Jan. 16, 1971: Clyde Bonnas and His String Men

 

What became of this band, the String Men? Bandleader Clyde Bonnas moved to another garden spot, Eden, and died in 2007. Vibes player Al LaMarti lived to the ripe old age of 92 and just passed away in November in Florida.

Guitarist Al Parker, meanwhile, may have become the most famous, but not for music. I’ve pretty sure he’s the guy featured in a New York Times article in 2010 and many other places in recent years. Right age, right occupation, right number of children. 

So if that’s really the right Al Parker, he’s a full-blooded member of the Tonawanda Band of Seneca Indians and goes around portraying his great-great uncle, Ely Parker, military secretary to Gen. Ulysses Grant in the Civil War. Ely Parker transcribed the articles of surrender that Robert E. Lee signed at Appomattox and is buried in Forest Lawn cemetery. 

Jan. 16, 1971

Country Rock with Vibes 

Memory may be deceiving, but these Saturday afternoon color TV wrestlers look more grotesque than the black-and-white TV wrestlers of the’50s.

Their soundless grapplings flicker at one end of Clyde Bonnas’ L-shaped living room three blocks from the center of Gardenville, catching the occasion attention of Clyde’s String Men while they stand around trading jokes, waiting for things to begin.

Clyde, who earlier offered to give away one of the barking dogs in the back yard, proposes refreshments. Vibes player Al LaMarti looks refreshed.

* * *

AL IS LIKE an Italian uncle in the middle of this country band. While his vibes and occasionally his accordion fill up and soften the sound, Al is busy talking, laughing and mugging. The photographer wonders later if he’s the group’s comedian.

Friday night at the Safari Inn on Campbell Boulevard north of Getzville, Al caught bass player Dave Factor in the middle of a song and Dave wound up nearly helpless with laughter.

“In that harmony part he was singing: ‘Put your head on my window,’” Dave testifies, “and that made me start singing it, too.”

“I forgot the words,” Al confesses, making a face.

“So that’s what happened,” Clyde laughs. “I was lookin’ around wondering what happened to the bass.”

The Safari is larger and fancier than you’d expect (maybe it’s the carpets on the walls) and the band plays Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays to a crowd they’ve built up there since July. This particular Friday there’s a rollicking table of snowmobilers.

The String Men do jumpy numbers like “Multiplication” and “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” with the chunka-chunka rockabilly rhythm. Clyde and lead guitarist Al Parker share the guitar solos, with Clyde kicking in his reverb and wah-wah for extra effects.

In the slow numbers, which alternate with the fast ones, Clyde gets as mellow as whipped cream on a misty morning.

“He just cocks his knee like this,” Al LaMarti explains, “the lights hit his yellow hair, he opens up his mouth and they all dig him.”

* * *

IN BETWEEN, there are a few country numbers, commercial things like “Knock Three Times” and a verse or two of “Bringing in the Sheaves” for the snowmobilers. Clyde even steps down and dances with his wife while singing a ballad version of “Games People Play.”

“What we’re doing is trying to show we’re having a good time and hoping it’ll rub off,” Al Parker says.

* * *

COUNTRY ROCK is what the group calls its music. Clyde’s been playing this style for three years and he may have the only country band hereabouts with a vibes player.

“These new country songs,” Clyde says, “you listen to most of the records and you’ll hear vibraharps in them. They’ve got a good sound. Nice and smooth.”

“We’ve been using a lot of vibes on the western tunes,” Al LaMarti says.

“There was no adjustment, really,” Al Parker puts in. “The vibes fit right in with everything. And, you know, Al can play Jew’s harp, accordion and melodica, too.”

“You ever see a melodica?” Clyde asks. “It’s got a keyboard and you blow into it. Al will take a fast puff off a cigarette and then blow and the smoke comes out through the keys.”

* * *

BECAUSE OF Clyde’s railroad job, the band gets to practice one night a week. His wife Carol copies words to songs and one of his sons helps out on drums when he works out new numbers.

“I won’t copy a record, period,” Clyde points out. “A lot of guys will come up and say hey, the record goes like this. I say OK, but how is one guy supposed to sound like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ray Price and Glen Campbell? It can’t be done.

“I had a lot of controversy with people in my other groups about playing with the records. I get as close as I can, then do it my way.”

* * *

“I’LL HAVE to say – this group we got here is one of the tightest groups I’ve worked with,” he adds.

“A good family, heartwarming kind of group,” drummer Tom Roberts puts in.

“We have our disputes,” Al Parker says, “but we don’t have any prejudices against each other at all.” The rest agree.

* * *

“HOW’D I get into music?” Clyde exclaims. “I broke my leg. Really.

“I was at a railroad outing and we were playing catch and I slid while I was catching the ball and broke my leg. While I had the cast on, I started playing guitar. After that, I started getting a group together. I’ve had a group about five, six years.

“Why do we call it country rock? Because rock originated with country folk music. I play it because I like the sound. We’ve got a lot of old rock songs we do. But we can’t do all rock, just like we can’t do all country. You have to mix them up for the audience.”

* * *

“THE REASON we aren’t full-time is because of the money,” Clyde adds. “We’ve all got families to support and there’s just not that kind of work around here.

“On the railroad, I get down to Jersey City and Hackensack and you hit the strip there and every joint goes four, five nights a week. How many country places do you know around here that got music four, five nights a week?” 

The box/sidebar: 

No Hard Feelings Among These Musicians 

Pertinent and impertinent information about Clyde Bonnas and His String Men:

Clyde Bonnas, 34 (“Everybody thinks I’m 30”), vocals and guitar, attended Burgard Vocational High School, Erie-Lackawanna Railroad conductor, married, four children.

Al Parker, 29, guitar, Burgard Vocational, four years in the Marines, auto mechanic, married, four children.

Dave Factor, 31, bass guitar, Burgard Vocational, repairman at Delavan Avenue Chevrolet plant, married, four children.

Tom Roberts, 23, drums, Bishop Turner High School, attended Canisius College, National Guard, discount store department manager, married, one child.

Al LaMarti, 42, vibes and accordion, Lackawanna High, two years in the Navy, works for South Buffalo Railway, married, three children.

* * *

DAVE HAS been with Clyde the longest. A friend called him after Clyde’s former bass player quit at 9 one Friday night 2½ years ago.

Next to come was Al Parker, who has played guitar 16 years and, because of a transfer, just missed getting on the Ed Sullivan Show while stationed in Japan. His brother works with Clyde.

Tom played with commercial groups and polka bands previously and Al LaMarti, a 20-year veteran of local commercial music clubs, met Clyde in the South Buffalo Railway yards last summer. “He heard that I had a band and I heard that he was a vibes player,” Clyde says.

* * *

“I’LL TELL you one thing,” Clyde adds, “this is the first group I’ve ever worked with that you can project an idea and if it doesn’t work, there’s no hard feelings.”

“We’re just real people,” Al Parker comments. “We’ve had some real arguments, but you just gotta say what you think and then it’s all right.”