MAKE A PLUMB BOB FULL

He and I play with the Blues band as well. That’s where I really met Aaron Schneider, bassist of the Plumb Bobs. We get together and play whatever songs come to mind. I also enjoy a weekly session at Pierce’s Store on Thursday Mornings. I have had the fortune of playing with Cold River Band, subbing for The Saltash Serenaders, subbing for The Turkey Mountain Window Smashers, Extra Stout, George’s Back Pocket, The Muddy Rhodes Blues Band, The Shrewsbury Community Blues band, Salt River Revue. I had already switched to playing my Martin guitar, but as fate would have it, Jonathan brought his Seagull S6. I met Jonathan when he joined Extra Stout some 12 or more years ago. You have to put yourself out there in front of people as often as you can. He taught me that practicing is only part of it. I joined Extra Stout - Vermont’s Premiere Irish Band - along with Mary 1997, where I continue to learn a lot from band founder, Pat Max. We almost became “The Plumb Bobs” back in 1998, but we went with “Cold River Band.” We then became “Monday (or Thursday) night Jam.” playing fiddle tunes.

Mary Barron was in that band too! For a brief moment we were called “The Flowering Broccoli” with Mike and Kathy Luzader. Within a year I got involved in my first group, and informal weekly get together. It will sound better than when you got it. I have this Mahogany here that will be perfect for the back. I went to see Ahmet Baycu up in the north side of Shrewsbury Vermont. He just so happened to live in the same small town I landed in. I heard tell of this Turkish engineer/philosopher/banjo and fiddle player/builder and repairer of instruments. I even went back home to pick up my busted guitar. There were many opportunities to sing and play with other folks at social gatherings. I spent my first year in Vermont “getting it together.” I borrowed a classical guitar and began working my skills. It was becoming clear that city life was not helping my growth as a person. I must admit that I played a part in the incident. Later that year, it was smashed through a hydrant by a street person who was not impressed with me or my playing.

My guitar and I travelled back to Washington and then back to the still rough streets of New York City. My father encouraged me to get my first guitar, a gorgeously simple Seagull S6 from Manny’s Music Manhattan. (I have the tapes somewhere…wonder how they sound…) In any case, I was hooked. I bought a tape deck (look it up!) so we could record and overdub tracks together. He called his songs, “Songs of Truth.” He and I went to my first open mic, and we busked for the first time at Pike’s Market. He started me on guitar, and encouraged me to play and write songs. I met my good friend and songwriter Jay Glick. That would come when I took a summer job in Washington State at a YMCA camp in 1992. I am grateful for the friends I still have from those experiences, but I didn’t have the fearlessness I needed to break out as a performer back then. I did musical theater in Middle and High School.

She introduced me to a world of music theory. She gave me the skills to play accompaniment to any song I wanted to. She introduced me to chords and popular music. I was nine, after all! My piano teacher knew I wouldn’t go the strict classical route. I got to my lessons early to let my hands warm from the cold. I carried music books in a tattered plastic shopping bag. I walked to my lessons through the rough streets of the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the late 70’s and early 80’s. When I was nine, my grandmother said she was giving us her piano. My sister and I did a couple of duets from those musicals for camp talent shows.

MAKE A PLUMB BOB FULL

At home, my mother’s record collection was full of Broadway musicals. I sat on the lap of my grandma Jo, in 1973, while she played and sung piano music from the 1920’s and before. I started playing music in a little apartment in Brooklyn, NY. Marcos Levy – Lead and backup vocals / Guitar / Keyboard

Make a plumb bob