Columbus Music Man: Delyn Christian Interview

Delyn Christian has been playing music in Columbus, Ohio since the early nineteen-seventies. He has played solo and with countless central Ohio bands including King Barbecue, McGuffey Lane and, for the last twenty years, The Fret Shop Band. He has opened up for countless national acts and has played just about every bar, restaurant and music venue in Central, Ohio over the    past forty years. He also spent many years on the Columbus radio scene playing everything from John Coltrane to Metallica. Delyn moved to Tennessee a few years ago but he still plays regularly in Columbus

I first met Delyn back in the early nineties. I had just gotten my first radio job at WNKO-FM in Newark, Ohio.  Fresh out of The American School Of Broadcasting in Columbus, I was told by the program director that I would be trained for my first shift by someone named, "D'Lynn".

As I waited nervously in the station lobby for "D'Lynn" to arrive, I wondered who this woman was? Hopefully, she was a kind and patient person who would help calm my fast rising terror of going on the radio for the first time.

About a minute before the start of the shift, a big bearded long

haired guy wearing a cowboy hat burst through the door and said, 'Hi, I'm Delyn Christian.'

If you happened to be anywhere in the Newark area on that fateful day long ago and were lucky (or unlucky) enough to be tuned to 101.7FM, you would have been treated to one of the worst air shifts in radio history. Dead air, lots of dead air. Songs played that had never been heard on that station before. The same tune played back to back.  Two songs playing simultaneously.  The disc jockey stumbling over every third word in a shaky unaturally high voice.

It was the longest six hours of my life. Meanwhile, Delyn sat in the next room, occasionally coming over to the studio and calmly saying, 'Dead air, man' or 'Same song, man' or 'Two songs playing, man'. My favorite piece of advice came after I mistakenly identified the station as being located in Columbus instead of Newark. A moment after turning the microphone off, a shaggy head popped in the doorway and said. 'First rule of radio, man, always know what town you're in.'

I survived that first shift and would go on to work three years or so at WNKO. I was doing overnights while Delyn was the mid-day jock, so our paths only crossed once  or twice a month. Every time I ran into him though, he always had an amusing story to tell about his radio or music career. We both eventually moved on but I would hear him on CD 101 or see he was playing at some bar or club in the area.  I saw him play live a few times. (Anyone remember, Fear Of Toast?)

We would work together again, almost fifteen years after my first shift in Newark, at QFM 96 in Columbus. I had lost my previous radio job and Delyn put in a good word for me at Q, helping me to get hired. Proving, once again, that Delyn Christian is not only a really talented guy but a really good guy, as well.

 Casey Redmond:  Tell me about your early days.

Delyn Christian: I grew up on the north side of Columbus around the Sawmill Road/Godown Road area. We moved to Columbus, I think, in '68. I was born in Rome, Georgia and we moved to Columbus from Louisville, Kentucky.

CR:  Do you have a lot of memories of Kentucky?

Stingray

DC:  Oh, absolutely. I've got songs about it. There is a song on one of the records, "Kentucky Stingray".  It's all about my Stingray bicycle when I was eight. When I moved into that neighborhood, it was all eight year old kids. That's the first time I ever saw a Gibson guitar.  There were these brothers, the Shield brothers, that lived in what my parents called, the hippie house. They wanted us to stay away from that because they had leather jackets and motorcycles and had a band that used to practice in the basement.  Me and my one buddy would always get on our Stingrays and ride over. We'd hear the band cranked up and we'd go up to the basement window, look in there and watch them do their thing. That was the beginning of the end, I guess.

CR: Do you remember the first record you ever bought?

DC:  It was probably Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs & Englishmen.  I had

other records like my dad and mom's. My parents had Duke Ellington records, Boots Randolph, Buck Owens, that kind of stuff. So, I had all that. But as far as going out and walking to the record store, it was probably Mad Dogs.

CR: When did you start playing guitar?

DC: I had a friend named Kelly Shoemaker. His mom played guitar, taught us both how to play G, C and D. Once I found a capo, I had a job.

CR: What was your first guitar?

DC: My first guitar was a Fender six string my dad bought me when I was eight. I still have it. It hangs on my wall and it's still in tune. I played a lot of gigs on it. The first one I ever purchased, I guess, was an old Epiphone twelve string. It's gone, somewhere now. I used to take six strings off so I would have a six string because I couldn't afford both.

