Enthusiastic Joe

A couple weeks ago, Peggy and I were at a truck stop in Birmingham, AL. We had been taking a break at the Flying-J with a couple other drivers from our company. Brian, Tater and we had delivered 3 trailers in Birmingham when the place opened on a Mon. morning. Then we went to breakfast. I ate quick and moved over to an empty area near the pizza counter to fiddle as is my habit. That went well for awhile. I talked to one guy especially, Jeff, a flat-bed driver, who loves to play guitar but didn’t have it with him. He said he’d start carrying it in case we meet again at this truck stop. After awhile, Brian & Tater took off for Atlanta while we were heading west. It was Peggy’s turn to drive. As she was preparing her log-book, a black driver in the truck next to us got out and stared at the side of my door on the passenger side. Our logo is a heart-shaped violin next to our name - “Heartstrings Xpress, Inc.” So I offered this explanation: “I play fiddle.” Without skipping a beat, the black driver, Joe, said, “Well let’s hear it.” Of course I’m always ready to share if asked. So I grabbed the fiddle out of the case on the bunk, sat back down in the jump-seat and started fiddling. Joe stood on the running board with his face right next to my right ear. He was sincerely fascinated and wanted to figure it out. He watched my fingering and my bow and had a million questions. He is about the most expressive, enthusiastic person I’ve ever met. He had never seen a violin up close being played, except that he had been introduced to cello in grade school but didn‘t pursue it. He reached out and very gently touched the top of my violin. It was so cool! He said his wife had told him that if he had had the right teacher he would’ve been really great at music. In just a few minutes we learned that Joe’s wife is white, that he had known white girls in high school and liked hanging out with them more than the black girls because he learned so much cultural stuff from the whites as opposed to ending up in fights over the black girls; he had been in prison for awhile, etc… Joe seemed very articulate - a good communicator, loves to talk. He is around our age, tawny, tough, handsome… Peggy had to intervene and cut this session short because we had already spent a lot of time at the truck stop and wanted to get on the road. So we said goodbye to Joe. He really made an impression in those few minutes. I wanted to harness a little of his energy for myself. Then we were off and running to Oklahoma City. That’s another story.

We spent the whole day in OK City while having a storage box installed on the side of our truck - supposed to take “about 3 hours” but actually took six hours. We went there to deliver a stack of 3 new flat-beds, arrived at 6:30 a.m., saw some cool storage boxes in the office and decided to buy one and have it installed. Once our truck was in the bay and work had started, we called Peggy’s cousin Trudy, walked a couple blocks up to the truck stop and met Trudy for breakfast. It was the first time in a couple years we had seen her. When we drove for Clark Farms, we stayed east of the Mississippi. Now with RexDon, we get to go west again. Trudy is ‘bananas for Jesus,’ so we always have a wonderful time with her, sharing what Jesus is doing in our lives. After a great visit - the first in sooo long, we returned to our truck, expecting it to be ready, to find it was not anywhere near being done. By the time they finished it, our schedule was too tight to make it on time to the next pick-up in David City, NE, but as I slept, Peggy phoned ahead, bribed someone, and they agreed to wait another hour for us to get there. Another day/another adventure. Back in OK City we have another friend - Kim Kyungah. She has finished her masters and is now working full time for a Baptist church as administrative assistant. We could not get hold of her the day we met Trudy, but just a week or so later we came through again en route from San Diego to Columbus, OH. This time we met both Trudy and Kyungah at an ice cream store. It’s so great to be running western states again and to be able to drop in on friends and family.

Kang Ji Hoon in San Anton

Just a couple days ago, Thurs. 11/9/06, Peggy and I delivered a trailer in San Antonio, TX. This is where one of my former Korean violin students is now going to high school. Kang Ji Hoon was one of my beginning students in Korea. He was one of the 3 kids plus Ji Hoon’s mom, who took a trip with Peggy and me to the American Suzuki Institute in Stevens Point, WI in July/August of 1999. We traveled in a van from Chicago through Milwaukee, Door County, and other parts en route to Stevens Point. We camped part of the time, stayed in a bed & breakfast one night and went canoeing on the Crystal River. At the A.S.I. the week focused on violin classes - 3 per day, lectures, concerts, recitals, food - but that’s another story. Now Kang Ji Hoon is 16 and a sophomore in high school.

Thurs morning as we were getting close to San Antonio after driving all night, I called Ji Hoon’s house. Rebecca answered the phone. She was very happy to hear from us and invited us to dinner. After delivering the trailer we spent the day cleaning our truck, took it through a truck wash, and we took showers. We got to the house a little after 5:00 p.m. Ji Hoon was still at school for orchestra rehearsal. He goes to a big international studies magnet school - the largest of it’s type in Texas. We went with Ben, Ji Hoon’s host dad, to pick him up after orchestra class. KJH is first chair violin in the orchestra. He says this orchestra is easy for him. In his school there is a more advanced orchestra, but he was too late to audition for it this year. He might audition next year. He doesn’t practice or have private lessons right now. He showed me his music folder - a variety of Irish, popular, light classical and jazz arrangements. I was really impressed when Ji Hoon brought out his music folder that I had compiled 6 years ago in preparation for our trip to Stevens Point. It’s a pink folder with plastic sleeves full of pieces we worked on back then. After dinner we played some of these together for Ben & Rebecca (host parents) and Masahiro (Japanese exchange student who also lives with Ben & Rebecca.) It was the first time the family had heard Ji Hoon play except in school concerts. He did great on Pachelbel Canon, Handel ‘Judas Maccabaeus,’ Amazing Grace. We tried Bach Double and a Telemann Canonic Sonata; …those are his assignments for next time.

