My own experience at working with groups may or may not be of any help to anyone, but at least I learned what I needed to know about myself.

Several times I was one of the parties involved in trying to form a group (this, incidentally, was back in the late Fifties-early Sixties). The trios, quartets, and larger never came close to getting off the ground. Lots of time rehearsing, but after a while it just wasn't fun anymore and they disintegrated, usually by unspoken mutual agreement. People just stopped showing up to rehearsals. I had better success with duos, but even those didn't last that long.

The first was with a young woman named Patti, who had been a good friend for years. We did a television show together, called "Ballads and Books" on KCTS, Seattle's PBS affiliate. Six live half-hour shows (this was before videotape). As a result, we got all sorts of calls to perform here and there, but both of us were attending the University of Washington at the time, and Patti was a more serious student than I was. Also, she was married. She felt she couldn't afford the time. Too bad. We sounded good and we worked well together. She lives in California now, and we still stay in touch.

My duo days with Bob Nelson lasted for less than a year and ended in a life-long friendship. He still lives in this area. We just started singing together for kicks, and wound up doing about twenty weeks together, three times a week, in one of Seattle's first coffeehouses (and actually got paid--not much, but paid), a couple of television shows, also on KCTS, several concerts, some school assemblies, and a bunch of other performances. We developed a big following in the Pacific Northwest, so we figured we were ready to make our fortune and went to the Bay Area. Turned out we were too commercial for Berkeley and too ethnic for San Francisco. We had a lot of fun and learned a lot, but when we ran out of money, we came back to Seattle. Bob got married shortly thereafter, acquired responsibilities, and had to make a living. Not much time left for practicing and gadding about, so we let it go.

The third and final was a young woman with a voice that could bend the walls out, named Judy. We did several college concerts together, then a big concert at the Seattle Center Playhouse. Terrific response. But we mostly swapped songs and sang only about six duets. We needed more duets. I was a hardnose for practicing and polishing. Judy was an avid skier. So that took care of that.

The group performances I have participated in that were the most fun for all concerned were ad hoc. Throw the group together for the purpose of that performance, with no particular plans to "form a group," practice together enough to know which versions of what songs we were doing, get some idea of what chords everybody planned to play, and just do it. What we lacked in polish, we more than made up for by having fun. And the fun rather than the lack of polish was what the audience pick up on.

To put together a professional musical group, you all have to be fixed on the same goal and be willing to make whatever sacrifices it will take. And sometimes, that's just too much to ask. Happily, Patti, Bob, and I remain the best of friends, which doesn't always happen. Judy move back East, and I haven't seen or heard from her for decades, but last I heard, she was still performing.

I learned that, as much as I loved working with these folks (and Bob and I still raise our voices together from time to time), I am basically a solo singer.

Don Firth