Doc Stevens

Tondeleo: Back in the Summer, I found out that Doc and Marilyn had gone to Hawaii! Someone paid for them to go out there and take a break, meet some new people, play some places that they would never play on there own. 

I asked them why hadn't they told me about it and they were both embarrassed because they had never been there before. They had never flown in an airplane before. They had no idea where Hawaii actually was, even after they had been there. None of their friends knew anything about Hawaii. It made them feel like outcasts! I told them that I would count myself triple lucky to go to Hawaii, but they shook their heads, "no."

Marilyn: It really WAS weird, Tondy! NOBODY we know has ever been to Hawaii, so some of them laughed when we said we were going there. They made fun of us, like we thought we were better than them or something. Some didn't believe we were really going there, and said we were probably just going to South of the Border, SC and thought that it was the same thing as Hawaii...

Doc: Yeah, that's because a few years ago I went to South of the Border, and thought I was in Cuba. I didn't know any better. I saw that big Pedro and thought I was at the Cuban border. What else would it be? I ain't never been south of North Carolina til then.

I was workin' on my truck there at South of the Border - well, Cuba to me - and one of their security guards told me to quit. I told him I was a 'merican citizen and he said he didn't care if I was from the moon - which I am not - that I needed to stop working on my truck or he'd have me locked up. I stopped. Not because I was scared of him, because I wasn't, but I didn't want to go to no Cuba jail. Later someone told me it weren't really Cuba, it was just South Carolina. Hey, how was I supposed to know?

Marilyn: Since nobody believed us, when we talked about Hawaii and didn't know where it was, we just kept it to ourselves about Hawaii.

Tondeleo: So, tell me about your trip to Hawaii!

Doc: Well, first thing, it wasn't all filled with pretty girls in grass skirts and wearin' coconuts instead of shirts. I was figurin' that they'd be all over the airport, doin' hula dances and hangin' flowers around our necks. But no, that didn't happen.  I DID see Randy Travis at the airport. He was helpin' someone carry their suitcases.

I tried to get him to carry my guitar case, because it was heavy. I had the acoustic guitar in it and it was stuffed full of a lot of things I might need. Old Randy looked at me like I was crazy. I said, '"Yeah, go ahead and look at me like that, Mr. High and Mighty! You treat me like this after all your CD's that I copied!"

I carried my own guitar and let Randy Travis get back to carryin' suitcases. I brought my acoustic because I wasn't sure they'd have electricity out there yet... but they already do!

Marilyn: And it was beautiful, Tondy! It was the perfect temperature! Not too hot, not too cold! Just right! And everyone wears flipflops! 

It was funny to watch Doc because he doesn't have any flipflops and doesn't wear shorts. He stuck out like a bad belly button, walking around in camo and work boots!

Doc: I ain't gonna be a phony just because I'm not at home! Hawaiian shirts, shorts, flipflops! Some people can do that, but not me. I don't know how to be anyone but me.

Marilyn: But you DID find some flipflops on the beach and you wore them the rest of the time! And you DID cut off one of your pairs of jeans after a couple of days...

Doc: Yeah, well I figured the Good Lord wanted me to try out some flipflops, since my boots was wet and my socks were too - and He provided me with them flipflops there on the beach. What would YOU do?

Tondeleo: I'm sure I'd wear them, too, Doc. 

Marilyn: It was funny seein' him in flipflops and shorts! With his white, white legs! They hadn't seen the sun probably since he was a baby, Tondy!

Doc: Well... now you know why I don't wear shorts! My legs got all sunburned and hurt for three days! Why? All because I tried to fit in!

Marilyn: No, all because you didn't wear sunblock! Tondy, his legs looked like two skinny hams!

Doc: Long pants ARE sunblock! Why would I wear shorts and then put on sunblock? Makes no sense.

But we had a good time, Tondy.  We can talk about it later...

Tondeleo: One thing about rural Americans is that they want the same things that other people have, but they usually can't afford them, well unless they steal or sell drugs. For the rest, they have to figure out how to make things themselves or fix things so they can have nice things that we all like. Doc and his friends say that they have made so much out of so little for so long that they can make anything out of nothing now.

