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Foreword
When I first prepared the “Meet the Staff” section of my website it never really occurred to me that I should include my personal musical credentials. The first version of my short biography included there overlooked this history and gave the impression that I was inexperienced or green to the music sceen. As some good friends and customers have suggested, I am correcting this oversight and am including my personal musical history.
Musical Beginnings ... eager, teen and green
I became interested in music in 1970 at age 10 when I was offered the opportunity to participate in my elementary school's music program, at Pine Street Elementary in Spartanburg, South Carolina. I had been drawn to the violin for some time and here was the chance to explore this interest. Having no elder family member who was a musician, I was rather green to the different musical genres. For the next 7 years I was channeled into classical music through the ongoing school programs. During this time I participated in several all-state orchestras and even a classical LP record intended for the parents of the participating high-schoolers. I actually held my own pretty well, and sat 3rd chair first violins in the Spartanburg High School orchestra, one of the state's better youth orchestras. I also attended summer music camps and did the typical musical outings for a high schooler in the 1970s.
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A water-damaged snapshot of me at age 13 in
costume as "The Fiddler on the Roof" performing
at the Spartanburg Little Theatre, 1973
(the beard was stage makeup, of course)
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One itch that had never been satisfied throughout my early music experience was that I wanted to learn how to improvise on my instrument. While reading notes and being a part of a very good orchestra was pretty cool, after seeing some of my friends improvise freely on guitar, the improvise bug bit hard. Even then, I thought the idea of playing freely, whatever comes through the mind and heart, expressed through the musical instrument, was the ultimate musical experience I wanted. As a young teenager I was unable to clearly express that thought through words. When I was 13 years old I was beginning to stand out as one of the better violinists in the class. I had played for 3 years and was yearning for more. I asked my music teacher before class one morning, “When do we learn how to improvise?” I remember the reply to this day, and was actually told by that orchestra teacher that I had to play violin for “30 or 40 years” before I would be good enough to improvise. Bless her heart. She really believed that. Unfortunately, so did I.
My interest in classical music began to wane in about 1975 when Spartanburg High School hired a new conductor whose mission it was to whip the orchestra into shape for regional competitions. Suddenly, participating in orchestra became much like participating in sports. The orchestra became the team, we were yelled at constantly by this new conductor-coach, and we were constantly worked through the paces for numerous upcoming competitions. So, what had previously been a joy quickly became a daily nightmare. This type of influence quickly killed the musical desire in me. I quit orchestra in 1976, disgusted, the year before I graduated high school. But the musical bug still was not satisfied.
Upon graduation in 1977 I found myself with lots of time, no personal debt, and a unique window to explore something completely new. I decided not to continue on to college at that time, and instead bought my first banjo, an inexpensive Hondo II. Having come from the classical tradition of having it drummed into my head that it was nearly impossible to improvise, I purchased every banjo instruction book that was available to me in that year. One thing about classical training is it teaches good practice skills and technique. Tabulature, it turned out, was easier to read than music, so within 6 months I was actually pretty good at banjo. But that was only when tabulature was in front of me. Just as with classical music, take the music away and I was unable to play the instrument. In the first year of my own musical re-training, it was apparent to me that I had to “un-learn” much of what I had been taught regarding improvization and my relationship with the instrument I was playing.
My first real picking experience began when with banjo lessons from Dan X. Padgett, a fine banjo picker from Ellensboro, North Carolina. Dan sounded exactly like Earl Scruggs and, in fact, had years earlier filled in for Earl on WSM live radio when Earl was unable to be there. On those live radio casts, the audience never knew it was Dan filling in for Earl. I started attending local jam sessions wherever I happened to find myself. At age 17 I was in my first real bluegrass band playing parties, picnics, and family gatherings for gas money, a meal and fun.
I think the first time I ever remember hearing a banjo was on the old Beverly Hillbillies and Hee Haw television shows in the late 1960s and early 1970s. That sound just fascinated me and, I suppose, reached the hillbilly in me. Banjos everywhere. Once I began learning the banjo my earliest influences included some Tony Triska and Pete Wernick recordings, and the sounds of Larry McNeely, Bill Keith and Bobby Thompson (Bobby was the banjoist who played the Hew Haw theme, and actually grew up only a few miles away from me in Converse, South Carolina. Somewhere along the way I snagged a copy of the famous recording Bill Keith made when he visited Bobby Thompson in 1964. Very cool indeed!).
