Northeast Michigan Oral History and Historic Photograph Archive

John Marzean Interview

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Interview: Interview
Transcription: On January 5th, 2016 local guitarist John Marzean joined Carole Cadarette and Cindy Kus at the Alpena County Library to talk about his musical career. As the interview opens, John is talking about taking lessons with Alvin Ash. JM. Both my brother and I picked up guitars. We took lessons from Alvin Ash, at the Ash Music Store about three years. Um, that was also my first band, was Alvin Ash's band. CC. And how old were you, John? JM. I was six years old. We played parades, we played the nursing homes, we did, you know, special benefits. Um, not paying gigs, but paying for your lessons, more or less. You were - you were given that opportunity to go out and learn how to entertain in public. And it was - Alvin was a dream. He was ever so much the gentleman, never a cross word, he was, um, a special guy, a really good guy. He was the owner of Ash Music for 30 years, 35 years in Alpena. Um, that was the first band, that's how I got involved with music. CK. How many were in that band? JM. Four. Four students. CK. Various ages? JM. Um, probably from five, six years old to twelve. CK. And what were the instruments that were played? JM. Two guitars, two accordions. CK. Oh, wow. JM. So, it was - it was interesting. Yeah. That was my first time with an accordion. (Laughs) CK. But what a wo - I mean, good way to get your . . . chops as far as performing goes, and, and to get over, if you had any fear of that, but it gave you a chance to- JM. Yeah. CK. -at a real young age, to get out there and do it. JM. Yup, sure did. Yup. CC. And I'm sure you dressed the part, also. JM. You dressed black pants, white shirt and a tie. Um, Alvin was our director. He um, years previous to that, he had his own traveling band, before he bought the music store. I don't know if you remember much about where he was . . . CC. I remember exactly where he was. JM. On Werth Road, that's where he lived. He had a tour bus by the road for years. Um, it was like a 1940's tour bus, and it sat by his house forever. I always wondered whatever happened to it, but . . . um, but yeah, he was, he was, he never - he wasn't strict, he was more of an instructor that got you involved in what you were doing - made you, you know, know that you were enjoying it. So, and then after that it was for family gatherings until I was 19 years old. CK. Where was Ash Music? JM. Right across the street from the Owl Café. CK. Ok. JM. Kind of - kind of kitty-corner across, CK: Mmhuh. JM: - at the center of town and then Deadman's was around the corner. CC. Yeah. CK. They were both in business at the same time? JM. Mm hm. And they both went out about the same time, I think, too. CC. Mm hm, yup. JM. Yup. There have been a lot of music stores in Alpena . . . CK. Mm hm. CC. They each specialized in their own, their own, like Alvin Ash was - he had- JM. Lessons, but he was ah, Gibson, Epiphone, Gibson Epiphone, . . . he was guitars, accordions, pianos and organs. And then Don Deadman, or Alpena Music, was mostly the school instruments, and carried the Fender line, Fender guitars and amps. So it was, you know they were two different things, but they both accomplished the same thing. Alvin was more into lessons. CK. Ok. So, you chose the guitar at five years of age - was there anything that - can you remember why that instrument appealed to you? JM. Oh, I guess that's pretty easy, um . . . your - the guitar was always something that interested me anyway. Um, family members had played- CK. Ok JM. Um, uncles . . . CK. Mm hm, mm hm. JM. Um, good friends of the family - there was always music at a - at any party or gathering we had at the house, there was always music. CK. So you had some role models of . . . JM. Yeah. CK. Yeah, yeah. Ok. CC. What are we talking of years, here - um, uh, what year? JM. 1966. CC. In 1966, ok. JM. This is actually 50 - fifty years for me. CC. So if, you moved on with, ah, beyond, uh, Ash Music, and and playing in that format to - 19, I heard you say the age 19. JM. Nineteen, with Wickes and Company out of Hillman, Michigan. CC. Ok, and tell us how you got involved with Wickes and Company. JM. I was working for Made Rite potato chips at the time, I met Michelle Wickes at the Highway Inn in