noisedude said:
I still enjoy hearing these stories. I understand what you mean about the industry being smaller than it seems to us now, but it's still quite exciting to hear about these quite iconic figures and places being talked about in the same way as I might talk about my old job in a supermarket or something!
My day job was at JBL, so I had some access that a lot of other musicians didn't. I helped Jimmy Wakely (old Western movie star) install a sound system at his house and that led to being invited to his Saturday night get togethers. Now, I was 18 or 19 and sitting around listening to Jimmy's friends talk about songwriting or playing and singing. Who were his friends? Johnny Bond ("Hot Rod Lincoln"), Tex Ritter, and Merle Travis, to name a few. These guys were like Gods to me.
I remember sitting across a kitchen table from Bob Nolan (Sons of the Pioneers) as he talked about writing Cool Water and Tumbling Tumbleweeds.
In the jazz world, I was hanging out with Freddie Gruber, Charlie Haden, Ornett Coleman, Buddy Childers, and Barney Kessel.
As the soundman for the Ash Grove and the Troubadour, I got invited to after hours parties with most of the legendary folk and blues players; Brownie and Sonny, Mance Lipscom, Fred McDowell, and more people than I can ever remember.
Later, when I went to work at Acoustic Control, a lot of these old friends got me into the emerging rock scene, and I hung out with Buffalo Springfield, the Byrds, the Monkees, Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and most of the West Coast groups (of whom many came out of the folk scene).
It was an amazing time for me and as I look back, I realize just how lucky I was to be involved with such a diversified group of musicians and music genres. It's like I've lived 10 lifetimes - and each one was great.
