Q&A with Singer Pat Guadagno

In the 1960s a tradition of sharing songs amongst artists reached its zenith in popularity. The tradition was as old as man and music, but during a time when everything that was old was somehow new again, at least played and sung by newer hands and newer voices, music was as free as love and as necessary as an athemn, a "wedding vow," meant to be shared, to be elaborated on, to be twisted and spun and sung in new ways as a honor to the original artist and her or his intention. It's just what was being done. Search for Blowin in the Wind or The Times They Are A'Changin' and discover the covers...the seemingly endless variations from artists known and unknown. Like Shakespeare, Dylan created musical Hamlets and left them to be and be done and redone forever maybe. 

When the music is that good, it's a pleasure to hear it replayed and reimagined.  Local singer Pat Guadagno harkens to that call and appreciates his place in a line of others who, through out the centuries, have passed down songs and told stories.

"I'm not a songwriter," he said. "I'm a singer and guitar player. That's what I do best. That's why I do it." And Guadagno has been doing it for years. His name is nearly household in Red Bank and environs. Just like his annual Bob Fest, an evening, now two, of strictly Bob Dylan music at the Two River Theater, May 23 and 24, local folks just know about Bob Fest. In fact, Guadagno said, both nights are selling fast and he expects them to eventually be sold out. This year marks Dylan's 70th birthday. So be prepared to sing Happy Birthday or some variation of the song along with Guadagno and his band for the night, Tired Horses.

Guadagno also plays regularly at Jamian's in town and on May 6 he'll be playing at Taste. Patch Reporter, Producer Steve Rogers caught up with Guadagno and asked him about life, music and Bob.

Steve Rogers: What’s your story?

Pat Guadagno: I’m singer, guitar player, but not a songwriter. I’ve been taking other people’s music and making it my own for a long time. And I recently had some success with it.

It doesn’t get much respect since 60’s and singer-songwriter era, but the tradition is old. It’s one of the only ways people learned new music before there was radio and television and MTV. I like to travel down to Nashville and maybe find some new songs down there that no one up here at Jersey Shore has ever heard before. It’s a time honored tradition and I think it’s honorable.

SR: Well, that’s how Dylan got started, playing these old songs.

P.G.: Yeah…but of course he found out that he could write. And you know people always ask me why I don’t write and I tell them, I wasn’t touched by that… ya know I don’t write songs for the same reason I don’t play shortstop for the New York Yankees…it’s just not what I do.

S.R.: A hundred years from now, scholars will be talking about what 20th or 21st century performer?

P.G.: I would say it would have to be Dylan, Bob Dylan…certainly Lennon and McCartney, but he more touched a whole generation than anyone else. He’s the Beethoven of our time. I think that’s reason why people go to see him still. I saw him recently, ya know, and I thoroughly enjoyed it…but they’re seeing Beethoven…they can tell their kids that they saw Dylan.

S.R.: What music besides Dylan influenced you?

P.G.: I became a folkie when I first heard acoustic guitar, but I guess growing up I really loved this book, the Judy Collins’ songbook. And I just got glued to that and learned every song in it.  Folk music really spoke to me. Richie Havens was a big influence. And Jose Feliciano because I really loved the way he played guitar and when I was growing up I really loved guitar players.

S.R.: When did you pick up the guitar?

P.G.: I started playing piano when I was six or seven years old and I was in this band with the Boy Scouts and we played pack meetings, but I really wanted to play guitar.

S.R.: Why?

P.G.: I don’t know maybe because girls didn’t like piano players as much as they liked guitar players. And my older brother was in a band at the time and the guys all had those old Strats and I watched them and I would think, I wanna play guitar like that too. Then my brother found an old guitar and he would teach me a couple of chords before he’d go away to college and eventually I’d learn songs. 

I studied music for awhile, but I just wasn’t...I don’t know. I can read music if I have to. I was the musical director for a show at the Two River Theater a couple of years ago and so I had to get my musical chops back, but I always play by ear.

S.R.: Tell me about Bob Fest.

P.G.: Bob Fest kind of grew out of a night at a bar. Pat Nulle, God rest his soul, had a bar called The Downtown Café and I’ve been playing there since, Christ was a cowboy I guess. I was playing there one night and I started off, for no particular reason, with a couple of Bob Dylan songs and the bartender had mentioned it was birthday…there were five or six people in the bar, so I figured it would be a good to see how many Bob Dylan songs I could do and I just started rattling them off till I had done a whole night of nothing but Dylan. And we jokingly referred to it as Bob Fest and then the next year came along and it was his birthday again so we started advertising it that I was going to do all Bob Dylan songs again. And it kinda grew from that and now we’re up at the Two River Theater. And this is…I think the fifth or sixth year we’ve been there and I have this great band of area musicians.

S.R.: You prefer the old to the new…has it always been that way for you?

P.G.: I guess yeah, from way back when the old was new. I feel like I grew up in a musical renaissance period in the 60s. And I like some new stuff, but I think I’m kinda  stuck. You know, the rhythm patterns, the songwriters, the chord progressions…they were just really great back then.

S.R.: Is there anyone out there today who is tapping into that magic for you?

P.G.:  Well…my kids turn me on to people all the time…I like some of the stuff that Jack Johnson does. I think it’s a real throw back to some of that older stuff.

S.R.: What makes a song great?

P.G.: I think that’s personal. Great songs have different meanings to different people. It’s really where you are in life when you hear it for the first time. So I can’t say what makes a song great because that’s in the eye of the beholder. Of course I feel like personally, there are great songs and great albums.

S.R.: Do you have a favorite album?  Do they still call them albums?  Let’s say this, if you were stranded on an island and could only have one album, which one would it be?

P.G.: Hmmm…It would probably be a Beach Boys album…something written by Brian Wilson.

S.R.: Which would make sense anyway…cause you’re stuck on a beach.

P.G.: (Laugh) Yeah…that’s great.

S.R.: What makes you happy?

P.G.: You know what, some times people ask me to play a blues song and I want to tell them that I’m just too happy to play the blues. I can’t really put anything into that.  But, I am consumed with what I do.  For me music is 24 hours a day. When I travel it’s usually to a place where I know I can find new music. I don’t have a bowling night. I love to go to festivals like South by Southwest (SXSW) and North by Northwest (NXNW).

S.R.: What does the future look like?

P.G.: I try not to look at it. I’m very much in the day…don’t expect to be here tomorrow and if I am…it’s a blessing. You know when I was 16 playing music, we all thought we’d make to the Ed Sullivan Show. That was your goal. That’s what you were going to do. And until that happens you are just not going to be happy. So when Ed Sullivan went off the air…we were able to say, ‘oh well, that’s not going to happen.’ And that was okay.

S.R.: What inspires you?

P.G.: I am always inspired by my children and recently a grandchild. And ya know, I’m always amazed at how they look at life. I’m also inspired by….the feeling that you get when you ply your craft and people not only applaud for ya, but they’re also touched by something you do…it’s just so rewarding and makes it all worthwhile. Ya know, there are nights during the year…I play 300 shows a year…and there are nights when you just don’t want to be there…but then there’s always someone…in the dark corner, in the slowest bar…in the nosiest bar…that just attaches to what you’re doing and they hold you up…they keep you going.

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