jam photos

[jim simpson]

I found some old black & white photos that I shot at a jam back in Wheeling, WV around 1974. This first one pictures Mollie O'Brien, unidentified woman, Jim Govern, & the back of his brother Paul's head.

[jim simpson]

This next one is of Jim Govern. I believe the mando is an OME. I know he really wanted an F5 in those days. I believe he now plays with the Arizona based "The Copper River Band". Haven't talked to him in years.

[jim simpson]

This photo features Jim, Tom White, & Mollie O'Brien.
Tom played (still?) with the Short Creek Flat Pickers of Wheeling and plays with Falling Run Bluegrass Band out of Morgantown, WV. He sings and plays guitar in each band.

[jim simpson]

Here's one with Paul Govern's back to us on the left, I can't remember the bass player's name, and Tom White's back on right.

[jim simpson]

This last shot was my attempt to be artsy. I had played in a band back in those days with the Govern Brothers. We had fun playing at the college coffeehouses, bars, New Years Eve parties, etc. It was too short lived but fun!

[timothy.c.hicks]

Holy Cow, I play mando in FRBB with Tom White. I can't wait to tease him about this photo. It will be shared at the next gig. Mollie O'brien looks like Punky Brewster...

[jim simpson]

Tim,
That's too much! Tell Whitey I miss him. Mollie looks like Punky Brewster? Well.. we all looked younger then.
Jim

[Lane Pryce]

Blast from the past!! Lp

[David M.]

Did Tim O. ever hang out with yall and his sister Mollie? That's some good company right there, now!

[Dan Adams]

Our bass player from two years ago, until he moved into playing the dobro and guitar, used to play bass with the Short Creek Flat Pickers. #He remembers Tim O coming out to their weekly gig at the Holiday Inn(?) and listening to the Flat Pickers play. #In fact, he took an old tape and transfered it to a CD, of which I have a copy. he has since moved back to the Wheeling area, but I don't know if he's made contact with the Flat Pickers again. #Good musican and songwriter. #We miss his talents in our band. #I don't know Molly, but I saw her in the Denver Folklore Center not too long ago. #A bit of secondhand history. #Dan

[jim simpson]

David,
Tim had already moved out to Colorado by the time these pictures were taken. I knew Tim & Mollie from our teen years when Oglebay Park had a yearly fall folk show that was a competition. Tim & Mollie won 1st place just about every year they played. One year a trio I played in joked about preventing Tim from appearing (think Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan). It was all in jest of course but that year we won 1st place and couldn't figure out how as Tim did play. I believe he must have pulled himself out of the competition and just appeared to play. It was fun meeting the other members of Hot Rize when Tim would pass through Wheeling.
Dan,
I remember Jeff Strautmann playing bass for the Short Creek Flatpickers. Was it him?
Jim

[Jim Hilburn]

If that's an Ome, I would venture to say this had to be in the later 70's.
I bought Ome #2 new in '75.

[Dan Adams]

Jim: (Both Jims) It wasn't him, but he played guitar and dobro when we both played at 'Bluegrass and Beyond' for Warren. #I still have the recordings! #Live at...! #He played bass after the 74' years, and his name is Mark. #Now some more history... #We played a guest set at the Folklore Center before Tim O'Brien, and Hot Rize came into existence. #The band was known as the Rambling Drifters, or the Drifting Ramblers, and played every other Tuesday. #Remember those days? #We took the stage during a break by the Rambling Drifters, when Tim O'Brien had just moved to town and was playing as a guest with Charles, Pete, Nick, and Warren as a guest fiddler.. #Long time ago... Dan

[Dan Adams]

Side note: Jim H; Going to Mid-winter? Dan

[jim simpson]

"If that's an Ome, I would venture to say this had to be in the later 70's.
I bought Ome #2 new in '75". Jim Hilburn

Jim,
I will try to confirm the year and make. Maybe it was #1!?
The year couldn't have been too much later in the 70's as a couple of the folks moved on out of town by then.