CR:  When did you start playing in public?

Bernie's Bagels

DC:  I was thirteen or fourteen, '73, around there. I would always walk down on High Street and play on the corner by Bernie's Bagels.  Artie Kegler was the manager of Bernie's, before The Distillery and all that, and he would always walk by and drop two or five dollars in my guitar case. That is still huge today, when somebody gives you a five dollar tip. He finally said, 'Why don't you come in here and play Friday night.' So, I'd go down and play and I'd make twenty-five dollars and a peanut butter bagel. I was happy.

 CR:  I didn't realize you started that young.

DC:  I was taking guitar lessons at Chuck Bailey's Guitar Center in Graceland. You can talk to any musician my age in town and they probably bought their first guitar from Chuck. He's still around.  Saturday afternoons he would get all his students together and they would set up equipment on the sidewalk at Graceland and you could jam, you could play.  Whether you were good or not, it didn't matter. That's how I met a couple of the first people I started a band with. They're still lifetime friends.  You'd work a day job at Kentucky Fried Chicken or Ponderosa, make enough to get gas money to get down to a gig and make no money.

CR: What was your first band?

DC:  Wow, I must have been in Junior High School. We were called, Exodus II., which had no real religious meaning. I'm not sure how all that came about. We played pool parties at Sycamore Hills or Indian Hills, these neighborhoods in the area. The high school dances, those kind of things.

CR: Do you remember what was on your setlist?

DC:  Even then we did originals. I was even writing back then.  We

would do like, Johnny B. Goode, Creedence, Alice Cooper.  I was a huge Alice Cooper fan. We would do as much of that stuff as we could. At least we thought we did. You know kids, listen to the record and try to figure it out and make some kind of noise. And then when I was in high school, our band would play at WMNI's Country Cavalcade on Saturday nights.  It was a radio show, kind of like their Grand Old Opry.  Ron Barlow was the host of that and that kind of got me interested in radio.  But we were kind of the house band. My high school buddy Tom Marshall, he played guitar for me for a long time, his dad was a fire chief in Columbus. He was the singing fire chief. We would back him up and then if somebody's band didn't show up, we were the band.  We'd play with, like, Charlie Rich, Loretta Lynn, whoever was coming through.

CR: You guys must have been a pretty good high school band.

DC:  Well, we thought we were good.  We worked. A lot of that was three chord stuff. Country music back then you could follow.  It meant something.

CR:  What was Columbus radio like when you were growing up?

DC:  Columbus radio was very cool.  It was right at the beginning of the FM craze and kind of underground radio.  WCOL-FM was my favorite radio station.  It was religious from six am until midnight and then it was album oriented rock. AOR, that's what they called it.  And it was, playing side 2 of Tommy, you know.  You could listen to the djs and they had something to say.  They could pick their own stuff.  People like Michael Perkins and Terry Wilson. Radio was the thing.  I still have my transistor radio that I would lay in bed and listen to.  I'd think, 'This guy's making a living talking about records.' I thought it was the coolest thing ever.  Until you realize what the money is.

CR:  Yeah, we all know about that sad tale.

DC:  You could go downtown and Spook Beckman of WCOL would be in the window.  The studio was in the window. So you could watch these guys and stuff.

CR:  How did you get into radio?

DC:  I tried to do college for a year or so and it just wasn't for me.  So I went to The American School Of Broadcasting. That was cool. You'd take maybe six months and you'd learn how to be on the television or the radio.  So, I got through that and got a gig at 3WJ (WWWJ) in Johnstown. Did country radio. I'd be doing gigs until two or three o'clock in the morning and have to be in Johnstown at six to do the top one hundred countdown at Denny Datsun-Chevrolet.  That was definitely a learning experience.  You did everything. You wrote commercials. Voiced commercials.  That was kind of the beginning of automation. At night we were automated but it was all reel to reel, no computers.  It was all big tape machines.  Someone would have to come in at three o'clock in the morning and change the tapes so it would make it to six am.

CR:  What station did you go to after WWWJ?

DC:  From there I got on at WBBY with Terry Wilson and that whole crew which was a wonderful place to be.  Real jazz.  Thelonius Monk and Miles Davis. I did midnight to six there forever and loved that.

 CR:  Did you have any choice in what you played?

