I was the bass player for The New Coachmen. The story for this film might not rank with The Ten Commandeents, but for a 19 year old, it was great fun to be part of the process of creating an independent film. I did the bass intro for Vince Martin on "Drop a Pebble".
The story and music were written by Carl Yale who, along with his brother Roger Yale, managed "The Coffeehouse" on Douglas Road and "The Hootenanny Coffeehouse" out on Bird Road in Miami. They were British comedians who made their fortunes in the Paladium in London or so the story went.
The New Coachmen consisted of Jeff Van de Mark on 12 string guitar (the tallest of us), Dick Caron on banjo (now a math PhD at the University of Central Florida, and Georg Wolf our lead singer who was born in Germany and added an international flavor to our play lists. Dick is still actively teaching and Jeff is somewhere in NC the last time I contacted him. Georg was killed in an auto accident in Sept 1964 (I think) after which our group broke up.
I went on to do a three week gig with Oz Bach at a hotel coffeehouse called "The Lion's Den" somewhere in Hallendale. Later I did a season at The Riverview Restaurant in Deerfield Beach FL before joining the U.S. Air Force for a 22 1/2 year career. Oz also went into the USAF, but I have been unable to track his career as yet, but I am not giving up.
I have been in contact with Fred and Ellen Berney, the producers, as well as Dottie Holmberg of The Goldebriars. It should be noted that there were many groups and singles performing in this film and all had their own paths and successes. The process of working with the filming crew and director has had a long lasting affect on me in my professional endeavors. Fred and his brother Warren Berney, who co-produced the film, gave us a magnificent opportunity to be part of it. I still have a few photos I took behind the scenes, including a very good one of Karen Thorsel as she was thinking to herself between shots one afternoon.
Carl and Roger Yale had a saying about entertainers - there are only two places to be, on top where you can enjoy the freely available incomes, or on the bottom where you can get conveniently out - there is no middle ground. I took that advise to heed and have enjoyed the best of both worlds.
The other commenters who talked about a taste of the coffeehouse culture of the late 1950s to the mid 1960s were right on target. It was a special world which went away for a while, but I have to say, the genre is still going strong all over the country. And with the advent of the Internet and especially the Web 2.0 growth, many of those people are given credit through various web sites for their life contributions no matter what they were.
Many thanks to Fred and Warren Berney and their father for making the film possible.
The story and music were written by Carl Yale who, along with his brother Roger Yale, managed "The Coffeehouse" on Douglas Road and "The Hootenanny Coffeehouse" out on Bird Road in Miami. They were British comedians who made their fortunes in the Paladium in London or so the story went.
The New Coachmen consisted of Jeff Van de Mark on 12 string guitar (the tallest of us), Dick Caron on banjo (now a math PhD at the University of Central Florida, and Georg Wolf our lead singer who was born in Germany and added an international flavor to our play lists. Dick is still actively teaching and Jeff is somewhere in NC the last time I contacted him. Georg was killed in an auto accident in Sept 1964 (I think) after which our group broke up.
I went on to do a three week gig with Oz Bach at a hotel coffeehouse called "The Lion's Den" somewhere in Hallendale. Later I did a season at The Riverview Restaurant in Deerfield Beach FL before joining the U.S. Air Force for a 22 1/2 year career. Oz also went into the USAF, but I have been unable to track his career as yet, but I am not giving up.
I have been in contact with Fred and Ellen Berney, the producers, as well as Dottie Holmberg of The Goldebriars. It should be noted that there were many groups and singles performing in this film and all had their own paths and successes. The process of working with the filming crew and director has had a long lasting affect on me in my professional endeavors. Fred and his brother Warren Berney, who co-produced the film, gave us a magnificent opportunity to be part of it. I still have a few photos I took behind the scenes, including a very good one of Karen Thorsel as she was thinking to herself between shots one afternoon.
Carl and Roger Yale had a saying about entertainers - there are only two places to be, on top where you can enjoy the freely available incomes, or on the bottom where you can get conveniently out - there is no middle ground. I took that advise to heed and have enjoyed the best of both worlds.
The other commenters who talked about a taste of the coffeehouse culture of the late 1950s to the mid 1960s were right on target. It was a special world which went away for a while, but I have to say, the genre is still going strong all over the country. And with the advent of the Internet and especially the Web 2.0 growth, many of those people are given credit through various web sites for their life contributions no matter what they were.
Many thanks to Fred and Warren Berney and their father for making the film possible.