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THE AUTHOR

Dr. L. Jerry McDowell is a 1968 graduate of Wake Forest University with a B.S. Degree in mathematics; a 1969 graduate of Duke University with a Masters of the Arts in Teaching; a 1977 graduate of University of North Carolina with a Principal's Certificate in Education; and finally a 1986 graduate of Duke University with a Doctorate in Education.


Everything You Didn't Want to Know About My Music Career

In addition to his genealogy research, Jerry McDowell is a professional musician, and music arranger with over 40 years of active experience. Outside of a 30 year career in education, Jerry has been performing since the elementary school years. In high school, he and his band won a national contest for best up and coming folk musicians. In college, he was part of a 4-person band who performed in Germany with the USO governmental programs. He was the lead soloist and guitarist for a big band in the 1970s and backed up Anita Byant and others. He was a member of a rock band called Nightlife from 1975-1982 performing all across North Carolina and frequently at Hound Ears, Boone, NC. He was part of a Christian touring and recording group called Vision Unlimited in the mid 1980s. He performed in a duet with a young lady named Carol Karshenas from 1990-1997. He served as the contemporary worship leader at Saint Andrews Presbyterian Church from 1995-2000, Grace Community Church from 2000-2007, and Restoration Church 2011-2016. From 2007-2024, he has been playing guitar and singing in local country clubs and other venues with a young, talented female vocalist Blair Dougher Holland. Jerry is an accomplished acoustic guitarist, bassist, pianist, and singer.

Over the past several years, Jerry has made a more proactive approach to contacting his former folk singing buddies from Wake Forest University days. A gentleman named George Grove was in the 4-person band who performed in Germany mentioned above. After college, in the mid 1970s, George went on the became an active member of the Kingston Trio and performed with them for 41 years. In 2017, George and the tenor Rick Dougherty formed a new group called the Folk Legacy Trio. They've been on the road doing concerts ever since with a new lead singer Jerry Siggins, a former member of the Diamonds doo-wop group. Last year, Jerry had the opportunity of a lifetime to go on a mid-west tour with them. His portion of the tour included 9 concerts over 15 days and 6 states. In this role, Jerry was playing an acoustic bass guitar [not a standup double bass]. What a dream of a lifetime that was. Hopefully there's more to come down the road.


The Bop-Teens

When I was about 12 years old, my brother Keith McDowell and I formed a pop group with several other individuals, some of whom lived on our street with us. We used to play at the Center Theatre in High Point on Saturday mornings at the Talent Round Up Show. It was a 30 minute program that was broadcast on the local WMFR radio station in High Point. As thanks for the performing, each time we performed we got a free one month pass to the theatre for any movie that was showing. Needless to say, during those early years, I went to a lot of movies free because we'd try to play at least once a month. We actually had a "professional" glossy picture made of the group. Here I am about 12 years old. Brother Keith is holding the electric guitar on the bottom right of the picture.

Bop-Teens


The Ambassadors

Somewhere around my junior high school years, my brother and I met up with a young man named Larry Head. For some reason, our parents let us go with Larry to the all night gospel singings around the High Point area. This was during the stime of the original Blackwood Brothers with JD Sumner, The Statesmen, The Blue Ridge Boys, etc. Later, we formed with Buddy Sale and pianist Joe Walker a "men's quartet." My brother dropped out shortly thereafter and we remained singing as a trio for several years. We performed in churches in the area and made a 33 1/3 rpm album that I still have. I sang the baritone. It was a great way to get my gospel music roots.

Ambassadors


The Crestwoods

Around my Sophomore year in high school, my brother Keith, once again, got me interested in Peter, Paul, and Mary. I learned to finger pick the acoustic guitar and shortly thereafter formed a folk trio we called The Back of the Bus Four - there was a fourth person for a period of time but he graduated. We formed from members of the Green Street Baptist Church Choir that had gone on tour and illness of a tenor prompted us to work out songs on the back of the bus getting to the churches. One of our first songs was "Greenfields" by the Brothers Four. We played for about two years and added Roger Taylor as a second guitarist and Bob Cummings on the bass. We had an adult male sponsor/manager and recorded two 45 rpms that we sold at our events around High Point. We were offered to play an entire summer gig at a resort near Hound Ears, NC, but the original three of us needed money to start college and we turned it down. We always wonder, "what if ..." David Austic and Curtis Collins were my two best friends in the trio.

Crestwoods


The Foresters

After high school, I entered Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC. I had met George Grove during my senior year in high school. He was a year behind me; but, by the time I was a Sophomore, George had enrolled at Wake Forest. Shortly thereafter during my junior year, we formed a folk group with Grady Eggers on bass and Pat Brown on vocals. Obviously, we had the perfect format to play all those PP&M songs I had learned in high school. We auditioned for and were selected to go the Germany in the summer of 1967 under the auspices of the USO with the military and sing for 8 weeks for the servicemen. We were gone about 60 days but we performed 72 concerts in 50 of those days; Tuesdays were a day off. The last several weeks of our summer adventure, we performed two concerts a day, hence the total of 72. That was a fun experience. We play during my senior year 1967-68 and then basically disbanded as Grady, Pat, and I graduated and started our careers.

 

Foresters


Winterwood

After graduating from Wake Forest, I began a teaching career in the Wake County Public School System, Raleigh, NC. I taught for 11 years and then transitioned to an administrative postive in the central office. However, during my high school teaching years in 1972-74, I worked together with two of my students Glynn Rose and Jane Moon performing folk rock music. I had helped Glynn with some finger-picking patterns and taught them both the old folk and folk rock songs. Occasionally, my friend Grady Eggers from college days would come down and join us on bass and sometimes we had a drummer Kim Brookshire. We played around Raleigh at the Frog and Nightgown and other special activities, which included one at the Governor's Mansion. At the end of 1974, Glynn and Jane graduated and it wasn't possible to keep the group going; besides, my wife and I were starting a family in 1975 as well. Priorities changed.

 

Winterwood


Night Life

Not long after Winterwood shut down, I got back up with my friend Grady Eggers and Jane Moon from Winterwood and Kim Brookshire, who had occasionally played drums with Winterwood, and Bob Smith. Grady was the band director at Reynolds High School in Winston-Salem and Bob was the choral director. Kim was a student under Grady. We formed a rock band called Night Life and from about 1975-1982 we performed in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. During those years we played many jobs up at Hound Ears in the mountains of North Carolina. Funny how things circle around; 10 years earlier the high school folk group had auditioned there. During those years, Grady moved to Boone, NC and along the way, we lost Bob to a heart attack and picked up another pianist. We played a lot of jobs. But, around 1980-82, I was back in school at Duke working on my Doctorate in Education and our son was 5 years old and our daughter was 6 1/2. Driving to Boone at Hound Ears for a 9 pm - 1 am job at Hound Ears on Saturday night and then driving back home for church with the family on Sunday mornings just got too taxing for my body and I stopped my work with Night Life. But, we all remained great friends.

 

NightLife


Vision Unlimited

It appears that I wasn't through with my gospel routes. Around 1982, I got back together with Jane Moon McKinney from Winterwood and Night Life and her husband Joe McKinney and we formed a gospel trio. We purchased and created tracks to sing with. We even went to a "major studio" and recorded an album that we produced only in cassette form. The picture included here comes from that cassette. We managed to sing around the Greensboro area for several years before they moved to Texas and of course that was the end of the trio. What next?

 

Vision Unlimited


Carol and Jerry

In the latter part of the 1980s, through a former band member I had worked with in the early 1970s, I met Carol Karshenas. She was a talented vocalist and pianist. We decided to form a duo and we created our own background tracks. I started learning MIDI technology and how to voice various instruments to create the tracks that were played through a Sony MIDI recorder/player. Carol and I played around the area until the mid 1990s and enjoyed our time together. The duo came to an end in the year 1995 when my 18-year-old daughter Susan died and lots of things changed. You see her picture in the upper left corner of the banner across the top of this web page.

 

Carol and Jerry


Contemporary Church Music, The Caroling Party, and Colossal Nerve

About the same time my daughter died in 1995, I started being the director of contemporary music at Saint Andrews Presbyterian Church in Raleigh while still working fulltime as an administrator in the Wake County Public School Systme. In 2000, the church split over issues regarding contemporary music and Presybtery of NC. I went with the contemporary split off which contained around 1200 members. My time there lasted until 2007 and I decided I needed a break. However, in 2011, I rejoined a third church which broke off from the second and ran with the contemporary music with a super friend for about 5 years. So much happened in all those years I've just chosen one picture of the band taken from a summer concert we did. I'm in the middle with a special person hugging my neck. I'll come back to her below.