Doc, Big Dave, Marilyn and I were standing out front of Doc's house, enjoying the unseasonably warm weather, and talking about how, all in all, life is pretty good. When you try to do the right thing, right things seem to happen for you.

Doc has an old Martin guitar  - 44 years old, to be precise - that he said just seemed to get worse over the years. It got to where it hurt his left hand to play it so he would use his old no-name guitar from the 1950's that he had paid $20 for ten or more years ago. 

Doc: A man needs several guitars for the different places he  plays. Like, out on the street you need a old beater guitar, because it might rain on you, or something might happen to it while you're walkin' from one place to another. You need a old beater electric and a old beater acoustic. but they still have to sound good. But they also can't look good enough that someone would try to steal them. You have to think about that. they have to LOOK like cheap garbage.

For a open mic, you need somethin' that might look a little better, and it's gotta sound good. For a paid gig, you need somethin' that looks pretty good and sounds real good. A 'lectric on for some, and a 'coustic for others. And that is what broke my heart with this old Martin gettin' worse over the years. Plus, after so many years, it's like a pet, like a friend. It gets all full of music from years of playin' and it wants to be played alot. But I could barely play it. It got to where it hurt my hands...

Tondeleo: And then, something happened!

Doc: Yeah, Tondy, I'm pretty excited about this! My Martin been getting worse and worse an' I all but stopped playin' it a few years ago. It didn't sound right, didn't feel right. The strings were too high, it was just gettin' issues. You know that I don't mind tearin' somethin' apart if I think I can fix it. but I am not dumb enough to tear an old Martin apart. I'd probably mess it up even worse. They definitely are not something I want to mess up.

That meant I needed to get ahold of some money and just find someone who can fix it. I know a couple old guys what can do that kind of work, but ain't neither one of 'em doin' it anymore, unless it's little things. They both are geniuses with wood and can make brand new acoustic guitars outta raw wood, so they ain't too interested in tearin' into somethin' like resettin' the neck on a 44 year old Martin. I don't blame 'em. I'm scared to do it too. So that meant I had to come up with two things.

I had to come up with some money and I had to come up with someone who could do the job. It don't do no good to have the money if they ain't no one what can do the work. I asked around and found out it was gonna cost at least $350 or $400 just to get it started bein' fixed, plus whatever else they found when they tore into it.

I sold an old Tele [Telecaster] to a boy down here and fixed a couple other 'lectrics for people what been buggin' me to do their work, and got some money in my pocket. Then I got Marilyn to look on the interweb for someone round here what could fix it. She found me a guy in Arlington over in Virginia, what is about an hour from here. Close enough.

Marilyn: You know how Doc is, Tondy! He's not scared of anything or anybody, but he's scared of computers! He's scared he'll mess something up, or that he won't know what to do - which is true. I think he's scared to admit that he COULD learn something like doing a Google search, but then if he DID learn how to do it, he wouldn't need me anymore - which also isn't true! He can't even balance his checkbook! 

Doc: I ain't scared of no 'puter and I ain't need a checkbook. I pay in cash. So what do I need a 'puter and checkbook for?

Marilyn: Well, when you don't know something, you're pretty quick to call me in a panic and ask me to find out for you! And every month when you're trying to figure out how to pay your bills you seem to need to balance a checkbook!

Doc: Anyway, Tondy, what I was TRYING to say was, Marilyn found this guy. I asked her a bunch of questions and she read me the answers off his interweb page and the answers sounded good. She gave me his number and I called.

Marilyn: I had to MAKE him call! Doc wanted to hop in his truck and just show up with his messed up guitar. Luckily the man didn't put his whole address and luckily we don't have a map of Arlington, and luckily I wasn't available to go anywhere - and Doc doesn't like to go anywhere alone!

Doc: Sure, Marilyn... Now here's what's crazy. Most these people ain't gonna do much work between Christmas and New Years, but I called this one on Tuesday, what was the 29th an' he said to bring it on over. I got my friend George Edelen who is the best guitar player I know round here, and we rode over there.

