My first band

"THE SONSHINE INN and The Revised Standard Band.
Every city has one or the other. Some block where all the carrying on"carries on". 2 street,4th avenue, Broadway etc. In Fairbanks that place is 2nd avenue or "2 street" as the locals call it. During the peak of the pipeline the place was rife with hookers,drug dealers and every other type of scoundral willing to offer "entertainments" to line workers who were all"monied up" and ready to drop cash and blow off pent up steam. Hookers were flying up from Seattle because they could make more money in a weekend in Fairbanks "plying their trade" than a month back in the Emerald City. There were rumors even of some "big city" organized crime in our little town. The modest two block stretch of 2 street was located in the heart of Fairbanks. This stretch had NINE bars. 6 featured live bands,there was a strip club that also featured live music,a native bar and a couple of "baggy pants old fart bars". Toward the end of my senior year in high school I decided one night to take a stroll down 2 street. I counted 35 hookers,got propostioned 10 times and had to step lively to keep from getting puked on,pissed on or caught up in one of several fist fights that had spilled out into the street. Talk about the last frontier! Finally the pipeline was done and the boom had subsided. Our little hamlet had shrunk down in population again but Fairbanks and Alaska would never be the same. We had written ourselves into the history books and put "The Last Frontier"on on the world stage. At this time(the late 70's)I was unemployed,rooming with a friend named Bill in this ratty apartment on the tail end of two street not far from the river. Most our neighbors were mental patients or welfare recipients. Bill was an interesting character. He was a former pastor of a communal ministry called ''Shilo"(now defunk) a musician like me and had a sardonic and a bit dry sense of humor. His daily attire was Horn rimmed classes, white open caller shirt with sleeves rolled up, brown dress slacks white socks and honest to goodness "Hush Puppies" striking. I slept on the couch and he slept under a 73 key Fender Rhoads electric piano in the one one he shared with his sickly cat(fuzz ball got kidney stones once)So it was in this setting that I found myself walking down 2 street one day and noticed some was fixing up the old Yellow Cab dispatch Office. The office was situated next door to one of the more notorious bars on the street, the "Savoy". It was the kind of bar where at the end of the night they sweep up equal amounts of broken teeth as they do broken bottles. I step inside and see Thomas covered in dust. Thomas was a well built man with a bushy beard and bright friendly eyes who spoke with an east coast accent.He was the pastor of the Gospel Out Reach. I asked him what was up he said "We're opening a Christian Coffee house. We are gonna have coffee, serve food and have music." This totally excited me. At this time Christians(single young ones)had no place to hang out listen to music and have fun outside the church. And for a budding musician like me having a place to play that wasn't anywhere near a church yet wasn't a (God forbid) a Bar, was unheard at the time and totally thrilled me. I asked what he was gonna call it. The "SONSHINE INN" to cool! I said I'd be there. As I was walking out the door the last thing I noticed was the wooden sign over the mens room read "MAN"...weird.

The Inn opened soon there after and was being run by a high school friend of mine named Dianne "Big Momma D" we called her, the place featured sandwiches,burritos,salads,soups and these great homemade pasteries made by a member of Thomas's church named Al. His sesame bars were to die for.During this time I was toiling with the my home church worship group.
Worship back in those days was alot different than it is today. Back then it was acoustic,soft and mellow. I had built my first peddle board and electric guitar rig and I wanted to rock, many of the songs we were doing sounded like the slow intro to rock songs that never got beyond the intro...never "kicked in"...frankly I felt like a race horse ready to run for the roses and they had me tied to a buggy for a sunday prance. Rock music at this time was a serious hot ticket item in some churches. There was an enormous amount of flak musicians like myself were and would continue to catch.Well into the 80's. In fact I remember seeing a very well known TV preacher standing in front of the camera holding several albums one was from a band a friend of mine was in. He had told me years later that he attributed hi salvation to me sharing Christ with him while we went to school. This brother was a deeply dedicated believer and was very upset over what this guy had said. Looking back over all these many years, all of it was pointless and there were far more important issues that should have been addressed. I have thought that there would have been far less persecution had I showed up with a Tele,a peddle steel player and did country gospel. But I WANTED TO ROCK!
