Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 24, 1995 TAG: 9502240035
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: CHRIS COLSTON CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Long
"I'm gonna get me a guitar," he told a co-worker in the break room, "and learn to play that thing."
No idle threat, this. A buddy of his owned an Ovation Viper guitar and a PC Pacer amplifier. Hobbs traded his car for it. "A 1966 Dodge Dart," he said.
And that's how Hobbs, 29, began his career as performer, historian, and keeper of music written by the people for the people.
Today he teaches guitar and mandolin to 60 to 70 students at Fret Mill Music on the Roanoke City Market, writes occasional columns for Fingerstyle Guitar magazine and plays in Roanoke and New River Valley nightspots. This Friday at 9 a.m. he will present a lecture, "Evolution of the Steel String Guitar," to Radford University students.
"As a teacher, I think it's important to learn traditional styles of music as a foundation of all other types and styles," he said. "The feel and spirit of the tunes are as much or more important than the technical aspect of playing."
This from a Motor City Madman-wannabe? What happened?
Hobbs' dream of being a rock 'n' roll star was hobbling along in Kingsport. He figured he would know something about his ability after a year, so he kept plugging. "The more I learned, the more I realized how little I knew," he said. Meanwhile, he worked on an associate degree in electric technology at Tri-Cities State Tech.
"My social life went to nothing," he said, dismissing the myth that the guitarist gets the girl.
Yet he kept practicing. One night he went out on the front porch of his house and began to crank out Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama."
"I thought it was just great," he said. "But, looking back, it was probably the worst thing the neighborhood ever heard. I really butchered it. I just played the first chords over and over - really blaring it. At least nobody called the cops."
Then Hobbs met Les Dotson, a local guitarist who offered lessons. His first session, "Stacy showed up in an AC/DC T-shirt," Dotson said. "Here was a guy who wanted to play LOUD. I knew he had to be turned on to some other kinds of music. There was a whole different world for him to hear."
Hobbs began listening to blues masters of the 1920s and '30s such as Blind Blake and Blind Lemon Jefferson. "He soaked it up like a sponge," Dotson said. "Pretty soon the electric guitar didn't have the same impetus it had before."
Hobbs also became a fan of English finger guitarist John Renbourn. "He's been as much an influence on me as anybody," Hobbs said. "Les told me the acoustic guitar could be more dynamic, and he wanted to keep the traditional music alive by passing it down. I found that to be true. I believed in the music and made the switch."
When he was 21, Hobbs moved to the New River Valley with Dotson and his wife. "I always loved Stacy to death," Dotson said. "I knew Kingsport didn't have a lot of places where he could play black blues, English finger guitar and Celtic music. I didn't want to leave him on a flat plain, dying."
Hobbs didn't own much, just another Dart (different color, same year), an old Gibson guitar and $10 in his pocket. His first day in Christiansburg, he opened the Yellow Pages and called every electrical contractor in the book. Within a week he found a job wiring houses - something to pay the bills. Meanwhile, his goal was to learn as many different tunes as he could. "I wanted to play in old-timey band situations," he said.
He learned 30-50 songs and began getting better. He embarked on a solo guitar career. He played the Third Street Coffee House in Roanoke and The Farmhouse in Christiansburg. He taught beginning, intermediate and advanced guitar classes for Virginia Tech's YMCA program.
And for nearly two years he bugged Fret Mill Music owner Ken Rattenbury about a job. "Persistence does pay off," Hobbs said. "One day Ken finally hired me to instruct heavy metal. I was thinking I'd have to show up wearing leather, chains and a whammy bar on my guitar. But it wound up that I had 20 acoustic guitar students right off the bat."
Rattenbury gave him a trial run to get 40 students. "He said if I could keep them for three months, I'd get the gig," Hobbs said, and shrugged. "I'm still there."
Hobbs' career continues to blossom. He's put out two albums on Roanoke's Flat Five Press & Recording Company; the first, "Six String Solos, "was a documentation of everything I'd done to that point. All my influences came into play."
Then Hobbs wanted to find his own voice. "It's great to emulate people," he said, "but in the long run you have to say something about who you are."
Thus he recorded "Sounds of Change," where he played hammer dulcimer, banjo, mandolin and some solo guitar. "I think I found my own sound on that record," he said.
Hobbs continues to perform at night spots such as Corned Beef and Co., Billy's Ritz, Crystal Spring Deli and Confeddy's.
It was at the latter night spot where Hobbs met his bride, Sherry. "I had talked to him briefly before," she said. "I was out celebrating my birthday and we started chatting. Later that night, he asked permission to kiss me. I thought, 'Wow, there IS a gentleman left in this world.'"
So the guitarist got the girl after all. Now, the married man stays busy, practicing most of the morning before traveling to Roanoke for his 1-9 p.m. shift at Fret Mill.
Today Hobbs' goals include writing an instructional booklet on finger-picking and flat-picking styles. He would ultimately like to incorporate a steel-string guitar program at a college or university.
"I feel like I'm at a professional level now," Hobbs said, "and I say that with a certain amount of conviction.
"I'd like my program at Radford to take off. Playing bars, you're kind of limited. It's not like they want to hear a lute tune at Confeddy's."
Stacy Hobbs will give his lecture on the steel string at 9 a.m. in Radford's Heth Student Center's Commonwealth Room. The lecture is open to honors, music and Appalachian studies students. It will be aired sometime in April on WVTF (89.1 FM). Hobbs' will play for the public with his blues trio, Blind Boys' Revenge, March 4 at Confeddy's starting at 9:30 p.m.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***