ALL FRETS - July/August 2018 ENTIRE ISSUE | Page 23

retail business in Riverside, California and he
wanted some live music for the grand opening so I
was hired to provide a duo to play some upbeat
music for the event. I booked Dan Zeilinger to play
sousaphone with me and when I got to the gig
Steve had invited a five-string player to join us and
so we were trio. Then Steve decided to play his
tenor banjo on a few songs and Banjomania was
born. Steve started booking other gigs for the
group and was the driving force behind the
business side of things. I was in charge of music
production and arranging. Over the next year we
performed many local concerts and fund raising events for local charities. We went through some
personnel changes and I asked Doug Mattocks if he would be interested in playing five-string with
us. I had met Doug during my Disney years and we were good friends. I had a great deal of respect
for his musicianship and still do. We added string bass (Charlie Warren) which made more sense for
us and that’s when the music started to come together in a very pleasing way.
Steve was really hitting the promotional side of
things and was able to book us on the Grand
Ole Opry which was an amazing experience and
quite a thrill. We appeared at the Opry on
three different occasions. It was great fun and
so wonderful to meet and mingle with some
very famous country music stars. From there
we were booked on other TV shows on The
Nashville Network;
Nashville Now, Opry
Backstage Live, Crook & Chase and The Statler
Brothers Variety Show.
The TV shows gave us some great national
exposure but I was always glad to get out of
the studio. First we would setup, do a sound
check then someone on staff would come and
do a pre-interview and take notes for the host
of the show to work from. Then we would sit
for hours and hours and finally go to makeup
where they would comb my hair in ways I
never thought possible, spray my hair and
smear foundation all over my face and ears.
Finally it was show time and playing was
definitely the fun part! Unfortunately it only
lasted for five minutes or so, we’d sit for the
interview, and that was it.
ALL FRETS JULY/AUGUST 2018
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