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Moving clockwise, starting above left,
emcee Paul Moss fills in between acts.
Above right, folk, blues players Bruce
Nelson and Bill Sundeen (far right)
harmonize on electric and acoustic
guitars. Right, Morning Glory group
members (left to right) Mary McPherson,
Betsy Bremser, and Miller McPherson are
regulars at Earl's. Below, Elston Murphy
adds a different note with his harmonica.
EHRL'S raVEKM TALEMT
They call themselves The Unvarnished Music
Company as they take the stage Monday nights
at Earl's Tavern, 56th and Havelock Ave.
Dock workers, Goodyear employes, railroad
switchmen. University of Nebraska at Lincoln
instructors, they become, tor one night,
musicians performing for free for practice.
Both amateurs and professionals sit in the
audience, listening to each other, waiting their
turns. Up front, they pick, strum and jam
through an evening of songs that range from
Utah Phillips' folk music to James Taylor's
"Sweet Baby Jarrws" to the classical guitar
compositions of Villa Lopos.
Actually, "it's not a company, it isn't
varnished and I don't know how much music
they (members) turnout," said Paul Moss, the
show's mustachioed emcee.
They're local musicians, working on
performance skills, !te said, and "you can't do
that any other way" but play to the audiences cf
30-50 poo pie that gather Monday night at Earl's.
The Seek of a place for local musicians to
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musician, Dale Jeffries, to buy a sound system,
which he convinced Earl All on to put in his bar
and host the free performances.
The first performance had ten musicians, and
five more came in that night, according to Moss.
"Then people just started walking in."
"We've got a really good bunch of kids here,"
said Earl the owier. "Some play good, some not
so good." But both kinds can com in and "hash
Photos by
Harry
Baumert
Story by
Lynn
Silhasek
things over," he added.
Some of the performers who stop in are on
the road, passing through Lincoln, Moss said.
They've included a Virgin'an who makes and
plays dulcimers, and a Louisianian who played a
Cajun harp. Bluegrass musicians Peter Blakeslee
and Johnny Walker may filter in as the evening
grows late. 1
Regulars include UN-L sociology instructer
Miller McPherson who plays guitar and his wife
Mary, a sociology graduate student on banjo.
McPherson, who was a traveling folksinger for
10 years, plays at Earl's to keep in practice and
"to have a good time. That's whiit's important to
me.'-'.
Elston Murphy, a bib-overalled harmonica
player for 39 years who works at Goodyear, is
back after a three-week absence. Banjo player
Paul Ritschor and his wife Char, both 20, don't
remember missing a Monday night since the
performances began a year ago.
And there's Earl, who occasionally leaves the
bar for the stage to deliver his one-song
repertoire of "Cigarettes, Whiskey and Wild, Wild
Women."
Moss works with :he Mountain Plains
Regional Training and Economic Development
Program when not emceeing at Earl's. He also
was Nebraska's campaign manager for Hubert
Humphrey's 1968 presidential campaign.
But "it isn't who you are" that matters when
you walk into Earl's, he said. "When you come
here, that's who you are hurt,"
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At Earl's (above) it's eome-tt-you-ara. Bbw.
Brad Anderson solos on the banjo. Below left,
Earl collects the empties at closina time.
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