DC:  Yeah, you did.  But at the end there, when it kinda got smooth jazz, it was pretty well formatted.  As a matter of fact, I still have a lot of my albums from those days that have the actual grid that the djs would make and tape on the album cover that would say, 'I played cut two at three o'clock in the afternoon on Wednesday.' So, you would know not to play that song for however long. Whatever the rotation was.

CR: So, you were doing radio and playing gigs.

DC:  Yeah and I also had a day job. I did everything.  I would play five nights a week, doing radio, whatever shift that might be. Eventually, I had to get out of it, raise my son and get a regular job. That's how I ended up at CD 101.  Andyman was one of my students at The American School Of Broadcasting, I ended up teaching there. He got the CD 101 gig and was running that and said, 'Why don't you come and do my weekends.' Andyman always called my radio syle, the drug induced seventies delivery that only I could provide. So, I got back into that which eventually led to working at QFM96.

CR: You've spent some time playing with McGuffey Lane who you met at Zachariah's Red Eye Saloon. How did that come about?

DC:  Well it's funny because, next week, I'm leaving to play on a

McGuffey Lane

cruise with them and I still do the Zachariah's Red Eye Reunion Show with them every year.  When I was thirteen or fourteen years old, I was playing up on High Street. When they would play on Friday nights, I would always be in front of Zachariah's with my guitar and those guys would always put money in my guitar case.  Bobby Gene and John and Terry Efaw.  We lost Tebes, of course, and Bobby Gene. Tebes was a big influence on me playing harmonica.  I would wait until they were ready to play and I'd go around the back of the building with my guitar case and pound on the back door until the bouncer would open it. I'd say I had the guitars for the band. I'd get in the back door that way so I could watch the band.  At the end of the show, I'd get my guitar and walk back home.  If it was during the week, I would sneak out of my house.  I'd go to bed at nine o'clock and climb out my window.  Then I would hitchhike down High Street, I wasn't driving yet.  I'd play then I'd go in and see the band. Get back home by two o'clock.  Shimmy back up the pole to my bedroom and get up and go to school in the morning.

CR: Did you ever get caught?

DC:  I did get caught, once.  My dad kind of caught my foot as was climbing down asking where I was going. I said I was going to work.  They ended up taking me to the gigs, so that was cool.

CR:  Who else did you see at Zachariah's?

DC:  There was a band called Urban Sprawl that was great.  All the national acts would come through. Poco would come there. I remember, one night, Dickey Betts was sitting their playing with McGuffey Lane. That was thrilling.

CR: You've opened for some big acts, I think you told me once you opened up for Donovan.

DC:  I did. It was, like, '77.  I was young.  It was very cool.  I've been lucky enough to open for Heart, Arlo Guthrie, Tanya Tucker...there's a long list.  The Agora was great for that.  You can be an opening act, make a little money and see a great show.  Dan Folgerberg was a great show.  Dan was very nice.  I always loved his music.  It was cool to be able to hang out with him.  I remember, when I was opening for Heart, the roadies came up to me and said, 'Stay out of their way.'  I think all of the dressing rooms were closed, so I was standing in the corner trying to stay out of the way.  They were saying how mean the girls were and not to talk to them, not to look at them. So, I'm standing in the corner trying to disappear and Nancy Wilson comes out and says, 'Come in here and have a sandwhich.' Musicians are musicians. Some of them got that break.  They were selling the right thing on the right day.  But everyone's a couple of bar gigs away from hunger, you know.

CR: You told me about your first guitar, what do you play now?

DC:  I have a 1959 Gibson J-45 and a 1990 Gibson J-200 which is what I usually play on stage.  I'm a Gibson player.  I love Gibsons.

CR:  Tell me about Rick Waters, you guys have played together a long time.

DC:  Almost forty years.  He was playing with The International Balloon Band and The Vectors.  This is like the early eighties when we met.  Then we started doing a duo together.  We've just been side by side ever since.  It's a great relationship to have. I do all my records at his studio. I always say, 'I come in with three chords and a story and he turns it into music.'

CR:  How long have you been playing with The Fret Shop Band?

DC:  I don't know how long it's been. Twenty years, at least. I would say this band started in the late nineties.

CR: Who's in the band?

DC:  Rick Waters on guitar, Phil Maneri on bass, John Bellas is usually my drummer. Pete Carey sometimes plays guitar.  John Pollick of Street Players on saxophone. It's a good family of people.

CR: How many albums do you have out?