We felt right at home with Ben & Rebecca. They seem to be the perfect host parents for international students. They are strict & fair, treating the 2 boys as they would their own kids. Dinner included kimchi and rice - very Oriental, and mint chocolate chip ice cream which Masahiro would not eat. It was good to meet Masa - he has made the local news several times as a track star; he gave us one of those newspaper articles. It was a wonderful visit, and it seems Ben & Rebecca would be willing to bring the boys out to our home in southern IL at spring break. And we hope they do.

We left about 9:00, drove through the night to Pascagoula, MS on the coast en route to pick up a load in AL which was not 100% confirmed. When we called in Fri morning, that load was off, and we were rerouted to Nashville but could not pick up till Sat. morning. We had 1100 empty miles from San Anton to Nashville and lost a-day-&-a-half. But it’s okay. We drove 1500 miles from Nashville to Roosevelt, UT in 26 hrs - nearly non-stop. We delivered at 9:00 a.m. Sunday and went to church at Roosevelt Christian Assembly. Now we’re on our way to Salt Lake City to pick up a trailer to deliver in Phoenix Monday morning. It’s been lovely driving through the mountains and the snow. No treacherous weather yet.

St. Louis Violin Shops

7 November 2006
On Monday 16 Oct I went to St. Louis to visit four violin shops en route to Springfield, IL for IL Symphony. I stayed with friends in Fenton, Ron & Debbie Box, overnight on Mon. Monday I visited only one shop - Geoff Seitz Violin Shop, at this location 20 years. He has 3 store-fronts side by side, all connected into one big shop, next to a hair place on one side and insurance or something on the other side, in a mostly residential neighborhood of small brick homes. This is a lower middle class neighborhood with a very unique violin shop right in the middle of it all. First impressions of Seitz and his shop were - wow-violins everywhere. The walls are lined with them in various stages of repair, and there are boxes and piles of junk violins. Apparently he works on school instruments… He has several basses as well, one on a table with the top off being worked on. This place has a lot of character. I’m having Seitz touch up a couple spots on my fine viola and rehair two bows, and I‘m trying out his violins - especially the one he made. I want a better violin - a new one, so I’m visiting violin makers. Geoff was an apprentice to a violin maker in Washington state and eventually started his own shop and moved back home to St. Louis more than 20 years ago. I like his style and personality. His violins have an interesting inlaid design in the upper area on the back below the shoulders. At the end of the week when I picked up my stuff on Sunday around noon, I met Geoff’s wife and dog. Since they aren’t open on Sunday, they just came in to meet me. Sweet dog! This couple is around my age and seem like former hippies, but I could be wrong on that point.

After my first visit on Monday I went from Geoff’s shop to Fenton, but had a few hours before Ron & Debbie would be home from work. I had to practice my IL Symphony music anyway, so I found a church and asked permission to practice there. It’s a big church which Ron had pointed out to me in the past - it is where Joyce Meyer attends when she is home. I practiced my 2nd violin parts for R. Strauss “Rosencavalier” and “Till Eulenspiegel” - very tough. Then I went to Ron’s house about 6:00. We went out to eat and had a nice visit. Ron & Debbie are both teachers. They had to get up & out early Tues. I woke up early as well and practiced in the basement while Ron watched the news. I kept practicing after they left, took a shower and headed out to meet more violin makers. En route from Fenton up I-44, I got off at exit 282 - Big Bend Road, and right there was “Music Folk.” I had been there a couple times before - very cool place. I looked around at the huge selection of guitars, fiddles, harps, banjos… I saw a nice little selection of ukuleles - and bought one. I am under the recent influence of hearing Jake Shimabukuro on the radio and then ordered his CD, “Gently Weeps.” He is the best ukulele player! Onward up Big Bend to Clayton just up the street from Washington Park, near Washington U. is Clemens Violin Shop. I got there at about opening time. His shop was originally a big brick home. This whole area is rather up-scale in the heart of St. Louis near Washington Park. I heard about Clemens from Nathan Banks, a violinist in IL Symphony who has a Clemens violin. I had called Nathan for advice about where to go in St. Louis for violins. Robert Clemens came to the door. He is pretty young - maybe mid 30’s. His shop is real classy! Unlike Seitz’s shop, one cannot see Clemens’s work area. One enters into the instrument display room. Who knows what’s beyond those carved wooden doors to the rest of the house. On display are about 50 violins hanging in a glass cabinet - the more common instruments that were traded in. On one end of the room is a big, lovely string bass, the only one Clemens has made or will ever again make. Under the glass counter top are a few of the most valuable instruments, most made by Clemens himself. I tried 3 of these: 2 by Clemens, 1 by his teacher. Clemens is very personable and polished. He told about some of the renowned violinists who have bought his violins - very good stories. Of course the proof is in the pudding - I played his violins and was very impressed. Especially the 3rd one - one that he had built in 1999, which was played by John McGrosso of the Ariana String Quartet for five years. McGrosso exchanged it for a different Clemens violin. I think this will be my violin maker, but still am reserving judgment until I have met a few more. As I was leaving the shop, Robert opened a cabinet to withdraw a CD of the Ariana Quartet, picturing the players including John McGrosso holding the violin I had just played, and gave the CD to me. He also gave me a 2006 calendar with gorgeous pictures of some of his violins, violas and cellos. I have listened to the CD a lot in my car - Debussy and Beethoven quartets.