The guy's name is Daniel. You can tell by lookin' at him that he's smart and also by listenin' to him when he talks. He knows guitars inside and out. He looked at my Martin and pointed out a bunch of things that it needed, and said what it needed wasn't a neck reset which made me feel better right then, but it needed some other things, a lot of little things, and it would cost less than a neck reset.

He talked all about guitars he's made, and all kinds of different wood and what it does to the sound and a bunch of other stuff that was interesting and I learnt alot. Me and George left and both felt good about having Daniel work on it. I figured it's be a couple of weeks, but no! He called me the next afternoon, and it was all done! I couldn't get up there to pick it up right then, but it was done! I couldn't believe my ears, Tondy!

Tondeleo: That's fantastic, Doc!

Doc: What's fantastic ?

Tondeleo: It's fantastic that he took it in right away. It's fantastic that he knew so much, and that he didn't take advantage of you. It's fantastic that he got it done so quickly. It's fantastic that you actually paid someone else to do something for you that was beyond your capabilities...

Doc: Oh yeah. I guess it IS fantastic. I just don't use that word, Tondy.  Anyway, he got it on Tuesday, called me that it was done Wednesday and I got it on Thursday, the last day of 2015. He made it perfect again. For me to tell, because I don't have that much brains, I had to pick it up and close my eyes an' play it and feel what it is doing in my hands and how the vibes are. it was just like it was a long time ago! it was just right. I could not in my wildest dreams think it could be that good and be done that fast, but it was true. Plus he kept to his price what he had told me and didn't all a sudden jack it up when he saw how happy I was with it.

He taught me a few things about fixin' guitars so I could do better on fixin' the kinds I fix - cheap old pieces of crap! Well, that's about it, Tondy except this: He asked me if I wanted a cup of coffee that was better than any coffee I'd ever had, and I figured that he thought I ain't never been to a 7-Eleven before. But he was nice so I played along.

But guess what? We didn't go to no 7-Eleven! Daniel gets his own coffee beans raw off of some dude an' then roasts them right there at his house and then grinds 'em up right there, and makes coffee in a itty bitty little silver coffee pot what he screws together an' puts on the stove. Ok, he didn't lie about that coffee. It was the best coffee I have ever had in my life. I am thinkin' about breakin' one of my guitars just so I can go back over there for some more of that coffee. Seriously.

Oh, here's his info, Tondy. Put all of it on the blob what you type:
Daniel Carbone

Tondeleo: I'm back in the States after being gone for five months. I've been mired in work and have had absolutely no time to transcribe conversations with Doc, Marilyn and their friends. I feel dreadful about this, but life happens. Actually, life happens while you're waiting for life to happen. I'm learning that as I grow older! 


I'm in awe of the weather on the east coast here in the States! I have been here since the week before Christmas and it has been unseasonably warm and quite nice, even though it has rained a lot. It still isn't as damp as England. I love this! I'm outside with just a tshirt and even wearing short trousers!

Being New Years Eve, I'm wondering what Doc, Big Dave and Rick are going to do. Maybe tonight they'll break their teetotaling ways. Once can only hope. All three of them had had problems due to their drinking in times past and all of them come from families where alcoholism runs deep. I get that. But that isn't MY background! And here I am stuck out living in a cabin in the woods with these three tee totaling musicians and their dogs and instruments.

 Doc was just talking about how every year his father would drink up their Christmas and nobody got any gifts. His dad's head hurt so bad that everyone had to be quiet and tiptoe around the house. Doc's dad was big and acted like a bear with a headache. And Doc would've kept up the family tradition if not for a few miracles.

Doc said, "As much as I hated my daddy, I was growin' up to be just like him. When he would walk across a bar, other men would point to him and say, 'there's a dangerous man.' That's what I wanted to be, a dangerous man. And I was workin' on it pretty well, but like my daddy, I found out that no matter how dangerous you are, you're gonna run into someone more dangerous than you."