DC:  Three or four. There was King Barbecue and then three with this band.  Getting ready to start a new one.  I've got the tunes just haven't recorded them yet.  Next month I hope we'll get started on stuff

CR: Where can people get your CDs?

DC: Any of my gigs or they can send me twenty bucks. E-mail me
delyn@delyn.com.  I'll send stuff out.

CR:  You moved to Murfeesbo, Tennessee a few years ago. What prompted the move?

DC:  Well, I'm not a young pup anymore.  My wife got a job at at

the V.A in Murfreesboro and my parents live in Murfreesboro, they're in their mid-eighties. My son lives in Nashville and our grandkids are in Florida, that's an eight hour trip instead of a eighteen hour trip. We bought a little five acre farm out and about.  Just kind of trying to disappear. It's beautiful.

CR You are playing regularly in Tennessee but you also still perform in Columbus.

DC:  Yeah, once a month.  I've got about four or five clubs that book me once a month.  On Thursdays, when I'm in town, I do Victoria 's Restaurant in Powell.  I do The Blarney Stone on Linworth Road, DeArinis Tavern & Grill, Roop Brothers out in Delaware. I'll be at The Bogey Inn this summer. And The Creekside Blues Festival.

Written by Casey Redmond

Casey's Website

Horror Host A Go Go: Dale Kay Interview

Dale Kay has been a fixture in the  Cleveland, Ohio horror community for many years. He is not only the producer, writer and host of Dale Kay's Spookshow but also runs the Eerie House Televison internet streaming service that features horror hosts from around the country and classic science fiction and horror films. In addition, he can be heard Friday and Saturday nights on Eerie House Radio with his partners, Dave Binkley and Gar The Ghoul, bringing you the best in old time radio.

Dale Kay

Casey Redmond:  Tell me about your early life.

Dale Kay:  I was adopted at the age of four. One of the things you do when you want to be adopted in foster care, you want to show that you have a little something. So I always liked to joke around and gain positive attention that way.

CR: Did you get into horror movies at an early age?

DK:  I'm what they call a "Monster Kid". I don't know if you're familiar with that expression. If you were born anywhere

between 1950 and 1980, we were inundated with pop culture at the time with so many different things. You had "The Adams Family" and "The Munsters" on TV. One of the the things that ignited the horror hosts was the release of these shock movie packages that the horror hosts showed on their programs. When they re -released the Universal stuff, kids were watching it for the first time on television, instead of at the movies, and it became wildly popular, along with magazines like Famous Monsters Of Filmland. They were printed monthly with great pictures of horror fims, informative stories and trading cards with monsters on them. They became very popular with kids and, of course, I became very caught up in that.

CR: So the pop culture of the time around Cleveland made a big impression on you.

DK:  I was influenced by Ghoulardi, The Ghoul, Big Chuck. WIXY 1260 was an AM radio station back in the sixties and seventies where all the jocks were personalities. They were fun. Such a different era than radio now.  So, they were all influences.

CR: Do you remember the first horror movie that made a big impression on you?

DK: It was on Ghoulardi's show when he was on in the afternoon.

I was extremely young when he was on television. I was very frightened of that walking monster tree which must have been Tobonga in "From Hell It Came". It is on a list of films Ghoulardi definitely played at that time.

CR: Do you have a favorite Cleveland horror host?

DK: The Ghoul because of the time it was on and the age I was at.

The Ghoul: Teen Idol!?!

The Ghoul spoke out to me because he had that rebellious, sarcastic approach and he had that great patter. Some of it was taken directly from Ghoulardi but a lot of it was his own spin on things. One thing that he did that blew me away was on one of his shows in the seventies. Somebody sent him a paper mache Gammera, you know, the flying turtle. He had a cable running across the station and this thing suspended on these hooks. The Ghoul sticks a couple of sky rockets in it's back feet, it takes off and the cable broke or something and the thing goes flying wildly and there's smoke everywhere and you can hear the camera men laughing their behinds off. It was the funniest thing I'd ever seen. When you're 13 or 14 years old in the mid-seventies, tv was a big influence and when you saw a crazy guy like that and you happen to latch onto him, that's your guy.

CR: You ended up working for The Ghoul.

DK: Yes, I became a regular caller and I met The Ghoul and he ended up inviting myself and my first wife, we were dating at the time, to come on his show. He found out I could do character voices and I did stuff for his radio and television shows.

