Northeast Michigan Oral History and Historic Photograph Archive

Doug and Eve Allyn Interview

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Transcription: Kirstine Furtaw: My name is Kirstine Furtaw. I am in the Alpena Room. It is May 28th and I am getting ready to conduct an interview with Doug and Eve Allyn for the Oral History Music Project at the Alpena County Library. Welcome. Doug Allyn: Thank you. Eve Allyn: Thank you. KF: I wanted to start out first with, um, talking a little bit about your early years. DA: Sure. KF: Um, maybe I could start with you first Doug and then we'll move on to you Eve? About how you got started in music. DA: Uh, I started music at the age of four. Um, my mother signed me up with the Alvin Ash Music Studio which was downtown on Chisholm Street in those days, uh, the year would've been 1948 - 49 something like that. Um, and I started learn- I started taking guitar lessons. Then, by age six, um, I was touring with the Alvin Ash Revue, um, Mr. Ash in addition to running his music store also put on shows in neighboring towns. We went to Onaway, Oscoda, whatever, you know, anything in the area mostly playing in little country halls. Alpena had no TV in those days. This was a road show and I was age six and, uh… Want to know what the whole show was? I can give you that. KF: I'd like to hear it. DA: OK. The whole show was I was appearing with a m- in my act, a magician named Edgar Stephan was the preceding act. About halfway through his show I would come on stage and blunder around in the back amongst the instruments making noise. Ed would stop his act and pretend that I was disrupting it and tell me to get lost, uh, at which point I would burst into tears and say I just want to play the guitar and he would say, "Beat it kid. You're too little to play the guitar." And I was little. You know, I'm six. KF: Right. DA: Um, and, uh, so after, so I would beg and plead and he would hand me a ukulele and I would say, "No, I want to play the big guitar." "Uh, beat it, kid, you're too small to play the big guitar." At which point, he would ask the audience if they wanted to actually see me play the big guitar. They, of course, always did. Uh, so Ed took the ukulele which was his instrument. I took a full-size Spanish guitar which was actually my instrument - KF: Mm-hmm. DA: - and then we would play Muskrat Ramble or something- tear into something and bring the house down. That was our show. I did two songs a night. I got 50 cents a song which made me actually pretty well paid for a first grader. KF: Right. DA: You know. So, that was the beginning of my musical career. KF: OK. And so how long did you keep playing with that group? DA: I did that until the third grade. I should mention though that if we're going to talk about early history, um, my mom was a big band singer in Alpena before I started to play. She played with the Skeets Aubrey Quintet. They played at a club that I think - now, we're talking World War II- KF: Mm-hmm. DA: -alright, cause I obviously was not hanging out in the bars then. KF: Mm-hmm. DA: Yet. Um, but they played in a club that was upstairs, I think, over what became Vaughn's Furniture? KF: Well, you know, Cindy and I were talking about that we were wondering if it was, um, above Alpena Furniture, possibly? DA: Might've been. Might've been. KF: The Trianon Hall was a pretty popular dance hall at that time. So, that's a possibility? DA: That's gotta be the one then. KF: Yeah. DA: Yeah. KF: I'm thinking so. Yeah, so, uh, so she was a part of, you said, the Skeets-? DA: The Skeets Aubrey Quintet. KF: OK. DA: She sang with them. I have a record of hers that they cut back in those days someplace in my collection. KF: Now, that would've been pretty unusual at that time, wouldn't it? To have a recording? Of your band? DA: I think so. Um, that's before my time, kiddo. KF: Right. Right. DA: Yeah. Uh, but I've got the records. KF: Yeah. DA: So that's pretty much proof of that. KF: I think it kind of speaks to maybe how popular the band was or that they would actually make a recording of it. DA: Uh, yeah, well this wasn't - this would be on acetate which would've been in a local recording studio- KF: OK. DA: -either here or in Bay City because I think Skeets was from Bay City. That's my recollection. KF: OK. DA: But his bass player, Ed Perkins, was my guitar teacher. He taught at Ed Asher's studio. Um, originally from Tennessee. Played upright bass and played guitar. KF: So, did your mom, uh, she was a singer. DA: Yes. KF: Did she play any instruments as well? DA: Uh, she played