"Plus, it's better to go to an AA meeting if I want to get together with my old drinking buddies. They have sober parties, and it's easier to stay sober if everyone else is..."

Big Dave added, "Yeh, I grew up the same way. Daddy and mama was always fightin'  over his drinkin' and fightin'. It weren't no fun for us kids. Not at all. Far as I'm concerned, alcohol ain't good for nothin' but pourin' on cuts."

Doc agreed. "I ain't taken a drink in years. I don't go to no bars. You can have a few shots of liquor and start lookin' for a fight. Liquor makes a angry man more angry... Do y'all have AA in England, Tondy?"


I assured him that we did, which he marveled at. looked over to Rick, who'd been sitting over in the corner quietly. He said, "i'm more peaceful than these guys. My dad taught us that you shouldn't go looking for fights, because there's always a fight looking for you. And you shouldn't think someone is being mean just because he's running his mouth. It might just be that he's ignorant and doesn't know any better. We were raised to just quietly slip out and go home if we could... or go stand by someone like Doc - let HIM be the target!

Doc and Big Dave got into a discussion of the nice cars and pickups that they'd had but had wrecked them due to drinking. Both of them talked about miracles that happened to keep them from getting killed. Doc had a couple of guitars that were destroyed by his automobile accidents. 

"I broke a good Telecaster in a fight once, hitting a guy what pulled a knife on me. He never knew what hit him. A Tele weighs like 9 pounds. It's a pretty good weapon. But if we'd all been sober, I'd still would've had that guitar."

Rick added that he threw up into a harmonica once. Well, actually twice. 

I have a lot of catching up to do with Doc, Big Dave, Rick, Marilyn and all their friends. I look forward to taking more pictures, recording more conversations and doing more blog posts than I did last year! And I guess I'll get a good start, because none of them are going anywhere to celebrate. Marilyn and her husband David are going to church! She said they want to start the new year with God and with taking communion...  I almost went with them, just to get out of the house, but then she said the communion at her church isn't wine, it's just grape juice.

Ok. I'll stay home, be safe, get some sleep and wake up with a clear head tomorrow. Could be worse.


 

Tondeleo: This is a continuation of the discussion that Doc, Big Dave and I had about  open mics, and how to do them better, even WHY to do them in the first place, and any and every other tip that came up.

Doc: When you get a new song that you think people would like - and it ain't just you that's gotta like it, you got to be thinkin' about your audience. Are they gonna be able to like that song from the first couple of bars they hear? 

You don't never want to play a song that it takes people a while to figure out if they like it or not. It's got to be one that from the moment they hear it, they like it.

I got a lot of songs what I like and might sing by myself, or with a couple of friends, but I would never play
them in front of an audience. Like we play "downhome" music - that mix of blues and gospel and country and rockabilly. That's what I like and play in public. But sometimes Marilyn might want to sing some song what isn't that kind of music, She'll nag me and nag me 'til I play it along with her. It could be anything, of any kind of music. But we ain't playin' it in public.

Tondeleo: What would be an example of a song like that, Doc?

Doc: Well, she might like to sing that song "Blue Bayou" by that Linda Rondstadt girl. It ain't our kind of music what we play, but it's a good song. Marilyn been singin' that since she was maybe 12 or 13. She got it inside her, so she could sing that anywhere anytime.  But we ain't playin it as part of a show. But we could, 'cause we got it inside.

Tondeleo: So why don't you sing it in public? 

Doc: Well, whatever music you play, people think of you a certain way. You kinda got to stick with that. We pretty much don't play anything newer than about 1954. We do that "downhome" music.  We ain't a cover band. Anything from the sixties is too new, 'specially if it was a hit. Now there is some songs what was wrote in the 60's but sounded like they was old and if they sound right, we'll do 'em. Some of what we do is "B" sides of songs what was hits. But they had to be songs what I liked from the first couple of notes. Then if I start to play one of 'em in front of my friends, they had to like it from the first couple of notes. And it has to SOUND like something we'd do. 

Tondeleo: Are you saying that it has something to do with your image? 