CR: When were you on the show?

DK: In the early 80s. The Ghoul was on WDMT-FM 108 and WCLQ, Channel 61 in Cleveland.

CR: What did you do on the show?

Dale Kay & Friend

DK: I played various characters on both venues but also on TV.  I was "Spike Who Ride A Bike" a sort of stupid motorcyclist. That character was introduced during the "Date For Blanche Figmeyer" segments. "Blanche" was my first wife and the date was rigged, of course.

CR: What was Ron Sweed (The Ghoul) like off camera?

DK: I really didn't know Ron well. To this day he is uber-private about his personal life. But I was friends, more so, with his first wife, Barbara King, whom I still chat with often.

CR: You spent many years as a live dj around Cleveland, how did you get into that?

DK: After about a year of working for the Ghoul, I met someone on the show who tells me he plays records in a bar and they're paying him. This is roughly 1981-82. I had been working in the tool and die industry, which was floundering here, and I had time on my hands.  Instead of fooling around with The Ghoul, I realized I needed to make some money and this was like I hit the jackpot. 'I can go to a bar and play records?' 'You're kidding me!'
From there I had a dj career for about 15 years.

CR: You got to know Cleveland radio personality Uncle Vic (WGCL-FM) during that time. How did that come about?

DK:  He ran the circuit of clubs on the west side and we got to

Uncle Vic

know each other well. He came into our bars, like, 'oh, the big radio jock' and I was the house jock and I would set up routines with him. I'd say, 'Hey Vic, do you mind if we do this?' Like, there'd be a wet t-shirt contest and I'd say, 'Interview the guy who's pouring the water on her and hold the microphone in the nether-regions', and I'd make a sound effect or whatever. He just ate that stuff up. From watching The Ghoul do sound bites in the movies, I adapted that into the bars with a comical routine. I saw myself as a comic dj not just some bubblehead that plays records.

CR: Is Uncle Vic still around?

DK: He's not in the limelight right now. He'll write a comedy parody, once in awhile. I believe he has a good relationship with Doctor Demento, so he will get some kind of play. Doctor Demento still does a show online. I believe you've got to pay a buck or two an episode.

CR: So, when did you decide to become a horror host?

DK: About 15 years ago, my son and I were collecting science

fiction soundtracks on the internet. Through one of those random searches, I stumbled on a website, Doctor Ghoulfinger (Mike Monahan) out of California. He was documenting all these horror hosts out of their little areas. It just became interesting to me. So, I got together with a local cable station and started making a show. I found these people on the internet and it's blown up from there.

CR: From your cable show you went on to co-create Kreepy Kastle television which steamed horror movies and horror hosts from around the country. Kreepy Kastle shut down a few years ago. Since then you have started another streaming service called, Eerie House television.

DK:  After Kreepy Kastle went down, I missed it and decided to do something a little different. I am going to have not just horror hosts but I am going to have unhosted movies. Some people don't want to hear the hosts. I've caught some flak with Dale Kay's Spook Show from a few people. 'Don't put the funny sound effects in it. We want to see the movie as it was.'  So I thought, 'Well, if that's what you want, then I'm gonna have periods of unhosted movies.'

CR: Eerie House TV runs Friday thru Sunday, right?

DK:  Well, I create a schedule that I can fire up when I get home from work on Fridays. Because usually, Friday and Saturday nights are the best for the horror host shows. My schedule will run from Friday at 7pm until Midnight on Sunday and then I loop that schedule. It's running 24/7. There is always something running on Eerie House TV.

CR: When you are programming Eerie House, I know that licensing laws make it imperative that you show only movies that are in the public domain. How do you know if a movie is okay to run?

DK: I try to use a method of cross checking things between different lists on the internet, by reading, doing my best to run

through the Library Of Congress to look for things. There are probably 40 movies that are in the public domain that the vast majority of hosts would agree that they are public domain. Does that make them legal authorities? No, but they are movies we know no one has ever caught flak over. Whether it's cable, YouTube or whatever. I have never hosted it but Plan 9 is hotly debated.

CR: Tell me about your friend, the late Jim "The Colonel" Klink.

DK:  He was a fixture in northeast, Ohio. Well loved. A super fan.

Jim "The Colonel" Klink

The guy was so creative. He went everywhere. He went to every single trade horror show. He was friends with television horror hosts all over the world. He was a savant. in a way, with the genre. The things he loved most were horror, cartoons and comedies.

