My Musical Career Begins...

     So, back to school I go. What a marvelous blessing to have someone interested enough in me as a performer to ask about me personally and then, miraculously, care enough to make the very kind and generous gesture of giving me the financial ability to just worry about school-work and not about having to work-work. What a fantastic gift.

     My first semester after the USO tour was truly eventful. To start things off, I pledged to Phi Delta Theta national fraternity and joined that wonderful group of men by moving into the grand old frat house on College Avenue where I was to make life-long friends and have one heck-of-a lot of fun in the process.

     Next, the CU University Theater was producing a big musical that spring semester, so of course, I auditioned and won the comedy lead role of Mr. MacAfee, the Dad in Bye Bye Birdie. Wow…what an absolute hoot that show turned out to be. Great fun, great friends, great music, great audiences and yet another validation of my great love for musical theater.

     

     And the really big happening – the one that was going to wind up financially supporting me through the next 7 years – was teaming up with two new friends who shared my love of performing and who invited me to help them create a little folk music group, which was the current popular music of that era. So, my banjo-playing fraternity brother, John Hunt and a wonderfully talented guitar-playing graduate student from Idaho, Mel Anderson (who was called Chub from the time he was very young) convinced me to sing along. Since I couldn’t play a guitar, the most logical instrument for me to get was a big ‘ol bass fiddle.  Since I played the trombone, it was the most logical since moving the slide on the horn was closely akin to shortening the strings on the bass. I went out that very afternoon and found a pretty good-sounding (and not too awful-looking) instrument in a second-hand store, and just like that, I became a folk-music guy.

     What a fabulous musical ride was about to begin!

     It was three weeks before spring break and so we decided to take a road trip, singing for our supper along the way. We practiced every afternoon, and built up a repertoire of 15-20 of the most popular folk songs of the day.

     And, you know what? We were actually pretty darn good. The music was fun and happy and we were having an absolute ball making good sounds together. We really clicked.

     I bought a used Ford convertible, and we put the top down so the bass fiddle would fit in the back seat, filled up the tank and off we went for spring break – to college campuses in Phoenix, Tempe, Tucson, San Diego, Reno, Salt Lake City, Cheyenne and then back to Boulder.

     We stayed in our fraternity houses along the way and sang for our supper in every sorority house we could find, all the while honing our performance and tightening our harmonies.

     
     It was a fabulous trip.

     Back in Boulder, classes were back in session but we needed a gig. And, it really wasn’t very hard to get them in and around Boulder and Denver. Everywhere you looked there were college-kid-oriented beer halls that wanted live music to draw the drinking crowds. It was in those fun-filled places that we started to really build a following and, we kept getting better. 

     I was the “front-man” making the jokes and introducing the songs. And, after about a year of doing that, we had started to build a pretty solid reputation. We produced a marketing brochure, bought a van and painted our name on the side of it, and got a pretty big sound system that we carried with us to all our jobs.

     Oh yeah…our name. We called ourselves The Hustlers and defined that as “those who are enthusiastic about work and play.” It was a great name for the times we lived in and had no negative connotation at all…not back then. Today, it’s a different story, right?

     Our career took a huge turn when we started moving out of the beer halls and into the full-on “elegance” of lounges and proper night clubs, such as Denver’s most famous jazz room, the Senate Lounge, and one of the better dinner clubs in town, The Terrace.

     The biggest step for us however, was being hired and booked to perform at Denver’s most up-scale of those clubs, The Cart and Rib Room.

     It turns out, this place was actually run by the Disney organization as a training spot for managers who had been tapped to eventually open and run Walt Disney World, several years into the future. We were truly in our element in that venue and, thankfully, we would be invited back to this wonderful dinner club many, many times. Walt Disney himself was actually in the audience one night. A true breathtaking experience.  

     This is also where we met two men who would change our lives. Bob Allen, the General Manager for this Disney enterprise, who would later become the head guy at Walt Disney World when it opened in 1971; and, Morrie Bernstein, who, for some reason, really loved us and practically adopted us as part of his family. Amazingly, he put up a whole bunch of money for us to travel down to Las Vegas and record several songs, which he would then put out on his very own record label, Finer Arts Records.

    
      Wow! We were now recording artists in the folk music genre and our music was being played on the radio. The first song we recorded, “Julianne” actually got as high as #18 on the local Billboard Chart.

