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My First Instrument Second Birthday

Having grown up in a family that both performed and were avid fans of music -- there is no mystery as to why I have always had such a great love for it. There was no television (only the very wealthy had them) but that wooden, floor-model, Philco radio in the living room was almost always on. I can still remember hearing Zeke Hollins and his band playin' and singin' them old country songs, "live", Saturday afternoons, on WLAK in Lakeland. Of course in the early 1950s we didn't have a "country" radio station - but most all the stations had country music shows. In a days time you would usually hear a good cross section of popular (and some classical) music as well as those great old radio shows like "The Lone Ranger" and the "The Shadow". Daddy had the old radio modified with a quarter-inch phone plug on the side so that a 45 rpm record changer (pictured right) could be plugged into and played through the radio's amplifier and speaker and transformed it into a sort of ancient entertainment center.

The first real lead guitar player I remember seeing and hearing as a young child was a local picker by the name of James Moran. In the early fifties he was an area legend and appeared often, around the county, doing grand openings and such. I can vaguely remember watching him play on Saturday afternoons in the parking lot of I. J. Davis' Market, down on the corner of Highway 92 and Walnut Street where we lived in the early '50s. He played country and rock-a-billy, as best I remember, and was really good. I have no idea what ever became of him.

When I was in the fifth grade (1956-'57) at Central Elementary School in Auburndale (actually in those days it was called Auburndale Primary School) I started in the beginning school band. We spent about a year on "song flutes" learning to read music and then in the following year we each moved on to the instruments that we would eventually play for the remainder of our years in school. I was relegated to woodwinds because my teeth were uneven in the front and not suitable for brass instruments. Daddy and Mama probably chose the clarinet because it was somewhat cheaper than a saxophone. I didn't really care -- I just wanted to play. I was familiar with music having been reared attending the Auburndale church of Christ, where the congregation sang from shape note hymnals, and was a quick study.

When we graduated to the seventh grade, three of us from the intermediate band were privileged to skip Jr. High Band and were moved directly to the High School Band. The High School Band was only about 45 strong in those days and needed the numbers. William C. (Bill) Miller was the band director and had molded that small group of raucous teenagers, into a state championship marching and stage band. Miller expected no less than the highest marks from the regional and state contests we attended and we never received less than an over-all "Superior" rating. We rocked! The only high school band that was any competition at all in those days was the Lake Wales High School Highlander Band (complete with bagpipe and drum corps) who were a class act from the word go.

My First Guitar About 1959

It was also during this same time frame (about 1958-59) that Daddy bought us an old "F" hole, arch top, acoustic guitar. It had been refinished in a blond finish with roses hand painted in a trim fashion on the front and was actually a handsome guitar. There was no name on it so I don't know what brand it was, but it was the first in a long line of "I sure wish I had hung on to that one" guitars that I had as a teenager. I sit in the corner (usually about three chord changes behind) trying to keep up with Daddy and Uncle Boots playin' those old fiddle breakdowns. My cousin Billy Joe lived next door and had an old "Harmony" guitar that his brother Gerald (who was two months older than me) was also learning to play. The camaraderie and love for music that Gerald (or Jesse as he became known) and I developed in those early years would remain intact for many years to come.

During 1959 or 1960, after Billy Joe had married my half-sister Annie (No! they were not related), they had some people over to their house one night to do some pickin'. No one can remember the reason or circumstances that led to that evening but it would change our lives forever. Two of the guys that came over were Ronnie Mills and Chuck Brown who had been playing together in a band called the Blazers. Another person who was there that night was Ronald Whitney, who I don't believe had yet learned to play guitar nor had he ever sang with a band. None of us knew each other at the time. This was the first time I had ever sat and watched anyone play rock and roll on an electric guitar. Ronnie Mills was a pretty good player with some "hot" licks, but all I remember of that evening was Charlie Brown, playin' that old two bass string, slightly muted, rock and roll rhythm on his "Fender Duosonic" that set something inside me on fire. I wanted to do that -- real bad.

My First Electric Guitar About 1960 or '61

Not long after that, Daddy bought me my first electric guitar, a cherry red sunburst, Les Paul "Standard" guitar (Daddy was familiar with Gibson guitars and had never heard of Fender) and a Gibson "Explorer" amplifier. Wish I had hung on to both of those. I didn't keep the "Standard" very long before we traded for a used Les Paul "Black Beauty" (sometimes called the "fretless wonder") that I have always believed was the same guitar that Ronnie Mills was playing that night at Billy Joe and Annie's house. Daddy also upgraded me to a new amp that Fender had come out with, called a piggy-back "Showman" with a single 12" Altec Lansing speaker.

By this time, (around 1960) Jesse and I had started to get together with some other players at school and had formed a band, the Dynamics. Check out the further adventures (?) of this dynamic duo in the next section: "The Sixties".

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