Trinity: See Blog on Trinity

Steve Croskey and Vision: See blog on Steve Croskey and Vision.

Uncle Fungus: See blog on Uncle Fungus.

Tom Booth Band:
Tom has a band in every port. Pretty much each corner of the US has a set of people who know all his music, and can be assembled to provide the backing required for his concerts.  For the past 25 years I have been playing for shows here-and-there for Tom.  The highlights were: Fenway park, Reliant Stadium, many Steubenville conferences, 22 years of Sunday night Masses at St Timothy’s in Mesa.  Lately I have been playing Harmonica, Djembe, shakers, Dobro and Mandolin with Tom at various concerts around the SW US.

Blue Plate Special at Harley Gig

Blue Plate Special:
When you play music in a church, you meet a lot of really great musicians.  And you get to do a lot of networking.  Our music minister gave my name to a guy who played bass at the Saturday night 5:30 PM Mass.  Dennis Lambert had recently moved to Arizona form Chicago, where he had a working Blues band with his wife (AKA Little Debbie).  They were looking for a harmonica player for their Chicago Blues-style band.  OK… I had been playing harmonica in folk-type bands for a few years.  But I had not experience with a real blues band.   I talked to Dennis on the phone and he asked me to come play with the band THAT NIGHT.  I was going to go play with his band without EVER even meeting them, or hearing their music.  Well, I had been brought up with the best as far as winging it, so I told him I would be there.  Terrified, I showed up with my box of harmonicas.  I walked up on stage with them.  The first song started (Messin’ with the Kid). Little Debbie sang the first verse and chorus.   The guitar player took a lead break.  Another verse and chorus by Little Debbie…. and they all looked at me.  So I played.  I just played what I felt.  The song ended.  People clapped, and we broke right into the next song (Tore down).  Same thing.

Artist at Below's During Gig

But this time, after I played my break, the guitar player walks over to me and says; “dude, it’s great having a REAL player… our last guy SUCKED”.  Ear to ear grin!!!!  Sigh!!!  I was stoked.  After the set the guitar player quickly ran into the kitchen.  You see, it wound up that this place was a STRIP joint!  Our side was a blues bar; the other side of the restaurant was the nudie bar.  Hmmm….. what would my pastor think?  But we never played there again so I didn’t have to worry.  We played lots of gigs. We played the third Thursday of every month at Below’s in downtown Tempe.  I played with them for a few years regularly.  But getting home at 2-am and getting up for work in the morning was hard.  A new harmonica player from New Jersey moved to town and I gladly stepped aside and let him take my spot.  I still play for them occasionally for special gigs, or coverage.  I have played drums, Keyboards, Percussion and Harmonicas for the band.  And occasionally Bass when Dennis had to go to the restroom in the middle of a set. Another fun gig was playing with Dr Hook and Medicine Men in Wickenburg a few years back.

Whitestone at Fiddler's Dream

Whitestone:
AKA Father Charlie’s Bluegrass Band. In the early 2000′s, Father Charlie Gorieb was spending a lot of calories learning bluegrass guitar.  This was his private passion.  Having recently been ordained a priest, I think he needed some outlet.  He called me and few other guys he knew and asked if we would join him in preparing for a few concerts.  It was Father Charlie on guitar and vocals, Jeff Looker on Banjo, Cheryl Alvin on Vocals and guitar, Andy on Bass Guitar, and me on Mandolin/harmonicas/Vocals!!!!  We have played probably a dozen show though the years.  The most interesting night we had was when we were playing for a large group of Catholic Priests and Nuns.  An elderly nun had a heart attack in the middle of one of our songs!  We saw the commotion and a doctor who happened to be there run over to help her.  After a few minutes she tried to say something.  The doctor put his ear close to her mouth and she said to him; “more music”. Who were we to argue with a dying nun!  We proceeded to play while the ambulance came and took her away.  We found out later that she was fine.  It had been a minor heart attack. Besides church pictnics and fundraisers, we used to play periodically at Fiddler’s Dream.

