Carl Pagter

Hooked on Bluegrass

Carl Pagter

I was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1934, but came to California in 1935 with my family. By age 10, I was singing and whistling and began singing in choirs at 11. I was the first boy in the Benicia High School choir in the late forties, and was soloist in choir, at church, and at ceremonial occasions such as weddings. I played no instrument, but continued in choirs through college and at OCS in January-April 1957. Then in the spring of 1947 at age 23, I met another young naval officer, John Sandy, who had grown up in the St. Petersburg, Florida area and graduated from Tulane University in New Orleans. John loved early country music and introduced me to bluegrass in 1957 through his beloved Flatt & Scruggs records. I was immediately astounded by the instrumental fire and virtuosity of bluegrass, but the mountain harmonies were unfamiliar and took a little while to get accustomed to. In short order, I was playing John’s baritone ukulele and singing “Ramshackle Shack”, Some Old Day”, and “Wait a Little Longer Please Jesus.” I met John’s close friend Bob Steger in 1958, and they introduced me to Mac Wiseman’s singing. They would always say “the voice with a heart” when they heard Mac’s voice. Steger flat-picked a Martin D-28 and sang with a beautiful high tenor voice. After sharing a Mediterranean cruise aboard the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid with John and his fighter squadron (I was the intelligence officer for an attack squadron), John left he Navy ins 1960 while I extended with a fifteen-month tour of duty at NAS Alameda to save money for law school. After leaving active naval duty in August 1961, I started at Boalt Hall School of Law in Berkeley. In the meantime, I started playing banjo in 1960. I tried to play bluegrass style at first, but there was no one I knew of to show me or teach me, and picks made my hand feel like it had a boxing glove on it. I therefore opted for frailing or claw hammer style. I taught myself, and it was an excellent style to accompany my singing (which was always very important to me). Meanwhile, Bob Steger moved west and we began playing on stage in 1960 as a duo, with Bob on guitar and me on banjo. From the beginning, I preferred mountain and traditional songs such as “Rabbit in a Log”, Hand me Down my Walkin’ Cane”, “More Pretty Girls than One”, and “Eight More Miles to Louisville.” Bob liked these numbers but really shined on ballads such as “I’m Just a County Boy”, “Scarlet Ribbons”, and “I Gave my Love a Cherry.” We played together for ten years, until 1970. In November 1961, I heard Flatt & Scruggs at a live concert at UC Berkeley and generally followed bluegrass up to 1970 but found very little in California to that time. (The Redwood Canyon Ramblers and the Styx River Ferry were exceptions and there were others that I simply didn’t know about then, such as Vern & Ray, and southern California groups including the Kentucky Colonels.) I was a big fan of the Dillards, starting in the early sixties, a group that settled into southern California. In 1970, I was transferred to Washington, D.C., and soon found bluegrass festivals on nearly every weekend during the warm months, usually within tolerable driving distance. I started going to as many as I could : “Take it Easy Ranch” in Callaway, MD; Moorefield, W.VA; Shartlesville and Gettysburg, PA; American Legion Park in Culpepper, VA; Lake Whippoorwill in Warrenton, VA; Indian Springs and Susquehanna Park, MD; and countless others, not to mention contests and smaller festivals at Pulaski, Chilhowie, Independence, Dublin, Galaxy and other southern Virginia sites. Over time at these various festivals, I met my future band mates one at a time and saw and heard the greats of bluegrass, including Reno & Smiley, Bill Monroe, Charlie Moore, Joe Val, the Lewis Family, Carl Story, as well as lesser know artists such as Jim Orange, Olla Belle Reed, Wilma Lee Cooper, the McPeak Brothers, old-time banjoist Kyle Creed, and on and on. When I returned to California in 1973, the difference in activity was striking. There were no festivals and no bluegrass network system here. To keep fans and musicians in touch with one another, a live bluegrass radio show in S.F. on Saturday afternoons was the only beacon shining in the Bay Area. A Marin County bluegrass festival in 1974 was run like a rock festival, had an expensive lineup of talent, and was a financial disaster. Through contacts at the radio show, enough support was given to my proposal for a new California Bluegrass Association to give it birth in late 1974. Bluegrass, old-time, and related musical forms have been a major part of my being for more than 40 years and they continue to be my rudder in navigating the seas of life.