Hillman. Um, we got to talking about music and I learned that she played bass, she found out that I played guitar and she asked me - she invited me - to come out and play at, uh, the . . . what's the little bar there on the corner of -? Floodwater. Not the Fladwater, but, um . . . CC. Floodwater. JM. Ike's. Ike's Bar. CC. Oh, Ike's Bar. Ok. JM. They were playing there every Friday night and she invited me to come sit in with the band. Um, I sat in the first night and then was told it wasn't really a audition, I was just going to start playing with them - so I spent three years with um, Danny and Michelle Wickes. CC. Danny and Michelle were husband and wife . . . JM. Husband and wife, umm, lead player, he was the lead player, she was the bass, and Debbie Koenig was drums. CC. Name again on the drum? JM. Koenig. CC. Ok. JM. That's a new one to you, probably. Debbie's been out of it for quite a while. CC. Ok. JM. I don't think she ever drummed after Wickes and Company broke up. CC. Ok. JM. Um, but we played anywhere from Detroit all the way up to the um, UP, middle of the UP . . . um, for three and a half years. CC. And then the band broke up? JM. And - yeah. At that point in time, the band broke up - I moved to Tennessee for a couple of years at that point in time. CK. What was the period of time - the three and a half years? JM. Nineteen . . . say 1980 to 1980- just shy of 1984. CK. And what kind of music did you play? JM. Solid gold country. It was all old country, classic . . . a little bit of classic rock. CK. Had you ever heard that band, Carole? CC. Absolutely I heard them. I can rem - the one time I do remember was, uh, when they used to have the uh, the uuuuh, deer, deer hunting giveaway through WATZ, and I heard you play out at the Sportsman's off -Sportsman's Club, um, off of, uh, 32 out there, that's when I remember you. JM. Yup. CC. Yup . . . yup, I knew, I knew everyone he named except the drummer. JM. Right. And, like I said, she was - she was an awesome drummer, good vocalist, um, but she just kinda like let everything go. CC. Yeah, burned out probably. JM. Well, yeah. CC. Yeah, that does happen. JM. But the bar scene is a little rougher on some people than it is on others. CC. Yeah. JM. Since she was a non-drinker and . . . CC. Yeah. JM. . . . so that, that all plays into it, too. CC. So, after Wickes and Company, you said you moved to . . . JM. Tennessee for two years. Um, if I didn't love country music when I went, I certainly loved it when I came back. Um, I don't think a weekend went by I wasn't in Nashville, at the Opry, uh, at Opryland, down Music Row - um, it was two years of heaven for me, we'd get on the motorcycle on Friday night and, and just go. So that was, um, that, country music was instilled from the time that we were able to walk in our house. My Dad was very much the country music fan, um, WATZ radio. CC. Yes. JM. And Sunday mornings was, ironically, uh, Polka Hour, you know. CK. Still is. CC. Still is. JM. Still is, um, but he - I remember him having the radio on in the house, cranked all the way up and you could hear it from one end of the house to the other. We are, uh - Marzean is half Polish, half German, so my Dad did enjoy his Polka music. He enjoyed all kinds of music, but polka music and country. Um, he was also a big influence. He had a beautiful bass voice, and if you - I wish I had recordings. Um, and when he sang, it was just, it was through the whole house, you know. So there was always singing, there was always music, the radio was always going at our house. So it was always - the music influence was there. CK. Did you have a family band at all? JM. No. No. But . . . we had the Rouleau's, from our neighborhood - Ivan, Oliver, Vivian, that was the Rouleau band, that was a family band. CC. The Rouleau band? JM. Mm hm. CC. The Olivers? JM. No, Oliver Rouleau. Ollie Rule, they called him Ollie. CC. Hm. JM. Probably never heard it. Ok . . . three miles up the road, Barnie and Maxine Lentz. CC. Mm hm. JM. that was a family band. CC. Mm hm. JM. So - this stuff was right in the middle of it. CC. Sure. When you came back from - you, you said two years, that you were in Tennessee, when you came back from, from Tennessee, did you immediately join a band, or were you . . . JM. I got back, um, January - or December 29th, um . . . that next night we played New Years Eve with Norm - Norm