Bio
Dave Dowling wrote his first song at age 3, in 1950. His mother, Edith Bannister Dowling, took dictation, Dave being illiterate at the time. It was called THE MEATBALL SONG.
The Meatball Song is the funniest song
That ever was sung in the South.
At age 12, he got his first guitar – a Silvertone from Sears – and pretty much gave up his dream of playing for the New York Yankees. That was a good year. Dave played left halfback for the Beaufort Ripples – the Midget League football team that won the SC state championship in 1958 and 1960. 1959 was the only year The Ripples lost a game. (The Beaufort High School Varsity team was The Tidal Wave.)
He found time to learn his chords and his right hand fingers, along with much fishing, sailing, listening to “John R.” (Richbourg) on WLAC out of Nashville, WAPE our of Jacksonville, his short wave radio, and reading Charles Dickens, Jules Verne, John Steinbeck, Thomas Wolfe, etc most of the night.
In 1963 epiphanies came on strong. His High School English teacher – the inspiring Gene Norris - (Pat Conroy’s too) kept him after class and had him listen to Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Woody Guthrie, and others. Then………a friend played him this guy named Bob Dylan! He soon got his hands on the 1964 Newport Blues Festival LP, Koerner, Ray & Glover, A.P. and Maybelle Carter, and others. His first band was “Perry’s Fairies” and they played school concerts wearing overalls.
In 1965 he played his first nightclub in Savannah – so nervous he could play but not sing. The manager yanked him off of the stage, but his girlfriend insisted he had done a great job.
Summer of 1965 (between High School and College) he was a brakeman on the Mt. Washington Cog Railway in N.H. In love with a Philadelphia girl, he was unfocused one day throwing the most complicated railway switch in the world, dropped a hinged 150 lb. rail on his left hand and smashed off the tip of his left middle finger. He was driven at 100 mph to Hanover, NH and The Mary Hitchcock Clinic at Dartmouth. A great doctor transplanted skin from his left wrist to the finger tip, and Dave designed a prosthetic – a thimble wrapped in many layers of adhesive tape – which he still wears to this day. He makes chords in funny ways, but it works. An interesting aside is that he had been turned down by Dartmouth that Spring. He entered The University of the South in Sewanee, TN. He recalls playing “Codeine” in the dorm with Wyatt Prunty, who now runs the Sewanee Writers’ Conference.
Summers of 1966 and 1967, while working as a lifeguard at Hilton Head, he played the clubs after work. Summer of 1968 he set a Fuller Brush sales record in Boulder while taking classes with his college pal Lawrence Dimmitt of Clearwater. Summer of 1969, after graduating with an English degree, he was one of the first people thrown in jail on Nantucket for violating the new “anti-sleeping in vehicle” law. His green VW minibus had a nice bed built in but the cops weren’t impressed. He was written up in the morning paper and was a hero for a day. Everybody in “The Bo’sun’s Locker” bought him a drink. He moved up from busboy to house painter and saved enough money to drive up to the Gaspee Peninsula after Labor Day. It got cold, so he drove to Miami and hopped on a plane to Puerto Rica until his money ran out. Always picking, always picking.