keyboards but to amuse herself. KF: OK. DA: Uh, she never played onstage. She was a singer. KF: OK. DA: And my grandmother also was a singer. She was heavy into gospel. She toured the south in the twenties and thirties under the name - her stage name was Opal Warren. EA: Opal Warren. DA: Uh, and, uh, my uncle Sterling also in gospel music. Had his own radio station out of Covington, Kentucky for many years. Uh, so it was kind of like the family business - sort of. Although, gee, I was never drawn into gospel music for whatever. Rock and roll seduced me. EA: (chuckle) DA: Although we're talking 1948. Rock and roll hadn't been invented yet so, gosh, I missed that. KF: Right, right. So, so your mom - she would've been playing though, uh, primarily it would've been like jazz standards- DA: Oh, yeah. KF: -that kind of music at that time. DA: Oh, yeah. Sure. Yes. Yep. KF: Right, OK. Now, was there anybody else in your family that was involved in music besides your mom and yourself. DA: Umm. KF: Was your dad involved? DA: No, not at all. KF: OK. DA: I'm just casting about really quickly. No. Nobody else. Just us. KF: OK. OK. Alright. DA: Yeah. KF: Um, did you express an interest in taking up the guitar at 4 ½ or did your mom just- DA: I got spanked for riding my tricycle into the street. My mom felt really bad about that because, of course, she didn't know it was child abuse at the time. She just thought she was spanking me. Um, but and so she said she would give me a present to make up for this and I asked for a guitar. I was four years old. I asked for a guitar. And she, of course, said this was serious business and if you're going to do that then you're going to have lessons, etc. Fine. Sign me up. And, um, I was actually taking lessons at five. KF: Mm-hmm. Did you remember, um, being drawn to music? At, you know, obviously if you asked for a guitar you had probably been listening to your mom? DA: Oh, my mom was absolutely, I mean, there was music around the house just about 24 hours a day. Seriously. It's on all the time. It's like water, you know. Um, but, yeah, I've always been attracted to it and I can still remember walking into Ashe's music store and I'm just a little kid. But I remember walking in there looking at the instruments and thinking what each one would sound like if I could play it. Uh, and ten years later I could play it. A lot of them. KF: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. DA: Growing up in Alpena but that's more to this story. But that was when I started at 5. And at Ashe's. KF: And then you said that in third grade you had to stop. DA: In third grade I broke my arm. KF: OK. DA: Twice and, uh, which pretty much- I couldn't play for a better part of a year because of that and- KF: Was it your right arm? DA: Right arm, yeah. KF: Mm-hmm. Yeah. DA: And, uh, at the end of that period my folks had gotten a divorce and I just kind of lost interest in the music thing. I mean, I'd been doing it at that point for three or four years. KF: Right. DA: Which is a long time when you're a little kid. KF: Mm-hmm. DA: And it involved riding on the bus to a lot of little towns and I was the youngest one in the show. Nobody to talk to. Um, and frankly that got pretty old and I grew up knowing what my grandmother had already warned me about. About a life in music. Uh, she said it's a lonely life. You're on the road all the time and you will end up alone. KF: Mm-hmm. DA: Great lady, my grandmother. KF: Thankfully you met another musician but that's later on in the story DA: Later on in the story. Yeah. EA: (chuckle) KF: Yeah. Right. Um, OK, so you got back into music though at what point? DA: Probably eighth grade. KF: OK. DA: I started - I got the bug again. Rock and roll was starting to show up and, uh, you could get a radio bounce- now mind you, during this era, the only radio station is WATZ. KF: OK. DA: And they played a really big variety as it happened, uh, the manager of the station, uh, Drew McClay was a family friend. Uh, his son Billy and I went to school together. Uh, so I got to know Drew and the radio station from again- growing up. Um, and Alpena played a lot of really big variety of music some of which I've been tracking down ever since. You know, because the only place they played - you'd ever hear this stuff was on WATZ. They played polkas. They had the, um, um, Austin Deadman radio show. KF: OK DA: Called "Down Memory Lane". KF: OK. DA: Austin Deadman was a local musician. Uh, he had his own sh- KF: That's a big, uh, family name - musical family name. DA: Oh, yes, yes. Sure. Absolutely. KF: Mm, hmm. Yeah. DA: And, uh, yeah, Bill and Karen Emerson are his step-kids or something. I don't know. It's complicated. But I remember, I remember that show. I remember listening to music on that show. KF: And what kind of music did he play? DA: He played old standards. I mean, it was called "Down Memory Lane". He was playing and it was strictly him on piano. KF: Oh, so it was live- DA: Oh, abolutely- KF: In the studio.. DA: Sure. Yeah. KF: Oh, I didn't know they were doing that kind of- oh, OK. DA: They absolutely did that and years later, or a few years after that, I was playing live in that studio. KF: OK. DA: They had a whole set up out at the radio station complete with a grand piano and, uh, uh, mikes permanently set up where you could bring in a band and they would do live broadcasts. KF: Oh, OK. I didn't know that about WATZ back then. DA: This town was jumping. KF: Yeah. DA: But part of it was that we were so isolated. There was literally nothing else. I was hearing rock and roll on a bounce from WLAC-Nashville which was a national station then. 50,000 watts, I think. Um, and they played early rhythm and blues so by the time later when I got into rhythm and blues I played in bands with- where I was the only white guy in the band- but they couldn't call a song that I didn't already know. Growing up in this town was magical in a lot of ways but part of it is the isolation. We were so far from everything else. So when you picked an option. It might be the only one you had. KF: Right. So, you were able to get that radio station. DA: Yup. KF: Um, from all the way from Nashville. DA: Yup. KF: But that was your only exposure to that kind of music, really? DA: Pretty much, yeah. They weren't playing rock and roll on WATZ yet. They did though. And, uh, fairly - there was a DJ named Skeets Deno who was really, uh, uh, a major figure in this town in those days. Who else was there? You know, again, we were pretty isolated. But he picked up on rock and roll early and he was playing that early. KF: OK. So, that must have just felt like - when you were listening to this radio station from Nashville- DA: Yeah. KF: - all the way up here in Alpena. It must've felt - or were you in Black River at that time? DA: Well, both times. Yeah, I was in both places. KF: Yeah, it must've just felt like, "Wow, there's this whole world out there that - that you didn't… DA: Well, it's-you know it's - you're not on Mars here- but it was just harder being by that time I was already playing seriously, uh, because I was playing in bands when I was in high school. Professionally. You know. Out in the clubs getting paid. And I was not the only one. We can come back to that a little bit later but there was a whole community of musicians that grew up in this town. KF: Right. DA: Uh, and it was very open. Younger players would be coached by older players as they came in and, uh, that hasn't really changed that much. KF: Well, hello. Carole just joined us. Carole can you introduce yourself for the… CC: Absolutely. I'm Carole Cadarette and I'm here for the interview with Doug and Eve Allyn. DA: Hi. I called you earlier. CC: Good morning. I've been in town a long time. DA: Oh, OK. KF: Yeah. Well, we were just talking a little bit about, um, Doug's early years and we'd kind of gotten up to the point where he got back into music in about the 8th grade. DA: Yeah. KF: And, um, so we were just venturing forward from there. CC: OK. KF: Um, you were just getting interested in rock and roll. Is that where you started to play then in 8th grade? DA: Uh, I was playing piano and teaching myself a little bit about - relearning the guitar. KF: OK. DA: Uh, in high school I wanted to get into the marching band because that was a really big deal in high school. And, uh, Bob Dunstan said if I learned to play tuba I could get into the band right away. And my best friend from those days, Gil Schmidt, uh, was already playing tuba. He had started in the 8th grade or something- in grade school. So, I took up that instrument and I was within - joined the marching band freshman year, end of my freshman year, uh, and then promptly switched to saxophone. And, I might add, that in Alpena High, uh, Dunstan was a schooled musician and a really wonderful player, uh, and he was so supportive of everybody that wanted to play. He let me take that class over again on a second instrument. I don't know if that would happen, you know, nowadays. Uh, if- if people are that open. But if you wanted to play he would find a way to make it happen. And he was, um, hugely supportive