We had the good fortune of connecting with Neil Haverstick and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Neil, how do you think about risk?
Well, it’s simple; just attempting to be a full time professional musician is pretty damn risky. That applies to any art form, actually. It is a very difficult business to be involved in. The main issue is this; there are very few guarantees for any sort of job security. I often thought of a freelance musician as being like a guerrilla fighter, on your own in the jungle. Plenty of musicians I knew worked the dreaded day gig, and did not depend on music for their livelihood. I chose not to do that, although I have taught guitar for many years. I did work at Rockley Music for a year, in 1983-84, but nothing since then. Rick Nielsen, the guitarist for Cheap Trick, once said in an interview that you have about as much chance to be a successful musician as you do to be a professional athlete. I understand that. As a freelance guitarist, I had to be the artist, manager, booking agent, roadie, and everything else, all in one body. Yes, there are booking agents, but at the local level, they are sometimes more trouble than they’re worth. There are many musicians, all wanting to play the same clubs and venues; a great deal of competition. You spend a lot of time trying to put a good band together. You have to have promotional materials. It can be a pain in the rear to do all of that.
Back in the 1980’s and 90’s, when I was doing a lot of that, you needed an actual paper photograph, and a demo of your band, which was often a cassette. Then, you had to be on the phone a lot, talking to the club owners, which can be like a visit to hell, ha. Yeah, there were surely good ones as well. Of course, today there is email, texting, FB, all sorts of social media, so getting your promo to people is much easier. You still have to put the work in. As the old saying goes, out of sight, out of mind. Nowhere more true than in the music biz. Many musicians detest this part of the business, for good reason. The truth is, many artists are not always the best business people. Art and business rarely meet. The $$$ in club work is often not very good, and it is mighty tough to pay the bills when you’re not making a lot. I was in the Denver Musician’s Association for many years, and that helped. I made a lot of important contacts, and got many gigs through being a member. I played with some people I met there for 40 years, some of the best musicians I’ve known. Oh yeah, I also did a lotta recording sessions over the years. My own 11 CD’s; two with the Denver Symphony; studio work with many local Denver artists, appearing on many CD’s. Recording at the DCPA for plays using pre-recorded music; and producing CD’s for other people. I was always fascinated by the studio musicians, like the Wrecking Crew, the Funk Brothers, the Nashville Cats (A Team), the NY cats, Muscle Shoals. Learned a great deal by studying how they did it.
As a freelancer, you are always dealing with other musicians (unless you’re a solo act), which has its own set of problems. Being a good band leader is way different than being just a musician; a whole different ball game. This is where human personalities really come into the picture. Cats like Miles Davis were well known for putting great groups together. It’s very difficult to keep a band together, especially if you’re not working all the time. If the band changes, you then have to redo your promo, as well as spend time rehearsing the new members. There are many unprofessional musicians, who make it very difficult to keep a band running. Alcohol can be a big problem. The occasional jerk appears from time to time. I’ve known a few. What separated me from many other players is that I could play a lot of different styles, so I seemed to always be able to find work with someone, if not with my own bands. Being able to read music really helped, as I could do what we refer to as “legit” gigs, like plays and Symphony Pops concerts. When I got more involved with teaching, that also helped a great deal. I always advise my younger students to consider teaching. It’s very difficult to make a living just from club work.
The riskiest thing of all, though, was trying to play my original music. Unfortunately, club owners often want bands to play the popular hits of the day, and do not want to hear bands doing their own music. I got fired from one club that we had played in for years, for that exact reason. I rarely tried to play my own music in nightclubs. The alternative is to somehow play concerts, but there’s not often a lot of opportunities to do that. I did my share, but it surely wasn’t enough to make a difference financially. Concerts were a good way to get your name before the public, as the venues usually advertised the shows. I tell my students, save all the promo you may get. That’s your resume.