Being almost the same age as Béla Fleck, as his recordings began making the rounds I became really excited by his sound, and kind of grew up with his sound. I really like the tone Béla gets out of his banjo. Also, I've always enjoyed the goofiness of Eddie Adcock's banjo style—what a great musician! And of course, what banjo player has not been influenced by Earl Scruggs? My dad, who was born 1924 in Brush Creek, Tennessee, always told me he was related to Earl's wife Louise, a distant cousin. I have not had the pleasure of meeting either Earl or his wife, but I guess there is a distant family tie there somewhere.
Instrument and Musician find Each Other
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I soon needed a better banjo than the beginner instrument I was using. Many folk musicians probably already realize this, but in the late 1970s many of the major American instrument makers strayed from their roots and produced instruments of very poor quality that were horribe. I know, I was there. |
| One of the best music stores in the Spartanburg area had at least 12 banjos on display at any time, and when it was time to trade up, I tried every banjo I could get my hands on. |
The problem was, all the banjos I tried were poorly built and sounded horrible. Some of the inlays on the most expensive American instruments looks lika a child had inlayed the mother-of-pearl. The Gibson banjos I tried sported an 11-ply wood rim, a horrible component that lent to its horrible sound. To make a long story short, I decided to make my own banjo, and learned about a man named Bill Sullivan who was operating a small banjo parts store out of his garage in Louisville, Kentucky. His company, known then as First Quality Banjo Supply, had a reputation for producing and supplying high-quality banjo parts to builders. I purchased a 3-ply hard-rock maple rim made by Bill, and had him fit a Stewart-MacDonald tone ring to it. I finished the rim in sunburst lacquer. To that I added a top-tension kit available at the time from Liberty Banjo Company (now defunct). Liberty also had some cool inlay patterns, and I had Bill Sullivan produce a custom-made neck using a one-of-a-kind custom inlay pattern, designed by luthier Bob Flesher, to complete the banjo. The original neck inlay was expertly hand-inlaid by Brian England. Bill's company, re-named First Quality Musical Supply, has since grown to become of the largest and most respected suppliers of musical instruments, parts and accessories in the country. First Quality also has a custom shop which can produce just about any custom musical instrument you can dream of, especially banjos!
In 1987 a friend of mine opened a metal shop in Knoxville. I had him strip all the nickel plating off the tone ring, flange and tension hoop, and spray about 6-8 coats of clear coat car paint on instead. The result was much more stunning than gold-plated hardware and the natural beauty of the brass and bronze components has remained mostly unblemished in the years since. It never tarnishes.
In 2001 my banjo was damaged in shipment by Federal Express, and the insured settlement was used to commission Bill's in-house luthiers to fashion a replacement neck, which I love and use to this day. To the original neck I added a radiussed fingerboard. Unfortunately, I sold the original neck on eBay, so the hand inlay work of Brian went with it. That neck was restored by the eBay-er who acquired it, so somewhere out there is a sister neck to my own. The new neck perfectly reproduced Bob Flesher's pattern using modern CAD-CAM computer technology. It's a great neck.
There's nothing more satisfying than to play on a musical instrument that you have fallen in love with and makes a perfect match for making music. It really is a mutual interaction.
Mid 1980s — Early 1990s
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| I participated in the 1988 Tennessee Banjo Institute, an amazing experience. |
For a few years I let the banjo become idle as other chapters of my life were unfolding. In my early 20's I returned again to banjo, at that time in Memphis, Tennessee. I began attending regular weekly jams there and this helped me get my musical chops back. For the next 10 years I found myself throughout the southeast and would basically keep music at a slow simmer in my life.
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During this time I frequented jam sessions in and around Memphis, Knoxville and Nashville Tennessee, Spartanburg and Columbia South Carolina, Charlottesville and Wise Virginia, Whitesburg Kentucky, Boone North Carolina, Atlanta Georgia, and wherever else I may hear of picking going on. Lots of places I cannot even remember.
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The custom Tennessee auto tag
I've had since about 1984
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D. Stout and Monroe Queener
Two of the deepest influences on my personal musicianship are bassist D. Stout (Knoxville, TN) and dobroist Monroe Queener (Jacksboro, TN), whom I had the good fortune to meet and befriend, and share much music together. I met D. Stout in the summer of 1985 at Bradbury Community Center, a local weekly jam session located off Interstate 40 west of Knoxville. I had seen D. many times before but one day he approached me and wanted me as part of his jam group. That began a friendship that lasted for many years. I met Monroe through D. as the two had been friends for many years. The three of us clicked musically, as though we had played together for years.