RRC: I have heard you say he had an amazing collection of memorabilia in his garage.

DK: He was constantly going to flea markets to find the coolest stuff. He had a van with all the monsters and toys glued all over the hood and roof. I did a video tribute to him that I played on the channel. I still play it periodically. He was a fixture. He was so well known in horror circles. Friendly as hell. Never had a bad thing to say about anybody. Just a great guy. Unfortunately, he became very ill and he passed very, very quickly.

CR: He was on Spookshow with you, correct?

DK:  He was a regular on my show. This guy, I didn't even have to ask him to do stuff, he would make stuff. We did "The Eye Creature", which is Larry Hill's remake of "Invasion Of The Saucer Men". He made the eye creatures and a monster from "The Saucer Men" out of paper mache. That view of his garage, it will just blow you away. Every inch of the wall is covered with posters and pictures and drawings he made. And there's dummies all over the garage, some with Christmas lights on them. He was like a giant child. I envied him, in a way, because he got to be a child 24/7. He was very responsible. He took care of his mom, very deeply family rooted. But, boy did he get to play a lot.

CR: You also do a radio show too.

DK: Eerie House Radio is on every Friday at 7:30pm and Saturday at 6:30 hosted by me, Dave Binkley (from Weirdness Really Bad Movie) and Gar The Ghoul. We present old time radio shows and discuss horror, science fiction and fantasy in radio, tv and movies.

CR: Who are your favorite modern horror hosts?

DK:  I love Tar & Feather. They are over towards the Toledo area.

Fritz The Night Owl

Psycho Cinema, those guys are hilarious and it's a quality show, as well. Their are so many that are so good. If you get a chance to see any of Penny Dreadful's old shows, she's an amazing actress  If you ever get to see Fritz The Night Owl's stuff, interesting man to talk to. His shows were great quality, especially the 80s and 90s stuff. He pioneered a lot of trick photography effects that they used in the course of the presentation. Another favorite show and it appears here locally is Dave Binckley's show (The Weirdness Really Bad Movie) who's my partner on Eerie House Radio. Much like Fritz, he is not exclusively a horror host. He's a movie host. Film noir, comedies, whatever, he'll host it. He's got a great cast of characters and the shows are well scripted.

CR: I know you go to a lot of horror movie conventions, what are your favorites?

DK:  When I was with my partners, I really enjoyed Horror Hound Weekend. I love the idea of Monster Fest Mania. We have

Cinema Wasteland but it's geared towards slasher films. It's very successful and it's fun. A show I want to go very badly is Monster Bash in Pennsylvania. It's a show that's geared more towards your classic horror like your Universal Frankenstein and Dracula and things like that.

CR: What is your favorite horror movie of all time?

DK:  My absolute favorite is "Bride Of Frankenstein". You realize

the monsters misunderstood and you wonder who the monsters really are. James Whale, the director, did a fantastic job of mixing in so much Catholic imagery. The crucifixion like scene of having him tied up to a post and the cemetery scenes had so much religious backdrop to it. It was very much influenced by German Expressionism. It was just a fantastic film and it had a decent soundtrack for the day, as well.

CR: What other projects do you have in the works?

DK:  My partner Dave does radio for the blind and edits down our radio show and cleans them up little bit and puts it out there. We're also taking a look at doing something on Mixcloud.

Dale Kay's Spookshow Facebook Page
Eerie House Facebook Page
Casey's Website

The One Man Band Chronicles #4: Dave Harris Interview

Dave Harris is a singer, songwriter, busker, author, record collector and one man band. I ran across some of Dave's performance videos on YouTube a few years ago and have been a fan ever since. He has been busking in Victoria, British Columbia for over 40 years. Here is my interview with Dave.

CASEY REDMOND: Tell me about your early life.

DAVE HARRIS: I was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1956.  We only lived there for a year or two before we moved to Urbana, Illinois where my father taught philosophy at the university. We lived there until I was six, a lovely sleepy little college town. Then we moved to Toronto, Ontario in Canada. My father headed up the philosophy department at York University. I went through my school years there. I was a rather unmotivated student. They accelerated me in an effort to get more out of me  (I did grades 3,4 and 5 in two years) but it didn't work, dropping my grade point average from B to a C.  I quit school in Grade 12 but did eventually complete the basic high school of Grade 12. (Ontario had a grade 13 in those days). After I finished, I worked for a year then moved to Victoria, British Columbia where I live to this day.