He was soon busking in the streets of London, Hambourg, and Paris – and playing in “wine bars” in London. That summer he placed 2nd in a songwriting “contest” in Slough, west of London and was written up in The Melody Maker. The 70s were amazing. After studying Criminology at UC, Berkeley and dropping out of the University of SC Law School, he was back in California pouring cement on the North Shore of Lake Takoe and writing songs like a lunatic. In 1972 he wound up registering just-enfranchised 18 year old voters in New England for The Student Vote with his childhood pal Billy Keyserling, then returned to England, picking up a small inheritance from his Lancashire grandfather Fred Bannister. Grandpa was a fiddler, headmaster, wine-maker, folklorist, and gardener – and uncle to Roger Bannister, the first man to crack the 4 minute mile barrier. Dave busked his way to Spain, hopped ships to The Canary Islands and Senegal, then made a slow loop through West Africa with a British Army backpack – eventually crossing the Sahara and returning to Europe and back to Beaufort. On his return, testicular cancer was diagnosed and……….. he lost one. After the radiation treatments he was down to 120 lbs but decided to defy doctor’s orders – buying an 18 foot work boat with a 50 horse Evinrude, building 150 crab pots, and getting his strength back as a Port Royal Sound crabber. This was the year he reunited with his childhood friend and picker Beek Webb! Beek is now one of the finest fiddlers around and worked on Dave’s first 2 CDs, playing mandolin. In 1973 they teamed up with expert shrimper Benny Vaigneur (harmonica) and played The Lowcountry as “The Port Royal Sound.” What fun! Eb Emerson Murphy was often on stage – a fine songwriter to this day. The Beaufort Boys had fun sailing around on the Saint Joseph, their 50 foot trimaran. They would haul equipment ashore in the dinghy on the back side of Hilton Head and play all weekend at The Hurley House, The Marsh Tacky, and other clubs. At the Marsh Tacky they first heard Jack Williams, which was a necessary humbling – but the picking never stopped.
Beek moved to Minnesota, joining another Beaufort Boy – Roger Pinckney 11th – a truly fine and prolific writer. Dave moved up to the DC area and played clubs and nursing homes from 1974-1977. The longest and most cherished gig was at The Warehouse, on King Street, Alexandria. Too many great musicians to mention, but getting to know and open for Norman and Nancy Blake and Chris Smither at The Childe Harolde were certainly highlights. Local musicians who particularly him were Bob Williams & The Grass Menagerie, The Seldom Scene, Catfish Hodge, Handy Andy, Peter Exton, Matthew Wolff, and endless others. Dave is grateful.
He cancelled gigs for a few months to be musical director, writer, composer of a multi-media presentation of Jean Paul Sartre’ La Nausee in Georgetown. It was well-reviewed. Dave worked days as a busboy at The Old Ebbitt Grill on F Street to make ends meet.
In 1977 Beek stopped by DC and they caught the first version of The New Grass Revival. That sort of changed everything. Dave had been playing with his great pal Tommy Mechling, but left the crazy and dangerous night life of the city, moving down to The Outer Banks to join Beek and become a shrimper, oyster dealer, fish house worker, and carpenter’s helper – always picking like crazy. Pivotal musicians were Harry Niser and William Thorp. Their bands had names like The Moon Pie String Band and Fresh Fish. They listened to Clarence White and David Grisman – humbling time again. They played great rooms at Sam & Omie’s and The Soundside. Beek moved back to Beaufort County and Dave wound up briefly in Brooklyn helping their Virginal pal Matthew Wolff restore Mission Furniture in an old bank in Williamsburg, then dropped down to the Naples/Goodland part of Florida. Mr. Mechling came on down and they resumed their duo, The Bunkhouse Boys. Tommy was Sailor Bennet and Dave was Trapper Stetson. They wore polyester sport coats of green and pink, swapping every night. Too many stories………
Dave decided to find the perfect town in Florida. He met up in the Spring of 1980 with Beek, who was hanging out at a marina in Flagler Beach on his fishing boat. They crossed the Bridge of Lions one morning and beheld the magical Spanish town of St. Augustine. They were immediately busking away in the Plaza, then St. George Street, then The Milltop Tavern. The great songwriter Don Oja Dunaway, seeing their mandolin and guitar cases, offered the stage and an hour later they had plenty of free beer, sandwiches, a bucket of money, lots of new friends and a gig for the next week. Dave knew he had found his town. He continues to play the Milltop – his favorite room in the world.
