TERRE HAUTE —
The wind might whistle a bit more wildly in the coming weeks, as ghosts of old musicians prepare for a coming jam.
VFW Post 972 will be rocking all afternoon Feb. 12, as the Wabash Valley Musicians Hall of Fame celebrates its 19th annual induction ceremony. Some 214 members strong, the group will induct another 18 into the fold, honoring their contributions to musical genres ranging from jazz to country.
Andrew Hayes, chairman of the organization’s board of directors, said people might be surprised to learn just how rich the area’s musical heritage really is. And the network of musicians involved seems an intertwined web of relationships, with many inductees citing other inductees as the inspiration for their own careers.
“I’m honored to be a part of that, and I’m honored to support live music in the clubs,” he said.
In addition to celebrating the past, the organization continues to support music education in public schools, an area subject to fiscal cuts in recent years, Hayes said. Referencing his own childhood years in the 1960s, he credited school programs and classes as paving the way for his own work.
“We had it,” he said, describing a sense of fairness in today’s children getting the same educational opportunities.
And a future without music is a bleak one indeed, he said, emphasizing the organization’s desire to keep live music streaming from the clubs, churches and festivals. One of the ways they hope to achieve that goal is by honoring the work of area artists, such as Faron Glenn, George Richardson and Tom Montgomery.
The Family Tradition
Saturday night, Faron Glenn and The Midwest Playboys were setting guitars on the stage inside the Moose Lodge near Wabash and Fruitridge avenues, the same as they have been since the 1950s.
Glenn’s father, Freddy, was among the Hall of Fame’s inaugural members honored in 1994, and is listed in the organization’s “Band of Angels” which honors those who have died. Freddy played in The Midwest Playboys throughout the 1950s and 1960s, and when Faron began his own career in the 1970s, he took up the group and kept its name going.
“I’m going on about 32 years,” Faron said of his career.
Now 50 years old, Faron’s career as a working musician has included jobs opening for country music stars David Ball, Johnny Paycheck and his own namesake, Faron Young. The Midwest Playboys play the Moose Lodge once a month, as well as numerous venues throughout the area, and Faron just released a new album, “Honkey Tonks and Heartaches.”
“I’m classic country, and there’s not a lot of bands playing that anymore,” he said, explaining that in addition to original music, the group also covers George Jones, Ray Price and Young. Fans of that genre stay pretty loyal to their bands and his group is regularly booked eight months out, he added. “We have a good following.”
In addition to his father, Faron credited 2011 inductee Marc Rogers as an early influence. Marc’s father and 1994 inductee, Harold, knew Faron’s father, and Marc showed him a few chords on the guitar as a child. The network of musicians is both tight and supportive, he said.
“There are a lot of guys I attribute my musical career to,” he said.
Faron was named the Wabash Valley Musicians Hall of Fame Male Vocalist of the Year in 1997 and 1998, and he chuckled that now 50, he’s proud to finally be old enough to be an official inductee.
The Beat Goes On
The rhythm of drums poured out of the room, complete with the kick of pedals nowhere to be seen. George Richardson, in his wheelchair, banged out note after note, keeping in tune with his lifelong passion.
Afflicted with multiple sclerosis, the 52-year old drummer can’t operate foot pedals anymore. But thanks to an electronic drum set provided by Bridges of Indiana, special features let his hands do the rocking.
“It’s affected both my legs and a little in my left hand,” he said of the disease. “So my left hand does the work of my feet.”
But once upon a time, Richardson’s toes tapped the boom at a number of venues, including stints with Henry Lee Summer and Mike Newburn. Later, he played in the “Good Feelings Band” with Hall of Fame members Brad Anderson and Bob Royer, as well as Bud Tinsely, John Lisher and Ric Jeffries, who will also be inducted into the Hall of Fame this year.
“That band paid for three college degrees and helped Ric’s business get started,” Richardson said with a laugh, recounting how huge the paychecks seemed to a 20-year-old. The hard-working bunch even wound up on the radar of the Internal Revenue Service, and Richardson said he got audited due to a filing mistake made somewhere between his 20th and 24th years of life. “Actually, twice I think,” he said, grinning as he climbed through decades past.