Godspel:
The play that wouldn’t died: During our last years of college, an acting troop adopted the Newman Center as the home base for the Andrew Lloyd Weber play: Godspel.  They asked a few of us local musicians to provide the music.  Tim Smith played DRUMS!, I played Guitar, Karen Thompson played piano, and a young kid from El Salvador played bass.  This new kid was Jaime Cortez.  The most likable kid you had ever met.  And he was a rocker.  He was a guitar player extraordinaire. Mostly, he was a Beatles nut.  We spent a lot of extra time in and out of rehearsal playing guitar.  One of my earliest memories of Jaime was during practice one day.  We would practice in the Old Church at Newman.  It was right on University Avenue.  We were sitting there waiting for something or another, and car went by and backfired. Jaime literally HIT the floor.  He explained that in El Salvador, this was a frequent occurrence, and it was usually gunfire.  We played on and off for several years in this groups.  We played all around Arizona.  The troop was like a living Soap Opera with the relationships and break-ups that went on.

Men Without Work:
When Mr. Tim Smith left West-point and came to ASU, he had an immediate impact on our music scene around ASU.  We went from a purely Christian music focus, to a bit wider genre.  We went from Michael Joncas to Michael Jackson; from Carry Landry to “Carry on my Wayward Sun”; from “One Bread, One Body” to… Bread (“If a picture paints a thousand words…”).  We started booking wedding receptions, and church dances.  We played the same 50 songs that were in Tim’s Dad’s fake books (Fake Books are one page charts used by bands to fake their way thru any song).  If we didn’t know the words, we made it up. I don’t think we ever played a song that was less than 10 years old. We used the same jokes week and after week “We’ve had a lot of request, but we’re gonna keep playing anyways (ba-bump-bump-chee)”. How did we get our name?  We were on our way to a job in south Scottsdale.  I had all our equipment in the back of my truck.  We were at the intersection of Scottsdale and McDowell roads.  A kid in the car next to us yelled out and asked us if we were in a band.  We said Yes.  He asked our name.   There were a couple of popular band names that came to my heard: Men at Work, and Men Without Hats.  So without thinking I just said “Men Without Work“.  He said: “Coooool”.  It stuck.

stevecroskey.com

I want to start with a story:  One of our last big concerts we played as Steve Croskey and Vision was up in Portland Oregon for a NW US Youth conference.  It was held on the Columbia River, just north of Portland. Many years later, after Steve had died, I went up to Portland for a business trip.  It was my first time back there since our concert.  I was very nostalgic, thinking about Steve. Just walking through the airport reminded me of him.  I got into my rent-a-car, and as I was driving out of the airport, I turned on the radio…. There was a song playing… it was Come Follow Me… the title song from Steve’s first record!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I couldn’t believe my ears. My eyes watered up and I listened to this cover of Steve’s song.  Apparently there is a really good Catholic radio station in Portland.  The previous driver (or an angel) had left it on this station. What are the odds?  How many millions to one?

Steve Croskey and Vision

Back to the Band History…  When we all graduated from college, everyone landed in a parish somewhere in the valley. We probably figured we would not play together too much anymore.  But an amazing man named Steve Croskey moved top Phoenix form Southern California and changed that.  He was a well-known Catholic songwriter who had always dreamed of having his own band.  He heard about some of us from Newman and asked us if we would join his band.  We got together once and we just clicked.  Eddy Cook on Bass, David Burba on Drums, Tim Smith on Keys, Jaime Cortez on Guitar, Julie Smith on Vocals, Kelly Carmody was our booking agent (and van driver).  We were an instant hit. We were playing youth conference from Portland Oregon down through California, Arizona and New Mexico.  We played at a Jazz club in Tempe one night.

Drummer Pict During Song

Chuy's in Tempe

We put out two CD’s (OK… Cassettes).  Come Follow Me, and Don’t Walk Away.  Parishes around the country are still doing Steve’s songs to this day. We would play the inspirational music for the conferences, and then put on a dance at the Hotels afterwards.  One of our highlights was playing for the Pope John Paul II’s youth conference in Universal Studio.  I have a separate Blog.