     One of the true joys in our musical career path was being invited to open for some of the national touring stars in one of the most amazing outdoor concert venues in the world – Red Rocks Amphitheater. Look up this venue on the internet please because I want you to really see how fabulous it truly is. We were the opening act for two really big stars of the day…Trini Lopez and again the next year for Peter, Paul and Mary. 

     The audience was 14,000+ and, with the seats raked upwards from the stage, the first giant wave of applause we received for our opening song literally pushed us back. It was absolutely magical. 

     
     Along the way, we changed the make-up of the group. Chub and I being the two originals who stayed because John chose to leave the band for his personal career education reasons. We were now no longer a trio, but now a full quartet, first by adding Chub’s long-time Idaho cowboy buddy Adrian Anderson (called Twerp by his friends…no, seriously, Twerp Anderson and what a wonderfully gentle soul he is.)  And the super-talented woman who would turn us into a far more classy group, Jan Camp, who would become the absolute best addition we could have made. She, and her astounding collection of truly phenomenal musical talents, would take us to new heights. 

     I think the real highlight of our many years together, was becoming the regular house group at the most famous restaurant/night club in Aspen, Colorado…The Red Onion.

     We started out as the Après-Ski entertainment in the afternoons, and after a year of making our musical “bones” in the eyes of the exec chef/owner, Werner Kuster, he placed us as the main act in the night club. We had made it!

     Another great perk about being in Aspen in the winter, is that all of the Texas Ski Clubs would vacation there, catch our act, and then invite us to their great big ‘ol Texas Country Club golf tournaments in the summers. Could it get any better?!

     Living in Aspen and Vail for part of the year, however, did take its toll on my college education for darn sure. Since we were travelling year-round and performing at college concerts and being the headliners for many corporate business meetings all over the west, I only took on 3-5 hours of classes each semester. As a result, it took me 3 years longer to graduate. I started out in the class of 1964, but didn’t get my degree until June of 1967.

     My running joke was, “some of the best years of my life were spent in the senior class.”

     The Hustlers and our particular brand of music and our night club act was a huge part of my life and I hold many, many fond memories of fabulous trips, great concerts, wonderful audiences and a heck-of-a lot of great music lovingly and happily created by great people who truly loved each other. And, most importantly, over those seven years together, I cultivated dear, dear forever friendships that I continue to cherish to this day.

     And, remember, that my secret benefactor’s gift had only seen me through that one semester. But it was enough, because meeting Chub and John started me along the path of actually making a living with my music and truly paying for my own college education.

     What a tremendous blessing folk music turned out to be!   

PS: Here's one of our wonderful reviews that I thought you might enjoy too..,

Review by Barry Morrison, the Entertainment Editor of The Denver Post May 3, 1968

THE HUSTLERS, POLISHED STARS, LIGHT UP CLUB SCENE

               Mark this down. The Hustlers are the most improved, polished bunch of entertainers that I’ve seen in a long, long time.

               It seems only yesterday they were kids singing for pay to get through college. Now, in their appearance at the Chateau, they are complete pros, delivering devastating shows that have you laughing and singing.

               You might have a tendency to compare their verve and vivacity to the Back Porch Majority, but truly, these kids have an image of their own and it’s all upbeat.

               Take Mike, the leader. When he started in the business he was new to comedy… His quick wit saved him a lot of the time. Now, he’s the complete funny man, delivering dialogue with magnificent timing and throwing in quips that rock the audience with laughter.

               Mel and Adrian come on strong in their primarily back-up roles, occasionally coming front-stage to bop the listener’s with rousing solos.

               And, there’s that cute little bundle of charm, the girl named Jan, who will woo every male heart in the crowd with something like Gentle on My Mind.”

               Incidentally, the Hustlers have just recorded another album to go with their “Ski Country”, and it should be on the record shop shelves sometime next week.

               This one is called “The Hustlers in Action,” and was recorded live last winter at their engagement at the Red Onion in Aspen.

               After you have been to the Chateau and have seen this marvelous group, you will know that the only thing that stands in the way of their eventual national fame is simply a matter of time and exposure.

               By the way Mike Bisesi said that the new group the Pocketful of Change, was so successful this past week when they appeared on the bill with Josh White that he’s bringing them back this weekend to second the Hustlers.

               That makes for a lot of music in one package.