of everybody. I'm just trying to think of all the guys who came through that school who turned out to be pros later. Uh, and I know that, uh, the stuff that we were learning was absolutely at a professional level. It wasn't high school band. Uh, if you were able to carry the weight, uh, Mr. Dunstan would find a way to- to teach you what you needed to know. KF: Hmm. So, what kinds of things, um, would you say he was teaching you that was at a professional level? DA: Arranging. We knew how to arrange. Uh, I mentioned in the questionnaire that I can remember walking down the hall, as like a sophomore, maybe a junior in high school, to do a football rally in the gym. Tom Ferguson was writing out the charts for myself and Harvey Newman. Tom is writing the charts as we walk down the hall. We get to the - we get to the gym which is full of umpty-umpty students and then we sight read- sight read the charts that Tom had just written out for us. And you can't- I've been out in the world and I've played in big bands, you know, literally around the world. An awful lot of the schooled musicians that I know that came through college programs couldn't do stuff that we were doing in high school. KF: Mm, hmm. DA: Um, ran into professional musicians who literally, uh, had to very slowly read charts and we were sight reading charts, uh, without, and -and everybody thought it was normal because so many guys could do it. KF: Mm, hmm. So, it was the sight reading, it was the arranging, transcribing… DA: All of that stuff, yeah. KF: Mm, hmm. Right, right. Which, um, and how do you think that, um - how did that, um, serve to your advantage then when you were playing later? DA: Oh, well, when I got to Nationalist China, uh, they still had big bands there and part of the work that I found there was doing arrangements for big bands. Um, and I did this as a graduate at Alpena High and ACC. Um, I might mention that Willard Fast who was the music teacher at both - he taught Orchestra at Alpena High and I took Orchestra as well. Playing bassoon parts on baritone sax. But he also, uh, taught tonal dictation and arranging at Alpena Community College and going through those classes, um, you come out of there at a professional level. I mean, literally it was at a professional level. Guys who went to Julliard weren't necessarily as well prepared as a lot of kids that came through Alpena High and ACC. KF: That's amazing. DA: We were really lucky. KF: Mm, hmm. DA: Uh, I tracked those - I took Mr. Fast out to dinner probably ten years ago. Tracked him down. Uh, took a little doing but he was over at - I think he was over at Hart, something like that and I was speaking in the area, uh, and, uh, so I tracked him down and we went out to dinner. And had a nice conversation. He had no idea who I was, of course, because they turned out dozens and dozens of kids like this. Um, but it was, uh, I remember as like a sophomore in high school, I was walking home, uh, with, um, a friend who delivered papers and I would help him deliver papers on his paper route. We were passing this house and I could hear piano music, uh, coming from the house and it was really good, um, and asked Mark who lived there and it was Mr. Fast. So, I listen- I sat on the porch and listened for a while and it occurred to me that this guy had just put in a full day teaching music, hurried home, so he could practice. And I thought, this is the kind of job I want. I would like to have - you know, to be able to do something that you do all day and get paid for it and then go home and do it for fun and that's what music has always been for us. Uh, when we were playing in clubs six nights a week on the seventh night we'd go play with somebody else. For free. KF: Mm, hmm. Right. DA: Not many people get to do that in this life. KF: No. It's true. Now, what about, um, I'm just going to shift gears for a minute. DA: Sure. KF: What about you, Eve? During this time period, um, what were you doing? EA: Which time period? KF: Um, we'll talk about the early years again. EA: The early years. KF: With you. EA: The early years. KF: How did you get started with music? EA: Sure. In church. KF: OK, OK. EA: Born and raised Catholic. At a very small church in Black River and everybody sang and my sister sang, my mother sang, um, and later when approaching seven or eight years old, the local watering hole which still exists, Mountain Inn. KF: Yes. EA: The Mountain now. Yes. My sister and I on Sunday afternoons. It seemed to be the gathering place for people to let off steam. We would be there with our