Next on my list was Dan Terry. He works out of his home. He was a little hard to contact and a little hard to convince I was interested in seeing his violins. He only had one available to show. I tried it…not so impressed.

Next I went to Gene Bearden Violin Shop. This is a very established and famous violin making family. Gene is quite old and has slowed down considerably. His son Greg is taking over the business. They had nothing to show me. They do mostly restorations now. It was very interesting to hear Gene talk about the old days playing violin in Springfield (IL) Symphony in the 1950’s and in St. Louis Symphony before it became a major orchestra. Gene is a tall, skinny, white-haired, well-dressed, elderly man. Though I liked visiting and hearing his stories, I was not impressed by the ‘mystique’ he seemed to be trying to evoke. There was an aloofness in this shop which turned me off quite quickly. Finally I met Greg and discussed the possibility of my buying a Bearden violin. He seemed nervous and anxious to get back to work, and had nothing to show me. I wouldn’t consider having a violin built if I had never tried an example of the maker’s work. He could see my point and suggested I go to Chicago to the violin making school where he (and Robert Clemens as well) had studied. There I can see examples of many makers all in one place. Good idea. So I’ll do that next chance I get which will be in April.

Thus ends my violin shopping. I headed up towards Springfield, IL. Right in my path was Alton, IL. I stopped there to try a restaurant that Mark Rogers had mentioned a long time ago - Fast Eddie’s. It is basically a big bar. I got there about 2:45, and they open at 2:00. There were many people there, but it wasn’t crowded. I have heard from more than one source that this place gets very crowded. The food was cheap and very good. The sound system was too loud. I took a table with an outlet for my laptop. I didn’t stay too long. The place has character, but it’s not my style.

The rest of the week was spent with Kregg E. Argenta and the IL Symphony. I always stay with Kregg, which makes IL Symphony seem almost incidental. My time is focused on practicing the music for the concerts that week, but one can’t practice all the time, so I also end up reading a book from Kregg’s library (last two times it was Treasure Island,) fiddling with our friend Jim, going out to eat, finding special events for Saturday. We have in the past gone over to Indiana to meet Peggy at a covered bridge festival, visited Lincoln memorial sites, fairs, festivals, parks, antique shop, exercise at health club, etc… We always go to Kregg’s parents house on Saturday around noon for their regular family lunch meeting. This time it was to celebrate his mom Janet’s birthday. So it’s like a mini-vacation, and the orchestra concerts are really fun, though hard work. This time our big pieces were Richard Strauss “Till Eulenspiegal” and “Rosenkavalier.” Anything by Strauss is bound to be very challenging. There were also several short opera excerpts. The soloists were 3 sopranos.

At the end of the week I had to pick up my viola and bows in St. Louis, so I stayed over at Kregg’s on Saturday night and left early Sunday to go to church in St. Louis before going to Seitz Violin Shop and heading home. I went to the Vineyard Church in Clayton, just 3 blocks from Clemens Violin Shop. They meet in a movie theater. Then it was another 20 minutes south to meet Seitz. I got my viola and bows, and left him my violin to have the fingerboard dressed (it gets grooves in it from years of pressing the fingers down on the same spots millions of times.) He said it would take a couple weeks. 10 days later I was in the area in my truck, so I called to see of the violin was done. It was, so on a Thursday morning I parked in front of Seitz’s shop in my bobtail (that means truck w/out a trailer attached.) Geoff did a wonderful job on my violin. It looks like a different instrument. He polished it with special stuff only violin makers have, and he fitted new tuning pegs. It almost made me cry to see this transformed violin. When I walked in, Mark, who works there with Geoff, was working on a violin and playing it - wow he’s good. He’s a champion fiddler. He was playing some old time fiddle tune in a very cool style. Geoff is supposed to be very good as well, but I haven’t heard him play yet… He said he knows Tim Stokes, 95-yr-old fiddler from my neck of the woods, from playing at the same contests. Ed Fravel, who regularly plays guitar with Tim, has backed Geoff up in contests as well. I like this shop.