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My earliest recollection of music in my life that made an indelible impression on me happened in the middle or late '50s
watching TV one Saturday evening with my father. I remember him asking me to get up and change the TV to another channel for
him. Dutifully, as his oldest and most reliable organic TV remote person I remember carefully switching channels from station
to station just slow enough to capture a small sound byte and visual of each black & white program. I knew if I went to
fast, I would have revisit the channel in that old Fresno CA house we called home.
For the first ten years of my life, I thought all TV's, Motorola's in particular, came outfitted with pliers instead of
a channel changing knob, because that was all I ever knew. Then there we're the rabbit ear antennas that needed to be adjusted
on the "idiot box" as my father loved referring to the "boob tube".
I happened upon a channel that Jerry Lee Lewis was pounding away on a solo with hands and the heel of his right foot.
I was so intrigued with what I was witnessing I remember my heart pounding in my chest (and I wasn't breathing either) my
eyes fixed on the craziest, but most exciting musical event I ever remember seeing in my life!
Suddenly, I became aware of my father shouting "turn that rock & roll crap off!". And so, with great sadness
I grabbed the pliers and switched the channel as slowly as I could. I would spend countless hours searching the airwaves trying
to find that wild eyed crazy man shouting about a great ball of fire. Goodness gracious! It like no other music I ever heard.
I didn't even know if I liked it, but I was really drawn into the energy of the music.
Not long after that we moved from Fresno to Bakersfield CA and I found more TV rock & roll friends like Elvis, Bill
Haley, Little Richard, Ray Charles through my motivated pursuit to find more Rock & Rollers. That was a funny name I always
thought as a kid...rock & roll. What the hell does that mean? Who came up with such a name? It's name was so mysterious,
no adult I ever asked knew what it meant. I figured that it must be some mystical occult secret God himself made up.
Bakersfield was an interesting town that spawned country & western music that was unique to the San Joaquin Valley
the '50s & early '60s. I used to watch Cousin Herb's (Henson) Trading Post Show almost every day after school. This was
a local music show on KERO-TV that hosted local talent like Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, Bonnie Owens and scores of huge
C&W artist over the ten years of broadcasting they did 5 times a week for ten years!
I remember my Grandmother took me to Hart Park in Bakersfield one summer day and I noticed a group of people gathering
around a makeshift stage with hay bails bordering the front of the stage. As I watched the musicians take the rickety stage
I recognized Buck Owens and his band from the Cousin Herb Show. It was my lucky day... live music! I remember thinking, this
was the loudest music I ever heard!
I watched them until my grandmother dragged me away by my arm as I soaked in everything my senses could. Grandma was not
happy! I asked her if she was mad... but she muttered something about that fandangle music. Years later when she asked me
what I wanted to do when I grew up, I told her I wanted to be a musician. Well suffice to say, I got the same lecture from
her that I got from my other grandma and both my parents. Was there some evil secret about being a musician that adults knew
about that they weren't telling me about?
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