Seiss. CC. Ok. JM. And I did six years with Norm at that point in time. CC. And of course now you're playing polkas, kind of with a German flavor. JM. Mm hm. CC. And you - if I'm, correct me if I'm wrong, are the country side of Norm's band. JM. I am the country side to Norm's band, correct. I bring a classic country to Norm's band. CK. Did you play on any of the recordings that he did? JM. No. CK: No. Ok. JM. That was before me. Um, I did - I think, six years with him at that point in time. And then, um, oh god, there was nothing for probably thirteen, twelve or thirteen years. I played for my own enjoyment at that point in time. And seven years ago, eight years ago now, he asked me to come back and join the band, so I started back in with Norm, and then two years later I started with Over the Hill band, and at that same time I started showing up at Maplewood Tavern. Um, that kind of goes hand in hand with the Over the Hill band, because we're pretty much all there on weekends. CC. And we're pretty much interchangeable. JM. Yeah. CC. We fill in for each other, in other words. Whatever the need is for each other, we try to supply that. JM. If there's somebody sick, if somebody has another gig, Henry or Carole will sit in for us, we will sit in for them, um, we talked about that the other night, last night on the phone, um - we are a family, we are an extended family. CC. Yeah. JM. When one of us is hurting, we're all there. CC. Yeah. CK. Who are the members of that family? CC. The members of both those bands? Well . . . CK. So you're talking about Chip - Chips off the Old Block? CC. Chips off the Old Block was just a name I came up with just to honor my Dad. JM. Yeah. CC. And of course, we have kind of evolved into a no-name band, really - uh, now. JM. Because you re - never know who's going to be there. CC. Because we never know. We never know who's going to be there, but - JM. We laugh about that. Um, you could call it a variety band, because the variety being . . . you never know who's going to be there. There can be five pieces onstage, there can - I've seen nights when there was ten. CK. Mm hm. CC. And everybody has their own way whether it's a country song - they have their own way to present it- JM. Mm hm. CC. Or it's an old rock n' roll song, they have their own way to present it. Um, what we try to do is - John, don't we - what we try to do is stay away from the songs- for instance, if John's not there, I'll do ah, some Hank Williams stuff, but if John's there, I leave that alone and let John do it. JM. Yup. CC. Ok. So that's kind of - we know each other well enough to do that and uh, uhhh- JM. It's been five years. CC. It's been - yes, it has been. JM. It's been five years. We've been together every Friday night through the summer and the fall um, for five years. And most Saturday nights too. CC: Mmhuh. CK. Well, come April, May, whenever it is you get started, do you find yourself kind of itching to . . . JM. Oh, yeah, yeah. Two - usually two weeks before the bar opens, we're having practice sessions; we're getting together, yeah, we're getting back into it. But we play together a lot through the winter ah - Henry and Carole come out and sit in with our band where we play. CC. Yup. CK. Where's that? JM. We play at Little Town Lounge CK. Ok. CC. We, meaning the Over the Hill band. JM. Yup. Every other Sunday, um, if Carole's around and she's got nothing to do or if she wants to get up and play with the band, she's always welcome. CK. And who are the other members of the Over the Hill? JM. The other members are Wayne and Gayle Bates, that's our lead and rhythm piano, um, Dick Laney, who is the drummer, and Al Zdan. CC. All three our names . . . JM. Yes, we're all intertwined. (laughter) CC. Yes, we are. JM. We are. Al plays with three bands, I play with three bands, Carole plays anywhere that she can. CC. (Laughs) JM. Um . . . We just . . . and anyway, back to the extended family. When one's having a, a really . . . it seems like when one's having a really good run of things, everybody's around. When somebody's hurting, everybody's around. My Mom's funeral was this summer and I think there were 35 musicians there, from the area. CC. Yeah. And I had the honor of doing the one song that was done. John- JM. The one she requested. CC. John called me and asked me to do Amazing Grace - and I went in the recording