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Gary Spence, Folk Musician for Music Majors
by Nate Heath
If your musical appetite draws you to pickin', strummin' or fiddlin', Gary Spence take you to the next level.
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Gary Spence is a member of the music faculty at Mars Hill College. His specialty is folk music, which has interested him since college. He plays guitar, banjo, and fiddle, sings, and is practically a one-man band.
Spence, 60, was born and raised just outside of Gettysburg Pennsylvania, in Fairfield, which he refers to as a "village."
After graduating from high school, he crossed the border into New York, where he spent his first two years of college attending Hartwick College in Oneonta. Among other things he secured a spot on the school's "outstanding" soccer team.
At the time the United States was at war in Vietnam, and Spence was struggling a bit academically. Knowing that due to his grades he was "open season" to be drafted, he made a decision. He looks back on this crossroads with a sense of humor. "I said, I'm not gonna let them draft me and just have their way with me." Instead he preferred to join on his own accord, and so he did.
Spence entered basic training at Fort Dix in New Jersey, on July 3, 1967. This was just a few months prior to the Tet Offensive in January 1968, which is widely accepted as the turning point in the Vietnam War. By the time Spence was finished with basic training, the U.S. Army didn't want him anymore.
After his service, he refocused his efforts on education. Being interested in folk music and fond of the local topography, he moved to Madison County and enrolled at Mars Hill College. He graduated in 1971 with a degree in English. His concentration was in American literature, and many of the things he read were written at the time much of his folk music was composed. He says that once he understood the context of a song, it created additional feeling every time he played it, which helped him forge a stronger connection to his music.
Spence began teaching music at Mars Hill only one year after graduating. He was assigned an office to teach in and has been giving lessons in it for the last twenty-six years.
While twenty-six years in Mars Hill may not sound like the most exciting proposition, Spence's second career as a performer has made his life quite exciting at times. He has played with five different bands at venues ranging from funeral homes to the governor's mansion.
Spence confessed that weddings are among his least favorite engagements, particularly during the march down the aisle when he is the solo musician. There's an immense amount of pressure. "You can't throw a note in the middle of the wedding march because everybody hears it. You don't want the couple, on their tenth anniversary, to be sitting at the breakfast table and he says to her; 'honey what do you remember most about our wedding?' and she says 'how sorry the guitar player was.'"
One of Spence's fondest memories occurred overseas in the British Isles, when he was playing with an American clogging team in the Sidmouth Folk Festival. The local townspeople had a tradition dubbed "The Midnight Special." They would ask their favorite bands from the festival to come and play at midnight, in a circus tent, atop a hill overlooking Sidmouth. They asked Spence and his band to perform at the Midnight Special.
Because the band didn't have a ride to the top of the hill, someone volunteered to drive them up to the Midnight Special in what they call "The Black Mariah," which was the paddy wagon (the paddy wagon is a car that they use to transport prisoners). It wasn't planned as part of the act.
"The thing that I remember most about this is not the ride up, but when we got to The Midnight Special, they drove the paddy wagon straight into the center of the arena, threw the doors open, and we piled out. The crowd went nuts! They loved it!"
Spence's voice trembled as he described his proudest memory as a musician. It was conquering a difficult hymn, "In the Garden", and then playing it for the first time at his Father's funeral. This accomplishment instilled in Spence an appreciation for the fruits of perseverance, and his Father's death taught him that "life moves on, and you need to keep in step with it."
Spence's favorite song is "Home Sweet Home." While he has had many adventures as a performing musician, he has always cherished the return home to Mars Hill and his pupils. He says without hesitation that he enjoys teaching more than performing. "That's what I'm here for, to be able to teach, and to further someone else's playing ability and skills."
He encourages students to find a place for music in their lives because "Music not only enriches peoples lives with sound that they can immediately enjoy, but a lot of it is the journey of presenting a challenge in learning to play, and then developing a playing repertoire, and then continuing to expand that."
If you'd like to start your journey here at Mars Hill, and are particularly interested in the folk genre, Spence is a great place to start. He offers lessons for the guitar, the banjo, the fiddle, and will be teaching again next semester. Check the schedule.
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