Doc: I guess. Basically, you got to look like what you sound like and sound like what you look like. If you look like just regular workin' folk like we do, then you need to sound like that. It would be crazy to sound like Elvis Presley or someone smooth and sophisticated. We're down to earth. The way we sound is just the way we sound. People ask where did we get our sound. That is just what it sounds like when we play guitars and sing.

I think everybody sings and plays things that's from another kind of music than what they might play in public. Country guys might sing heavy metal, or hip hop or jazz or whatever. Hippety hop guys might sing smooth jazz or gospel or whatever in private. But not in public.

Tondeleo: Now, you mentioned that Marilyn sings newer stuff at home.Specifically you mentioned Blue Bayou. Say, if she got dressed up in city clothes, and you did, too, would that song measure up in terms of being a song that people would like from the first few notes?

Doc: Well, yeah. An' if we didn't use our real names! I ain't goin' out there with my real name and play some kind of pop music or somethin'! But as for that Blue Bayou song, as soon as you hear the first couple of bars of it, you like that song. It's got a good beat, got a good sound to it and is easy to sing along with. It's a simple song, good tune. It passes every test of a song what  person could do in public an' people would like it and sing along, tap their feet and clap their hands to it. It's a great song, if you got it inside you.

We sang that song in Hawaii an' people liked it.

Tondeleo: HAWAII??? Are you SURE? You went to Hawaii? Do you even know where it is? 

Doc: Yeah, we went to Hawaii. Last year when you was  out there in that England. Someone paid for us to go out there, not the whole band, just me an' Marilyn. We got on an aeroplane and flew there. It took like all day to get there. But there wasn't no girls in grass skirts and coconuts though. It was real nice over there, an' the people out there was real nice to us. We was out there a couple of weeks an' then came home. We met a lot of people an' played a lot of songs. Marilyn gots some pictures from there she can give you. We can talk about it later. Not now.

Tondeleo: Why didn't you SAY something about going to Hawaii? That's fantastic. 

Doc: I was sort of 'barrassed about it. I hadn't never been there before an' wasn't used to it. I was afraid you'd ask me questions what I don't know the answer to. Them people wear flip flops an' Hawaiian shirts all the time, but they just call 'em shirts. We can talk about it later, Tondy. Not now. Get back to open mic. I know a little about that.

Tondeleo: Ok, so how about stage fright, Doc? How does a person avoid that?

Doc: By bein' too dumb to be scared! That's one way. Another way is if you are nearsighted, don't wear your glasses. Then you can't see nobody. Third is to know what you're plain' well enough that you aren't using your mind, but just playin' out of your heart. Like, you have played it and sang it so many times you can do it all automatically without thinkin'. That's what we done in Hawaii. We ain't know nobody out there, an' they all looked at us like we was from outer space or somethin'.

But, like, if you know the song is a good one and people are gonna love it, and you've done it so many times you can do it with your eyes closed, then they ain't nothin' to be scared of.

Oh yeah, one more thing. Don't try to sound like the person who made the song famous. You'll never sound like them, all you will sound like is you tryin' to sound like someone else. Then who are you gonna sound like for the next song? You wanna listen to the original just enough to kind of learn it. Then start playin' it and never listen to the original. By and by, you'll have changed a bit here and a bit there, and soon it will sound like you and not like the other person. Now, nobody has anything to compare you with, like "hey, on the second verse, you forgot to sing out your nose like Bob Dylan did when he sang that song."

Well, if I learnt that song 20 years ago and ain't  listened to it since then, I aint gonna sound like him on ANY verse! I'm gonna sound like Doc Stevens and Marilyn is gonna sound like Marilyn. And nobody is better at that than us! 'Specially over to that Hawaii.

Tondeleo: Sorry for the lack of blogs for more than a month. I have been on travel and then on holiday (Bognor Regis of all places! I travel everywhere for work and then stay close to home for holiday) and then had to deal with a backlog of work when I returned.

