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Making A Living Playing Music
Spotlighting Bobby Ward
By Robert Lee Johnson
Writing about a local Group in Devner, the Czars, made me think of how difficult it is to earn a living all of one’s life in music. I only know one person who did it. Bobby Ward a St. Louis Guitar Player to the Genius Level, and I’d have to say an entertainer to the Genius Level, is the only person I have known personally who was able to earn a living all his life as a musician.
Bobby Ward started playing Guitar Professionally when he was 9 years old backing up his Mother and Her Sister in a Country Music Sisters Act around the Saint Louis area. By the time he was 14 years old he was playing lead Guitar for Roy Queen the most popular Country Music DJ in Saint Louis at the time. Roy Queen had been part of the Live Country Music Radio Scene in Saint Louis on KMOX Radio starting in 1929. I tend to think Roy Queen may well have known Les Paul when Les Paul was playing with a Country Band on KMOX Radio in the early 1930s. Les Paul had been hired by a Band that Played on KMOX Radio when he was 15 years old. It was on KMOX radio that Les Paul begin to be called "Rhubarb Red" when he played the Guitar, Sang, and Played Harmonica.
I don’t know how old Bobby Ward was when he put together his own band. I suspect it was when he was old enough to get away with playing the Honky Tonks in Saint Louis.
I first met Bobby Ward when he was playing 6 nights a week at a Honky Tonk just a couple of Blocks from my house. The Honky Tonk was the Hucklebee Club on Vandevanter just up from Sarah Street. It was a real dive, but it was pretty big in size and could therefore hold a lot of people and sell a lot of Booze.
Bobby Ward was fronting his own band, doing the singing and playing the most fantastic Guitar I had ever heard. For the most part Bobby Ward always played Trio jobs for two reasons. The first reason was the total price of the band was low enough that he could work most all the time. The second reason was that he could not find a Country Rhythm Guitar player who could follow the chord progressions he put in his songs. Most Bass Players could fake it and keep a good Bass Line going. So a Trio was perfect for Bobby Ward’s Band.
I first saw and met Bobby Ward in the very late 50s after I got out of the Air Force. I asked him if he knew a good Guitar Teacher and he gave me Frank Wahl’s name and told me Frank Wahl was the best.
Bobby Ward Played more Guitar than anyone I have ever heard in person. Though he played with a Flat Pick, his lead lines were full of chords. He could play Merle Travis Finger Style Guitar using a Flat Pick, and using no Fingers on his picking hand. I have never seen anyone else who could do that. I was truly amazed when I first saw Bobby Ward do this. I was sitting close enough to the band stand to see what he was doing with his picking hand and he definitely did not use fingers with his flat pick to play the Merle Travis Finger Style Songs.
Bobby Ward would get into some Be Bop Jazz as the night went on a the audience started to get drunk. He knew that after the Country/Rock and Roll audience was drunk they would accept a song now and then where he played Be Bop Jazz.
Bobby Ward was second to no Guitar Player when it came to Be Bop Jazz. Frank Wahl the Guitar Teacher who Taught Tom Maloney, Bob Bosch, Jim Stonebraker and about every other good Guitar Player in Saint Louis told me that Bobby Ward was as good as the biggest name on Records, Names like Barney Kessel, Johnny Smith, Tal Farlow, Joe Pass. That had been my assessment of Bobby Ward’s Be Bop Jazz, so I brought the Subject of Bobby Ward’s Jazz up to Frank when I was taking a Guitar Lesson from him. Frank loved to talk about Bobby Ward. Bobby Ward was Frank Wahl’s all time Favorite Guitar Player.
Frank told me that Bobby Ward would learn of a scheduled Jam Session by the so called legitimate Musicians in Saint Louis who read music and played the swanky places in town. Bobby Ward would go and sit in on those Jam Sessions and Blow Away all the other players, Guitar, and any other instrument that was at the Jam Session. Bobby Ward was a truly Gifted Musician, Gifted to the very high Genius Level.
Robert Lee Johnson
Guitar, Mandolin, Lap Steel, Dobro
Robert Lee Johnson, author of This Web Page
Has many Videos on Google Video Com
Natural Pickin - by Robert Lee Johnson -- Country Music - Music Video
Bobby Ward Fronted his band and he was a great MC. His ability as comedian was seldom equaled by anyone. You could hear Bobby Ward tell a joke then weeks later hear him tell the same joke and it was as funny the second or third time you heard it as the very first time. Bobby Ward did have a comedian routine he did, it was not a long comedy routine, more like telling some jokes in between songs. The audience always delighted to his joke telling even if they had heard the same jokes many times.
Bobby Ward had a strong charismatic Stage Personality, much stronger than most big name singers. When George Jones appeared at a Hillbilly Park in Saint Louis in the late 50s when George Jones was at his height, the singer was afraid to let Bobby Ward take a Guitar Break for he knew Bobby would steal the show from him. That is what a strong and Charismatic Stage Personality Bobby Ward had and of course his Guitar Playing just blew everyone away for the audience had in most cases never heard anyone who was so good on Guitar.
