mike gregory - Posted - 05/01/2017:  15:46:15

That's Ken, many years ago, at my kitchen table.

He's playing the first gourd banjo I ever made.

And on the table is visible the first Squared Eel I ever made.

The red line points to a wrench, which I don't remember WHY it was there, but I captioned the picture "Just in case it's a heart-wrenching ballad."

Here's the old story:

-----------------------------

About 1975, I was working in the Positive Note

Music store, on Milwaukee's East Side (Farwell

and North), when this somewhat weathered

fellow came in, looking for Ralph. I told him

Ralph wasn't there. So he sat down, pulled out

an ancient Vega, and proceeded to frail like

nobody I'd ever seen before.



I asked him about using the middle finger,

instead of the index. You see, MY index finger

has an unusually thin fingernail, and it tends to

rip and bleed. However, the BOOK from which I

had been studying, SAID to use the index

finger. And I figured, for once in my life, I was

going to follow the book, as written by some

EXPERT.



Yet, here was an obvious expert, mid-fingering

away with consummate skill. So I asked him if

it was really OK to use a finger other than the

one indicated by the Expert.



I have passed along to every one of my

students, the advice Ken gave me:

Kid, it's YOUR banjo....

Play it any damned way you want!

=============================

I received a phone call late afternoon, May First, that Ken apparently had a heart attack (not his first) and has died.

He was bicycling home from the grocery store.

His advice to me is one of the things that shall long outlive him.

AND me.

chuckv97 - Posted - 05/01/2017:  16:47:40

Sorry to hear, Mike. An interesting fellow ,by the sounds of it. RIP Ken.

But a couple of comments/questions....: Who was Ralph, and did he ever find him?
Can you remember the tune he played at that first meeting?
Was he active in the OT/folk music community in and around Milwaukee?

mike gregory - Posted - 05/01/2017:  17:36:51

Ralph was an employee of the Positive Music store ("The Best Folking Music Store in Town")

Ralph was a VERY good mandolin player and flatpick guitarist.

I was unaware of any of the jams that Ralph and Ken may have attended.

Wasn't a very big O.T. community in Milwaukee at the time, far as I knew.

It being the mid-seventies, there was a pretty good folk music community, but, like I said, I never saw either of them there.

Ralph was big into Bluegrass, but, far as I know, he just jammed with a few friends, at their homes.

Ralph had also been a DJ on some station, at some point, and wrote an article about how he was handed a Flatt & Scruggs album with KNIFE SLASHES across every cut EXCEPT Foggy Mountain Breakdown.
Because the MOVIES had made THAT one popular, and station management was more than happy to suck up to whatever was POPULAR, but wasn't about to promote that hillbilly crap as the sound of THEIR station.

bubbalouie - Posted - 05/01/2017:  17:59:52

Sorry to hear about your friend Mike. Every now & then somebody comes up with a gem that you never forget.

mike gregory - Posted - 05/01/2017:  19:09:28

Oh, crap!
I got the NAME of my store wrong.
Positive Note Music!

I figured Milwaukee needed a positive note.

chuckv97 - Posted - 05/01/2017:  22:05:16

Well, after a bit of research I realized Milwaukee had lots of positive notes. Native sons and daughters included Woody Herman, Al Jarreau, Les Paul (from nearby Waukesha), and Felice Bryant of the Boudleaux and Felice Bryant songwriting team, whose big hits included "All I Have to do is Dream", "Bye Bye Love", "Love Hurts", and of particular note to this austere forum: "Rocky Top". 👍

Edited by - chuckv97 on 05/01/2017 22:06:03