Faculty and staff who love to play

Dreams of being a rock star die hard. Baby boomers came of age when music celebrities were steeped in media coverage (among other things)—an era that surely put stars in the eyes of more than a few young crooners, strummers, and drummers. fyi recently talked with a number of faculty and staff who, even while juggling their grownup responsibilities, still manage to sustain passion for the music of their youth—and for making music of their own. These musicians have put together bands made up of family, friends, and coworkers. And while their bands might never make records that define an era or go platinum, that’s hardly enough to stop them from pursuing a seemingly endless romance with music and performance.

They’re pickin’ and grinnin’ and creatin’ Acoustic Mayhem: Iowa-grown bluegrass

Margaret Brumm shares the stage at Java House in downtown Iowa City with Acoustic Mayhem mandolin player and UI professor Rick Dehn. Acoustic Mayhem, a bluegrass band, frequently plays live from the studios of Iowa radio stations. Photo by Tom Jorgensen.

It’s the kind of success that might tempt any musician into thinking bigger fame must be right around the corner, Margaret Brumm says.

“Our day jobs get in the way,” she says wistfully. “Time—it’s the baby boomer curse.”

Brumm, a registration clerk in the UI Registrar’s Office, plays violin with band. On stage, she trades song solos with mandolin player Rick Dehn, assistant director of the Physician Assistant Program in the Carver College of Medicine.

“I love my work,” Dehn says. “But music is something I’ve done longer than anything else besides breathing.”

The rest of Acoustic Mayhem includes Brumm’s husband, Loren, a building inspector for the City of Iowa City, on guitar; Pat Schroder, an educational programmer, on upright bass; and Mike Haverkamp, an administrator with the Iowa City Community School District, on banjo.

Between day-job duties and household responsibilities, band members seldom have time to get together to practice their song list, according to Dehn. Rehearsal happens live, as the band plays a radio show from the UI campus or in front of a swirling crowd of dancers in a barn.

“It’s all just a lot of good fun—plain and simple,” Dehn says. “Some people like spending their weekends swinging a club on the fairway. I like spending mine in an old barn full of people doing the promenade and swinging their partners round and round. I couldn’t ask for a better time.”

Tapping into blues power with the Tornadoes

Dan Berkowitz, UI professor and Tornadoes bass player, says he started playing music at the age of 12, on a plastic guitar. Photo by Tom Jorgensen.

Rich Paterson doesn’t make much from his work with a five-piece blues combo called the Tornadoes. For a typical night at an area watering hole, he can expect to take home just enough to invest in upgrades to the band’s equipment.

“I’ve been playing gigs for 30 years, and the money hasn’t changed in that time,” says Paterson, administrative assistant in the UI Power Plant and drummer for the Tornadoes.

Members of the Tornadoes also include Jim Rossen, associate professor of internal medicine in the cardiovascular division of the Carver College of Medicine, on harp and vocals; Bob Goffstein, retired ophthalmologist from Mercy Hospital in Iowa City, on guitar; and Dan Berkowitz, associate professor of journalism and mass communication in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, on bass.

Money isn’t the driving force behind the Tornadoes, according to Berkowitz.

“We belong to a generation with a strong affinity for music,” Berkowitz says.

Having met at local blues jams, Berkowitz and the band have been performing regularly at clubs throughout Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, and Des Moines since 1997. The Tornadoes’ repertoire includes classic electric blues, with songs by Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Little Walter, Robert Cray, B.B. King, Little Charlie & the Nightcats, and the Fabulous Thunderbirds. They have a CD out called Blowin’ Thru Town.

“When I first came to Iowa City, my priority was raising my kids,” Berkowitz says. “Like many of my generation, I gave up music for a time to do the things I was supposed to do to become a grownup. That’s as it should be. But without a creative outlet of some kind, I think I began to feel like something was missing. For me—and for the rest of the band—that something was music. Now we’ve got it back.”

Crow, Byrds, Turks, and more: Lazyboy’s ambition rests in big song list

Pediatrics professor Paul McCray (far left) and Iowa City realtor Kevin Hanick (third from left) founded Lazyboy and the Recliners more than 10 years ago. Sharing the stage with McCray and Hanick in this photo from a Friday Night Concert in downtown Iowa City last summer are some of the current regular band members: (left to right) research scientist John Kramer on bass; psychiatry professor John Bayless on drums; research scientist Bahri Karacay on saz; and Jack Stapleton, professor of internal medicine, on guitar. Regular members not shown are UI nursing student Ann Aschoff and UIHC nurse Larry Mossman. UI President David Skorton (far right) made a guest appearance on sax and flute. Photo by Kirk Murray.

Six members of Lazyboy work on the University’s health sciences campus.

Larry Mossman, a staff nurse at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, plays mandolin. The UI Carver College of Medicine is home to five other band members: Paul McCray, professor of pediatrics, plays guitar and is one of the founding fathers of the band. Jack Stapleton, professor and interim director of the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Internal Medicine, also plays guitar. John Kramer, associate research scientist in psychiatry, plays bass. John Bayless, clinical associate professor of psychiatry, plays drums and guitar. Bahri Karacay, assistant research scientist in pediatrics, plays saz, a Turkish guitar-like stringed instrument.

Karacay has a spin-off band, Turkana, that features various Lazyboy members (all of them UI faculty and staff).

Guest musicians often make an appearance with Lazyboy. This past summer in a Friday Night Concert gig in downtown Iowa City’s pedestrian mall, UI President David Skorton joined the band on flute and sax. Lazy children (offspring of the band members) occasionally sit in on fiddle and vocals.

With at least eight members in its usual lineup, Lazyboy and the Recliners is bigger than your average rock band, according to Ann Aschoff.

Aschoff is a singer with the band. A former University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics nurse, Aschoff now studies as a full-time student in the College of Nursing’s Family Nurse Practitioner Program. She shares the microphone with Iowa City realtor Kevin Hanick, who helped Paul McCray start the band more than a decade ago.

The size of the band supports a diverse musical repertoire of acoustic and electric material, Aschoff says. The band covers everyone from Van Morrison to Richard Thompson, Sunvolt, Sheryl Crow, and Tim O’Brien to the Byrds.

Lazyboy even plays Turkish folk music.

“Playing in the band is a chance to get those creative juices flowing, and to clear the mind of work-related issues,” Stapleton says. “While we don’t take our music overly seriously, we do try and have fun and play some interesting music.”

Whether they’re performing with their children or a university president, the experience is always invigorating, according to bass player Kramer.

“It connects me to my youth,” Kramer says. “When I pick up my bass guitar, I find a pipeline straight to my past. There’s nothing else like it.”

stories by Raychel Kolen