parents and we would sing. Just sing and I think about ten years old I got a guitar. DA: You're leaving out your harmonica. Sorry. You were already playing harmonica. EA: I was playing harmonica, yes. My mother worked at a fish packing plant in Black River and I used to sit on an ice chute when boats would come in to deliver their fish to be taken care of - I'd sit on the ice chute and play my harmonica and people would drop little coins in my bucket. KF: How old were you? EA: I was about six at that time. KF: You both got started really young! EA: We did. We did. KF: And getting paid. EA: Yes. KF: Both getting paid at the age of six. EA: Yes. DA: Yeah, that's true. Yeah. EA: The Mountain Inn thing. That was just for fun. And, um, there was a, there's another place that still exists. It's on the corner in Harrisville. It's right by the tracks. I don't recall the name. DA: It's called the Snake Pit. EA: It was the Snake Pit then. KF: I've heard this name before. EA: Yes. KF: What a name. EA: The Snake Pit, yes. DA: Who thought this was a good idea, yeah? EA: And we used to on Sunday afternoons would go there. Mom and Dad would have a couple of brews and my sister and I would sing and I got a guitar, I think, I was 10 years old for Christmas from an aunt and uncle and that started me doing that. KF: Mm-hmm. EA: And we had in our home, um, a pu- an old pump organ that I played and, uh, played guitar and harmonica and my sister and I would sing and have a good time doing it. And high school was, uh, a little different because I wanted to be in the high school band but couldn't afford a snare drum so I wound up in vocal music and we had a really interesting teacher. Her name was Wagner, Mrs. Wagner and her daughter at the time was on Broadway - singing on Broadway and had a wonderful operatic-type voice and she was there and Mrs. Wagner - you didn't sit in a seat. You lined the walls and you sang from here (indicating abdomen), not here (indicating throat) so she would listen to - she would walk around the room and listen to everybody sing and at any given time give you a whack in the tummy to see if you were tight and doing it proper-properly. KF: Singing from your diaphragm rather than from the throat. EA: (overlapping) Yes. Yes. Yes. And it was good training. It was very good training and other than high school concerts and that kind of thing, um, very little early, had no formal training at all other than the vocal music in high school and I've known Doug since I was very little because their family had a house behind where I lived and, um, I guess it's alright to say because in high school, he and his brother used to go there and have parties on occasion and, uh, our mothers were good friends and she would call. Doug's mother would call my mom and say "one of the boys was up at camp, um, please go up and see if there's a mess before their father gets up there". So my mother would go out so she already knew this guy was just kind of a bummy kid, you know. KF & EA: (laughing) EA: And he played in a band and, wow, you know, just kind of a bum. But, that- that was kind of my early- KF: Right. EA: The early times. KF: So, you - but you were going to school, Doug, in- at Alpena- DA: Alpena, yeah. KF: And you were going to high school, I take it- EA: Alcona. KF: At Alcona, ok. EA: Yes. KF: Alright, so - DA: So we knew each other to say "hi" to but that was about it. EA: Yes DA: Yeah. KF: Right. Because you had - you had a camp out there or was your-? DA: Oh, it was a home, yeah. EA: It's a house. DA: Yeah, it's sort of a camp, sort of a home. KF: Mm, hmm. DA: But my folks had planned to retire there. KF: OK, OK. So, you had this connection through your mom- EA: Yes. KF: -cleaning up after your parties, Doug. (laughter) DA: Yeah. Well, I'd like to put most of the blame on my brother because I'm pretty sure it was all his fault. EA: I- I think it was his, yeah. KF: Well, that's pretty easy to do. (laughter) DA: Yeah, he's not here. Right. KF: Yeah, alright. So, um, so you primarily focused on singing in school. Did you, um, sing with any bands during that time? EA: No. KF: OK. EA: No. Not at all. In fact, Doug and I were married and he was in the Air Force studying Chinese in Indiana University and he had a little band with a couple of Air Force guys and, um, two college students, um, who weren't in the Air Force and at Christmas time they had decided they would be better off if they had a girl singer so, one of the college guys, um, had a sister who sang and we had a house. They were in dorms so our house was rehearsal hall