The Inn would play a very pivital role in my developement. I would literally cut my teeth there learning to play in front of and audience.A tuff audience at that(christians at that time were what we in music business call a "Hard Room"not easy to win over)
It was there that I truely discovered "paydirt in my soul" It came at the grand opening.Gospel Outreach was a ministry started in Eureka California that was communal(weird I know) they had come to Alaska to start businesses in support of the world missions. They had a bakery in Palmer called the "Bread of Life"bakery. There they had formed a country rock band called "White Field Harvest" they came to Fairbanks to help launch the Inn. I was there with the church band that night and toward the end of the night after a day of music food and fun both bands were on stage trading songs back and forth. At one point the guitar player for WFH and I were "trading licks" back and forth. The house was absolutely packed with everyone down front. About the third or forth pass thru the chorus of the song and interesting thing happened, My race horse finally got lose and ran with the wind. I stepped to edge of the stage and hit ONE note...and the crowd went absolutly BALISTIC..they went nuts...started dancing,jumping around,shouting,hollering....frankly it scared the hell out of me! to the point that I blew the rest of the solo...My buddy Randy looks over and says "What'd you just do?" I'm thinkin "I don't know but I hope I can do that again...I think I'm on to something here..." It was at that moment without realizing it I had discovered the "IT" factor. This thing that is almost other worldly. Your ability to sqeeze enormous amounts of emotion out of one note. BB King has it,Clapton has it, Carlos Santana has it. And at that moment I discovered that I had "IT" too. In the years that followed God would cultivate that gift in me thru time after time on stage.
The night ended with them kicking the tables and chairs out of the way and everyone dancing before the Lord in Worship...good night.
As I had said the Inn played a big part in my early experience with the guitar. My first band became defacto the house band where Momma D kept me fed on burritos and I had a place away from the formality and restrictions of church to Rock. Even there, at times i caught a lecture from some one over the evils of rock and roll(go figure)
I had finally left the church worship band and struck out on my own. This was not easy for me I would have been content to just be the guitar player. God had other plans then He had to literally push me to the front. My self esteem has never been healthy and I have a heart to serve and seek the lime light(strange as that seems being a lead guitar player) The Revised Standard Band started quite humbly with me,my roomate Bill his beat up Yamaha12 string,a borrowed acoustic and a peavey backstage guitar amp. Humble. Bill and I being young and single we had time on our hands so every weekend we go there have one of Big Momma D's burritos and play. He had some songs from Shilo(folky worship tunes) and I had begun to write my own. Which is odd. From the beginning two things in my music surface imediately My ability to solo and I wrote songs,lyrics. I would learn later that that was odd. Lead guitar players aren't known for writing lyric's. Singer song writers hire guys like me. Singing was another issue. I have never had a "good" voice. I had been told all my life I couldn't sing. Yet I wound up in the school choir. "Just play guitar Steve"was the saying. Yet there was an emotional connection I felt when I heard certain singers. I could "feel it" and if you can feel it your voice will follow it. What God was doing here at the beginning was preparing me.Without me knowing it He was putting the pieces together. The guitar,the songs ,the voice, a place to practice and play and a band was forming for me to front. Bill and I would share a single mic that we plugged into this little guitar amp that didn't even have reverb. We would slap the mic back and forth to each other when it was his or my turn to sing. The Inn began to attract other local Christian musicians as a result our little band began to expand. I would learn that is how it works.If you have a vision God will bring those along to help.
One of the musicians that played the Inn was this lady named Cindy. The quintesential church singer. She would sing to cassette tapes and such. I liked her. Then one night she brought in a 88 key Fender Rhodes electric piano. I was really impressed. plus she a bit of a P A system. Me and Bill offered her to gig with us. Cindy played alot of the churches,church type functions. She was married to a military guy and had 2 kids. Nice but very white bread. She also had a degree in voice. Bill had a friend from church whose son(much to her consternation)played the drums and had a huge drum set. Christians with equipment were rare and very important back then.Next we needed a bass player. One of my best friends was this guy named Jed. We had met in church and had become fast friends. He played guitar so playing bass wouldn't be that hard. I sat down with him at the local music store and gave him a short lesson. Told him we were playing that weekend and to show up. He was a bit dubious about it but he showed up and had even bought a bass(couldn't afford the amp)once again the peavey come into play. By now my borrowed acoustic had been replaced by my shinny black Les Paul, my peddle board and the Musicman 212 amp with a master volume that I could finally let loose on. Bill turned out to be a trip on stage. As I would rip thru a solo he would start to shout,holler,jump up and do all sorts to antics nothing you'd expect from a guy wearing horn rimmed glasses. From Hush Puppy wearing pencil pusher to wild man. We started calling him"Wild Bill"!!!