CR: I know you are a big record collector, what is the first record you ever bought?

DH: I think my first record was a Daniel Boone/Davey Crockett LP I bought at the local grocery store, I was maybe around 10. We didn't have a tv and only listened to classical and a bit of folk music on the radio and my dad's l.p. collection. I was not very hip at all and did not get into rock music until some time after age 13.  My first popular music records were around my 14th birthday, in 1970. I recall this vividly; I bought Woodstock, Mountain's Climbing and The Beatles' Let It Be. From there it just snowballed. By the time I moved west, I brought out 400 LPs with me and within a few years I hit 1,000. I haven't done a count in years but I estimate my collection at around 10,000 now. A big part of it, half I'd say, being blues related.

Dave's first record?

CR: Of all of those records, do you have a favorite?

DH: No. I don't have a favorite. I've never been that type of person. I've always just bounced around, listening to whatever fit my mood. My brother would listen to the same record or three over and over (my records too, wore them out!) But I was adventurous as a listener. I'd buy things just to hear them, no idea what they were. I discovered people like Rory Gallagher, Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin, Roy Buchanan, Return To Forever, Lenny Beau, Elmore James, Sonny Boy Williamson in exactly this way. Just saw a record, thought I would like it and bought it.

CR: Are there any records out there you are still searching for?

DH: Yes, there still are a few. One is Blind Joe Hill's LP on Barrelhouse. He's a very cool Jimmy Reed influenced one man band. There are a few more. But in a collection of 10,000, I'm not short on interesting things to listen to. Lots of rare gems in there too.

CR: When did you start playing music?

DH: I started playing music on piano around age 9 or so. I was terrible at it. I only heard classical like Beethoven, Mozart and Bach and some folk like Pete Seeger and Joan Baez. I played violin next in school, starting in grade 7. By then I was catching on to some popular music. I was an avid radio fan, had a transistor battery operated radio that I carried everywhere. So all of the pop music of the late 60s/early 70s. A few early favourites include, Neil Young, The Allman Brothers, The Who, Santana, mostly blues guitar rock, Johnny Winter, Rory Gallagher, BB. King, Cream, Roy Buchanan, on and on. I started playing guitar and harmonica  at age 17 (1974). By then the floodgates had opened for me and I was a fanatic about music.

CR  Tell me about your first guitar.

DH: My first guitar was a rather poor Epiphone dreadnought, can't remember the model number. It was the bad era for Epiphone, not the great early 60s era. This guitar had high action a zero fret (not a good thing), plywood body and was hard to play.  But I loved it until I got a better guitar and realized how much easier it was to play.  My first electric guitar, a few months later, was a second hand Les Paul Deluxe (gold top). What a great guitar! That really helped with my playing and inspiration. Unfortunately, it was stolen just after I moved to Vic but I got two and a half years of bliss before that.

CR: When did you first perform in public?

DH: My first public performance was in public school. I came in second for my presentation on archery. So it looked good for me as a public speaker. Then I had a piano recital a year or two later and I totally froze! Couldn't remember my piece, just a nightmare! My dad  laughed when I boldly  said I was going to be a professional musician. He reminded me of my failed recital. But I persevered and he was in my corner after he saw I was serious.

CR:  I know you mainly play solo now but have you played in many bands?

DH: My first gigs were with my neighborhood friends playing for other neighbors. A trio with two guitars/drums, no bass. I have been in many bands, too many to list. Blue Sky was a main one in the 80s. It was a variety band playing everything from fiddle tunes to Dylan/Neil Young to hard country to hard rock with old rock n roll, blues and bluegrass in there too. Other bands include, Barrelhouse, my first blues band around '89. Slim & The Dusters was another long running blues band, up until recently. I did bands for indoor work and largely busked as a solo since the mid 90s.

CR: When did you start busking?

DH: I started busking back in 1977. I was a guitar/rack harp guy doing Neil Young and so on. My money was low and I wanted to do music full-time. So busking made sense (literally, cents!). A good day was 15 dollars but my expenses were low. I fell in love with that method of sharing music and here I am over 40 years later, still at it. Very proud of that. Never had a job since I came here or collected a welfare check. Music is my life.

CR: What tips would you give to someone who would like to start street performing?