studio and recorded it, I think a different version than anybody had ever done - uh, same words, done a little bit of a different way. JM. Yeah. CC. And it was that my honor to do that. CK. That's a wonderful thing. CC. Mm hm. CK. To have, yes, that support. CC. Yup. Um, John, we talked about your musical styles from the beginning up until now - and now and in between - do you think your style has changed? Have you crisped it up maybe or changed it up at all? JM. I have . . . yeah, I have crisped it up. Um, you learn something new every time you sit in with somebody different. You, if you're, do the same thing over and over and over again, it becomes a little bland, but we don't have that problem. Um, and you know exactly what I'm talking about. CC. Just call his name Henry Cadarette. JM. Um . . . CC. He puts stuff in (laughs) JM. Um, yeah - he's phenomenal. CC. Yeah. JM. And you never know - no song is ever done twice the same way - ever. It is . . . it's such a unique thing. And I've learned from Henry, I've learned from Carole, I've learned from Al Zdan, who is phenomenal . . . um, by far the steadiest hand on a bass guitar in the area. And he's - is he 80 now? CC. No, not yet. JM. He's pushin' it, though. CC. He's pushin'. About 77. JM. 70 - yeah. Um, so, he is - he is our little rock in the band, I think. He's the one that keeps everything blended. Um, and if anything is out of line, he will also be the one that let you know. So - and you need that. CC. Yup. JM. You need that. So, it evolves. It, uh, it changes all the time. CC. Well, I know one change is it's done for you - you have not just one guitar, how many guitars do you have, John? JM. Um, there's eleven now. CC. And you play each of them because they all have their own personalities? JM. They have their own personalities, they have their own sound . . . um, my girlfriend is a little jealous at times; because she wonders which girl I'm taking to the bar when I go. (Laughter) JM. And the guitars for some reason are all girls, it just happens to be that way - the blondes, the redheads . . . CC. Yeah. JM. Um, but I also play probably four different guitars at Maplewood, too. CC. Yeah, yeah. JM. So . . . But yeah, I started with two, years ago, and unfortunately those are both gone. Um, they were replaced. CC. Do you miss them? Would you like to have them back? JM. I would like to have both of them back. CK. What happened to 'em? JM. They were traded for other guitars, or . . . CK. Oh, ok. JM. Um, let's see . . . sixteen years ago - seventeen years ago, I had an accident at work and I lost part of a finger. And that point in time everything was sold, because I never thought I'd play music again. And the following Christmas, my girlfriend went and bought me a guitar, and um, that's in my living room at home, that's one that I will never trade - it got me back in to it more than I ever was, by far more. CC. So, you're way more busy playin' music today than you ever have been in your life. JM. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's - there's not a day that goes by that I don't. Because, because my guitars are out - when I get home, you know, if I've nothing else to do, which, you know, is a lot of evenings- CC. Well, this time of the year, certainly. JM. I will pick up a guitar up and start to play. CC. Mm hm. We talked a lot about your influences here and around the Alpena area and when you were - when you were in Tennessee, and how you started. What were your influences - I already know one, which was Hank Williams, Sr. - JM. Mm hm. CC. any other ones? JM. Oh, definitely. Merle Haggard. Um . . . A big part of Merle Haggard. Um, they've - I just heard the other day on the radio, they called him the King of Country. CC. Mm hm. JM. Unique . . . um, a unique voice, a unique style, um - Willie Nelson, same way. Um, by far I don't think you will find a better guitar player. The man is, what? Eighty some years old now, and he's still phenomenal. CC. Yeah. JM. And you - it's unique, because you hear his guitar play on the radio, on a record, and you know it's him. CC. Mm hm. JM. You do, it's just, it's that one song, it's it's, it's a guitar that has been through hell and back. CC. Got a huge hole in it, that's for sure . . . JM. It's from, where his - it's where his fingers rest. CC. . . . and it keeps gettin' bigger. It's an old Martin? JM. It's an