Hi, everyone,

First: The Rising Moon was not on Pearson and State. The Off Stage was. It was a great little club. I met the Smother Bros. there one night at the bar; who often came in. Also, one night I met Hoyt Axton. He had just come from Hollywood from filming a Bonanza episode. We had a nice talk. The Off stage was a great place. The Rising Moon Singers played there a lot. One would walk through a hallway to a large back, main room. To the left of the front door was a doorway leading down some stairs to a bar in the basement. This bar also had a balcony that looked down on it; all very cozy. Years later it became The Red Garter, a banjo-band joint.

The Rising Moon was on Wells Street north of Division. The mob burned it down and was it resurrected as Mother Blues. Richard Harding, who later owned The Quiet Knight and Poor Richard's, managed it. He hired John Brown and me to open the Monday night Hootenannies with a few songs and John would then host the rest of the night. I would play bass or guitar behind anyone who needed it. This was '63.

MERLIN BANJOS:

I worked at Merlin putting those suckers together. I worked there at two different occasions. The first was before all the fancy stuff. We just had the long-necks. The first long-necks had an ornate, rococo head; kind of ugly. So ugly they had Fleming Brown design a more traditional looking head.

I forget how long I worked there; at least a half a year. Maybe more. Then a year or two later, I worked there again; at a reduced salary. By then they had the bluegrass, tenor and I don't know what all. The place was doomed from the start, though.

I first met Jay Smith, the inventor and a beautiful guy, in the late fifties at The Old Town School Of Folk Music. He was taking banjo lessons. He had this cool looking aluminum banjo. It was made of many pieces and very different from the mass produced product; kind of a prototype. At the school people were always coming up to him admiring it. In 1961, Bill Malloy of the New Wine Singers said he got a day job at this cool place. I was the Merlin factory. He was their new salesman.

Here's an interesting story (I have a million of them): The New Wine Singers were booked to play at Gene Autry's hotel in Chicago's burbs. At the same time, they were hired by Orange Crush to write, sing and star in a series of commercials. Also, during this time, they were scheduled to participate in a live "Hootenanny TV Show" album to be recorded live at The Gate Of Horn. The national TV show was hosted by Jack (son of Art) Linkletter. Bob Gibson was also the weekly headliner.

The night of the taping for some reason, Bill Malloy got mad at The New Wine Singers and stomped out of the dressing room and went home. The New Wine Singers did not do the album. The next day they were scheduled to record the demo for Orange Crush. I filled in for Bill. I helped write some of the commercials and sang and played on the demo. A day or two later, Bill rejoined the group and, of course, I was out. (None of the agency people or Orange Crush people were at the demo recording. We sent them the tape.)

A few days later The New Wine Singer's picture was in the paper about them headlining at Autry's club. Orange Crush got wind of the gig and had second thoughts about hiring a group with the name "Wine" in it. Wine and Orange crush just don't go together. They were fired and asked if they knew anyone who could replace them. Some friends of mine and I were hired to fill in. THE STEEL SINGERS WITH GUY GUILBERT! The ad agency was going to pay The New Wine Singers for writing the commercials. (Now it get complicated.)

I was a New Wine Singers and a Steel Singer. In effect, I was going to pay myself for writing the commercials. Here's the punch line: The Steel Singers and I had a BIG meeting at the agency at a long conference table. They put on the DEMO TAPE (there I am plunking and singing away), turned to me and earnestly asked me (having no idea that was me with The New Wine Singers we were listening to) can I sing like that and play banjo like that? I answered, "Ah...yeah...sure. Never letting on...

What got me on this jag was: I received a new Merlin for using it in the commercials...pictures and all.

A friend of mine, Bob Grey, was a good friend of The Kingston Trio. He arranged for me to be an emissary and bring a free long neck Merlin to John Stuart for his endorsement. Bob and I arrived the Chicago's Opera House, and I presented the Banjo to him. Back at the factory, a party was being set up for the Trio. After the concert, Bob and I took off with the Trio for the Merlin factory. We partied until about two or three in the morning. Very strange standing by my drill press sipping cocktails.

More later.

GuY