Sunday, December 6th, 2020
My Dear America:
To make this year even worse than it already was, My Great Friend, Banjo Bob Miller died this past week. I'm not sure of the specific details of his death but Karen told me this week that Bob passed away in the hospital. I assume it was Lehigh Valley Hospital since that was where he went when he had some heart problems awhile ago. Karen, her husband Len and Gary and I were all players and singers along with Banjo Bob Miller in The Lehigh Valley Folk Music Society Performing Group in the most recent version of the Band. We hadn't been playing together since January because of Covid 19.
We had quite a few different band members over the years. I think at one time we had as many as 9 members, maybe even 10 or 11. Since we were registered as a Non Profit Group we didn't make money but we had some great gigs all around the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania and we all had a great time playing the kind of music that we had grown up listening to, Folk Music. In recent years we were also doing some oldies and Doo Wop Music, as well. We made some good music over the years we played and sang together and had a lot of good times together.
Bob had a lot to do with the direction of our music and everything to do with our recordings. During the time I was with the group we recorded Two CD's, "Home Beyond The Sky" and "Garlic and Angels". "Home Beyond The Sky" was a Two CD set of Gospel Songs, Two of which were songs that I wrote. On the "Garlic and Angels" CD we featured two original songs apiece written and recorded by everyone in the band. Bob really showed his extraordinary sound abilities in recording and mixing those Two CD's. He also recorded at least one CD of songs he had written. I am looking around right now for my copy of his original music CD so that I can listen to it again. I just listened today to "Home Beyond The Sky" and I have to say this Gospel Folk Recording holds up really well. Bob did a hell of a job recording the band. He really knew what he was doing.
The last time I spoke with Bob on the phone he tried unsuccessfully to convince me to get together for a jam session with the group. Clearly he wanted to get the band back together. I did too, actually, but I refused to get together because of the pandemic. I thought that we would have many more years to play after Covid.
I was wrong.
Overall, Bob and I had a pretty good relationship over the nearly thirty years that we played and sang together in the Folk Music Society. Bob was opinionated and so was I, so we locked horns occasionally but it never lasted for very long. Bob was not a guy who held grudges for very long. He was a very sociable guy, for the most part. He could be a bit difficult when we had gigs. He always seemed to be a little PO'ed when we were setting up his equipment for a Gig. He barked out orders like a drill sergeant and it got on our nerves but we band members put up with it because he always did his best to make us sound good. He was an amazing sound Guy. He knew his stuff about amplification equipment and he bought a terrific Bose Sound System for the Band out of his own pocket. He wanted us to sound Great and generally we did. We had some very good singers and players over the years we all played together.
I joined the Band sometime in the mid Nineties. I had heard the Lehigh Valley Folk Music Society Play at a local Coffee House and at the time I was running a Christian Coffee House at a local church. I asked Bob and the other members of the group if they would play for coffee and donuts at the Church Coffee House. They all said yes and I booked them. While they were playing at the Church Coffee House I was standing in the background, very impressed by how well they played and sang. Although I was nowhere near a mike I started singing some harmony along with "Sinner Man", a Gospel Folk Song that I knew well. After the performance Bob came over to me and told me that he heard me throwing some harmony on "Sinner Man" and liked it. He asked me then and there to join the band. I told him that the band didn't need any more singers. Bob Disagreed. So I joined the band and played with them for many years, although I took a few years off to deal with some family issues. Joining this band was one of the highlights of my life and my friendship with Bob is something that I will treasure forever. He was a true friend and someone who was very special to me for nearly thirty years.
Some of us called him Banjo Bob because he was such a good banjo player and he had a whole bunch of great sounding banjos. He also had a whole lot of great sounding guitars and other instruments including a dobro. He also played Great Harmonica. Bob was a good banjo player but he was an even better guitar player. Bob did all the booking for the band, paid all the bills and ran the jam sessions at the local Senior Center for many years.
In recent years he had retired from his job as an executive and a Chemical Engineer at Air Products where he was an expert in Hydrogen. During his Air Products employment He was on both State and Federal Advisory Committees with regard to Hydrogen use. He was apparently a highly regarded expert on Hydrogen. I remember him talking about going to meet in Harrisburg with Katie McGinty, who at the time was in charge of Environmental Protection for the state of Pennsylvania and who later on ran unsuccessfully against Pat Toomey for Senator. Bob came back from one of his meetings with Ms. McGinty stating that at an earlier meeting he had given Katie a copy of our "Home Beyond The Sky" CD. Bob was thrilled because Ms. McGinty told Bob that she had listened to the CD and really liked it.
I just discovered this week a voicemail on my I-Phone that Bob had left me on November 7th, just after the Election. Bob was thrilled that Joe Biden had won and was asking me to call him. I hadn't checked my voicemail for a long time because I couldn't get voicemail for a long time. In fact, I was surprised this week that I was able to get voicemail at all.
It is too late now to call Bob or get together with him. I will certainly miss him. This has been a lesson to me, however, that I need to call back and connect with some important people in my life while I can. Because you never know when your time to get together might run out.
I will miss you very much my brother in Music.
As we sang so many times on one of our Gospel Songs, "You've Been A Friend To Me" and I will never forget how much your friendship has meant to me.
On the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young Album "4 Way Street" Neil Young says about his Friendship with Stephen Stills the following:
"We've had our ups and downs but we're still playing together."
I wish my time of playing with Banjo Bob wasn't over. But I will always have his incredible recordings to listen to and appreciate.
Good Bye, Banjo Bob. I will certainly never forget you.
Sincerely Yours
Jerry Gallagher
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