So why continue in this bonkers business? Most of the musicians I have known say it’s simply because we love what we do. And it is. Somehow, I made it ok for almost 50 years. Very difficult indeed, and there were times when you wondered where the rent was coming from. Every now and again, you sell a guitar. Or guitars; or amps. Done that more than once. For me, the reward of this life has been in creating something meaningful. To compose, record, hear what you created, and sometimes get recognized for it, is all I needed. At 72, I can look back on a body of work that I believe stands up very well. It was, and is, worth it. Looking for more to come.
Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’ve been playing guitar for 58 years, wowie. I see myself as a guitarist, composer, instructor and author. As a freelance musician, I’ve played a zillion gigs, including blues/jazz/rock/country/folk/
In the theatre world, I was fortunate to do many shows at the Denver Center For Performing Arts, where I worked with Tony winners Michael Starobin and Jason Robert Brown. The DCPA also won a Tony in 1998 for best regional theatre. I played for “Man Of La Mancha, “Company,” “Quilters,” “Eliot Ness In Cleveland,” “The Last Five Years,” “Always, Patsy Cline,” and many more. I got to perform Brown’s play “Parade,” at the Buell with Brown conducting. That keeps you on your musical toes. I also did a show with Debbie Reynolds at the Arvada Center. She was a hoot, a pretty salty old girl, ha. Speaking of conductors, I also played shows with Marin Alsop and Jeffrey Kahane, besides the many guest conductors who came with the performers. We did a lotta shows with Newton Wayland. He had been an assistant to Arthur Fiedler, at the Boston Pops, then went off on his own. Very nice cat, great pianist and singer too.
In 2000, I did “A Dream Play,” at the Cleveland Playhouse, with noted Czech director Pavel Dobrusky. I played numerous guitars, and my 10 year old daughter had some great parts in the play. With the Symphony, I did shows with Opera Colorado, Bernadette Peters, Bill Conti, Judy Collins, Diahann Carroll, Ferrante and Teicher, Tommy Tune, and James Galway, among others. Conti did the music for “Rocky,” and won an Academy Award for “The Right Stuff.” . He also conducted the Academy Awards for 20 years. No pressure there. My favorite Symph Pops was with, yes, George Gershwin, on a piano roll, in 1987. We played “Rhapsody In Blue,” and also recorded it for CD. Newton Wayland controlled a special player piano with a footswitch. George could really play. One of the favorite shows of my career. I also played at the Jerry Ford Golf Tournament in Vail in 1984/85, with the Dick Hammergren big band. We backed up Bob Hope, Charley Pride, Dinah Shore, Hal Linden, Glen Campbell, and other stars. Ha, Hope was a jerk.
As an author, I’ve written 3 books on music theory, and articles for Guitar Player mag, Downbeat, and Vintage Guitar. Guitar legends Joe Pass, Howard Roberts and Tommy Tedesco endorsed my 1984 book, “Form Of No Forms,” in private correspondence with me. That meant a great deal. As an instructor, I’ve taught many hundreds of people for over 40 years. I love to teach, and still have students. It’s as a composer that I believe I’ve done my best work. I’ve recorded 11 CD’s of my original music, starting in 1994 with “The Gate.” It got a great review in the Village Voice, in NYC. Since 1989, I’ve played what is called microtonal music, and I have guitars in tuning systems of 19, 22, 24, 34, and 36 notes to the octave. The regular Western tuning system uses 12 notes; it is called 12 tone equal temperament, meaning the notes are all the same mathematical distance from each other. When I started playing micro music, I had no idea how vast this field actually is. There are literally thousands of different tuning systems around the world. I also play the Oud, Turkish Saz, and fretless guitars and banjo. It is still a rather underground field, but there are many musicians around the world who are involved with this concept. I believe we are creating something unique. Time will tell if it becomes more widely known.
From 1995 to 2016, I produced a series of microtonal concerts, “Microstock.” We featured microtonal musicians from all over the country, including Grammy winning guitarist John Schneider, Iraqi Oud maestro Rahim AlHaj, the American Festival of Microtonal Music, the Catler Brothers, Mayumi Tsuda, Gamelan Tunas Mekar, and numerous others. I’ve also played Microtonal festivals in L.A., NYC, Seattle, El Paso, The Hague, and Freiburg Germany. In 1992, I won Guitar Player magazine’s Ultimate Guitar Competition (Experimental Category) for my 19 tone piece, “Spider Chimes.” I also won a Composition Fellowship in 1999 from the Colorado Council On The Arts for my microtonal CD “Acoustic Stick,” featuring music in the 19 and 34 tone systems. In 2007, I was featured in Guitar Player’s “101 Forgotten Greats and Unsung Heroes” issue, a great honor. I was also part of their 2007 article on the Fretless Guitar Festival, at the Knitting Factory in NYC. My 2011 CD “Hide And Seek” received a 4 star review in Downbeat, and was chosen as one of their CD’s of the year. It’s as a composer and seeker of new sounds that I hope to be remembered for. At 72, I’m semi retired, but since moving to Socorro in 2022, I’ve had a late life resurgence of sorts, and am playing more than ever. For such a small town, there is a very good music/arts scene here. Some very talented folks. I’m playing in 5 different combos right now, having a hoot. I would simply say that being a full time professional musician is very difficult, and not for everyone. The old saying is; if you want to be a professional musician, don’t; if you HAVE to, go for it. That’s me. I wouldn’t change a thing about my life’s path. Looking back, I feel like I had a great career. Still am.
If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Well, Socorro is a small town, maybe 10,000 people. It is the second oldest European founded city in the country, in 1598, after St. Augustine in Florida. When the Spanish were exploring the continent, a group of them almost died as they were coming up through what is now New Mexico. The local Piro Indians took them in, and helped them to survive. They wound up staying; the Catholic Church they established (and the Indians built), is still here, although largely re-constructed. Socorro is sort of a strange little place. The streets look as if they were laid out by a spider on LSD, ha. No logical reasoning, that I can yet see. There are streets that go for just a few blocks, then vanish. There are dirt alleys, vacant lots, and abandoned casas (and some very nice areas as well). Irrigation canals are all over town. If a friend came here, the first thing we would do is simply take a walkabout around the city. I doubt if most people would believe just how funky it is here; kinda like something out of “The Last Picture Show.” Time feels different here. I can take a walkies, and hardly see anybody. There is no real development, and only one main street (California) that runs straight through town. The Rio Grande is just east of the city; it’s nice to just sit and watch the river go by. There is also no air pollution, the skies are very clear, and you can see many more stars here than in a big city, as well as the dust bands of the Milky Way. I’ve been told you either love it here or hate it; I love it. It helps that my rent is $750, less than half of what it was in Denver.
New Mexico Tech is the centerpiece of the town, a well known technical and research University, founded in 1889. Fifty miles west is the Very Large Array, one of the most important radio observatories in the world. It is part of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). It has 27 radio dishes, and is spread out over many miles. The dishes are on railroad tracks, and can be moved across the plains, essentially forming one giant radio dish. I would certainly take folks to see that, a mind blower. I wanted to see it for 30 years. When I did, it was beyond expectations. An awesome experience. Many pics of stars and galaxies in astronomy books come from the VLA. They are planning to add over 200 more radio dishes over the next few years, a huge project. There is also the Magdalena Ridge Observatory, 25 miles west, but it’s 10,000 feet up, and only an unpaved dirt road to get there; we might skip that, ha. There are also several wildlife reserves in the area, and the Bosque del Apache, south of Socorro near San Antonio, is known all around the country for its annual bird migrations, which attracts thousands of visitors each year. New Mexico is called the Land of Enchantment for good reason. The landscape is awe inspiring, and just getting out to drive, or hike, is always inspiring. I never get tired of just looking at the vast sky and purple hills.
