Monty Vickers - Songwriter
In 1963 or so, my uncle, Arnold Vickers, was one of the owners of WMON which is a small AM station still located in my hometown of Montgomery, WV. Over time, as a pre-teen and early teen, I had access to thousands of 45 RPM singles which I played on a little record player/ PA that my Dad used to call square dances at the local Presbyterian church. I would sit and mime the guitar parts with my Mom’s old wooden tennis racket. That was the closest thing I could find in the house to a guitar.
Brubaker, Coltrane to Peter, Paul, and Mary to The Beatles to The Byrds to CSNY, I played along (with, eventually, an actual guitar …my Dad taught me three chords and “Little Brown Jug” which means I can now play any rock song, right?) I did the high school band thing…”The Four”. Everyone always asked, “The Four what?” Perhaps they were confused by the fact that we had 6 members. Then, my friends and I would go camp at Ivydale and help out with things at the Morris Brother’s Ol’ Time Music Festival where I often sat at the feet of Aunt Jenny Wilson to listen to her stories and songs. Got into folk music ..was even in a trio called “Monty, Paul, and Mary”. I apologize for that.
So, at age 55, having become educated and a practicing optometrist in St. Albans, West Virginia (you should come see us), having raised my kids (both aspiring dentists and surgeons), I started writing music again for the first time since age 20. Now, here is my first album…55 years in the making. That’s longer than Guns N Roses.
I hope you’ll listen. Please do.