Ken Lang
From:
Simi Valley, Ca
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Posted 24 Oct 2004 3:44 pm |
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Having been a member of the Forum for over 5 years, I have seen a lot of posts from folks who lived and played in the greater LA area, from the 60's onward.
A lot of good players have left over the years for other parts of the country.
It would be interesting to know those of you who have left and why. Was it the declining music scene, the point in life where it was time to go "home", better opportunites elsewhere or other reasons? |
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Jerry Hayes
From:
Virginia Beach, Va.
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Posted 26 Oct 2004 3:14 am
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Hey Ken,
I lived in Southern California all my life until I left at age 45 to move to Virginia. I went to school in the Imperial Valley very close to Mexicali. Had a lot of fun there in my teens. I got out of the Army in June of '63 and played music full time around the SoCal area until Oct. of '85 when I left. I was getting to the point where I was always the oldest guy in the band and although I always tried to stay on top of the latest licks and such I think some of the old stuff still showed in my playing. I had kids in high school and the drug thing was really getting strong in California. I lived mostly in Orange County while playing music (Anaheim, Huntington Beach, Garden Grove, etc.) so that wasn't quite as bad as greater LA, but it was bad. My wife (ex-wife now) had relatives in southeast Virginia. Her brother was the chief of police in Chesapeake at the time of the move. We went here on vacation in the summer of '85 for a week and really liked it so we came back and put the house up for sale. As in the old saying "It's who you know"... my brother-in-law arranged for city jobs for my wife and I and we've been here ever since. I wasn't going to play music anymore, and didn't for about 3 months until I went to a jam session one Sunday and have been playing every weekend since. I've been here now for 19 years and have never been back home. I miss SoCal a whole bunch and still have some good friends back there but I'm staying where I'm at now. There's still a pretty good music scene here and at 64 years old (65 in January) I'm still out there playing on a regular basis so life is good. I plan on going back next summer on vacation as I'll be retired then and I'll look up some of my old buddies. A lot of the guys I knew who were great pickers don't hardly play at all anymore and that's sad. Good luck in Simi Valley, that's a very nice place...Have a good 'un, JH
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Livin' in the Past and Future with a 12 string Mooney Universal tuning.
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