I met a great gentleman named Mike Wilkerson back in the 1997 timeframe while doing my first contemporary church work at Saint Andrews. He formed two different groups outside of the church venue. He came to Raleigh from Chicago where he had been caroling at Christmas for years. He brought the name Caroling Party to Raleigh and we formed a Caroling Party which mainly consisted on members from the church band and choir and several "outside the church" members. Every year in late November, we'd rehearse and prepare for our caroling gigs of which some years there were many. Of course, this was all A Capella singing and we loved it. Mike eventually was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease and had to stop performing and also moved to Florida. There's a caroling picture shown, but Mike wasn't in this one.

In addition to the Caroling Party, some of the same members with Mike also formed a contemporary A Cappel group called Colossal Nerve. We sang a lot of music in the style of Manhatten Transfer and stayed active from the same time period as the Caroling Party did. My friend Mike is on the right; he's now deceased from complications with Parkinson's.

 

Contemporary Church Band

Caroling Party

Colossal Nerve


The JFG Trio

Somewhere in the 2005-2010 timeframe, I started playing electric bass with Julie Florin on the keys and husband Greg Florin on drums. We were just looking for something a little different. Julie was the original pianist with my contemporary church band and we have known each other since 1994. She had many musical and theatrical contacts having worked with NC State and other local theatrical productions. I even sat in on acoustic guitar for "Biggest Little Whorehouse in Texas" and for "Grease"; and I transcribed a number of scores for her to use with her work. We had fun for a few years doing some trio work.

 

JFG Trio


Blair and Jerry

Around 1997, a friend a church came up to me suggesting that I audition a young lady named Blair Dougher for a vocal position in the contemporary church band. She said she had a great voice - wow, did she ever. She joined the band and sang with me in all three of the different churches with the contemporary band and together we led the band in the third church. Around 2007, this same friend who had introduced Blair to me was getting married and asked Blair to sing "Over the Rainbow" for her outdoor wedding. Blair came over to the house and I listened to Eva Cassidy's version and it fit my style perfectly. Our friend's wedding was the first time we sang together as a duet. We put together a repertoire and began playing a wine cellars, country clubs, private parties, etc. We still occasionally play for special events. She's now married with two young, beautiful daughters, so her priorities have changed. But, I still enjoy making music with her.

 

Blair and Jerry


The Carolina Moondogs

It seems like 8-10 years ago, my good friend Terry Blalock asked me to sit in with is big band The Carolina Moondogs. I was playing in electric guitar and singing lead and backup vocals. About two years ago, the regular electric guitarist decided to retire. Terry called and invited me to join the band full time. I was honored to join them; there are some really great musicians in this band. Over the past several years, the band has become more pop, rock, Motown, and beach music rather than big band style. That actually fits my skills better. The outdoor picture was taken at a gig up near Martinsville, VA a few years ago. The other picture was taken at a wedding reception near Southern Pines in an old, but very nice barn. I'm playing my red, Fender Stratocaster these days with the band. It's a lot of fun and I still enjoy performing.

 

Carolina Moondogs

Blair and Jerry


The Folk Legacy Trio

Remember my good friend George Grove who play in The Foresters during college in the 1960s? Well, we circle around again. George played for The Kingston Trio for 41 years until 2017. Legal issues over the copyright of the name "Kingston Trio" required he and the tenor Rick Dougherty to form a new group called The Folk Legacy Trio. And wouldn't you know it, our old college double bass player Grady Eggers started playing bass for them. I kept telling George that if he ever needed a bass player, please let me know. A series of events happened last June 2023 where I had to fill in for Grady in a concert in Richmond, VA. Later in October 2023, Grady played the part of a 22 concert tour and I played the last 9 concerts. That was 15 days, 6 states and 9 concerts. It was a dream of a lifetime. Here's a picture from tour with me on my acoustic bass guitar during concert with them. I hope to get back out again with them when it fits their schedule. Folk and folk rock music have always been my forte so this is indeed fun.

 

Folk Legacy Trio