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The Grateful Dads
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Published: October 16, 2007
Country Joe and the Fish said it with "Rockin' Round the World" in the 1960s.
Old folks don't know, they can't understand, the words and music of a rock and roll band.
Man, what was Country Joe smoking? Yes, those old folks understand very well — when that music is what they grew up on.
Even as Generation Xers and baby boomers plan for retirement, they're still living the music and passion that defined their coming of age. We're talkin' 'bout a revolution.
Dad bands (and mom bands) are playing in garages, at weddings, on first-time-ever CDs. At Patel Conservatory's School of Rock in Tampa, one or two adult bands come together during each 12-week session, which ends with a rock-fantasy concert.
"It's a cool outlet," says education vice president Wendy Leigh. "They come in, plug in and rock out."
They're called weekend warriors by NAMM, an international association of retailers and manufacturers of music instruments and products.
"There's a feeling that we're supposed to go into more of a mode where we can experience our passions and our dreams," says NAMM's chief executive officer, 46-year-old weekend warrior Joe Lamond.
Whatever you call them, they're proof the lucky among us never outgrow our dreams. Two bands rocking the Bay area are The Brew's Brothers and 3 Green Windows.
The Brew's Brothers
"We call him Fingers."
Ron Salamone, 65, ripples his digits across the keyboards under the shady pavilion by the crystal blue waters of Isla del Sol's swimming pool in St. Petersburg. Boga Ciega Bay undulates on the horizon.
The country club set lounges in bathing suits and sunglasses, lost in the sun and Margaritaville.
Don "Donnie B. Goode" Wilson, 61, is on lead guitar. Mike "Mr. Eagles" Logue, 63, plays rhythm guitar. Freddie Bartell, 65, the man introducing the band, takes his bow.
"I sing one or two songs a set, and I also try to play bass," he says.
Beer and the Isla del Sol Yacht & Country Club talent show brought the Brew's Brothers together nearly four years ago. They earned their name the drinking way.
The quartet debuted with "House of the Rising Sun" and "Margaritaville." "We were a hit," Wilson says.
The Brews have nailed a recurring gig as the club's house band, going solo or sometimes backing the "fabulous" Fifi (aka Kathi Randall, 50).
They don't mind being called a "dad band," rock 'n' rollers in search of good times in their AARP years.
"They're having fun in retirement," says Randall. "They work the Elks Club circuit, nursing homes where there's a budget for entertainment."
They pack the local VFW post on Madeira Beach. They do light jazz for the ladies who play nine-hole golf.
Logue dips his guitar. "Gimme a beat," he says.
Bartell steps into the mike for "Under the Boardwalk." "Oh, when the sun beats down and burns the tar up on the roof …"
Through applause and a couple of sing-a-longs, the brothers check in to "Hotel California"; savor that "Cheeseburger in Paradise"; and go for those crazy little women in "Kansas City."
They've spent about $9,000 on equipment and earned maybe $2,000, all totaled.
Logue is semiretired, a former wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills who works in the manufactured homes business. He's also an Eagles man and a self-taught guitarist, a musician without a band until the Brews came along.
"I'd play guitar by myself all the time," he says. "I never had the nerve [to play for an audience] until the guys came along."
His wife, Helene, is his groupie.
"I used to tell him, don't quit your day job," she says. "But he enjoys it so much, I think it's great."
Golf pro Fred Curtis, 49, straps on a guitar and joins in "Hotel California." He was around to see the group take off. "They've gotten better every year," he says. The pool crowd really relates to their oldies song bag.
"I think it brings back a flood of memories," Curtis says.
Wilson is de facto manager, the one with experience. At age 13, he recorded "Little Duck in the Drakes" with The Respectables. As an older teenager, his band Starfire backed up Patti LaBelle and Sam and Dave.
But he says, "I do this as a hobby."
Salamone, who works for ReMax Realty, can't remember the name of his high school band, but they played "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White" at bar mitzvahs and wedding parties.
Bartell twanged with a country band at NCO clubs during his time as an Air Force staff sergeant stationed in the Philippines. Later, in Florida, he sang backup at the Pillow Talk Lounge in Satellite Beach.
"That was the good time in our lives," he says. "They were the best times growing up."
But the times aren't so bad now, either. The last time they played the VFW?
Says Bartell, "Biggest night they've had."
3 Green Windows
"It's not about money. I'll tell you that."
