ALL FRETS - July/August 2018 ENTIRE ISSUE | Page 24

Banjomania started a successful relationship with
the Community Concert Association and we
traveled to New York to play their yearly show
case for the following concert season. The band
was well received and the bookings started
rolling in. We purchased a tour bus and prepared
for our first concert tour of the USA. We played
in every kind of theater you can imagine from
school auditoriums to beautiful Performing Arts
Centers. Seventy to eighty concerts a year and I
can’t remember a show that was not packed or
where we didn’t receive a standing ovation. The
audiences loved our show and most of the credit
for that should go to Doug Mattocks. He has a
real gift when it comes to producing a 2 hour
stage show.
Doug and I worked well together and I enjoyed the music we made.
He is a talented, hard working musician but as they say, “all good
things must come to an end” and so Doug decided to leave the
group to pursue a solo career. When he left, things were not quite
the same, and after a number years on the road I was growing tired
of the vagabond musician lifestyle and I knew I had to make some
changes as well. Little did I know that fate was soon to provide anew
direction for my life.
In 1996, between my road trips and quite by chance, I met an old
friend from my Disney days, Linda May. She worked at the French
Market restaurant and we were good friends. She is a talented
vocalist and piano player and has a performance degree in Opera. After leaving the park I didn’t
see Linda for 15 years or more. We went out for lunch and within four months were engaged to be
married. Linda wanted kids and I wanted to settle down so I left Banjomania in 1997, went back to
school and secured a job in the computer industry.
I joined a local Dixieland Jazz Band called
the Night Blooming Jazzmen in 1998 and
played many gigs and Jazz Festivals with
them over the next 18 years. Chet Jeager
is the leader of the band and a real great
guy. My first daughter Noelle was born
shortly after I joined the band and her
younger sister Sophia just two and a half
years later, so consequently both the girls
have grown up around jazz musicians and
jazz festival supporters. They’re childhood
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ALL FRETS JULY/AUGUST 2018