Billy Needs a Beard

Steve and Ben had been playing guitar together at Steve’s house on Monday nights for about 6 weeks. Covering Beatles’ tunes was the challenge: they were working up arrangements of Julia, Revolution, Get Back, A Little Help From My Friends, and In My Life. Billy got wind of what they were doing and wanted in. He had Monday nights free, loved the Beatles, so it was a deal.

It made sense that since there were three of them, they should become a band, but there was one problem: Billy didn’t have a beard. He had this scruffy goatee at that time, and well if he wanted to be in the band, he would have to grow a real beard. For several weeks they searched for a good name, but nothing really hit the mark. Friends who heard about the rehearsals ask, “How’s the band coming?” To which they’d reply, ‘we’re not a band yet, Billy still needs to grow a beard.’

Well, that phrase built its own kind of music, and probably by the fifth or sixth month of playing together on those Monday nights, the three of them became Billy Needs a Beard.

At this point in the story, approximately July or August of 2002, all their playing occurred in Steve’s living room in Winter Haven, Florida. In truth, Billy and Ben were not very accomplished guitarists, learning things each week they both wished they had learned the week or months before. Steve was patient, though, and nurtured them through the process of approaching different genres of music. Along with the Beatles, they were learning Bob Dylan, Hank Williams, The Rolling Stones, The Band, Johnny Cash, The Box Tops, and The Beach Boys. And each would bring songs to play, and they’d work up arrangements for the guitars and voices. Steve was adamant there’d be harmonizing. And there was.

January of 2003 rolled around, and another good friend, Jimmy, who had just purchased an acoustic bass, joined the band. (For the record, when Jim joined the band he had a nicely shaped goatee of his own, so it was still Billy who needed the beard!)

When Jim joined, the band began to rotate the rehearsals so that each of them had the responsibility of supplying the refreshments for the band on Monday nights. Sometimes their wives took charge of this, and there was a time when a bit of competition arose as to who would supply the best food and drink. Jim also helped expand the band’s repertoire, as it was his suggestion to do the cover of Del Shannon’s “I Go to Pieces.”

The song list expanded, the rehearsals became a bit more cohesive, and the harmonies and playing improved. The band was becoming more and more comfortable with the idea of making music together, when one day Steve booked the foursome at an event. At first, Billy, Jim, and Ben thought he was joking, but he was dead serious. Billy Needs a Beard was the opening act at the Munn Park Fall Art Fest in Lakeland, a 45 minute set.

Even now Ben remembers thinking about and planning for that gig. “I kept hearing Steven Stills’ words to the crowd at Woodstock: ‘This was our first gig, man. I was scared ****less!’”

But it came off, basically without a hitch (well, mostly: Steve bought a new Taylor guitar for the gig, and the electronics failed during the fourth song and he had to switch to his Fender electric), and Bryan Rivers, a local musician, watched the last few songs and marveled at a harmony version of “Julia.”

In some ways, that gig led to a gig the next spring at Highlands Hammock State Park for an Earth Day Celebration. And somewhere along about that time, they began writing their own songs. Steve, a gifted musician for years, had a bunch of tunes he’d been working on. In years past, The Flying Burrito Brothers covered one of his songs, giving him the creative push to continue his life in music as a music educator. And Ben had been writing lyrics for years, occasionally putting a few of them to music. Jim had earlier stints in bands—as a teenager and in college—and he and Billy jumped into the writing mode. Before they knew it, somewhere between 10 and 20 original songs arose from the creative spirit.

This is about 2004, and Billy Needs a Beard was getting a small following, getting them a nice opportunity to play at a benefit for the Talbot House in Lakeland. About 350 people attended to hear them and about 11 other acts. Their three selections, “The MTA,” “Man of Constant Sorrow,” and “I Saw the Light” drew wonderful response, and the essence of being a band was settling in.
Then Steve hit came in with another surprise: he purchased a 12 Track digital home recording studio. Before too long, they were recording songs with the plans of producing their own CD.

A long series of First Friday Downtown gigs followed. Four single night performances at Mitchell’s Coffee House introduced them to many new listeners in the Lakeland area. A Christmas Party for a local housing community, another Talbot House Benefit, and a chance to play the Historic Polk Theatre for an ‘Un