On a hot summer night, 3 Green Windows rocks a modest insurance office off a Brandon highway.
"I was itching to play with somebody," says Alan Tatum, 51, a 20-year FedEx delivery man. "I'll do anything. I just wanted to play."
He switched from lead guitar to bass for this band, which also includes lead guitarist Todd Grubbs, 42; drummer Jeff Henry, 41; and lead singer Bo Smith, 49.
Two baby boomers and two Generation Xers: Rock 'n' roll is here to stay, but age is hot on their heels.
Their cramped rehearsal quarters holds a rack of Guitar magazines; shelves of CDs; a cushy leather couch; electric guitars — up for sale — hanging on the walls; a tangle of sound equipment; and four guys with rock star fantasies.
Three-year-old twins Emily and Isabel Grubbs smile from family photos, on a desk, a shelf.
It's rehearsal night. Gigs are coming up in October and November.
"We're not rich, but we love doing it," says the girls' dad.
And, together for about two years, they've scored some successes. They released a CD, "Red Door," with a celebratory performance at Vinyl Fever music shop in Tampa; opened for 3 Dog Night at Busch Gardens; and recorded "The Idiot Bastard Son" for a Frank Zappa tribute CD, with 20 bands playing the same song.
They're not sure they like being called a "dad band." But it could be worse.
"We could have been called the midlife crisis band," Smith says.
A stack of papers, with lyrics penned in big, bold letters, rests on his music stand. "I need a teleprompter," he says.
"Back in the days, the neurons were burned," Tatum explains. "They're gone."
They take a slow ballad, "Ode to Billie Joe," and burn up the Tallahatchie Bridge. The Rolling Stones go jazzy and rock fused on "You Can't Always Get What You Want"; the Man in Black's "Jackson" drives.
"We always want a new twist," Grubbs says. Originals are progressive, jazzy or rockin'. No cover goes unchanged.
Grubbs makes a living teaching guitar and performing with 3 Green Windows and The Todd Grubbs Group. He has been featured in Guitar World magazine and was voted best guitarist in 1992 at the Tampa Bay music awards, a local competition. He also got a Best of Bay guitarist nod from Creative Loafing newspaper and released three instrumental CDs.
And, if need be, he'll help his father, Marc, at his insurance business.
"When we were all young, we were trying to make it big," he says.
Marriages and families come along; the big break teenagers dream of doesn't happen.
"What do you consider success?" asks Smith. "I think success is somebody who has a well-rounded life and is happy with what you're doing. We're in that situation now."
They've played Skipper's Smokehouse, Mad Dogs and Englishmen, and The Brass Mug in Tampa. They have a gig at Kelly's Pub in Tampa on Nov. 9.
Smith is a supervisor for a custom home-building company, husband, and father to two teenage sons, Hunter and Winn. Such responsibilities influence a dad band.
"You have to schedule things differently, closer to home," he says.
But there's also more freedom now. No one whispers in your ear to do this or that to be commercial.
"You don't really have to have the hits," Smith says. "I don't think it affects your passion and drive to create. It gives you more carte blanche."
Tatum and Smith go back 30 years. They played school dances at Madison Junior High and are alumni of Plant High School and the bands Bridge and Tragic Rabbit.
Bridge played in clubs in Florida and Georgia in the late 1970s, with a mix of originals and covers of Aerosmith and Pink Floyd.
"They wanted the bands to do more and more covers," Tatum says. "I decided I needed a break."
He moved to Arizona and built harvest machines for his father's company.
Since then he has put together a 22-year marriage to Melanie and raised two children: 20-year-old University of South Florida student Lindsey and 16-year-old Christian rocker Ryan. He's four years away from a pension from FedEx.
Henry is a Hillsborough High School graduate and Seminole Heights resident. He's the unmarried one with no children.
From the late 1980s to 2003 he worked for a company with enough flexibility to accommodate his music. Now he owns Jeff's Interior Changes, a home-based service for pesky chores — hanging pictures, lights, fans and other indoor home décor.
The CD is selling pretty well on the Internet. And gigs are picking up.
"You just never know," Henry says. "We kind of grass-rooted this thing. That's everyone's dream."
Reporter Kathy Steele can be reached at (813) 835-2103 or ksteele@tampatrib.com.
Hear 3 Green Windows' CD, "Red Door," at www.3greenwindows.com.>
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