Who Are These Creepers, Anyway?





		Steve Huestis, banjo In the early 80's, from unknown provenance, the urge to play the banjo insinuated itself into my awareness. Armed with some books and an awful garage-sale-special banjo, I attempted the self-taught route. This was impossible, and soon dust was accumulating on the case. Then, one morning in 1986, I awoke to the sound of the voices in my head crying "Lessons, lessons!". At my first lesson with local banjo icon Wayne Shrubsall, he ripped the resonator off my banjo and began introducing me to the joy and mystery of the clawhammer style, from which I've never strayed. I worked my way into the friendly local old-time music scene, began playing with the open Albuquerque Megaband, and in 1991 became a founding member of the Virginia Creepers. Along the way, I've graduated to better banjos and also now play with another band, the 5-Dog String Band. If I were forced to espouse a musical philosophy, it would be that the essence of style is in the notes you choose to leave out.

		Scott Mathis, guitarron Scott started playing music in much the same way as most kids…band and orchestra in Junior High and High School (or Military School in his case). Sometime in 1966, he was invited to join a neighborhood rock band called “The Hereafter.” Later, after a road trip to Monterrey Pop, he helped form the infamous “Movin’ Henry Band” an innovative and edgy psychedelic band which lasted thru the 60’s. Settling down to raise a family, he didn’t return to play music until 1978, when a friend lent him a cheap mandolin. Bluegrass first, then Irish and finally Old-Time and Traditional music became his passions. Mandolin and the mandolin family of instruments are his instruments of choice. He has played and recorded with some notable bands: Mr. Spray and the Tune Junkies, Goathaids, Bayou Seco, Virginia Creepers, Lost Woody, Soda Rock Ramblers and the Sandia Hots. His latest interest is playing the Guitarron with as many groups as will have him. Scott’s one word quote is “Buffet,” basically meaning “what a spread!”

		Rick Olcott, guitar Rick Olcott, a founding member of the Creepers, has been playing guitar since the waning days of the Folk Scare of the 60's. His earliest musical memories are of his mother singing "I Ride an Old Paint" and "St. James Infirmary" while she drove him to kindergarten. His mom was a fan of Mahalia Jackson, Billie Holiday and Josh White and these influences perhaps account for Rick's somewhat histrionic approach to the blues. His dad favored the Big Band sound. Gene Krupa's influence can still be heard in Rick's frequent breaking of strings. Both of Rick's parents were fans of the Kingston Trio, the Brothers Four and several other folk groups of the early and mid-60's. As soon as Rick and his brother could strum chords on their guitars, they were encouraged to play and sing loud and strong, even if they didn't know the tune too well. This tradition continues. Rick and his brother Bo (who has played guitar with the Fast Peso Stringband in Santa Fe, NM for the last twenty years) made several futile attempts to start a rock and roll band in their teen years, but they just couldn't get the right sound out of those nylon strings. In 1990, Rick stumbled into an old-time jam sponsored by the New Mexico Folk Music and Dance Society where he met Peter and Steve.

		Laurie Phillips, mandolin Laurence R. ("Laurie") Phillips has been the Creepers' mando player since the turn of the century. He began his musical career at age fourteen strumming the chords from a Beatles songbook on an old archtop with f-holes. In 1973 he acquired his first Skillet Lickers record, setting the stage for his later career in sensitive lyrics and serious delivery. After dabbling in bluegrass and acoustic folk music for many years, he became a true seeker of the subtle joys of Old-time music in the late Eighties. Laurie got into the action in Albuquerque playing guitar in the Megaband, an open-mic band that seats all comers in order to introduce new folks to the local old-time scene. After a suitable interval playing old-time guitar, he graduated to harder stuff: the mandolin. Though hardly more than a toy (according to the banjo player), in Mr. Phillips's hands the mando holds its own in the Creeper musical landscape providing the highly desirable "plinky-plinky" effect. Laurie's musical philosophy can be summed up as follows: "Play every tune one time too many and remember there's a seeker born every minute."

		Bruce Thomson, fiddle Bruce Thomson (the "Dry Thomson" as in no "p") was born to his parents when he was very small. He played trombone in his younger days, which led to his interest in analog instruments. Throughout his musical career, Bruce has explored the atonality that is only possible from such instruments. He was once asked to leave a certain drinking establishment by a woman who was recovering from recent back surgery with the explanation that "those high notes penetrate the spinal fluid and exactly match the resonant frequency of my sacroiliac causing excruciating pain." Bruce also plays fiddle in the Adobe Brothers, performers of international bluegrass music.

		Peter White, fiddle Peter White started listening to Old Time music in the 60s when he bought the "String Band Project" album in a discount store in Olean, N.Y. His father played the fiddle as a Russian immigrant kid and then played bass in nightclubs on Long Island. In graduate school in Pennsylvania Peter studied folklore with Sam Bayard and tried to pick up a few tunes from the Buffalo Chip Kickers. After moving to New Mexico in the 1970s, he began a career in violin making, teaching and folklore studies, and then, ever struggling to scratch out a melody, he studied fiddle with Ken Keppeler (with whom he still makes violins) and Jeanie McLerie of Bayou Seco. Many people over the years have attempted to teach him, including David Margolin and a host of old timers at Port Townsend, WA. Although he has little memory of these events, he is told that he was a founder of the New Mexico Folk Music and Dance Society, played in the short-lived Roadrunner String Band, and started the Virginia Creepers in 1992 with Steve and Rick. He studied violin- making in Poland in 1980 and has made musical instruments for Norman and Nancy Blake, Peter Ostroushko, Ralph White, Ken and Jeanie, Paul Rangell, Jim Mullany, Laurie Phillips, Gordon Bok, Tom and Susan Judge, and Jimmie and Nancy Borsdorf, among others in the nation of old-timey musicians. His musical philosophy is captured in the motto: "Old Time Music: It ain't Pretty; it's Old!"