Those Guys

One of my early posts dealt with a recap of some of my favorite music memories, most dating back 30 years or more. Once I was married and the family started to grow, I tried to keep up with music, but time and opportunities were few and far between. However, as the kids grew and my work schedule allowed me to be in church on Sunday morning, I began participating in the music team. I simply played along with the songs on my trumpet, and at some point added congas to the mix. My experiences with the team could be a whole post by itself, but what it led me to was most likely THE musical highlight of my life – Those Guys.

Those Guys began simply enough. The story begins with John Taylor, a fellow member of the worship team. A neighbor of his was part owner of a wine storage facility in Vancouver called Cellar 55. This was a small warehouse with oak lockers for rent. People would store their wine collections here, with the entire warehouse kept at a nippy 55 degrees. They also had an open area for people to host events. John’s neighbor asked him if he could provide some music for one of these events. John called upon his former brother-in-law and fellow worship team member / guitarist Barry LaDuke to help him, and the two played for a few hours as patrons wined and dined. They had known each other for years, and had played together countless times, but soon ran out of music and started repeating songs. They were a great hit, and were asked to come back again. They knew that they would need to expand their team and song list to fill the time, as well as surviving the chill as they played. They asked Michael Beirwagen (keyboards) and me (trumpet and percussion) to join in. We filled in the hours with everything we could think of – songs from church, songs from John and Barry’s history, or just jamming to a 12 bar blues. We had a great time, as did the crowd.

Attending the festivities that day was Gary and Bonnie Gouger. Gary was a winemaker, and had just opened his own winery (Gouger Cellars) in the Cellar 55 building. To build business, he featured live music during wine tasting events. This included a weekend celebration that was held in conjunction with holidays – Valentines, Memorial Day, Labor Day and Thanksgiving. Gary asked if we would be willing to come play for his next event, which was the Saturday of Valentines Day Weekend. We added Bryan Martindale on bass and Greg Shewbert on drums, also both members of the worship team at church. The gig went well, and we were asked back for Memorial Day. This continued on for a little over two years, during which time we were unofficially known as the Gouger House Band, but more officially came to be known as Those Guys.

While playing the gigs at Gouger, we also stayed true to our roots and looked for ways perform as a worship band. We were able to share our music with Transitional Youth in Downtown Portland, and had an amazing set with Michael Workentine at the LifeChange Program at Union Gospel Mission. We even traveled down to Barry’s hometown of Oakridge, OR to play for a citywide prayer group. We also continued to serve in our home church, either leading worship, playing, and running sound. It was an amazing time – bonding together as a group, both as friends and as musicians.

So what were the highlights of that time?

• Practices – each practice, we would all talk about songs we’d like to play. Some would actually come prepared with music. Other times, we would just listen to the song and start to play along, then after three of four times, we’d turn off the recording and just play. Each guy in the group had a great ear, and we could put together two or three new songs each time we played. It was a great time of learning to listen to each other, to pick out the harmonies, to add little touches that would spice it up.
• Backgrounds – musically, we had all come from different backgrounds – jazz, blues, pop, rock, with a little touch of country, classical, and anything else you could think of. This really shone through in our music, both in the selections and the styles we played in. We mostly stuck to original versions of songs, but loved to tweak them as well. Case in point? The well-known Kansas song “Dust in the Wind”. We played it as an instrumental, and held to the same traditional acoustic treatment as the original. However, as we entered the solo break, we started picking up the intensity, and launched into a Spanish-tinged beat. When it reached its peak, we slowly backed into the familiar acoustic flow that we started with.
• Originals – truth be told, we were mostly a cover band, but John has written a couple of originals that we performed as well. Down the road, Bryan brought in one of his own, and I added a couple as well. It was fun to flesh out these songs into full band format, and share them with everybody
• Special Guests – we loved to invite friends to come and sit in with us and share in the fun. Once they got used to the frigid temperatures, they jumped in and played their hearts out! These included:
• Dave Calhoun – harmonica
• Daniel Crommie – jazz flute (make that amazing jazz flute)
• Amy Hubbard – vocals
• Jean Laduke – vocals
• Barry Andrews – sat in on drums for a whole six hour set!
• Henry Hohn – sat in on bass and keyboards for a six hour set as well – he also has a great jazz background, so we spent time during the breaks playing through some old jazz standards – very fun.
• Karla Harris – my favorite performance as Those Guys was when we asked Karla if she would come sit in with us. We had met Karla when she and her family moved to Portland and began attending our church. We heard early on that she was a good singer, and after hearing her sing a few times, we were blown away with just how good she was – not just good, but world-class good. As word got around Portland of her arrival, she became an in-demand jazz singer throughout the area. We would get to accompany her whenever she sang for church, and it really stretched us out as musicians. John and Barry asked if she’d like to sit in with us for a set at Gouger, and she graciously accepted. We worked with her to pick out a five song set, and then went to work, ensuring that our musicianship was up to playing with someone with her talent. We arrived at the gig, letting Gary and Bonnie know that we were bringing a special guest for part of the day. They didn’t know who she was, but took our word that they wouldn’t be sorry. Karla arrived, and after a few minutes, began the set. Now, normally in this environment, there’s a little chatter that goes on as we play – we’re not there as the stars – we’re just there to provide ambiance. However, when Karla began to sing, the entire room stopped and focused on Karla. I remember the look on Bonnie’s face – utter shock! The next twenty minutes is probably the best that any of us have played together as a group in our lives – it was totally magical – every note in place and in tune. Amazing, amazing, amazing.
• Special numbers – there were a couple of times that we found out that Bonnie liked a song, so we’d take the time to learn it, and then surprise her with it at the next gig.”Smile” by Uncle Cracker was played at their wedding, so we learned and played it for them; the song became part of the regular rotation. I can’t say that our cover of U2’s “With or Without You” was fantastic, but it wasn’t bad. It was just the joy of preparing something special for someone, and watching them as you played it for them. We also added a special 4^th verse to the Georgia Satellites “Keep Your Hands To Yourself”, which featured the protagonist of the song taking his gal to Gouger for a glass of Merlot. That one stayed in the rotation as well.
• Other favorite Those Guys memories?
• Stopping for lunch at the downtown Vancouver Burgerville between the set-up and the gig.
• Mustang Sally – the one song we could pretty much count on audience participation.
• Playing “Besame Mucho” while a pair of trained dancers performed a beautiful rhumba.
• Playing outdoors for a client appreciation dinner – a warm summer evening, with one of those sunsets where the sun is the size of a basketball in sky, and flaming red as it sets – playing Besame Mucho as the clients leaned how to dance the rhumba. We played it for about 20 minutes, and since we finished the song, we went back and just played with the song, different instrumentation, improvising solos over the same rhythm so the dancers could keep moving.
• The first time we performed “It’s Alright” acapella in public – we worked hard on that one, and it came out great

Like any good thing, there is a time to start and a time to end. After two years, three of us in the group were having a difficult time balancing the needs of our families and jobs with the fun we were having in the band, and we stepped away to focus on the these priorities. The remaining three members have gone on to form a new band, “Rockit Scienzz”, which is continuing to play throughout Portland. Those Guys technically aren’t dead and gone – many of us still participate in the Sunday morning worship at church, and we occasionally are able to get together and play for fun. The experiences I had as ‘one of ‘Those Guys’’ will last for a lifetime, as will the friendships formed.