One afternoon I was sitting there ant the Inn having coffee when in walks this guy. He was kinda cool lookin,sporting a leather jacket,aviator glasses and long hair. I looked up and invited him to sit and join us.His name was Chuck. We got to talking about music and he said he played a little guitar. I handed him mine and low and behold he could! He even played some jazz chords! I asked if he was a believer,he said ya then asked if he had any gear he said he had a strat and a Carvin half stack. I invited him to join the band on the spot. Chuck would become one of my dearest life long friends and remains so even today.A wonderful husband and father whose children are all serving God,a successful businessman and a pillar in both his community and his church. Amazing what God will do with the willing. Gotta love those jazz chords! The last member to join was the husband of a mutual friend of our Pauline. I had known Pauline sine I had first gotten saved. She had married this guy named Paul. Pauline was this earth mother loves musicians and artists type. A lot like Big Momma D. Paul couldn't play a thing but he could sing and he would write songs. They came over to see me one night at the ratty apartment. He brought some lyrics he had written on a scrap of paper.They were very good. He,Pauline and I sat at the table,I pulled out my guitar and in no time I took his lyrics and added music to them and voila we had a killer song. I had never done that before!Taken lyrics from someone else and added the music to it. "You got any more of these"? "Ya I got a pile". I said "Good! we rehearse on such and such days show up with more songs! We gig the following weekend" That song was called "One in One Hundred" I held on to that song for years and played it with the Saints in LA and it made it onto the debut recording of "Stevie and The Saints" "Metalblue" that we recorded in the 80's on the Victoria LTD label. An album that would become a critical success and sneak it's way across the world.All written in 5 minutes in a ratty unkept apartment in Fairbanks Alaska. Despise not the days of small beginnings. A few weeks after Paul joined he shows up to practice with a set of beat up congas. I said he felt stupid just singing. Problem was he had absolutely no rythm what so ever. Every time we would back up to get out of ear shot so we wouldn't get off time. Strangely Bill could wail on them! Chuck and I were the perfect foils for each other. He played a strat, I played a Les Paul. From the get go we started playing harmony guitar parts ala the Allmen Brothers. Cindy was like the earth mother to us all. Always quick to pray for you and she took over the vocals. She did all the arrangement for the guys to sing back up. Bill started to jump between the acoustic guitar and Paul's congas. We started having some serious explosive nights at the Inn and we began to get offers from others to come play.There was this guy "Randy" that would show up. Whenever the night was calm or the crowd was feeling a bit timid Randy would start hootin and hollering over some tune we were doing. I think the affect on the crowd was,"Hey he's getting loud and rowdy..maybe it's OK" and they would follow suit! We almost took up the hat in the band to pay him to keep pumping the crowd!! There was another couple that played down there also named Paul and Kay. There Southern California transplants who had come up to help Kay's aunt found a church and they were the worship leaders. A very cool couple. Paul really was a true singer song writer. He had won a contest locally for writing a song about 2 street. We would on occasion back them up. More about them in a later chapter. There are two moments here with the RSB that I would like to share because these were very powerful and very unexpected moments with God.There are two gigs that stand out. One was a music night at the Assembly of God church on Airport Rd. The other was the Summer Solstice.
Cindy ,being the good little church singer, had gotten us a few church gigs.Most of them had gone well,with no trouble. She got booked at First Assembly because they were doing a music night. We were show up on the Thursday before the Sunday night performance. First Assembly was at this time the largest and most influential church in town and notoriously conservative. It was also (several years earlier )the place I received my call. We show up at the main sanctuary and start setting up the band. I'm looking around a bit dubious about how were gonna fit in here. Playing the for the brave believers and 2 street urchins who were regulars at the Inn is one thing this place was serious uptown. They had each performer in different parts of the stage. The night would feature an organ/piano solo, some girl playing the violin, a Bill Gaither southern gospel quartet(the worship leader and three sons) and a few assorted singers,then US. It was enough to make me feel like the lone pork chop at a bar mitzvah. We picked the most mellow white bread tunes we had and strove to calm them even more. But we were after a rock band with long hair and electric instruments. You really can't hide the spots on the dog!
