Musicians I Know: Mike Deeney

Mike Deeney is a drummer, singer, guitarist, ukulele dabbler, and music aficionado, who has been making music in Minnesota and its environs for over five decades. He is also my uncle (married to my dad's sister) and we serve on the board of a music nonprofit together. He has been the backbone of many bands, including Chord City and Nirvana (not that Nirvana...he'll explain below). Mike is a gifted musician. For one thing, he can sing and drum at the same time, a rare talent. As an admiring nephew, I find that Mike has an impeccable sense of what fits a given song. For example, he knows just how much drums to apply, which is an important skill for an instrument that can be a sonic sledgehammer if wielded with abandon. While Mike can kick out a solid rock beat, he also possesses that quality of judiciousness that makes for an excellent drummer. Mike has an innate gift for quickly finding just the right vocal harmonies. While music wasn't his day job, it's an integral part of his life. In this second installment in the "Musicians I Know" series, Mike looks back at his life in music.

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What are your earliest musical memories? What music did you grow up on?

Although neither of my parents were musicians, there was still a lot of music around the house as I was growing up.  My early grade-school years were filled with Lawrence Welk, Perry Como, and “Sing Along with Mitch” Miller at my house, and Connie Francis, Pat Boone, and Elvis Presley when hanging out in my next door neighbor’s basement.  But when I first heard The Beatles on a Jack Paar late-night show while baby-sitting, my whole world changed.  After that, it was the Beatles, Beach Boys, Dave Clark Five, and anything else that made my heart race.  That music was “exciting.”

What is it you like most about your favorite artist(s)? What draws you to their music? 

I have SO MANY favorite artists that it’s difficult to break it down that way.  I’m more likely to have favorite genres which encompass lots of different artists.  I’m drawn to 60’s pop/rock (e.g., The Beatles), R&B/Soul (e.g., Marvin Gaye; Stevie Wonder; Earth, Wind & Fire; Tower of Power; Prince), Progressive Rock (Yes, the Moody Blues), Blues (Eric Clapton; Tinsley Ellis), Hard/Indie Rock (U2, Allman Brothers Band), as well as local Minnesota-based bands like Soul Asylum, GB Leighton, and The Jayhawks.

Most of my faves feature great guitar or horn sections that drive their sound, as well as a strong underlying beat or “hook.”

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Just as many pecks of pickled peppers as Peter Piper picked.

What's the first album you ever owned?

“Introducing The Beatles”, followed by “Meet The Beatles” were my first purchases.  Albums were harder to afford when I was growing up, so Singles (45-rpm) were my typical purchases.  Singles by the Beach Boys (“Fun, Fun, Fun”, “I Get Around”, and “Dance, Dance, Dance”), The Beatles (“She Loves You”, “I Want To Hold Your Hand”, “Do You Want To Know A Secret?”), and later the Rolling Stones (“The Last Time” and “Time Is On My Side”) made up my very early collection – although the first single that I ever purchased was “Calcutta” by Lawrence Welk.  It actually had a bit of “rock” in it.

You're a multi-instrumentalist and singer. What came first? What came last? What will never happen?

Liberty 3, Christmas, 1965
(From left to right: Gregg Inhofer, Mike,
and Pete Piazza)

I’ve never had a musical instrument lesson, so everything that I know was drawn from watching other people.  I picked up the drums by starting with an old hat box and a couple of sticks (literally).

I began playing with Gregg Inhofer and Pete Piazza (a couple of grade-school friends) and eventually saved up enough money to buy a cheap snare drum (from Sears) and a used cymbal when I was in 10th grade.  I played a borrowed drum kit my junior year in high school with some guys from school (Nazareth Hall) as The Regents, and eventually bought my own Slingerland kit from a private party prior to my senior year in high school.  It wasn’t until then that I began to play drums more seriously.

My guitar experience began in the dorm in high school while hanging out with friends who were all learning at the same time.  Since guitar was quieter and easier to travel with, it became another way for me to make music.  Although I don’t consider it my primary instrument, once I was married with children, I would use my acoustic guitar to lead a liturgical music group at church for nearly 20 years. 

The Regents, 1967

So I know some of your history, but not all of it. I know you were in Nirvana. Not that Nirvana, but a different Nirvana before there was that Nirvana. Tell me about that.