The next year his girlfriend Pam Linder moved down from NC. They were married on Vilano Beach and in the first half of the 1980s had two outstanding daughters – Bonnie and Susannah. The young women are now graduates of Colby College and Sewanee (Bonnie is currently getting an advanced nursing degree from Johns Hopkins and Susannah is “Arts & Entertainment” Editor of Old City Scene magazine. They have many visa stamps in their passports (Bonnie especially) and are making their parents and their inspirational grandparents very, very proud.
St. Augustine! How can I ever end this bio if I start trying to say it all? The most important highlight, of course, was becoming friends with – and picking with – the Great Late Gamble Rogers! What a marvelous human being he was. He and my departed Stepfather G.G. Dowling were easily the two most important mentors in my life. I don’t think I’ll ever stop writing about them – and my loving, talented, departed Mother Edith. I am one lucky man.
Yes, I realized I have switched to the “first person.” My first job here was dorm parent for “multi-handicapped deaf” at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind. I soon put together “Old Favorites Record Shop” – which became also “Old Favorites Video Services” in the back room. We put on concerts in the shop. I’ll mention just one – Gamble and the late, great Jim Ballew in his last year or so of life. I videotaped thousands of events and transferred 8 mm and 16 mm film to VHS for 2 or 3 thousand families. Our dear friends, songbirds and writers Lis and Lon Williamson opened The Zanzibar Café on the corner of the block and Luthier par excellance Paul Berger (formerly of Nazareth PA) set up shop next door. Would somebody please make me stop all this writing!
Another highlight was working in the early 90s with my older stepbrother Terry Sanders and his wife Frieda Lee Mock on the Oscar-winning documentary Maya Lin, A Strong, Clear Vision. Terry had already won an Oscar with our deceased brother Denis Sanders when they were college guys at UCLA!
The brother and sister I “spent the growing years with” are likewise high-achieving and loving people. Sister Liz Dowling-Sendor is an Episcopal priest in Chapel Hill, and Brother Geddes has spent many years as a great architect in Atlanta. He is currently restoring our parents’ old house in Beaufort.
Well, I must mention our 10 year bluegrass band Salt Run. Over the years, members were the great California songwriter Chris Stuart, the great pickers and friends Jim Quine, Eric Searcy, the “redoubtable” Eddie Wolford, and Lis. What a time we had in those years from 1985 to 1995. We often backed up fiddler Chubby Wise and did our last gig in Beaufort with John Hartford. Both sadly now deceased and missed.
I miss my job as a deejay at Flagler College Radio, WFCF the first year the station was up. My show was “None of the Above” and I did it for one year. Perhaps I will again. We’ll see.
No time to mention all of the wonderful friends and clubs, but this town is like no other, as most people know.
And I must mention the wonderful musical community of the whole State of Florida and the many years of festivals, the Florida Folk Festival and The Gamble Rogers Memorial Festival in particular.
The years 1999 – 2005 I spent much of my time in Beaufort taking care of my inspiring parents, G and E, and playing the clubs – often with Beek.
Now I’m back for good, but able to travel the country playing my songs when I want. Either solo or with my new band “The St. Augustine Ramblers.” Band members are the amazing Jim Brady (recently of Nashville) on guitar, dobro, and vocals - and Shari Sax on saxophone, flute, and vocals. Oh boy, is this a great “job”!
The first two CDs I made were in the 1990s:
Tail Feathers Up
Two Town Man
It is now mid- June of 2007 and we have made 3 more since April.
Ripe Fruits
Always Gonna Stay in Touch
Cover Songs by Dead People You May NeverHave Heard Of, Volume 1.
Stay tuned for the next ones. Jim Stafford of Eclipse Studio is “da guy.” Trust me.
Thanks for reading, if you have hung in there to this point, and please try to catch us playing somewhere – or fishing somewhere.
Oh……..one more thing: I was actually born in NYC……..but shhhh…..don’t tell anyone. My first father was the renowned architect and designer Morris Bernard Sanders. He died too early and I have no memory of him, but Terry does and Denis did. We have his stuff! But…….don’t tell anyone.
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah!