Rhythm, Melody and Harmony: Gary Seber Pulls the Strings
by Howie Doyle
When many people think of performing musicians - especially those with a desire to appear in front of crowds - they think, "Star" with a capital S. Everyone knows someone with a handful of talent and a bushel full of dreams. The applause, the adulation, the fame... those are all part of the musical everyman's (and woman's) secret fantasy to be discovered.
And then there are the Gary Sebers of the world... and the woods, the streets, and the suburbs are full of them. He's a regular guy with a solid family, a middle-class job, and a normal day-to-day existence. He could be your next door neighbor, or the guy you met at the kids' soccer practice last week.
But Gary has a gift, discovered late in life... one that could change things forever, if he lets it. Gary Seber has "Talent" with a capital T.
Now 48 years of age, Gary has played an instrument that many play, but few master, since he was in the fifth grade. While the hippies were grooving on Haight-Ashbury and Willie Nelson was scraping by as a starving songwriter in Nashville, Gary was sitting on his bed plucking away at a four-string ukelele, trying to form chords and melodies that sounded remotely like his favorite band, the Beatles. He pictured himself as Paul McCartney (only right-handed and playing a guitar instead of bass).
He lived in London at this time, the son of an oil-company man who traveled where the industry took him. His mother, a music teacher, gave him tips that hastened his progress, and at the outset it looked as if Seber would benefit from beginner's luck.
Gary quickly graduated to a real electric guitar, and by the time he was in the seventh grade, had assembled a performing band from the ranks of his classmates. The group, Spec O'Dust, organized school dances just so they would have a crowd to play to. "We only knew two songs, but we would play them over and over again."
One day when they were playing a gig at a Wimpy's Hamburgers location in London they were discovered by a real A&R rep from Polydor Records. Even though their drummer was not present (due to space limitations) and they had two guitars plugged into one tiny amplifier, the scout must have heard something that he liked. "I think we must've looked the part," Gary commented. "We used to shop on Carnaby Street, so we were wearing hip clothes, bright colors."
The next thing he knew, he had just finished a marathon 16-hour studio session, and two songs later Spec O'Dust had their very first 45 RPM single. "Ultimately the record never went anywhere," Gary said. "I wish I had a copy of that 45 today."
Gary, then 13, co-wrote one of the songs on the single, and even though the guitar has been a constant in his life, that would be the last song he wrote for over 30 years.
In the years that followed, Gary would attend high school in Singapore, where he again had a band that played at dances and parties. His parents supported his musical streak, accommodating his transportation needs and occasionally helping him buy equipment. This was the early 1970's. During this era, artists like Neil Young, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and the Allman Brothers added their influence to his musical universe. A few years later, during his college years in Huntsville, Texas, Gary befriended a guitarist who turned him on to Leo Kottke, Cat Stevens, Joni Mitchell and James Taylor. Together they played a regular gig at a local Italian restaurant, taking turns on vocals. Gary's electric guitar was never forsaken, but in this experience he developed an appreciation for the organic sound of the acoustic guitar.
"I continued to listen to James Taylor songs in the years that followed," Gary explained. He developed an ear for analyzing the sounds of the guitar, which allowed him to learn Taylor's finger-picking style and different ways of forming chords. "By making the chords vary you can get different ambiences and sounds which you are not conscious of unless you are really listening closely."
It was not until his 40th year that Gary first heard the style of guitar which would become his musical signature. By this time Gary had married his wife Patricia, and had two children. "I was at the home of my friend, Lynn Laha, and we were watching a video of this amazing guitarist, Preston Reed, in concert. I was immediately mesmerized... I had never seen anything like it."
"It" was percussive guitar, a different approach to making guitar music that began to emerge in the 1980's with Reed and Stanley Jordan, another gifted musician who used to make occasional appearances on the Tonight Show.
The term "percussive guitar" refers to the fact that the strings are made to vibrate by tapping them with the fingers, pressing the strings firmly into the fretboard so that they sustain the note. The process can be compared to playing the piano, except that the skill level required simply to get a clear, audible chord is a level of magnitude more difficult.
"I fantasized myself being able to do that, and almost immediately dismissed the thought as impossible... but it must have stuck in the back of my mind." It was over a year later that Gary decided to sit down and give percussive guitar a try. He obtained an instructional video featuring Preston Reed, and bought the concert video and Reed's CDs. His familiarity with the artist's style and tunings allowed him to decipher the songs by ear.