Steve shaking Pope JPII's Hand

My Stage Pass

We played for 2 or 3 years before Steve got sick.  We stopped playing together.  But Steve continued to play for a parish in the Diocese.  He died, too few years later, of a disease which he probably would have survived had he had this today.  I stay in contact with his wife Melanie and his kids.  They were just kids when we were touring.  We have very fond memories of our times on the road with them. 

The story never ended… we still are all good friends today…. please check out stevecroskey.com for the rest of the story…

Early Trinity Concert

There were a group of us at the Arizona State University Catholic Newman Center who used to go to daily Mass at 4:45.  Believe it or not, it was very popular at that time for the kids at the center to go to Mass daily.  We would have a very short Mass, and then we would all go to eat somewhere.  A few of us would play music for the service.  Then it grew to a number of us.  Pretty soon we had a nice little group going.  Someone asked us once if we would do a concert.  So we started writing songs and put an official “band” together.  

Trinity First Christmas Card

We played quite a bit around the Phoenix area.  We played for Sunday youth groups meetings, church festivals, Youth conferences, etc. We played a few concerts in California for the National Youth Conferences as well. The personnel changed frequently. But the core of the group (the Trinity) was Paul Hillenbrand, Tim Smith and David Burba. We always had 2 or 3 of the most beautiful girls in the band.  This way, no matter how we sounded, we looked great! I guess one of our highlights was being asked to warm up for Pat Boone at a concert in Sun-city.  Pat Boone said we were “Magnificent”.  But he was backstage when we played… so I am not sure how he knew.  

Trinity after a concert in Flagstaff

We did 2 recordings.  And we were selected to be on the All-Arizona Christian Compilation called “Songs in the Key of Jesus”.

Uncle Fungus at the Willow House

Uncle Fungus:
I met Mike Twitchel when I worked out at the Air Force base in the late 80′s.  During lunch, we would go hang out at the base cantina.  They had pool tables, hamburgers, and MUSIC Rooms.  There were two music rooms, each had a piano. I would often find Mike in one of the rooms, and I would go into the other.   I would play Billy Joel Pop music, and he would be playing boogie-woogie music.  This guy could play.  He was starting a blues band after he landed a gig at the Arizona County Fair.  He asked me if I would play the drums for it.  I did.  It was pretty good.  But the band never took off.   Several years after I left the Base for Intel, we ran into each other and talked about music.  He said that he was looking to start a band.  We hooked up day for lunch to talk about getting a shows-worth of songs together.  He brought over a notebook with some songs he had written…. there were like, 1000′s of songs!!!  Amazing.  We put our duo together and hit the coffee house circuit.  We were good!  He played guitar, played harmonica on a wire holder and sang a bit Leon Redbone; in a gravelly voice.  I played djembe, harmonicas, shakers, and sang harmonies!  This was the first real chance I got to sing.  I was always in bands with such good singers, so I never got a chance. We added a drummer, violin player, and bass.  We played some shows around the coffee house circuit before we just kind of died out.  In 2008,  I got a call from Mike. “We’re getting the band back together”. Mike had informed me that he was changing his music to be more of a comedy show. He wrote a whole bunch of  satirical songs. We met at a coffee house in Glendale for an outdoor show.  We did not have time to practice, so Mike made some notes about each song… the tempo/keys etc.   The first time any of us had heard that songs was during the show. They were hysterical.  But they were fairly “Blue” as well.  We were literally crying behind him of laughter; it was hard to play when we were cracking up with laughter and embarrassment.   The audience caught on, and it made for even a funnier show.  But there was a problem…. I write Children s Music and play in Church.  So, as funny as the new band format was, I don’t think it fit my public persona. I told him after the show that I would not be able to be a part of this band.  Mike had recorded the show to use for a promo CD.   I told him to change my name on the CD.  So if you ever get a hold of a hysterical, blue comedy CD by Uncle Fungus, you can look for me under my stage name:  Dave Cognito.

My son Zach tells me to this day that this was his favorite band I even played in.