and everybody showed up and Sherry sang her song and when she left I said to Doug, "Well, I can sing better than that." Of course, he said, "You're just jealous" And I said, "No, I'm not." So, he said, "OK, sing me a song. What song do you want to sing?" DA: Now, mind you at this point we had been married six months. I didn't know she could sing. KF: That's what I was- that's what I was thinking. Is that you hadn't heard her sing before… DA: Well, our relationship prior to that was all chemistry, actually. EA: Yeah. DA: Still is. KF: (laughter) EA: So, I said, "OK, I'll sing. You learn" -on his organ- "you learn how to play Skeeter Davis 'End of the World' and I'll sing it." So, he did and I sang it and he didn't say a word. He got on his coat and hat and left. And I thought, well, that's really good, you know. But he came back with the rest of the band and said, "OK, sing this song" so I sang the song and they decided it would be good if they had two girls in the band which is what we did for the rest of the year and a half we were there. Um, she, it turned out, she liked to sing fast songs and I liked to sing slow songs - ballads - so that, and it worked out very well. And we had a lot of fun work- we worked Indiana University, Purdue University - DA: We played mostly college gigs, uh, around the area at Purdue at IU and, uh - EA: A lot of fun. DA: Yeah. And a few clubs. CC: And what was the name of your band at that point? DA: That was Rick and the Rivieras. They recorded under that name later after I left. EA: Yup. They did. DA: Um, Rick Bush and his sister Sherry. Uh, and, uh, the rest of it was, well, you know what it's like in college, guys are coming and going and that's- it wasn't that bad. Good band though. EA: And it all came to a s- grinding halt. You remember when? When President Kennedy got shot. DA: Oh, that's right! EA: The whole town shut down. DA: God, you're right! Everything. EA: No entertainment. KF: Wow. EA: Nothing. 'Til the end- after the first of the year. DA: Hey, we've got a milestone, because that was 1963. KF: Right. Right. DA: Yeah. And when that happened all of our gigs instantly evaporated - EA: Yes. DA: -overnight because they shut down all entertainment in the area, uh, that went on for months. I don't think we played again EA: Not until then end of - January. DA: The end of the year, yeah. EA: Yup. KF: Wow. So, at that point, had you disbanded as a group because you said it came to a grinding halt. DA: No, we just starved together. EA: We just- (laughter) KF: OK. (laughter) OK. Alright. EA: And it started again, um- DA: It started up again after the first - EA: After the first of the year and shortly thereafter we left Indiana to go to Texas for Doug's further training, uh, he was a linguist in the Air Force - Chinese Linguist. And I think he went- went to- DA: Went to tech school. EA: -Texas, yeah. DA: To learn, uh, radio. EA: Radio op. And after that Doug- DA: Then we played in Texas- EA: We played in Texas, uh, we didn't - what we didn't know at that time we were the first integrated band to ever play in Texas, uh, black and white did not mix. We - when we worked with these men we- DA: Yeah, this was '63 - EA: Yeah. DA: Jim Crow- er, '64 it would've been- EA: '64 DA: -early '64 and Jim Crow was still the law of the land and, uh, I gravitated to a club that had a, uh, a black band- EA: Blues band, blues band. DA: Blues band called The Counts and I auditioned for them and I got in to the band because as it happened one of the guys was leaving and, uh, I was the only white guy in that band and being from Alpena, like I knew, you know, I had no idea that this was even untoward. I found that out in a hurry. Uh, but we were the only, at that point the only integrated band that had played that town. EA: Mm,hmm. DA: Um, and it was a hot band and we did a lot of business- had a great time. KF: Mm,hmm. Now, were you a singer, too, Doug? DA: Yeah. KF: OK, alright. And was your primary instrument guitar always or did you play - keyboard? DA: No, at that point I was playing keyboards, well, organ - a Hammond B3- EA: Mm,hmm. DA: - and uh, uh played saxophone EA: Sax. DA: From my years at Alpena High. Um, those were my primary, I played guitar also but I didn't play guitar in that band because they already had a brilliant guitar player in that band. EA: Played horn in that band. DA: Yeah. KF: Now, before the two of you played together- DA: Yup. KF: -you did have several bands- DA: Oh, yeah, sure. KF: -in high school years. DA: Sure. KF: Can you- can you walk me through, uh, some of that