After graduating from high school, I began playing with the core group of friends who would come to form the “original” Nirvana.  Although initially we rehearsed for fun in one of the auditorium areas at the St. Paul Seminary – and played our first gigs for fraternity parties at St. Thomas College as a five-piece band called The Mindsweepers – it wasn’t until my junior year in college that we solidified our four-piece band lineup and began playing “professionally” as Nirvana.

The “original” Nirvana Lineup

• Randy L’Allier – Rhythm Guitar, Flute, Vocals
• Mick Thielen – Lead Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals
• Mike Deeney – Drums, Vocals
• Steve Cassidy – Bass Guitar, Kazoo, Vocals
  

Nirvana, official promo photo, 1971
(From left to right: Randy, Mick, Mike, and Steve)

Nirvana’s first official gig was at the Country Dam, a small bar in Amery, Wisconsin, in November 1970.  The early gigs were few and far between, but a regular schedule of Friday/Saturday night gigs began to take form in April 1971. A six-night stand at Jack’s Pickwick Lounge in Virginia, MN, is particularly memorable because it was our first multi-night out-of-town gig.  We stayed in a dorm-style room provided by the club and subsisted on peanut butter sandwiches for most of the week.  We also did a bit of exploring around the iron ore mines.  I upgraded my Slingerland drum kit to a full Ludwig set (which I still own) in April 1971.

We initially purchased a Shure Vocal Master PA system with two tall speaker cabinets; later in 1971, we added four additional speakers and two monitors.  We named the six identical speaker cabinets Dave, Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick, and Tich, after a little known ‘60’s British group.  To haul our gear, we bought an old 1956 Ford school bus that we reconfigured to carry the band, guests, and our equipment.  We rehearsed in the basement of a duplex that Mick Thielen lived in on Marshall Avenue in St. Paul.  That seemed to work okay for a year or so, but we moved out after Mick’s roommates and other tenants complained.

Our set list evolved over time from lighter rock sounds (The Beatles, Buffalo Springfield) to sounds with a harder edge, while still retaining some strong vocal harmonies (CSN&Y, Gypsy). Fan favorites included:

• Sympathy for the Devil – The Rolling Stones
• I’m Your Captain – Grand Funk Railroad
• Southern Man – Neil Young
• Medley of songs from Tommy – The Who
• Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da  (featuring Steve on kazoo!) – The Beatles
• Suite: Judy Blue Eyes – Crosby Stills & Nash
• Nights in White Satin – The Moody Blues
• and, of course, Stairway to Heaven (which we were playing prior to it getting any radio airplay) – Led Zeppelin
  

Mike playing at Nirvana's final gig, 1972

Our gigs were predominantly in western Wisconsin, western and northern Minnesota, and northern Iowa.  Although we were booked by Alpha Productions in Burnsville, MN, only a small percentage of our gigs were actually in the Twin Cities area.  We played a lot of out-state school dances, small town clubs, and private parties, averaging $150 – $200 per night.  Sadly, local bands in small clubs today probably make about the same (not inflation adjusted).

The original Nirvana remained together until our final gig on October 28, 1972.  Mick’s wedding and my college graduation/future career aspirations broke up the original group. Nirvana continued for another couple years(?) with Tim Moeller taking over on lead guitar and Mike Pantera (followed by Bob Knudtson) taking over on drums.  I was happily able to sit in with the band on a few occasions when Mike or Bob wasn’t available. 

Then there's the part of your musical history with my dad et al. How did Peace of Mind/Mike Joncas & Co./Chord City come together? What did/do you enjoy most about it?

While I was playing with Nirvana, I kept in touch with former high school classmates (Dan Westmoreland, Jim Hugo, and your dad, John Finnegan) with whom I had played “folkier” music in high school.  Post-high school, John had also remained close friends with Mike Joncas, who was a year younger than us. Mike was already a prolific songwriter even then, so while attending St. Thomas College, many students began following his music.

My exposure to playing with John, Jim, Dan, and Mike began not long after my wedding in 1973.  Along with Joe Van Slyke, these friends all sang together at my wedding to Bobbi Finnegan (your aunt, John’s sister) and shortly thereafter we began rehearsing for a concert to be held at St. Catherine’s College in April 1974.