Dan,
That sounds like some pretty good memories you had. I'm glad I could stir up some. I think I understand why folks are most upset about losing photos in a trajedy like a fire or flood.

Heres a photo that belongs in this group. It's a front shot of Paul Govern (who played banjo in our group).

[jgovern]

"If that's an Ome, I would venture to say this had to be in the later 70's.
I bought Ome #2 new in '75". Jim Hilburn

Jim,
I will try to confirm the year and make. Maybe it was #1!?
The year couldn't have been too much later in the 70's as a couple of the folks moved on out of town by then.

Dan,
That sounds like some pretty good memories you had. I'm glad I could stir up some. I think I understand why folks are most upset about losing photos in a trajedy like a fire or flood.

Heres a photo that belongs in this group. It's a front shot of Paul Govern (who played banjo in our group).
Jim H. -- I purchased the Ome in (I think) the fall of '75 from Nugget in John Hutchison's daddy's living room in Barnesville, OH. I gave Mike a fistfull of twenties (inflation) and an agreement to pay John Hutchison the balance of what I owed -- Nugget owed John some money and that's how they agreed to settle. Nugget set up the Ome Banjo Co to make mandolins and part of his payment was that he got to keep the first 3 that he'd made for them. The one I purchased was the top-of-the-line model with fancier inlay on the fingerboard and an extra bit of inlay on the headstock, also, gold hardware. John knew Mike from his days in Athens and (I think) is the person who hooked up Mike with Bob White who taught Nugget early stuff about mandolin building. I'd be very interested in purchasing your Ome if indeed it was one of the 3 that Mike built. Does your mandolin have a serial number in/on it? Oh, almost forgot, the bass player in the photos above is Wheeling native, Wally Hoffman. Thanks, Jim Govern

[Dan Adams]

Wow..! Now the Hutchison Brothers. I also have a CD from the Hutchison Brothers, made from a cassette recorded in 1975. The Short Creek Flat Pickers, and now the Hutchison Brothers. People I've never met, but a bass/dobro/guitar player from that era plays with us in Colorado thirty years later, and I have some sort of odd connection. Good luck in finding the OME! Dan

[bones12]

I have some photos of the Hutchison Brothers playing at my wedding reception in 1976. I'll have to dig those out and post them. Peach (Tom Hampton) played a fine mandolin. The Hot Mud Family could not do it for us so Zeke and the boys played. Doug in Vermont

[jim simpson]

Doug,
Yes, please post the pictures. Here's one of the Hutchison's playing at Red Fox, Bethesda, MD in 76'.
Jim

[Jim Hilburn]

J.Govern.
This is interesting stuff. The fall of '75 would fit perfectly with how I remember this.
I heard Ome was making mandolins and went out to the shop in probably spring of '75. There was an all black F #1 and a sunburst A #2. The first time I saw #2, it only said Ome on the peghead, but when I went back a second time, it had the vine and flower inlay. Luckily I was young enough to pull the trigger, even though I couldn't really afford it, and sold my Jeep to pay for it.
The part about Nugget setting up Ome isn't how I remember it. He was a minimun wage employee and while he was hired to do mandolins, the day I first went there he was carving the back of a banjo resonator.
#2 was sold to me by the company, not by Mike.
I would guess yours was #3 and I didn't know it existed. I've always thought Mike made the first 2 and then went out on his own, with Tim's being the first one.
I moved to Texas in Oct. of '75 to be a pecan farmer and lost track of Nugget till I moved back in '78 and met Mike on the street in Boulder and told him I was going to make a mandolin, but didn't have any way to finish it. He said he'd do it and in the spring of '80, I got my first one built and Mike finished it for $200.
By the way, I'd like to buy #2 back myself. I sold it after I made my first one.

[Jim Hilburn]

I just realized that when I read the "set up the Ome Banjo Co. to make mandolins" I percieve it as just "set up the Ome Banjo Co. I shouldn't have tried to respond after 6 hours of airline time.
I think we're all on the same page now.