Historically, a lot has happened in NM. The Trinity site, where the first atomic bomb was detonated, is 50 miles east of Socorro. The Owl cafe in San Antonio, known for their green chili cheeseburgers, is a spot Oppenheimer and other Manhattan Project scientists went to eat. And if you wanna take a long drive, there’s always Roswell in the eastern part of the state, where the infamous flying saucer crashed in 1947. Not to mention Carlsbad Caverns. There are a number of really good Mexican restaurants in Socorro, including La Pasadita and Don Juan’s Cochina. There also a number of more commercial places, with standard American food. For coffee we’d go to Fire & Ice on the Tech campus. I’m there almost every day. The Macey Center is a beautiful concert venue on the Tech campus. They book a wide range of artists, from Gypsy jazz to Mexican folk dance. The Capitol Bar is a great club, with a wild west history that goes back over 120 years. A judge used to hold trials there; then the guilty went to a cell in the basement. Good place to hang out and have a sandwich; great ambience, and there’s music every weekend. I’ve played there a lot since coming to Socorro. It’s one of the better clubs I’ve ever played. There’s also the Box Canyon Brewery, with food and a variety of beers. They have music as well. The Baca House Brewery is also starting to have music, so things are opening up a bit. Yeah, maybe a Thai restaurant and some sushi would be nice, but we do ok overall.
The Denver area is mighty big these days; way different from the city I moved to in 1974. Many places I went to over the years are no longer there, but if I was still there and a friend came to visit, I surely have a few favorites. Okie; I always start my day with coffee. My favorite spot is Caribou Coffee. It’s a chain, but the coffee is done just the way I like it, and there is a large selection of different drinks. Low key, it’s an ez place to hang out in, chat, read the paper, and basically do nothing. For food, Denver has many great restaurants, but Biker Jim’s is a go to destination. Jim started out with a cart on the 16th street mall many years back. His big breakthrough came when the late Anthony Bourdain came to Denver, and featured him on his show. Jim’s cart was, btw, the only place Bourdain went while in Denver. After that, Jim was able to open his famous downtown location, and has since branched out all over the place. He has a wide variety of gourmet sausages, from elk to ostrich, killer fries, and great oldies on the sound system. Superb food and ambiance. There are also a lotta great Asian restaurants in town; Chada Thai, at 17th and Race, is my favorite. The owner, from Thailand, takes a lot of care with her menu, and it’s never been less than stellar. A small venue, they are friendly folks, ez to talk to, and you never feel in a hurry. Then, on S. Federal Boulevard, there are many different Asian places to choose from, most high quality.
I would surely take my friend to both Tattered Cover and Twist and Shout. Tattered has achieved somewhat legendary status as one of the great bookstores in the US. The two main locations are downtown and East Colfax, across from E. High School. T&S is right next door. It’s almost impossible to go to Tattered and not leave with a book or two. A very wide selection, and they always have the newest editions of both fiction and non fiction. I can be in there for hours and not even notice the time. They also have a coffeeshop, in case you need another, ha. After Tattered, walk a few feet over to T&S, one of the great CD/record stores in the country. An amazing variety of music, including a large section with LP’s, which are once again very popular. If you want to order an obscure album, they can usually find it. It also has a very laid back atmosphere, and the hours can pass here as well. The staff is knowledgeable and helpful.
If I was going to take someone to hear some music, there are tons of venues. It’s been said that Denver has more live music clubs than even Austin Texas. My favorite for blues is Lincoln’s Roadhouse. The crowds are large, enthusiastic, and always dancing. They feature many of the Denver area blues bands. I played there a lot over the years. If you’re into jazz, Dazzle is rated as one of the top clubs in the country. Denver has always had a lot of excellent jazz musicians, and they are often playing at Dazzle. Back in the old days, the 5 Points area in North Denver was known as the Harlem of the West. Top artists from Duke Ellington to Sonny Stitt to Wes Montgomery played there. Dazzle also brings in many national acts, sometimes backed up by the locals. They have music every night of the week, always high quality. If you go to north Denver, there are a number of clubs in the area, including the Walnut Room, the Marquis, the Globe, and others. A lot of indie rock bands come through there. Several rock venues on S. Broadway as well. If it’s theatre you want, the Denver Center For Performing Arts (DCPA), has numerous theatres, including the Buell, where many major Broadway shows appear. Right next to the DCPA is Boettcher Concert Hall, home of the Colorado Symphony.