old Martin, uh, classic - it's uh, actual, um, catgut strings. CC. That's - yeah, that's the unique sound. What about Ray Price? JM. Love Ray Price. We listen to him a lot on records. Ray price, um, um, Jim Anderson. CC. Mm hm. JM. A lot of the old, they called 'em "crooners". Um, but that was mom and dad's and you know, that was their music. CK. Um hm. JM. Um, ironically it's my music, too now. Um, because both bands that I play with . . . I don't think on a typical Friday night, you could walk into Maplewood Tavern and request a classic country song and not hear it. There are musicians there that can pull that right out of the back of their head - you can go all the way back to the 20s, the 30s, the 40s, um, I've seen Wayne Bates do that. And phenomenal - no sheet music, no words, no nothing, it just all comes right out of his, out of his head. CK. Can you think of other places in Michigan that are like that - other venues? CC. Not that I'm aware of - how about you, John? I'm sure they're out there, but . . . JM. I learned of one, um, up in the UP - we play at Brimley with Norm Seiss, at the casino, obviously, three times a year, and about 20 miles from the casino, and I can't remember the name of the town, um, it's just a li - the only thing in the town is the is the bar, and the post office and the general store. CC. Ok. JM. And it's out, somewhere between Sault Ste. Marie and Hessel. CC. Ok. JM. And they tell me that on Tuesday nights, during the week, they have a, um, house band, and you can come in and join in. CC. Open mic . . . JM. But I have never seen anywhere else in Michigan where you can walk in and pick from 65 guitars, if you want to sit down and play piano, there's usually two or three, um, drums set up, the PA, everything is there. You walk in at quarter to seven, you pick up whatever you want to play for the evening - I very seldom leave, until the last dog is hung - and which is usually eleven, quarter after, you hang up the guitar back up, the power goes down and you're done. You drive home. There's no carrying, there's no setup, there's no teardown, it's just - it's hassle-free. CK. That's cool, isn't it. JM. Mom called it therapy. My mother called it therapy. She says this is your Friday night therapy. She says, no matter what you've had happen to you at work or whatever through the week, when you're onstage, she says, that all disappears. And it's true. Carole and I have said the same thing for a long time - it's our therapy. CK. & CC. Mm hm. Mm hm. JM. Um, we get up and it's just - there's no bad night. CC. Only if you make it that way. JM. Only if you make it that way, but there's - we never really have a bad night. CC. No. I don't think so. JM. No. CC. John, this question was asked of me, and, uh, I struggled with it - and I'm still struggling with it, even though I gave - Cindy was the interviewer at the time - an answer. We know we love our, our classic country, we know - if we listened to radio - how far it took us up, until it started to change. Can you put a marker of any kind, a name of a person or a song, that you felt that change coming . . . to what we are listening to today, which you and I believe is, it's - is rock - country rock. Uh, it's over-played, it's loud, it's rim shots on the drum - when did that all start to happen? With who? JM. Um, if I had to put one . . . and it's - it's more, it was country, and they've kind of introduced Rockabilly to me, I think - would be like, um, The Georgia Satellites. CC. Ok. JM. Um, that was, and that would have been what, the eighties, mid- to late eighties? That was . . . kind of like the beginning of it. It was more - it turned into more rock and roll than it was country. But if you notice, today, when you listen to the radio- that classic country's coming back. CC. Mm hm. JM. Your young artists, all - yeah, they like, they have rock and roll - rock and roll type songs, but a lot of the young artists have went back to a classic country - I would say 'scene' almost. CC. Ok. JM. All of 'em. They may have upbeat country, they, you know, but every one of 'em have some form of classic country, where it's - it's a four-four time, it's, you know, a standard progression and you can hear it through the song. And it's coming back. We - we never lost it, you and I never have, because we've had Maplewood, we've - I've, you know, had Norm Seiss, um . . . and the Over the Hill Band, um, the love for classic country is, is so easy with us - it's just, it's without a thought. CK. In the Norm Seiss band, does Norm have a few variations of his band? Um, does he play different styles of music with different bands, or does he have one band, the Norm Seiss band? JM. He has . . . it's been stationary for about three years. CK. Ok. CC. Yeah. JM. Um, Judy Suchey is usually the drummer, nine times out of ten, unless she's got something that's from the Suchey Brothers that is interrupting - that's her family band - so she has to go there first. We've had drummers from . . . Norm's had drummers from Wisconsin, he's had um, Bill Suchey sit in, um, I've also played with ah, Don Deadman on banjo. CC. Yup. JM. Um, so, it has a variety, but right now it's been three years steady. CK. Is the band that was at Octoberfest this year? JM. Mm hm. CK. Ok. CC. That's the staple band that he's talking about, JM. Yeah, that's where it's ended, CC. for the last several years JM. Which was Judy Suchey, Eddie Siewicz, um, me and Norm. And that's usually the four that are . . . CK. Dick Kosloski played, too, didn't he? CC. Yup, he played banjo. CK. That day? JM. And Dick sits in with us usually like for the- CC. Special gigs. JM. Oktoberfest, um, we play, uh, Belknap Hall for the German Club, the crowning of the May Queen, you know, the first, that's the first party of the year, which is the German Club at Belknap Hall, and that's up near Roger's City, and it's usually pretty close to one of the last ones, too. They have their little Oktoberfest - and that's uh, you know it's usually 105, 110 people, and they're all from the Posen - Roger's City - Alpena area. And they get together and, um, true German is spoken. CK. Is it open to the public? JM. Yes, absolutely. CC. Mm hm. JM. Mm hm. It's a good meal, it's - it's entertainment. CC. And when you perform at these, I know that you wear special clothes. JM. Lederhosen is a definite. CC. That's the style - that's a given. Yeah. JM. And always for Ockoberfest. CC. Yup. Ok. JM. Other than that, we have our uniform, It's, uh, you know, it's a band shirt and black pants usually. CC. So, John, um, over the years, as you've played your music, whether you were playing country or you were playing back up on the polkas, uh, with the guitar . . . places to play: thing different, were out there a lot more in the beginning, uh, a lot more opportunities to play gigs than there is today or - ? JM. There was more of a - when I first started, with Wickes and Company, there was probably 15 - 20 active bands in the area, um, and what do we have now, six? Seven? CC. Maybe. JM. Six, I would say. CC. Yeah, yeah. JM. Um, so there was a lot more competition. CC. We had that discussion touching on that, Jack - uh, John, last night - we were talking about the competition end of it. For me, I've found that that competition may be that there are less bands. But - I don't, I think we respect each other for the style and the genre that we play more than we did back in the fifties and the sixties. We give everybody their space in the room and we support them. JM. Yeah. Absolutely. We support them, we're, you know, usually when there's another band playing, we've run into one another at those places. CC. Right. Right. JM. Where we're going out to hear other bands. Um, there is no competition because I - and I'll place a lot of that back to the Maplewood Tavern, all these bands at one point in time - these people have all - we've all played together. We've gotten to know one another over the years. Everybody knows everybody, CC. Mm hm. JM. . . . and I think respect is a good way to put it. Um, I really do. There are - and you're correct, there, there's really - everybody has their own sound, everybody has their own thing that they do. Um, Little Band of Alpena, and they're rock and roll, they're 60's 70's, 80's, 90's rock and roll. Norm covers a lot of the polka, but there are other polka bands in the area, too. CC. Yeah. Wade Corpus plays in one, um, uh, he has a band that he plays in, uh, he's an accordion player. Uh, and, and again, like I said, I think that we've come to a point in our lives where even though there's those fewer bands than there was, the 15 or 20, we're down to six or seven, I think that we have a, now we have a - grown into a total respect for each other. And