The night the gig we arrive,set up the gear and(as was our standard procedure) we head to the prayer room to pray. Cindy was hovering over us like a mother hen protecting her chicks. As soon as we step out of the pray room there is the Pastors wife looking nervous. She "asks"us to turn down. Cindy looks at her with fire in her eyes and says"We already turned down,if we turn down anymore we'll be turned OFF!". We are downstairs nowhere near our gear and already being told to turn down.Maybe I should have wore a tie. Needless to say as we walked toward the stage I was frankly, hurt. This would be an on going problem, offering my gift to God's people only to have them reject it. So we are sitting there waiting our turn. The quartet comes out dressed in matching wide lapel shinny disco looking shirts and slacks and start off the night. Meantime I'm sinking low and start thinking"what are we doing here?these people don't want us they don't even like us" Just at that moment the Spirit of God just falls all over me and once again the world around me drops away. I feel His presence and His voice speaks to me "Don't look at the people around you. I have Called you, not them, just worship me and I'll take care of the rest" I'm sitting there basking in the presence of God,tears running down my face when I'm jolted back to the present by Paul asking something. Needless to there was a new wind in my wings. When I got up to play it was ALL focused on my Saviour. After the gig we were packing up our gear and this woman comes up to me. I knew her as my former band teacher's ex-wife. She accuses Chuck of performing a sex act while we performed because he was swaying to the music. I'm looking at her and remembering the time the concert band was leaving to tour south east Alaska. Three of the trumpeters and the first chair french horn guys showed wearing tee-shirts that said "Go Army. Go Navy, Gonads" she wanted her husband to expel them on the spot.(the humor of the situation was lost on her( How baked can you get! All I could say was "He's young in the Lord, pray for him" There wasn't a single person in that church that thanked us. no one. NOT ONE ,Except the church janitor. I could tell he had been in the faith for a long time and I knew he played some guitar. He came up to me and gave me a big hardy hug and said he was so blessed that I was using my gift for God's Glory and to keep doing it.Encouragement from an old saint less concerned about appearences more impressed by committment ment a lot to me. We would never play there again. Today's youth have no idea how it was back then. It's tough breaking trail.
The Summer Solstice in Fairbanks was a trip thru the flower power generation. There were a lot of hippies,get back to nature types that retreated to the interior of Alaska in the late 60's. Each year they rent some farmers fields out off Chena Hot Springs road. Throw up a stage, sell arts and crafts while everybody rocked to bands higher than a kite on a wide array of "herbs" being passed around. This was the kind of place where the stage manager was named "Tree" the sound man"Foot" and his side kick "Bear". Lots of tie dye. My kind of place. We were to back up Paul and Kay on a few of their songs. And as an added bonus the Lily of the Valley Gospel Choir was comming along as well. This would be the first time in the Soltice history that Christian music would be there. The day before the gig I met with my pastor and he asked me me and odd question. He wanted to know why I I even wanted to play in such a place. That sunday we played for our home church and had them pray for us. We were set to back up Paul and Kay for a few tunes. Then it was our turn. The Gospel choir had played and they had gone over over really great,It was a a trip how well the hippies had taken to them. So we hit the stage and the we did I pulled out all the stops. These were my kind of people. Within moments the front of the stage was packed. Every song was a full tilt rocker. Chuck and I were playing twin harmony lines .It got positivly hot and sweaty in short order. Bill moved to the gongas as we moved to this tune tune called "Light Walkers" that featured twin solos and an extended gonga solo. The crowd was eating it up. We shared the message of God's love delivered in a rock and roll back beat. As was were off loading there was a crowd standing back stage thanking us and the comments was one of shock that a Christian band would even come there the Soltice being what it was(hippies,drugs,etc)we really had broke trail that day.
Here again I share another one of those moment with God that was unexpected and very powerful. After the gig Chuck and wandered around checking out the booths, listening to the bands. At one point we were standing in the packed crowd full of drunken high revelers when the Spirit of God hits me. Let me explain,this is not a situation where you are looking for a word from God. but once again the whole world dropped away and I found my self in His presence.On stage at the time was one of the best in town and I recall the chorus to their song was "Sh##t there goes the Neighborhood",Sh##t there Neighborhood"!! everything,and everyone dropped away I am surround my the Spirt and God speaks and says"See them. I am going to raise you up and place right along side them and many just like them to share my Love and saving grace to those who other wise would not hear the truth I am Calling You to a high calling!!!.I'm standing there in the mist of all these freaks all of witch are high on one thing or another and I'm having church,tears steaming down my face just worshipping God when I feel a tap on my shoulder. It Chuck...he says.."lets go get a hot dog"...jolted back to earth!..
The RSB disbanded not long after that. Jed said he was leaving to go to college,Cindy was being shipped south(her military husband was being relocated) Bill was moving to Nebraska to get married, and Chuck was starting a new business. This had been my first band and I had had some life changing experiences that would stay with my for the rest of my life..