Both D. and Monroe were alumni in the mid 1950s to the early 1960s of the legendary radio and TV program The Mid-Day Merry Go-Round, a live performance show aired on Knoxville station WNOX. Broadcast from 1937 until the early 1960s, the live shows highlighted “hillbilly” music artists and became a noontime institution for generations of East Tennesseans. The show also helped launch the careers of many legendary artists. Monroe, I later learned, was also very influential in the playing of dobroist Josh Graves, who as a youngster sought Monroe's tutoring on the instrument. Monroe told me that as a kid Josh hounded him to learn how he was playing licks and getting his sound. Josh later went on to become one of the most influential dobroists on the bluegrass music scene. To hear Josh Graves play dobro was to hear Monroe Queener come through loud and clear, without doubt. Many of Monro's unique and inventive licks were echoed in Josh's playing.
Live Radio
D., Monroe, myself and a variety of other local musicians, including at various times, Jimmy Johnson, Jerry Monday, Red Harris and others, formed numerous and various bands and played literally hundreds of gigs over the next 5 years at nearly every small, hometown venue imaginable in the east Tennessee area. One of the most exciting musical experiences for me with these guys was in the late 1980s, we were musical hosts for a live performance radio show of our own origination. D. and Monroe gathered a band together for the purpose of re-creating the days of performance before a live radio audience. We collectively rented an old movie theater in New Tazewell, Tennessee and for an intense 6-month period were musical hosts for a live weekly 3-hour musical variety show from 7:00–10:00 pm every Saturday night. The show was simulcast on local radio stations WLAF (LaFollette, TN) and WJDT (Rogersville, TN). I cut my musical teeth during these times, as D. and Monroe did not use any set lists, but would spontaneously play one of any hundreds of tunes they knew between the two. I had to be on my toes just to keep up with these old timers! The music included bluegrass, of course, but also included tunes not often heard, some having a very cool swing beat few were playing in the area. Monroe's rendition of Isle of Dreams, Kansas City Kitty and Mockingbird wowed anyone who heard. D. sang a great swingy version of Smoke That Cigarette and knew a never ending list of show tunes and ballads. The show also featured guest bands between our sets and we got to highlight dozens of up and coming regional bands. Somewhere out there are hundreds of recordings made of these live shows and some of the spin-off gigs that resulted. If anyone reading this should happen to have access to any of these recordings, please contact me, I would greatly appreciate it.
Mr. Stout passed in 1991 from bone cancer and Monroe Queener passed in 1998 from complications stemming from diabetes. In the years hence I have grown to see how fortunate I was to have known these wonderful and authentic human beings and to have shared so many musical experiences together. D. and Monroe were perhaps some of the most gracious musicians I have had the pleasure of making music with.
I once asked D. Stout what “D” stood for in his name. “It doesn't stand for anything,” he told me. “It's just ‘D’ — period!” And so it was. D. could really capture an audience and was a natural showman. D. and Monroe brought out the best in me, and both were like fathers to me. My appreciation for their kindness and grace, and sheer musical talent, continues to grow, even many years after their passings. Monroe was one of the best dobro players I have ever heard, and although he is not widely known, his influence really extended world-wide through Josh Graves, who only began crediting Monroe in the last few years of his own life. I googled Monroe Queener's name and am really surprised to find very little out there about the really great musician who was an integral part of the east Tennessee music scene and The Mid-Day Merry Go-Round for many years. I wonder how many great and influential musicians history has overlooked. I think in time to come, recordings of Monroe will emerge and help establish a well-deserved place for him in dobro history.
Early — Mid 1990s The HeartWood Band
In 1990 I received a phone call from a local guitar player whom I had met at various jam sessions. This person wanted to explore putting together a bluegrass band, which would eventually became known as The HeartWood Band. This band lasted about 2-1/2 years and was both a fulfilling experience musically, but one of the most frustrating experiences, overall, personally. And for good reason. In the time together as a band, we put together what some considered to be one of the hottest up-and-coming contemporary bluegrass bands in the area. We entered and won several band contests, and were fetching serious money at local private parties and corporate events, and were toying with the idea of creating a studio CD. We had banked thousands of dollars in gig money and owned our own equipment. This was a serious band, it seemed to me. That was the satisfying part of the experience…
The band dissolved suddenly in early 1993 when it became revealed that the entire purpose for forming the band two years prior was so that the lead guitar player, a guy, and the female lead singer could carry on a secret extra-marital affair. The entire band had been a ruse for their infidelities. It was an apparent accident that the band began being successful. This betrayal was crested only by the indignation the lead guitar player showed toward other band members after he was literally caught in the act by his wife. He washed his hands of the entire band, as though the band were somehow at fault. In less then a two week period, this individual destroyed all the good work and acts of an entire band and showed no contrition at all, to this day. You really learn who your friends are, and are not, through these experiences.