I asked Doc to take me to a local open mic so we could talk a bit about what it takes to do an open mic, and why would a person do them, as well as why would a person not do them. It so happened that Big Dave was performing at an open mic in Northern Virginia so we hopped in Doc's pick up and drove over.

Some of the performers were quite good, and others, well, one could tell that they really did not have any where else that they could get an audience to listen to them.

Here are some excerpts from the conversation we had about it: 

Tondeleo: Doc, that girl up there right now really seems nervous and doesn't seem to know her songs very well... and the audience is getting fidgety, which makes her more nervous, you can tell.

Doc: Well, she's probably in the worst three conditions you can have when doin' open mic... other than bein' crazy high or stupid drunk, which she isn't. 



First, she ain't used to bein' in front of a audience. She can't help that. She's facin' that fear right now, and the only way to get over it is to just do it. She's doin' it.

Second, she don't know that song real well yet. You can tell she's tryin' to get the chords just right, and the words just right, and hit all the notes just right. She ain't playin, she's workin.' And that takes all the energy out of it.

If she'll play that song till she's sick of it, then she can concentrate on the performing of it. 

Third, she's not used to that guitar yet. She just said she got it for her birthday on Tuesday. It don't have her vibes in it yet. She ain't got her sweat into the fingerboard yet. She is still tryin' to get familiar with it, and find where everything is. You can't be doing that in public!

When you get a new guitar, you want to play it all you can in private. Then with a few friends. In public, play your old one til your new one is soaked with your vibes and your fingers are familiar with it and where everything is.


You won't do good if you're scared, doin' a new song and tryin' to break in a new guitar at the same time.


Pretty much, you got to play that song over and over, and sing it over and over till it's in your heart. Play it in the dark, or with your eyes closed so you don't have to keep bending your head over to look at your neck and figure out where you are. Ain't nobody want to look at the top of your head or your right ear while you're up there s'posed to be singin' and playin'.

Like with Big Dave, when he gets up. He does a real good show. He's been doin' those songs for years and years, and can sing 'em in his sleep. In fact he DOES sing them in his sleep. I done heard him do it. He ain't thinkin', he ain't rememberin', he's just letting it flow. That is the most important thing, right there, Tondy.

I was talkin' to a guy backstage an' he was tellin' me that he was gonna do three songs what he's been learnin' THIS WEEK! He said he was nervous. One of them he only so-called "learned" it last night! He WILL mess it up, Tondy! It ain't inside him! He'll be tryin' to remember the words and tryin' to sing, and tryin' to play, and he ain't got NONE of it down! And he DESERVES to be nervous about bringin' that to an audience! But he ain't played long enough to even know that.

Tondeleo: How do you know when you have it down well enough to play it in public?

Doc: When you've played it so many times that you're sick of it. When you think, "if I have to play this one one more time, I'm gonna throw up." That's when you probably got it down well enough that you can perform it. Otherwise, it's disrespectin' your audience. Don't go out there and try to "learn" on them. Get up there and pour out for them what you have stored up in your heart. Then you will feel comfortable and they will feel comfortable. If YOU ain't comfortable, they sure as heck ain't gonna be comfortable. And if they ain't comfortable, you haven't entertained them."

Boils down to this: NO new songs. New to the audience, YES, but new to you, NO!

No new guitars what you ain't broke in good yet. Don't play with brand new strings. Give 'em a couple of days or a week if you can. That first day, they'll still be stretchin' and goin' out of tune.

Play your new guitar at home by yourself and then with friends, til it plays like an old friend. Then it's ready to be played in public. You don't see ANY professionals playin' instruments what they just got the day before! Most of them play old guitars what you can tell are years and years old. There's a reason for that. They can afford any guitar they want, but they are experienced enough to play the one that's got their vibe in it.

That guitar what Big Dave is playin' tonight has been with him for years! It was old when he got it! I think it is like a 1967 or maybe even older. It is filled with vibes, and he knows that thing inside and out. I remember when he first got it though. He didn't play it in public. He played the mess out of it at home, and over to my house, and other friends' houses.

I guarantee you he had maybe 500 hours with that thing before he played it in public. That's the way you do it right.