~1950-  Uncle Jim on baritone uke, Dick on regular uke.

In 1955 I started private school (Taft School) and became musically deprived for 3 years.  (No record player, no radio allowed).  Senior year I heard music that I liked coming from down the hall - it was "The Weavers at Carnegie Hall" album (I still have it).  I adapted the ukulele chords to the guitar (an old Stella) and was in on the folk boom.  I bought an open-backed banjo.  My younger brother Dave took to it (and later the fiddle) like a duck to water.  We would play together whenever I was home from college or on leave from the Army.  In graduate school at Syracuse U I moved in with Gary Sanford and Dave Redall, two friends from my years at Colgate University who played guitar.  Gary had formed a bluegrass band.  I listened to their practices, played a few gigs on bass and soon bought a mandolin and started teaching myself how to play.   As Don Stover would have put it "I had the hillbilly fever".   

In '65 I dropped out of grad school and joined the Army.  Stationed in Baltimore, I started jamming with Bob Dalsemer and other area musicians.  In 1969 to 1975 I played with Del McCoury and the Dixie Pals.  77-78 with Don Stover and 78-80 with Bob Paisley and Southern Grass.  During this time I played as a duo with Bob Dalsemer, had a brief stint with Tracy Schwarz and the Old Home String Band, had my own band, "Yonder City", and did freelance work and a few tours with other bands.  Also during this decade, I recorded 2 1/2 albums with Del McCoury, two with the Paisley's, a 45 LP with the old Home String Band as well as 3 albums of my own.  

The first was on Rounder and featured the wonderful banjo player Tom Neal.  A selection from this album ("John Hardy") is on the Rounder compilation CD "Son of Rounder Banjo" ('92).

The second album "Of Graves and Epitaphs" contains my song "Call Collect on Christmas", since recorded by Del McCoury and the Dixie Pals and by James King.

The third, "Listen to my Song" is almost all original songs.  It is a solo album (with over-dubs) and features several autoharp/mandolin duets.

In 1980, I bought an old grange hall in Col. Cty NY refurbished as the American Opera House.  During the 80's I booked bluegrass and folk music concerts there, also played as a duo with Denise Finley, briefly filled in for Andy Bing with "Burnt Hills Bluegrass" from the Albany area, and toured Europe 5 times (once with my son Polo).

In 1990 I got divorced and moved to Lanesville, NY in the Catskill Mountains.  I was playing with Larry Johnson in '93 when I met Judith at a jam session.  She was a lot cuter than Larry.  One thing led to another and I decided to move to the Adirondack Mountains to be closer to Judith, who lived and worked in Montreal, Canada.  We've been playing together ever since in our own style which combines elements of bluegrass and traditional folk music, notably, the "bluegrass rhythm": the dynamic, propulsive interplay of the guitar lick with the emphasis of the bass notes on the down beat, against the off-beat chop and various shuffles of the mandolin.  

For gigs which call for a three or four piece band we are joined by our good friends Daryl Smith and Steve Feinbloom.  Our repertoire runs the gamut from traditional ballads and dance tunes to many songs I myself have penned in the last few years.  We draw from sources a diverse as Bill Monroe and Tom Waits, always asking, "does the song have meaning for us, and what can we bring to the song?"

Dick Staber Discography

Dick Staber Photo Gallery