Mid 1990s — Early 2000s The Love Dawgs
In the summer of 1995 or 96 my then-wife, Faye and I were shopping at the Knoxville Farmer's Market one afternoon and stumbled across a group of musicians playing fine acoustic music for passersby. That chance meeting began a many year friendship with Chris Durman and his multitude of musical friends. I was invited to become a participant in various musical permutations, of a loose-knit group which became fondly known as The Love Dawgs. The band gained a diverse local following for playing spontaneous, jam-driven gigs which could last for hours or all night, depending on the setting. You never knew what The Love Dawgs would play because the band never had a set list. The music could take any direction, from old-time to folk, rock to swing to grunge, ballad to bluegrass. In the 5+ years I played with this ever fluid and ever changing group of musicians, I think we practiced, maybe, twice. But every minute we spent together was making musical magic and extending musical friendships.
In time, the group dispersed as life's changes naturally unfolded. One member began a family and his career moved him to a distant city. Ditto that for two other members. Near the end of The Love Dawg days, Chris, his close childhood friend Steve White (one of the few mandolin players who can really wail with slide mandolin!) and myself were playing low-key gigs at weddings, parties, etc. I began developing this website about the time Chris wanted to return to his music roots which was to explore duo performances with Steve. In time we have lost contact as our lives apparently have led us in different musical directions. The musical experiences I enjoyed and shared with these folks has remained a strong influence on me in the days and years since. Thanks for the memories.
Other efforts at putting together bands resulted in brief but fun musical experiences, including the short-lived band Old Hickory with really wonderful musicians Patrick Powers (Knoxville, TN) and Donnie and Debbie Barbra (Maryville, TN). Largely due to Donnie's eclectic taste in music the repertoire ranged from Bill Monroe to Townes VanZant, folk, swing and some blues thrown in too. (Donnie is Jeff Barbra’s dad.)
2001 — Present
In late 2001 I began developing the concept of finecases.com and approached several major manufacturers and distributors with the idea of a boutique web store with emphasis on cases, gig bags and high-quality accessories. The project quickly took on a life of its own as I got deeper into the formulation of how the menu and databases would function, and of course all the visual design and html code to enable the site. The project continues to consume all of my time, and then some, so the idea of participating in a band currently is not practical given the constraints on my time and energies.
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I currently jam with a group of fine acoustic musicians in a garage each Wednesday night, and occasionally some of the local jam sessions including Bradbury, Rocky Branch, and others.
There are also some fine annual jam session parties, including Steve Kaufman who has really enjoyable jam sessions both at his home and his well-known Acoustic Kamps. (finecases.com is a sponsor of the annual summer camps hosted by Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee.)
My good friends Tim Smith and his wife Pat Birdsong host some of the most enjoyable jamming parties spanning the last 16 years just outside Boone, North Carolina, times I look forward to and try not to miss. (Pat helps organize the wonderful annual Music Fest 'n Sugar Grove which finecases.com supports.)
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| Photo © www.KnoxPics.org |
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Also very enjoyable is an annual jam hosted by Doug Jones outside of Atlanta, Georgia each fall. Doug loves teaching blues guitar. Check out his website LittleBrotherBlues.com. He is also one of the principals behind the really cool online magazine AcousticPlayerMagazine.com.
Currently I am working on a personal pet project, a studio recording project to create a CD sometime within the next year or two. This is something that has been on the back burner for years and it seems now is time to explore this as I can squeeze out a few moments here and there.
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| Photo © Doug Jones / Little Brother Blues |
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So, there you have it, my musical history age 10 to present. I hope to someday be able to return to a place where making music can be more front-and-center in my life, but for now, nurturing my fledgling website pretty much defines everything and anything else that I can attempt. Thanks for reading and indulging me, and many blessings to you.
—Frank Eastes, Jr.
Owner, Web Designer
www.finecases.com
Andersonville, Tennessee
March 2007
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