that's a good thing. JM. Yeah, it's. it's not a dog-eat-dog, not anymore. No . . . uh, and each one of these bands has their own following. You'll go, uh to Maple - uh, a lot of, the Maplewood Tavern and Little Town Lounge, where we play, it's a lot of the same crowd . . . CC. Yup. JM. But I think that all stems back to the point that we're at Maplewood. You know, we're part of Maplewood. CC. Mm hm. JM. Clarice is mom - she's mom to a lot of people. CC. (chuckles) JM. Um, I love her dearly. She is, she is such a trip (laughs). We have - and we do, we have a lot of fun, and I think that's our, I think that's, you could call that our stomping-ground. Everybody goes out - uh, we're not paid to play, we are playing for "us". CK. Mm hm. JM. The crowd is . . . is great - it's always nice to have a crowd. Dancers. Dancers on the floor . . . are one of the most wonderful things for a band. There's nothing worse than playing to an empty dance floor. Nothing. So when you see people enjoying themselves, and enjoying the music - that's our fulfillment. CC. And, John, because you brought it up, and Maplewood, of course, is my family's business - what you've just said takes me back to the fact dancers and music, right now, as we speak . . . it was built in 1924 as a dance hall, JM. Mm hm. CC. and there was dancers. JM. Mm hm CC. Now, I don't think too many people can comprehend that timespan of anyplace else, doing that, starting in 1924 and now we're just shortly into 2016. Dance hall? Dance hall. JM. Dance hall. CC. Any other place I'm not aware in the state of Michigan or any other place that has had that long a career, because now you have second and third generation now playing at that dance hall. CK. 92 years. CC. Well, 1924 . . . CK. 92 years. CC. Yup. And I just found some of the paperwork when my grandfather asked for a permit to have a dance hall - I just found the paperwork, with his signature on it. So John, thank you very much for bringing all that up and sparking some memories in me, too. Is there anything else that you'd like to share with us about your music career? JM. My music career. Um, it's - it's not a career - I, I couldn't call it a career. CC. You can't, you won't? Ok, then don't allow me to call it a career. JM. I won't call it a career, it's - it's not a job. CC. Ah. JM. It is, um, a big part of our lives, I - and I'll include you in that, because, um, you aren't doing it for the money. It, it's never been - ever - about money. It is - we've said it before - stress relief, therapy, it is a, a . . . it's a way to just make everything go away from the week. You could have the worst week ever, ever - and when the music starts, it's just gone. CK. Soothes your soul. CC. Yeah, It's just fun - and you don't have to look too much further than actually for John, tuning up his guitar, striking that first chord of that first country tune, or maybe little rocker that he might wanna do, JM. Yeah. CC. Uh, that says it all, John. JM. Mm hm. CC. Can I just say on behalf of the Alpena County Library and from this lady sitting beside me, Cindy Kus, and myself, thank you so much for coming in, JM. Well, thank you. CC. We appreciate all your information. Thank you. CK. Yeah, it's been a pleasure, thanks.
Creators: Cindy Kus and Carole Cadarette, Interviewer; John Marzean
, Interviewee
Media Type: Audio; Image; Text
Item Type: Interviews
Description: Guitarist John Marzean began taking lessons from Alvin Ash at age 6. At the age of 19, he played with Wickes and Company, a country band from Hillman, Michigan. These days, you can hear John play in the Norm Seiss Band, The Over the Hill Band and at Maplewood Tavern jam sessions.
In this interview, John discusses the popularity of family bands in this area, and the effect of music on his life.
Place of Publication: Alpena County George N. Fletcher Public Library
Date of Publication: 5 Jan 2016
Playing Time: 42:19
Personal Name(s): Marzean, John
Corporate Name(s): Wickes and Company ; The Over the Hill Band ; Norm Seiss Band ; Maplewood Tavern
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 Library
Recommended Citation: In text- Marzean, J. (2016)
Reference- Marzean J. (2016, January 5) retrieved at http://www.nemoha.org/3249358/data?n=14
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
Transcription: Meg Converse

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