Over the course of the next eighteen months, billed as Peace of Mind, we played additional concerts at St. Thomas, Augsburg College, St. Mary’s in Winona, MN, St. Joseph’s Parish Community, and an event in Grand Forks, ND, organized by a friend of the group.

The Peace of Mind Lineup

• Mike Joncas – Piano, Guitar, Vocals
• John Finnegan – Guitar, Vocals
• Dan Westmoreland – Guitar, Vocals
• Jim Hugo – Bass Guitar, Vocals (1974/1975)
• Mike Deeney – Drums, Vocals
• Joe Van Slyke – Guest Vocals (1974)
• Susie Joncas – Guest Vocals (1974/1975)
• Marcia Westmoreland – Guest Vocals (1975)
• Doug Hall – Bass Guitar (1975)

As post-graduate work and careers took over, formal musical productions became less frequent.  Mike Joncas re-entered the Catholic Seminary and the rest of us took “some time off.”

Chord City, 1982
(Left to right: John Finnegan, Dan Westmoreland,
Jim Hugo, Mike)

In the early ‘80’s, Dan’s work included responsibility for the music ministry at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Minnetonka, MN. That gave us (sans Mike Joncas) a chance to “get the band back together” to perform for a number of benefit concerts over the next fifteen years.  The name “Chord City” was eventually born as Dan’s daughter Annie tried to navigate the rehearsal space in their basement while exclaiming “It looks like cord city down here!”

The music performed by Peace of Mind and Chord City was quite a bit different than the hard-driving rock that I played with Nirvana in the early ‘70’s.  While rock is in my roots, the easy-listening songs that I played in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s fit more with the audiences for our shows that filled the college and parish auditoriums.  

Moving from Grand Funk Railroad and The Rolling Stones to James Taylor and the Eagles required easing up a bit on volume and speed while continuing to maintain a strong underlying tempo, moving focus from instruments to harmonies.  Being able to hear the vocals was a pleasant change from Nirvana’s loud volume.

So I'm clearly missing big parts of your musical history in my questions. What groups or projects are we missing? Any particular favorites among the lot?

In the early 2000’s, I was invited by Jim Hugo to join the “house band” at the St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper where he worked.  Yesterday’s News was true to its name, performing songs from the ‘60’s for company functions, as well as the occasional wedding reception or private party.  This was a very easy gig to slip into, since we played music from my youth – songs that I already knew by heart.  All the music was great fun to sing and play, with female vocalists, plenty of Motown, and terrific three and four-part harmonies.

The group eventually disbanded as layoffs at the newspaper made it difficult to continue (i.e., we lost our rehearsal space).

The Yesterday’s News Lineup

• Jeff Noble – Keyboards
• Dana Davis – Vocals
• Larry May – Lead Guitar
• Rick Shefchik – Rhythm Guitar, Vocals
• Libby Ungar – Vocals
• Jim Hugo – Bass Guitar
• Mike Deeney – Drums, Vocals

While Chord City was performing easy listening rock with me on drums, I was also leading the “contemporary” music group at Most Holy Trinity Church in St. Louis Park, MN.  This enabled me to pull out my old guitar and trade up to a Yamaha acoustic for a better sound and cleaner fretboard.  Our group varied in size throughout the seventeen years that we were together, but over that time I was able to improve my (rhythm) guitar skills substantially. (I still can’t play lead guitar!). I think that the countless weddings that Dan, Jim, John, and I played over the years prepared me for this long-term gig.

Today, I still have an electronic drum kit set up in my basement and my Yamaha acoustic guitar on a stand at-the-ready.  I wish that I played them more – and I should play them more!

Most memorable gig(s)? Can be good, bad, or weird.

Over the course of 50+ years, all the gigs seem to run together.  Transportation, however, sometimes was the differentiator.

One memorable trip to western Minnesota (Granite Falls, I think) began with a fender bender on I-94 between Minneapolis and St. Paul when our bus was rear-ended by a Tastee Bread truck.  This created a long travel delay for which we were not prepared.  It pushed us into a rush hour departure and resulted in us being late to our gig.  Without cell phones or venue contact information, we couldn’t contact anyone.  Not only were we late for load-in and set-up, we were also late for the start of our show!  Even worse, the event was a high school prom!  Sheepishly, we entered the auditorium where the students had gathered and were dancing sadly to the sounds of a record player.  After a few tense moments, the gracious students offered to help load-in and we all attempted to make the best of the rest of their night.  All’s well that ends well?

