This new permutation started to play a bit in SLO, primarily at the acoustic club, The Darkroom. But, Steve, always had a wandering eye, and since he was a Nor Cal transplant, he wanted to go to South Lake Tahoe for fame and fortune round 2. SO, there we found ourselves again in a less than desirable setting, although beautiful, honing our craft and trying to survive musically at a Mexican Restaurant next to the bus station at Stateline. This was really a challenge and I felt a lot of pressure stirring within. Events of my childhood were starting to stir and I slipped into a significant anxiety episode. I took my girlfriend, Mary, one good thing from the Boulder trip before, and we went home to my mom's in Paso. I started back in school and left the music scene.
I found my footing in a short time (though this would open the door to a major part of my life's work personally, as a teacher, as a musician, as a songwriter, as a writer, and as a sound healer) and simply devoted myself to school at Cal Poly in SLO. That is until the boys came back from Tahoe. Gary Roda had had enough of the glamour and left the band for something to team up with a group in Santa Cruz, Fly By Night. That left Steve and Mark. So, once you get a taste of something that you were destined for, it is fruitless to say no...I joined up with Steve and Mark and we added another high school classmate, a gifted musically but moody and troubled singer songwriter who did a great Dylan interpretation, Bo Dugger. And just to jettison the past, we left Flapjaw by the side of the road and came up with an equally hard to explain name, The Whale's Knees. The journey had begun.
The Whales Knees hit the acoustic scene and things just took off with lots of gigs at The Spindle, Cigar Factory, and Wine Street Inn. Somehow we added an acquaintance of Steve's named, Richard Reiser, an eccentric songwriter who played guitar and mandolin. Interestingly, that 000-18 Martin Acoustic that I had picked up was one of the three in the band as Steve, and now, Richard, also had one. Get the capos cause we are going to create our signature sound. So, for the time being, there you had it...The Whale's Knees: Stephen Peters (main songwriter and beer and cannabis aficionado), Mark Stoltenberg (bass guitar and vocals), Richard Reiser (guitar, mandolin, vocals and a few songs), Bo Dugger (lead guitar, vocals, and a yearning for Janna), and me (vocal and guitar). We all moved in to the white house, a place that Bo's half brother, Scott Jeffries, had in San Luis Obispo near the corner of Foothill and Santa Rosa under the full grown weeping willow tree. Home at last, a place to hone the craft and take over the town musically.
There was a mid year trade of bass players with a bluegrass band from Santa Barbara the following year. Wally Barnick, who we already knew from the SLO music scene was traded with Mark, an addition that would afford me a lifelong friend and musical companion in Wally.
This permutation lasted for a couple of years. It aligned with the beautiful blossoming SLO acoustic music scene. All seemed well...but Steve was a wanderer...and for some reason he needed to go to Florida. One fine morning we all stood at the white house and waved goodbye to Steve and Richard as they headed east in Richard's maroon Ford Galaxie. That was basically the end of an era as we would not play with Steve much again after that. We did keep the tunes and started to relearn them with new personnel. Bo's brother, Scott, became the new Whale's Knee. There was launched the foursome that would command the local scene for half a decade. We still retained the acoustic glory of the past Peter's songs, but we also added electric guitars and beefed up the sound.
The next change came when Scott left, soon followed by Bo. That left me and Wally. We got another player, current housemate, Jack Marshall, another high school classmate, and played primarily acoustic music again at the Spindle. The 80's came and a whole new permutation was on the horizon.
A gifted guitar player, Berkley School of Music grad, Glen Rathbone, was a local music scene fixture and also worked at the main music store, Premier Music. We would see him often. Wally and I started getting visions of another electric band that would do covers, for the scene was changing in SLO and casuals were becoming the big thing...and that meant dance music. Glenn joined and as a trio, we would hire in a drummer and start to create our sound and our songlist. We settled eventually on drummer, Steve Boydston, a Cal Poly boy who used to come and listen to us play. He played well, had his own kit, kept time, and was really cute...he added a nice touch to the new version of Whale's Knees.
Again, we had our pulse on the SLO music scene and became very successful in clubs and with higher paying casuals. Just as the train was a-rollin' we were dealt a blow when Wally decided to go back to play with the Cache Valley Drifters. Damn! We brought in a really good contemporary bassist, Jim Sylvester, and the new more peppy, incarnation began. Steve moved on back to the Bay Area and we hired in young and talented drummer, Darrell Voss. This band began to augment the old 50's and 60's and 70's standards with new 80's music and we rolled on. This was really fun in a new way as it challenged me as a player. I started integrating keyboards as well. And, since I was a man with a real paying job by this time, 4th grade teacher in Paso Robles, I was buying the latest keyboard every 6 months. Soon I had to arrive a half hour early to set up the rack of keyboards...they looked great but I wasn't really good at them yet...so, just a phase.
This phase led us into the 90's when Jim left the band and moved to Oregon to become a school teacher and Darrell followed his Jazz music love and became a local fixture and first call drummer for that kind of music.There was Glen and I wondering what to do...I got it! Call Wally! Things had dulled with the Drifters and Wally was actually ready for a change. There we were again, the holy trio. We did the old acoustic stuff and added the medleys and kept going through the end of the century. It started to fade as personal interests and lives changed. It came down to just Wally and me doing a casual duet off and on for a long time. And then I started taking my own music out and traveling myself...
The history of the Whale's Knees is rich, with so many wonderful musical and personal experiences. I hold it all in my heart and reflect on it whenever I play...the old songs, the harmonies, the fullness of the music. Thanks be to every one of the boys in the band. I love you all still...
Likely, if you lived in SLO or the county you experienced the band at some point. perhaps you have memories or photos or even recordings. Please contact me below and let me know. I want to assemble a blog and probably a FaceBook group that chronicles those times and this band of brothers. I look forward to hearing from you...tell it like it was, like you remember it, or make it up. It is all in the spirit of a golden age of music in beautiful San Luis Obispo, California. Comments, stories, photos, recordings? Email me at markoffice@markstantonwelch.net Click outside of this box to return to main page
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