My older brother, Herman, started playing a Silvertone acoustic nylon string guitar in our early teens, inspired by The Beatles and all of the great music during the 60’s and beyond. Given to him by our parents for his birthday, I also learned to play on that guitar (strung right-handed) and I left pick scratch marks all over the front of it! (They later gave me a $80 Yamaha acoustic nylon string that I’ve been playing all of my life).
We went to college at West Virginia University where we were successful in avoiding the draft. We developed sets to play at local coffee houses. He went on to MIT for graduate school and led a long career in the wind energy business before retiring in California. However, during visits and sometimes virtually, we still manage to get together to play more music together. We seem to have the ability to read each others minds when we ad lib, and enjoy the spirits that playing together release…
Herman had a number of bands from high school onwards, including playing lead guitar with the Styx and Stonz (below), in venues including: 1) gigs with Ike & Tina Turner; 2) recording cover songs for the TV dance show “Shindig” (Ron Chapman) with Stevie Ray Vaugh‘s brother, Jimmie, playing Bass, because their bass player, Jimmy Randall, missed the recording session, and; 3) playing as the lead-off band for a The Mamas and the Papas concert at the SMU Colosseum in Dallas during 1967, Texas. Later Herman went to Holland for a year at Delft University of Technology and played with a band called “Flint”.