Snowstorms, traffic tickets, running out of gas, and getting lost all made getting to and from gigs in the early ‘70’s a real adventure. 

Peanut butter: crunchy or smooth? If neither, what fills the role of peanut butter in your life?

I don’t think that I eat much peanut butter anymore – not since that 1971 week in Virginia, MN.  Occasionally crunchy on toast, however. 

So we're on a nonprofit board together. How did you become involved with DEMO (Diverse Emerging Music Organization)? What are DEMO's current projects?

Steve McClellan – DEMO’s Artistic Director and former General Manager at First Avenue – and I were in high school together freshman year at Nazareth Hall in Arden Hills, MN.  We didn’t stay in contact after he transferred to De La Salle in Minneapolis for his sophomore year, however.

We picked up again after Steve left First Avenue and began focusing on DEMO.  I responded to a call for volunteers at a DEMO-sponsored event and reconnected with Steve.  I learned that he has a treasure-trove of band files and memorabilia from his First Avenue days, and I offered to help him with sorting through and cataloging all that history.

What began as a labor of love has turned into my current role as Treasurer of the organization.

What excites you most about working with DEMO? Please feel free to shamelessly plug the organization. I'll even include the donation link when this post goes live.

I’m very excited about how DEMO is working to blend opportunities for local musicians to promote their music with the need to provide a permanent archive of original local recordings to ensure that they don’t get lost as time goes by.  Our current space at the iconic former White Castle building in south Minneapolis will permit us to offer “in-store” performance opportunities to local artists promoting their latest releases, a drop-in/drop-off location for artists contributing their recordings to the Minnesota Music Archive, and a museum space to display some of Steve McClellan’s personal collection of memorabilia.

As a non-profit corporation, DEMO relies on donations for its existence.  Interested members of the community can learn more about DEMO and the Minnesota Music Archive Project by visiting www.demomn.org and archive.demomn.org.

Anything you'd like to add?

Thinking back over 55+ years of my music experience, I realize how important a music archive can be.  We have very few photos of Nirvana and have live recordings (with inconsistent quality) of only four gigs.  We were broke and skimped on what now would seem to have been standard expenses.  For example, rather than buy enough reel-to-reel tape for an entire four-hour show, we cut out some songs and between-song banter to keep tape expenses down – and only recorded four shows.  Additionally, cameras were not as ubiquitous as they are today, and film processing was an expense that we chose not to incur, so very few pictures exist of the band.

Even in later bands, we didn’t focus on creating an archive of our work.  Though we have some decent quality recordings of Peace of Mind (five concerts), there are very few photos of the group or those events.  There is one video of a Chord City concert and some photos, but that only came after the advent of home video recorders.  I’m only aware of one audio recording of Yesterday’s News, and there are very few pictures.

Nirvana in Virginia, MN, 1971

All of this has reinforced the importance of what DEMO is doing with the creation of the Minnesota Music Archive.  Although the music Nirvana, Chord City, and Yesterday’s News played would not qualify as “originals” for the Archive, the original music of Mike Joncas performed by Peace of Mind would likely be a fit.  

In summary, we – and by “we,” I mean Minnesota’s independent musicians – will lose the ability to reconnect with and preserve our musical past without our own personal archives (or the Minnesota Music Archive) to help bring back those memories.

A final thought: Minnesota music is a small world.  There is literally one degree of separation between members of the community.  In my life, for example, my grade-school friend Gregg Inhofer and Mick Thielen went to school together in Onamia, MN, and formed a band called “The Guys.”  Gregg later went on to form Pepper Fog with his high-school friends, and ultimately tour with Olivia Newton-John, record with Bob Dylan, and play alongside nearly every Twin Cities musician since.  When Mick moved to the Twin Cities, we connected in college and formed Nirvana.  Local musicians all seem to be able to find at least one musician friend in common.

An additional final thought:  This has been the “rock ‘n roll” part of the interview.  The “sex & drugs” piece?  No comment.

Spontaneous human combustion.  Thoughts?

As a drummer, I have always been worried about the potential for spontaneous human combustion and have searched for flame-retardant Rockstar apparel to no avail.  Sigh…