lufkincy - Posted - 01/19/2011:  12:47:00

In going through some archived threads I found a question about a banjo player named Frank Sutton. The picture was not of the Frank Sutton I knew. In the late 1960's and early 1970's Johnny Ford, Harold Wollf, and Frank Sutton moved from New Jersey to Houston, Texas to open "The Red Garter" - a banjo bar.

Johnny was a world class banjo player, Frank was very good, and Harold brought up a distant third. The three became great friends and for a while we were all roommates. Johnny was the first to move out. He met and fell in love with a Red Garater customer and they got their own apartment. Wolf was the next to move out and Frank and I remained roommates until he finally left Houston.

The Red Garter was an excellent banjo bar but the location was about as bad as you could get - hidden upstairs on a side street in The Times area of Houston.

It was not long before the 5 to 6-piece band was playing to only 2-3 customers. The writing was on the wall and the doors were finally closed.

Johnny put together a new group and played at various bars and clubs in the city. He was convinced that he had to switch to guitar from banjo to make it. The new group was a decent band, but not much different from the hundreds of others in Houston at that time. He went from being "the only store in town" to being a little fish in a huge pond. After a year or so Johnny left Houston and returned to the East Coast where his career continued to progress nicely. He would call me a couple of times a year to update me on his career. The last I heard about him was when Paul Buskirk called me to tell me Johnny had been killed in an auto/train accident.

Johnny was the finest tenor banjo player I have ever heard - yes, even when including Perry Bechtal. I had many favorites, but in putting a lot of thought into the various songs he played, Battle Hymn has got to be my favorite. It was also awesome to listen to him start on the first song of the score from something like Oklahoma or The Sound of Music and hear him play the entire chord and melody score without a break.

When the Red Garter closed, Wolf had it a little easier. Earlier in his career he had been a highly experienced inland insurance investigator in the Great Lakes area. There was a huge demand for his experience in the Gulf Coast area and the pay was astronomical. I went with him ona couple of his investigations and they were fascinating. One was a claim for the total loss of a huge luxury yacht that had caught on fire and sunk at Glaveston. It took Wolf only a couple of dives and some background information to expose this as insurance fraud. In addition to his normal fee for the investigation, he got a percentage of the multi-million dollar savings he made for the insurance company.

Like Wolf, Frank Sutton had something he could fall back on. Frank's father owned a very profitable machine shop in Cherry Hill, New Jersey and Frank had apprenticed and became a journeyman machinest. He had no problem in finding employment in the Houston area, but he did not like doing that work in Houston.

As time progressed the three of us went our own ways. The only thing that had kept us together was the banjo. I have not heard from Wolf in years and the last time I heard anything about Frank was years ago when I found his picture in a banjo magazine. I tried to get in touch with him but was not able to.

Scrat - Posted - 01/19/2011:  14:45:29

lufkincy,

Thank you for the story. I really enjoyed reading it.
Welcome to the BanjoHangout!

Pick on,
Paul

lufkincy - Posted - 01/20/2011:  14:36:44

I have always loved the banjo and associating with other banjo enthusiasts. But, as hard as I have tried over the years I have not been able to learn to play one. Both Johnny and Frank tried to teach me, but it did not work. I'm left handed and have a hard time coordinating my fingers with my brain. I finally sold my Jany banjo and gave up. A few years ago I bought a quality banjo uke, and have progressed to where I can play a few chords, but nothing to be proud of.

At age 76 I keep hoping that one day everything will open up and I will all of a sudden become a banjo king, but that, of course, is wishful thinking. I've learned to be satisfied listening to others who were far more successful than I.

scotty51 - Posted - 05/02/2011:  14:19:25

I was a close friend of Johnny Ford while he was an Artist in Residence at U of M in Flint Michigan in the early 70's. He had a remarkable style and was truly the best. He and his wife, Kathy, moved to the DC area mid 70's. I visited them a couple of times. Kip was also staying with them as I recall.

The last time I saw Johnny was in Flint. He had divorced Kathy and was living with another girl. His tumor was really hurting him. That was mid 1980's.

I was sorry to learn of his death.

lufkincy - Posted - 05/02/2011:  16:57:33

Unless I am mistaken, Kathy must have been his second wife. I don't recall the name of the Red Garter customer he married, but I'm certain it wasn't Kathy. I believe the wife I knew was killed when she backed into a small aircraft prop. At age 76 my memory is about as short as my you know what, but to the best of my memory, that's what Johnny told me.

Cy Stapleton

Lufkin, Texas