BIO...
I was born.
Okay, beyond that, I grew up in Janesville, WI (South of Madison). I started listening to AM Radio 89 WLS, Chicago around age 4, and also started collecting 45rpm records, along with my two older sisters. We each had our nifty, colorful little record cases. I still have one of those cases in the attic with songs like, "Knock Three Times" by Tony Orlando & Dawn, "Montego Bay (Bobby Bloom)", "Indiana Wants Me" (R. Dean Taylor), "Take a Letter Maria" (R.B. Greaves), "Come & Get Your Love" (Redbone), "Beach Baby" (First Class), "Lay a Little Loving On Me" (Robin McNamara), and many others. Ooh, and as far as ALBUMS, I still have a Partridge Family LP.
My friends and I used to privately sing along with the 45's till I was about 6 or 7, but then singing wasn't cool. A tone-deaf neighbor boy who walked home with me in sixth grade, egged me on to sing on the way home, but I never sang in front of anyone else till I started playing guitar at age 16 or 17.
Damn, I wish I'd started sooner. It was my sister Heidi's cheap classical (nylon string) guitar that she never spent much time learning. My friend Edgar really showed me my first chords, and excited me with the possibility that I could actually learn to play a song on an instrument! Wow! Was it really something I could eventually learn?
Surprisingly, Heidi (18) wasn't possessive about her guitar, or resentful about ME learning stuff she never did. Instead, she really ENCOURAGED me --more than either of my parents. If she hadn't let me use "her" guitar, or complimented my early feeble efforts, I doubt I would have followed through.
She had a pretty good beginning guitar instruction book - possibly a Mel Bay book. I don't recall if I ever finished it, and I know I didn't stick to the sheet music parts much, but I got a lot out of that book. I never took myself serious enough to think I deserved lessons, and my parents never thought to offer or encourage that, with me being close to graduation and all.
Our parents did buy a piano and offer us lessons with a mean nun when we were young, but none of us cared for her or pursued it much. Mom brought home an rummage sale electric guitar when I was about 5, but we were clueless what to do with it, and it disappeared right away, unplayed. She also bought me a $13 rummage sale, plywood beginners guitar with STEEL STRINGS! In retrospect, the classical was much nicer/better, but I was grooving to the sounds of steel string acoustics, and it was louder. Both of the guitars were loaned out to 'friends' who never returned them.
Edgar was a huge inspiration, as were the Cat Stevens, Bread, BTO, Dan Fogelberg, Neil Young, James Taylor, Eagles and other LPs my sisters played incessantly. I modified my driver's license at 17 to make myself 18 so I could get into the "Down & Under" & "Kings Pub" bars on the corner of East Milwaukee St. & Main St. in the heart of downtown Janesville. There, my two buddies and I would go listen to Marshal Story, Mike Meier, Julie Dale & Cindy(something) in their duo called, "Cayenne". and other musicians. A cripple man in a manual wheelchair named Steve Mosely enchanted me one night there, and gave me my first free guitar lesson the next day (after treating me to lunch and making a pitch for Amway). He taught me to FINGER PICK in that one lesson. Wow! That really opened new doors! All my fave acoustic guitar heros played fingerstyle guitar, and now I was learning to do it.
I don't think I ever saw Steve again, though I made several efforts to call and track him down, in appreciation for what his help meant to me. Hope you're doing great today Steve, wherever you are!
FIRST GIG:
Really cool vegetarian restaurant called, The Wheatberry, on East Milwaukee St., downtown, gave me my first gig. The owner at that time, Bill Lathrop, took a chance on me, and there I was: playing my 20-40 song repertoire in this wonderful atmosphere, softly-lit restaurant where people were eating veggie lasagna and "Californian" sandwiches: walnut-date-pineapple-creamcheese on millett bread. Oh! And I got free GUINNESS Stout while I played my $35, 3-hour gig! It didn't get much better than that.
Bill was a great guy to me --always complimentary, boosting the shakey ego, and without any prompting from me, he kept giving me raises, up to $60/night I think.
From here, I was now able to sound like a 'working musician', and get other bookings:
Ground Round - $80 for 3hrs was a milestone, as I was getting paid as much as the guys I used to go watch. I also played lots of other pubs, restaurants, U-Rock (county extension college), Mitchell's in Whitewater, and other places.
All the while, I was attending college at U.W.-Whitewater, studying ART initially. I contemplated majoring in English/writing, but then really got hooked on SOCIAL WORK and the prospect of getting paid to help people... wow, what a great deal: You do good deeds, help people improve their lives, and feel better about yourself, AND make a living at it. Dr. Chuck Zastrow was a huge inspiration during my undergraduate work, and we're still friends today. I got a great job working at Rock County Healthcare Center on the psychiatric unit as a psych tech, and headed to grad school at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Great town, but stupidly, I commuted and worked xxx.
Mental health, psychotherapy/counseling was becoming my primary interest, and soon as I got done, I was overly anxious about "finding a job", and jumped at the first offer: Kingsford, Michigan. I worked at the community mental health/counseling center from 1988-1992, Dickinson County Hospital from 1993 till around 2004, and prior to that date in 1998, I started my private psychotherapy practice, which went great from the start, and has been going better and better every year.
Once I moved here to the U.P., I knew NOBODY. I set out to make the area home...
I went to the community center and began playing "wallyball" (volleyball on a raquetball court) with total strangers. It was there I made some of my best friends, and future volleyball teammates: Blaise, Rick, Donna, Tom... I organized a volleyball team with these folks and others I'd met.
Then, I saw a sign for "Open Mic" at a small bar called, "Joe Beez" (formerly the "Coachlight", and now a salon, the "Savage Mane"). The owner, John Shirk, hired me to play regularly. A regular patron there, Mike Hoinowski, hired me to play at his bar, at Brier Mountain (now, "Norway Mountain"). I started getting calls to play parties and other events and pubs, and then the two ski hills in town (Norway Mt. and Pine Mountain). I still play those venues regularly.
Blaise worked at the hospital, and he invited me to tons of parties and events, and the music, sports, and connection to the hospital & others via Blaise gave me an INCREDIBLE JUMPSTART to fitting in, and making the U.P. my 'home'.
A friend I made on State Street, in Madison, Stewart Antelis, moved to Germany to play music when I moved to the U.P. He invited me to come over to Germany many times in the 1990's for gigs, and I had the time of my life. Last trip there was 2004, but I might make another jaunt.
Today, I have my work week structured so I work three 'marathon days', Mon/Tue/Wednesday, and then I'm mostly unscheduled Thursday through Sunday. I do have to spend many hours on phone calls, paperwork, emails, etc., but more at my 'leisure'. I'm able to take long weekends off. I often play gigs on Thurs, Fri. and Saturday, and teach a guitar lesson or two occasionally on Sunday nights. Busy, but balanced (well, most of the time). My Dad visits often, and almost always goes to my gigs when I have to play during his visits.
I also love woodworking, lutherie, volleyball, tennis, art, DVDs/movies, teaching, whitewater canoeing, camping and backpacking.
That's it for now. Can't believe you actually read all this!
Peace,
Mark Young - Feb 09, 2007
Iron Mountain, Michigan