lasted for decades. He also began to find more venues to play and also to listen. A week’s stay at the Ashoken Music Camp gave him additional experience and contacts.
Finally, somewhere along the line, The Bard Rocks decided that he loved his non-Irish music too much not to share it with as many folks as he could. Yes, there were others that were better singers and some are better players, but, doggone it, they weren’t out there or if they were, were so expensive that most regular folks would never get to hear them. This stuff is just too good to have it be forgotten, moldy. So another career was launched. A card at a music store led to a a 10 year duo called The Bentwood Rockers, playing old time, Piedmont blues, and hokum music. When his partner went on to play rock to larger audiences, The Bard Rocks continued to play solo and, later, with a mostly-Irish fiddler as The Munster Pickles. Anything to show audiences what is it is about these old neglected songs that makes him love them so much. And he gets to tell someone else besides his wife all those jokes and stories. She refuses to laugh; but his audiences don't have that problem!
And he continues to read liner notes.