A 1978 graduate of Terre Haute South Vigo High School, Richardson completed his degree from Indiana State University in 1984, playing Top 40 dance music and “whatever was needed at a wedding reception,” he said. Always open to whatever a crowd wanted, he recalled he and Jeffries being among the area’s first musicians to perform “Rapper’s Delight” back in the day.
Formerly a human resources director at Charter Hospital, Richardson was first diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1988. While visiting the Mayo Clinic in 1995, he remembers walking without a cane. But by 2000, he was in a wheelchair.
Richardson’s wife, Tracy, is also professional musician and professor of music therapy at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College. The two produced an album in 1997 complete with nine songs, including a cover of “Desperado” by the Eagles, and Richardson credited her support as instrumental over the years.
His father, Jack, played accordion professionally and is a member of the Hall of Fame’s “Band of Angels.” And Richardson credited his late brother John, a fellow drummer, as another source of inspiration for his work.
But illness aside, the father of three said he and his wife had decided some time back to move professional music to the side for a while.
“Your kids only grow up once, and when you play in a band you’re pretty much gone every weekend,” he said. Playing the drums is still a therapy of sorts for him though, and he maintains his music room off the garage where he can practice and work.
But come the induction ceremony, he said he might be induced to jam a little on stage with his friends.
Still jazzed about music
Larry Bird’s basketball success had Indiana singing for much of the late 1970s. But Tom Montgomery’s own music career had been humming along in its own right long before he penned “Indiana Has A New State Bird.”
“But that is without a doubt the most popular thing I’ve ever done,” the 74-year old singer said inside his home Sunday afternoon. “People came to call it the ‘Larry Bird song.’”
Montgomery actually wrote his first song, “Cow Butter Blues,” while a sixth-grader at East Ward Elementary in Shelburn. A classmate accused him of stealing it from someone else because no one thought the 12-year-old could produce something like that, he recalled laughing.
But his aunts and uncles performed in a gospel quartet, and the family often rehearsed at home. The sounds and songs resonated with him, and he couldn’t help joining in.
“I used to think that was unique,” he said of the family’s gospel background. “But over the years I’ve heard so many celebrities say the same thing. Gospel music seems where a lot of people got their start.”
Montgomery graduated from Honey Creek High School in 1957 and started singing professionally in 1962. Part of “the old Davenport Trio,” he performed at the Glen Owens American Legion Post where a young Johnny Palmer worked as the disc jockey.
But after midnight, the guys would go down the street and listen to Hall of Fame member Boone Dunbar and The Five Chords, an incredibly influential local group both he and Hayes recalled for their travels and success. Their work, which crossed the country from Las Vegas back east, served as his early education in jazz, a genre he still loves half a century later.
“Jazz is the only real, true, American-born music,” he said, noting that other genres have roots in other countries. But jazz was born in places like Memphis, Tenn., traveling up to Chicago and through Kansas City, he said. With a pictures of Frank Sinatra on his walls, he said the improvised swing still calls his heart. “It’s always been my favorite.”
In addition to a number of 45s, Montgomery also produced feature albums, “Out of the Blue” and “If She Would Love Me,” earning his primary living as the owner of T&L Floor Care with his wife, Louise.
But in 1979, Montgomery produced a signature song, the lyrics of which play on Bird’s name. It was an instant hit.
“I had 10,000 pressed and sold 7,300,” he said of the 45s, explaining legal issues involving Bird’s agent forced him to stop marketing the album, the jacket of which features an image of Bird playing. Over the years, the song has found its way onto ESPN many times though, and Montgomery sold most of the remaining records one by one. About 150 remain in his possession.
Montgomery said his work has primarily been in vocals, but he wryly admitted to some proficiency with a ukulele. Being inducted into the Hall of Fame, he said, is quite an honor.
Brian Boyce can be reached at 812-231-4253 or brian.boyce@tribstar.com.
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