Tim had learned to play the
trumpet in sixth grade, but after
seeing the Beatles at the Fairgrounds in 1964, he switched to
guitar, and never looked back (see
his story of that experience on
page 21). In fact, he and a school
friend started a ‘garage’ band
called the “Suns of Summer”, and
played at friend’s parties into
high school. His brother Tom was
performing with singing partner
Don Larson at the Stable Innfluence on 86th and Ditch Road,
and during the Summer of 1971,
while Tom was at National Guard
training camp, Tim served as the
guitar stand-in. He did such a
good job that Bill Eggleston, the
owner, asked if he would stay on
- and when Tom returned, poof!
they were now a trio called Synergy. Then the magic happened ~
and his name was Ron Perry.
Ron had seen them perform and
presented them with a challenge:
instead of just sitting in chairs
and playing to a distracted crowd
of folks who were basically restaurant customers, why not actually
put on a SHOW that people would
come specifically to see and hear,
and get recognition as entertainers? Convinced, the three of them
decided to go for it, hired a drummer, learned to dress and play
like stage performers, and went
on the road. And the rest – as they
say – is history. Of course, to hear
Tom put a philosophical slant on
it: the carrot that was dropped in
front of the horse was going to get
yanked again and again.
In the 1970s especially, the
band did club dates,
playing at hotels, dinner theaters and casinos (like Harrah’s in
Lake Tahoe) from Los
Angeles to Opryland,
and numerous other
locations where they
were able to make
money doing what
they loved –
opportunities that
any Baby Boomer
who’s tried it can truly
appreciate. Famous
for their superlative harmonies, their sound got
tighter and cleaner after they
began making records, as they
gradually developed the ability to
hear all their little timing, volume and vocal imperfections in
the studio, where flashy smiles,
spunky body movement and other
behavior seen on stage are lost on
the listening audience.
They recorded albums
for Mercury/Polygram
(Easy Street), Warner
Bros. (Made in the
USA), and the American Entertainment
Network/KRB Music
(The American Way);
and performed on “Hee
Haw,” “The Today
Show,” and “Nashville
Now.” In addition, they
were traveling with the roadshows of none other than Dolly
Parton and later Barbara Mandrell, but – you guessed it - that
carrot kept getting pulled away:
Dolly announced that she was
going to have a medical procedure
and couldn‘t perform for a period
of time, and Barbara was in an
auto accident, which put her out
of commission.
It was actually a guy named
Marv Dennis who, after seeing
them at a gig in Minnesota convinced them to let him be their
manager, and who then took them
to Nashville in 1979. Within a
year, they were on The Grand Ole
Opry and recording their first single on the Nashboro Record label.
A year later, they had their first
top forty single on Warner Bros
Records, “Family Man,” which
was a bit ironic, given that they
were away from their families on
the road almost 300 days a year!
Marv is also the reason that they
got to play “Jim Dandy to the Rescue” in the movie Overboard…he
was friends with Garry Marshall,
the director, and gave the band
one of the most fun experiences a
group can have in show biz.
Then in the 1980s, the general
public (and Boomers in particular)
became less inclined to flock to
outdoor concerts and large show
venues: changi