DH: Good question. I get asked this a lot. I actually wrote a piece on that subject. Bottom line, sing out! Smile! Enjoy yourself, others will pick up on that. Be a goodwill ambassador. Raise the bar for busking. Don't be the lowest common denominator, find your own style/sound/material.

CR: Do you busk year round? Do you have any indoor gigs?

DH: No not year round. April to October, depending on the weather. I don't have any steady gigs but do play a few around town. A nice pub called Christie's, semi regular.

CR: When did you start performing as a one man band? How has your set up changed through the years?

DH: I kind of was a simple one man band from my first years busking, with rack harp, guitar and adding in the fiddle. I even tried fiddle and harp together in 1981, I have a recording. In 1990, I started sitting down operating drums with my feet. Usually snare and kick. In 1996, my one man band was steel body guitar, rack harp, suitcase bass drum, high hat, The odd horn and bell or woodblock (I'd tap it with my fiddle bow) and fiddle. Over the next few years, I added more--second guitar in open tuning, second fiddle in dropped tuning, even viola for a while. Mandolin, 6-string banjo, auto-valve harps, fotdella and eventually farmer foot drums. It got to be a bit much to move around. I've scaled back a bit now.

CR: Who are some of your favorite one man bands?

DH: Jesse Fuller is my first and greatest model. My fotdella was a tribute to him. I did a decoupage, I think that's the name, on it of all my favorite blues artists. with Jesse in the prime spot. Others I was influenced by are Doctor Ross, Joe Hill Louis (the Big Three) Satan & Adam, Wilbert Harrison, Don Partridge and our own local guy, One Man Dan. I'm probably forgetting a couple too.

Jesse Fuller & his fotdella

CR: Who is One Man Dan, I am not familiar with him?

DH: One Man Band Dan was (RIP) an interesting one man band I first saw in the late 70s busking here in Victoria. He lived on nearby Galiano Island. I cover him in my book, Dan Persyko. He was kind of a kids show novelty type one man band but he had seen Jesse Fuller so his inspiration was similar to mine. His music was kind of klezmer, a bit. He had Jewish roots, so that made sense. But more in a kid's show presentation. I posted a few seconds of him on YouTube, so you can see him, if you like.

CR: You mentioned the fotdella, how was that built? Are you the only fotdella player still around?

DH: The fotdella, wow, what a concept! I had my friend Glenn Orr build both of mine. Piano hammers hitting bass guitar strings. Unfortunately, they were both quiet and prone to breakdowns. The second had more strings and was supposed to be louder but I don't know that it was. The hammers would get play in them over time and start missing strings. I got pretty adept at using them though. I retired both eventually, just too many issues and big and heavy. I've thought about refurbishing one again but I haven't so far. I think I was the only one playing one for awhile there. Robert One Man Johnson used an electric version, a bit different but still similar. Then "The Haret" built something similar. He has massive numbers on YouTube.

Dave's fotdella

CR: Tell us about your one man band book, "Heads, Hands & Feet".

DH: The book! What highs and lows on that one! I was SO enthused about it. I was able to meet so many other one man bands through it. I started writing a book about blues one man bands but soon felt I had to expand. That was in 2009. I worked very hard on it until 2012. I mean, ten, twelve, maybe more sometimes, hours a day on it. Not in the summer, when I was busking, but more hours at night on it when I came home. I published it in 2012. The sales were decent initially but dried right up over a few years. I have a blog where it can be purchased (Dave's Blog) or at Amazon or on eBay. I have fond memories of it, mostly. But it is a source of disappointment and depression to me too.

CR: I know you have recorded some CDs, where are they available?

DH: It is hard to find my CDs online. I sell hand to hand or by mail. I've made too many to list. CD sales have really tanked over the last few years. If someone is interested, they can reach me on my Facebook page.

CR: What future projects are in the works?

DH: Currently I am working with two other singers on a Hank Williams tribute show. I use my one man band and electric guitar to back them. I am also in a new blues trio. My One Man Band is mostly a busking thing these days. I am out busking seven months a year.

CR: Where and when do you usually busk? If someone is in the area, where can they go to see you perform?

DH: My main location is in our lower causeway in Victoria, British Columbia by the Legislature Building and The Empress Hotel, basically the main tourist spot. I used to play 8 hours a day but I've cut it back the last couple of years, so more like 4 hours a day now. Usually an afternoon and evening time shift, two hour time slots.

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