If you want to get out of town, you can’t count the number of places you can go. Of course, Colorado is known for the Rocky Mountains, and the incredible scenic beauty to be found all over the state. Rocky Mountain National Park is a major tourist destination, close to Estes Park. If you simply want to hike, get on Highway 285 and head west. No end to the number of trails and camping sites. A little further south is Southpark, home of the infamous TV show. The view as you approach the valley is stunning. To the west on I-70 are the Colorado ski towns, including Breckenridge, Winter Park, Vail, Aspen, and many others. Also beautiful summer locations. I could go on and on. If you want to come visit, we’ll have no problem finding many fascinating things to do. Oh yeah; I almost forgot the Butterfly Pavilion, north of Denver on Highway 36. Yes, home to countless species of butterflies, as well as some weird insects. Every fall, they have a special spider exhibit. You can walk into a large enclosure, and stand under giant orb weaver spiders, right above your head. Not to mention the Indian ornamentals and Goliath Bird Eaters (which are, fortunately, in cages). Quite the trip.
The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Well, I always give Creator thanks for everything first. On the human level, there are a few mentors who were very important. The first was Ed Toler, a legendary guitarist/bassist I knew back in Kansas City, 1970-73. I was in awe of Ed; still am. He opened me up to a lot of music I had not heard before, such as Charles Mingus, Lonnie Mack, Gabor Szabo, Pharoah Sanders, Albert Collins, Rance Allen, and many others. My whole concept of playing blues largely comes from Ed. I have a recording of a gig he did in 1973; his slow blues playing still gives me chills. The best I’ve yet heard. He played bass for Collins when he lived in KC. He never gave me formal lessons. We would simply listen to all sorts of music, often after a joint of Colombian, ha. Then he would give me valuable ideas on how to apply what I had heard. I used to drive him around KC in his Chevy Nova on weekends, which was like being with God. It wasn’t until years later I realized he had been doing drug deals, ha. He never involved me; got clean a few years later. He died in his sleep in 2002. A great genius.
When I moved to Denver a few years later, the brilliant alto sax man George Keith became my teacher/mentor for many years. He got me deeply involved with jazz, and studying music theory as well, with an emphasis on the music of J.S. Bach and Charlie Parker. George helped shape me into a real musician, rather than just another hit licks guitarist. The concepts he taught me enabled me to understand music on a profound level. His main teaching method was to have me analyze any music I came across, to understand how it was constructed. I dug into Bach especially, analyzing his solo violin and cello works, as well as the lute suites. I still do. My ability to play many different styles largely came from his training. He always talked about the “concept” of a style. For instance, what makes jazz different from rock? Classical from Folk? Mozart from Bartok? Can you understand what they are? I began see the differences, as well as similarities, between the many various styles of music, and how to correctly play each one. He also taught me how to transpose keys instantly, a skill which has come in handy zillions of times. I owe him a great deal. He passed on in 2006.
When I got into microtonal music later, there were many people who helped me out, including John Starrett (who built my first 19 tone guitar), Gary Morrison, Jon Catler, John Schneider, Brian McLaren, and others. The biggest mentor of all was the late Ervin Wilson. He was a legendary tuning theorist who influenced many. He was also a botanist, with a farm in Mexico. He sent me a lot of his papers, some of which I included in my book “Harmonics And Spirals.” Many are still beyond my understanding. I would just sit and stare at them, trying to get the deeper meanings. I was indeed able to grasp some of the simpler concepts behind the many different tuning systems. I’m planning on taking those papers along to the next life, ha. That might not even be enough. Erv also passed on a few years ago; never met anyone quite like him. A genius, extraordinarily kind, and down to Earth. There are many others I am in debt to. I try and repay it by passing along the knowledge and wisdom they gave me to others.
Website: www.microstick.net