history in the - in the high school years - going back a little? DA: OK. High school years. As a sideman I started out with, uh, a couple of different bands. I played with Dick Niemi. I played with Johnny Woytaszek, um, I met Al Zdan in Johnny Woytaszek's band. Uh, Al was a bass player who had been a good friend all these years. He was our Best Man when we got married. Uh, and, uh, and still in touch and Al's still playing in this town. God, I love this business! Um, and with Al- Al and I put a group together called The Playboys. That was with Elwood Smith who has since become a nationally recognized illustrator. He's a good guitar player, too. Um, that group played - we played together for a couple of years. Uh, at the same time, this being Alpena you kind of played catch as catch can as to, you know, depending on who was playing where you would put a group together that might be together for a night or a month or a couple of months, uh, to work a specific job and, uh, we were playing at Twin Acres - Al and I were playing in that group, uh, with Jerry Rucinski and Jim LaCross. Um, Jim on saxophone, Jerry on drums. And it - it was almost like a floating family. We all knew each other. We'd all grown up together, uh, everybody knew, who's- who was good at what. So if you needed a band for a specific- you had a wedding you had to play, for example, you got a job, you could put a band together literally without rehearsal
Creators: Furtaw, Kirstine and Cadarette, Carole, Interviewer; Allyn, Doug
, Interviewee; Allyn, Eve
, Interviewee
Media Type: Audio
Item Type: Interviews
Description: Husband and wife, Doug and Eve Allyn, worked professionally in rock and roll bands for over 35 years. Both natives of Northeast Michigan, the Allyns talk about their formative years in the Alpena area and their experiences working as musicians in Taiwan while Doug was stationed during the Vietnam War. Eventually, the Allyns settled in the Saginaw/Flint area and performed in that local music scene for the rest of their music career. Doug and Eve played in The Counts, D.A. and the Witnesses and Devil's Triangle which later became The Triangle. In retirement from his music career, Doug Allyn has become a prominent mystery writer winning many national awards for his short stories including two Edgar Awards.
Place of Publication: Alpena County George N. Fletcher Public Library
Date of Original: Spring 2016
Playing Time: 1:55:12
Subject(s): Interviews
Oral histories
Personal Name(s): Allyn, Doug ; Allyn, Eve ; Stefan, Edgar ; Perkins, Ed ; McClay, Drew ; Deadman, Austin ; Deno, Skeets ; Dunstan, Bob ; Schmidt, Gil ; Ferguson, Tom ; Newman, Harvey ; Fast, Willard ; Niemi, Dick ; Woytaszek, Johnny ; Zdan, Al ; Smith, Elwood ; Rucinski, Jerry ; LaCross, Jim ; Barton, Calvin ; Haight, Teddy ; Rzad, Johnny ; Kapala, Teddy ; Gappa, Donny ; Foster, Billy ; Sylvester, Bob ; Kai-Shek, Chiang ; Hardy, Jim ; Hardy, Dave: Sabourin, Alan ; Dodds, Davey ; LaMarre, Bob ; Davis, Don ; Seiss, Norm ; Stump, Arnie ; Gamble, Dick ; Osgerby, Tory ; Foster, Bill ; Rigg, Bobby, Stephenson, Sam ; Stephenson, John ; Garahy, Mike ; Baldwin, Rick ; Orr, Dr. Myron David ; Kime, Bud ; McCray, Larry ; Deadman, Don ; Deadman, Carey ; Kirchoff brothers ; Schindler, Pete ; Saretsky, Saul, Ferguson, Tommy ; Newman, Harvey ; Hizelman, Al ; Zuck, Bobby
Corporate Name(s): The Playboys ; Rick and the Rivieras ; The Counts ; Twin Acres ; Club 32 ; Jack's Bar ; Hideaway ; Thunder Bay Polka Jacks ; Rick and the Rivieras ; Taiwan ; The Ebonys, The Counts, The Idols, D.A. and the Witnesses ; Vietnam ; Maplewood Tavern ; Phelps Collins Air Force Base ; The Keg ; Daniel's Den ; The John Brown Trio ; Fordney Hotel ; Saginaw, Flint ; Devil's Triangle, The Triangle ; The Buick City Blues Band ; Alvin Ash Music Studio ; Skeets Aubrey Quintet ; Trianon Hall ; Air Force ; McClellan's Department Store
Collection: Musicians of Northeast Michigan
Language of Item: English
Copyright Statement: Protected by copyright: Uses other than research or private study require the permission of the rightsholder(s). Responsibility for obtaining permissions and for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Copyright Date: 2016
Copyright Holder: Alpena County George N. Fletcher Public Library
Contact: Alpena County George N. Fletcher Public Library
Email:specialcollections@alpenalibrary.org
Website:
https://www.alpenalibrary.org

Agency street/mail address:
211 N. First Ave.
Alpena, Michigan 49707
USA
(989)356-6188

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Musicians of Northeast Michigan