I was born into a family of music lovers. My mother played violin, piano, and gave music lessons to the local kids – often for free. She also directed musical shows and operettas as part of her classroom teaching. My brother Mark and his wife are folk musicians. My sister Ruth played Chopin and other classical pieces on the piano, as did The Lang aunts. Uncle Walter Lang played jazz trumpet in the Kent area while in college. The Roliff uncles played and sang bluegrass music, and my father played Hawaiian guitar at one time.
When I was in third grade my mother decided it was time for me to take music lessons. The music teacher at St. Joseph’s let me try different instruments and I decided to take up the violin. I quit when he spent the next three weeks teaching me how to hold the bow. You don’t do that to an 8-year old kid. Hellsbells, I just wanted to play music, not die of boredom!
So that was the end of my music lessons in grade school.
I inherited an old warped “Stella” acoustic guitar from my dad. I bought a Nick Maniloff Spanish guitar lesson book from a music store in Ravenna and learned chords so I could accompany myself while singing. I learned harmonica, hung it around my neck, played and sang a-la Bob Dillon for some shows and plays during high school. I also dabbled with an accordion and upright bass.
One day while listening to the radio I heard this beautiful liquid sound coming from the speaker. It was Jerry Byrd playing “Hilo March” on his Rickenbacker electric Hawaiian guitar. I had never heard anything like this before. For some reason it spoke to me, and from then on I was hooked.
Hilo March – played by Gene Roliff
The guitar Jerry was using was called a fry-pan, and it looked like a frying pan. It was invented by the Rickenbacker brothers and was played with a bar while lying flat on the musician’s lap. It was supposedly the first electric guitar. Jerry went on to perfect the techniques used to play this type of instrument.
Jerry Byrd
Rickenbacker Fry Pan
These guitars were not available to us mere mortals at that time, especially mortals with no money, so I rigged up the old Stella to play as a dobro, and tried to copy the sounds I heard. I eventually acquired a used Fender double-neck steel guitar and learned to play that.
Some of the local boys decided to put a polka band together and invited me to join. We played for weddings and parties. Eventually we got a job at the Lakeview Cafe, a local bar with a questionable reputation. We played there every Saturday night for over 6 months before my mother found out. By then it was OK since I hadn’t grown horns and a pointed tail, or lost any teeth during the “Saturday night fights”, or came home with any social diseases.
The “Polkadots” L-R: Chuck Pero, George Pero, Fred Horning, Ed Horning, Gene Roliff
I was later drafted and sent to Korea. By that time I had learned to play several instruments well enough to eventually get a job as an entertainer with the U.S. Army.(See previous post).
Upon returning from the service I gave up my musical career and concentrated on raising kids, bees, completing my degrees, teaching school and being a family man. I did spend some time playing upright bass with a jazz group from Canton, OH. I only played the steel guitar occasionally with our family band which was made up of my kids and myself. Our most famous gig was playing for the “Hayseed Club”, a group of Randolph citizens who met at the town hall every month for a covered dish dinner and entertainment.
The Roliff Family Band at practice
When my children became older, I decided to again pursue my musical career. By this time the Hawaiian lap guitar had evolved into the pedal steel guitar, so I bought a black and chrome BMI double neck 20-string pedal steel guitar. It was a beautiful instrument and I played it in several “pick-up” bands, but it weighed almost 100 pounds.
BMI Double Neck Steel Guitar
After I carried that heavy guitar around for awhile I decided that I would rather play music without getting a hernia, so I put the BMI up for sale. One afternoon a preacher from Pennsylvania rolled into my driveway in his new Cadillac, pulled a large roll from his pocket, peeled off ten-100 dollar bills, and drove off with the double neck guitar. I assume my BMI is now playing “God Music” in a church somewhere in PA.
One of my friends, Joe Kline, had designed a single- neck 12 – string guitar that he was selling world-wide. It weighed under 50 pounds and would do everything I needed, so I purchased one of these.
During the summer I spent some time taking lessons from the “heavy- hitters” in Nashville.
Jeff Newman Steel Guitar School, Nashville
Buddy Emmons, Gene Roliff, Nashville
In 1980 I met a group of teen-agers with unlimited energy and talent, and we formed a band called “Midnyte Flyer”. We played Eagles, Jackson Browne, Allman Bros., and other country rock. Karen, our singer, sang Linda Ronstadt songs with a voice so beautiful it would give me the shivers! We played local clubs, dances, and shows for about two years. Musically these kids had enough talent to play anywhere in the world but lacked the maturity and desire needed to keep a band together. Eventually the guitar player married the singer, friction and disagreements occurred among members, etc, and the band broke up.
Dave Taylor, Mark Taylor, Gene Roliff, Greg Cole, Karen Henry
Midnyte Flyer – Stone Jug, Kent, OH (1981)
For the next few months I performed with several musicians and wedding bands in the Akron area.
SweetWater- John Green, Dave Mayfield, Greg Cole, Gene Roliff
Johnny Strum – Far West Lounge, Doylestown, OH
One day I was informed that the steel player for the Harvest Gold Band was leaving to take a job with a band in Nashville. This event would change my musical career forever.