Despite the difficulty level of percussive guitar, Gary downplays his skill level. "The coordination is not easy, and I don't have any special gift." He adds, "In fact, I'd say I lean toward the opposite. I make as many mistakes in a simple song as I do playing a complicated one."
"About four years ago I started thinking about playing in front of people again," he commented, adding that he became a regular performer at Jacquisine's Restaurant on FM 1960. During this time he wrote his first percussive guitar piece, "Tomcat." Encouraged by the positive response to this song, he wrote a second, "Panic Button," and it occurred to him that he could probably write enough material to produce his own CD.
Most big-name artists will write or rehearse hundreds, and record dozens, of songs before whittling the selection down to the few that appear on the CD. Gary wrote precisely eight songs, all instrumentals (having no lyrics or vocals). These he recorded at night and on weekends on a newly-acquired Boss 8-track digital CD recorder... but only after he overcame the challenges of learning how to use this newfangled piece of electronic gear. "It's not easy to get the right sound. Learning how to work the thing was a real chore." All appear on his self-released CD, Candle Power, in 2004.
These factors, and the fact that there are no overdubs or studio wizardry (Gary only used two of the eight available tracks), make it all the more remarkable that from the first note to the last, Candle Power is an unexpected pleasure to the ear. Seber's unique style of playing allows him to produce various rhythmic percussion sounds on the guitar. His mastery of the whole of the fretboard enables melodies and harmonic effects that can only be described as "orchestral."
Most listeners are inclined to slip such analysis, opting for an aural journey that piques the senses. Each a unique musical essay, the eight tracks exhibit influences from the 1960's through the present as interpreted by Seber's eclectic muse.
"Writing songs is an agonizing, teeth-pulling process," Seber allows. "I have a hard time staying focused. I might spend a couple of minutes working on a song, then temporarily lose interest in the process." Since composing the eight that appear on Candle Power, Seber has written one instrumental (a Kottke-inspired piece in the standard picked-style of guitar) and is working on another percussive guitar instrumental. "The first instrumental piece was written quickly - it all came out in a rush. The other one - I've been working three months trying to wrap it up. Sometimes I have to let it sit, then come back to it fresh."
At this point Gary is "flirting" with the idea of a second set of songs and another CD. "Don't anybody hold their breath," he said, but just as quickly added that he is tossing around other ideas for songs. He would want his second CD to reflect musical growth and artistic change.
In a forest full of musicians of medium talent and motivated self-promotion, Seber has yet to gain the attention of a major talent scout. He is open to such possibilities, but as he nears his 49th birthday, he is not getting his hopes up for a career in the record industry. "I'm not a hundred percent sure that I could live the life of a professional musician. There is a lot of travel, and probably not a lot of money." After a thoughtful pause, he adds, "I don't really know what I'm doing with this. I just know that I like to do it, and we'll see where it goes."
Gary's children, Graham (15) and Paige (12) are excited about their dad's success. "They are very proud of me. They think it's cool that I am often received well," Seber commented, adding a more heartfelt sentiment, "They brag about me."
Gary Seber was featured on Fox 26's "Fox Rocks" show, which showcases local talent. He performed on the station's helipad, sharing his memorable moment with the Houston Rockets Power Dancers.
Beyond that, Gary performs gigs at small local venues. Although he doesn't push CD sales, he has sold hundreds of copies of Candle Power to local residents, and has, just recently, established a page on the Internet eCommerce site cdbaby.com to reach a wider audience.
It won't hurt that he was recently selected from over 700 entries as one of 32 finalists in the vaunted Kerrville Folk Festival's New Folk Competition. He competed over Memorial Day weekend, and although he didn't win, he felt the trip was worthwhile. "I had a blast! The audience was great - about 200 or so - and I sold out my CD... 58 copies to be exact. So the trip was profitable too!"
If you see Gary at one of these local events, you likely won't take much notice of him, even after he takes the stage. His austere wardrobe is a far cry from the psychedelic raiments of his Carnaby Street days, but you will notice him when he plays. As soon as the wire hits the wood, the guitar in his hands becomes a multi-voiced instrument, producing a flow of impossibly full music not commonly associated with a simple dreadnought guitar. Then - and only then - does it make sense that a Polydor A&R rep signed his band 35 years ago. And only then will the listener's appreciation for the voice of the guitar be forever expanded.
Howie Doyle - Country Style Texas Magazine (Jun 1, 2005)