My Musical Journey
A lifetime of songs, bands, faith, friendship, and the music that never stopped.
Music has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. I grew up in a home where live music was normal. Long before I understood where any of it would lead, music was already there.
It Started at Home
My dad played in a band in the mid-1950s, and live music was simply part of our home. This is Dad with his 1955 Martin D-28, holding me before I was old enough to know what a guitar was.
I grew up hearing people play and sing. Music wasn’t something I discovered later. It was already in the room.
When I was twelve, Dad took me to guitar lessons. His 1955 Martin D-28 is sitting in front of me in this photo, and the teacher went crazy over it.
I didn’t stick with the lessons for long. I was learning “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” and I wanted to play songs. So Dad taught me chords.
Later, a man at a local music store wrote down the chords to “House of the Rising Sun.” It became the first song I learned that used more than two chords.
Learning To Play
Guitar Lessons — 1966
I’m at the far right. Don Sullivan, who later became one of the lead guitarists in The Sons of Libra, is sitting beside me.
The First Bands — The Sons of Libra
The Sons of Libra was one of my first real bands. We practiced in basements, played school events, family gatherings, talent shows, and anywhere we could find a place to make music.
We were young and learning as we went, but something important was happening. I was beginning to understand what it meant to play with other people—to listen, adjust, leave space, and become part of a sound bigger than any one person.
My Silvertone Shark Fin was already part of the story. I was playing that guitar in those early years—and somehow, decades later, it’s still part of the story.
The Sons of Libra — Talent Show
One of my earliest bands, performing at a school talent show.
Shattered Black
By high school, the music had become more serious.
Shattered Black grew out of the popular music class at Hazel Park High School and became an important part of those years. The lineup changed over time, but the band continued beyond the earliest school performances.
We played, rehearsed, changed members, and kept learning what a band could become.
Decades later, Shattered Black became the title of my first album. That name never really left.
Shattered Black — High School Years
The Hazel Parker — January 1971
An early article announcing one of the band’s performances.
Voice, Harmony, and the Stage
Bands were only part of the story.
I also sang in school choirs, barbershop groups, musical theater, and later with the Singing Statesmen at Michigan State University.
I appeared in productions of South Pacific, Little Mary Sunshine, and in 1973, played Horace Vandergelder, the male lead in Hello, Dolly!
Those experiences taught me a different kind of musicianship—harmony, blend, phrasing, stage presence, and how voices can work together to carry a song.
High School Barbershop Quartet
Michigan State University
Singing Statesmen, 1978
Playing Through the Years
After Shattered Black faded out, the music kept going.
I started a duet with LeRoy Powers, who had been one of the guitarists in Shattered Black. From there, the years filled up with more groups, more gigs, and more recordings.
From there came years of bands, gigs, recordings, and changing lineups.
Leftwich, Holmes & Steele • Live Wire • Serious Business
Different groups, different seasons, but the music kept going.
Gary & LeRoy — 1975
After Shattered Black, I started a duet with LeRoy Powers.