Bobby Ward Played the Saint Louis Honky Tonks for many years, then the Electronic Drummer came on the Scene and Bobby Ward bought an Electronic Drummer and started playing Solo Jobs at the Chase Hotel and the other most posh entertainment bars in Saint Louis. He was truly so good on Guitar that a drummer is all that was needed for backup and the Electronic Drummer did it for him.
Bobby Ward accepted a Road Job with some band that was doing hard drugs. Bobby Ward Joined right in and did the hard drugs with them. The band ran out of money for hard drugs so they pulled a stickup of a liquor store on the road. Bobby Ward joined them on that venture also.
The law caught the band and convicted them of the stick up and Bobby Ward was paroled to the Saint Louis area. I think that perhaps Bobby Ward hit it lucky that the band was caught for with the conviction he had to quit the hard drugs. And by this time his liver was in bad shape from drinking a fifth of Whiskey every night on the job. So Bobby Ward had to quit drugs and alcohol at the same time. This probably prevented him from dying a young death.
Bobby Ward never was involved in any more crime. The one time of being caught and convicted of a stickup to get drugs cured Bobby of doing anything illegal.
Bobby Ward found a girl singer who could play Guitar and so the two of them went on the Road Touring and were booked into the best hotel/motel bars at a good paycheck. That was the last I heard of him until Dewitt Scott of Scotty’s Music told me in the early part of year 2000 that Bobby Ward had passed away after being retired and living on a small farm in the Country near Fredericktown Missouri. I guess Bobby Ward was a Country Boy at heart. I assume he had lived with his wife in his retirement years. I think he married the Girl Singer he toured with.
Someone emailed me on the net and told me she knew Bobby Ward and had found the web page I put up on him. I forgot what state she lived in, but it was not Missouri or Illinois. She knew some other Saint Louis Musicians, the Gunn Brothers who had played the East Saint Louis area extensively.
I think Bobby Ward was playing with a Band when she met him. He and his Girl Singer may have been booked with a band on the road for some shows.
Bobby Ward never achieved fame as a Recording artists and he never went to Nashville to back up singers. I think Bobby Ward loved being the man in charge of his own band and not working for someone else. He was a very dynamic entertainer and the best Guitar Player I have ever seen in person.
Bobby Ward was the most versatile Guitar Player and entertainer I have ever seen. He could do Country, Rock and Roll, Rhythm and Blues, the Pop Music that was big before Rock and Roll came in, Jazz that was not Be Bop Jazz, and he was no doubt one of the greatest of all Be Bop Jazz Guitarist. With a powerful stage charisma that was in reality second to none, and his versatile music, Bobby could play most any job no matter what genre of music the audience wanted.
Bobby Ward never worked a Day Job in his entire life time. Only a musician with the versatility that Bobby Ward had could have spent his entire life making his living as a professional musician.
Bobby Ward was more than just a musician, he was a hustler who could book his own jobs, manage his own band and take command of any stage he was on. As a honky tonk musician in Saint Louis he often worked seven days a week. He would book 6 night a week jobs and then book a sleezy 3.2 beer joint job on Sunday. I can remember when Bobby Ward was playing 6 nights a week at some Bar on Delmar. When the Saint Louis Bar Closed he would pack up the instruments and the band would go to East Saint Louis and play 4 more hours.
Bobby Ward Drove a late model Cadillac when he was playing the Sleezy Honky Tonks in Saint Louis. He was the only honky tonk musician in Saint Louis who drove a Cadillac.
Bobby Ward never got rich from music but he made a good living and he did it all his life and never worked a Day Job. I think few musicians could ever say they had never worked a Day Job in their lifetime.
Bobby Ward played such complex chord progressions in all his songs that for the most part his bass player could not hear and follow his chord progressions. But his Bass Players were able to play a simple bass line with a feel that was needed for the Bobby Ward Music. At some time in the 60s Bobby Ward Found a Bass man that could play at near Bobby Ward’s Level. Frank Wahl told me about this bass player. Frank Wahl went to see Bobby Ward as often as he could.
I tend to think that Bobby Ward was quite good looking. As a man you don’t notice those things about other men. But thinking back Bobby had Cole Black Wavy Hair, he was tall and Slender and I know for a fact that women chased him big time. So he must have been what would considered to be "Handsome" and of course this had to help his entertainment career along. The women chasing him played heck with his marriage to his first wife.
I liked Bobby Ward for he had a very outgoing and friendly personality that was quite likable. I guess Bobby Ward liked me for he always came over to talk to me when I would come and see him and we were very at ease with each other. Bobby Ward Invited me to play rhythm Guitar for him when he did "September in the Rain." I knew the complex Jazz Chords for this song and that is why Bobby honored me with playing rhythm Guitar while he played the song. This was in the earlier time of my playing Guitar and I was as nervous as a Cat on stage playing with Bobby Ward. I was almost to nervous to perform well. But I made it through the song. And we got a hand from the audience on the song and that was neat.
Robert Lee Johnson
Guitar, Mandolin, Lap Steel, Dobro