Around 1982 I got a cold call from a guy named John McGale. I had been dabbling in guitar modifications and painting guitars (thanks to that job at the piano rebuilder shop). He introduced himself and asked if I would be interested in helping him out by designing and building a tiny part he wanted for one of his guitars. I was really surprised and wondered where the heck he had heard of me building guitar parts! I remember the guitar well…it was an OLIVO…hard to find..and John had TWO! It was a cool idea and I jumped at the chance. I didn’t know John but I sure knew his band when he mentioned that he was the guitar player with OFFENBACH. I was 21 at the time and still living at my mom’s house. I built the part and John popped over to inspect it and he was happy with it. He invited me to an OFFENBACH show as his guest and we became friends.
As time went on we spent a little more time together and at one point John said that he wanted to start playing small solo shows when OFFENBACH was not touring and asked if I would be interested in playing with him. I was again surprised and we started putting a repertoire together. We found lots of common ground as John was an excellent guitarist and singer and had a very wide variety of songs and I also had a very wide list and those lists crossed over really well. We weren’t sure what format we would base our duo on…two acoustic guitars for sure but we dabbled with a little electric guitar, a little pedal steel, a little mandolin, a little banjo…there wasn’t much we didn’t try. Our first gig was at LE DOS BLANC. John invited his friend and bandmate BREEN LEBOEUF as well as APRIL WINE drummer JERRY MERCER to join us. All of a sudden I was standing on a tiny stage in a tiny venue playing with international rock stars.
The Formula
LE DOS BLANC went really well and John and I decided to continue on. We decided that for simplicity’s sake we would only use two acoustic guitars and we would both sing lead. This way we would only have a minimum of gear to move around. John already owned two small sound systems and I owned a pickup truck to move the stuff from gig to gig. Soon enough John had bought a pickup too. We had no expenses. John was very industrious and knew everybody so he skipped on the bookers and HE was booking us himself. We were a completely self contained unit.
We discovered in short order that we were onto an excellent formula…two guys who could sing AND play well…and John played really well. I had never worked with a musician of that proficiency before. His lead work was astounding and his rhythm playing was great…I had a strong rhythm and we would freely toss solos back and forth with simply a look. In fact we discovered that we played better if we DIDN’T rehearse. There was a spontaneity that I had never experienced. We never needed a setlist because we would just read the crowd and call songs…even if the other guy didn’t know it…we’d play it anyway, leaning on the other to lead the way and filling in. By the end of the song…we’d both know the song. With that kind of attitude and that kind of fearlessness…nothing seemed impossible. If I thought my previous bands worked hard…THIS band worked at hyper speed. We played all the time…and everywhere. John booked us and hilariously even had us double-booked sometimes. Yeah…we worked hard, we partied hard, we made tons of money and most importantly we got along really well and despite all the traveling it never seemed like work…and it lasted for years weaving our duo in and out while one or both of us were performing with bigger bands. It was also during this time that I became the drum technician for OFFENBACH hired by Kent Bonkoff of LITTLE STICK who was already the guitar technician for John.
Sittin’ In
John and I were playing a lot and always getting better and incorporating songs that many other acoustic acts wouldn’t dare try but we were too busy having fun to care! One of the things we did often was to invite other musicians to sit in with us and we had a long list who did. Among that list were Jerry Mercer of APRIL WINE, Brian Greenway also of APRIL WINE, Breen Leboeuf of OFFENBACH, Kent Bonkoff, and a long list of others. I believe our favorite collaborators were two musicians named Rocky Rogers and John “Sam” Samborsky.
Rocky & Sam
John and I were both fans of BLUEGRASS music and we learned of a small club in Montreal called THE BLUE ANGEL where every monday night they featured a “BLUEGRASS NIGHT” hosted by THE OLD TIME COUNTRY MUSIC CLUB OF CANADA. The two hosts of this weekly event were Bob Fuller and Jeanie Arsenault. They had attracted quite a few fans and players who would take the stage in various formations over the night each musician playing several tunes and then abandoning his spot to another player. John and I loved going to those monday night jam sessions as often as we could and even joined the band occasionally.
One night while at THE BLUE ANGEL John and I had a brainstorm. Seeing as we routinely played a couple of bluegrass tunes in our repertoire already, we thought maybe we could create a bluegrass band with a bit of a modern twist a la NEWGRASS REVIVAL. We approached DOBRO player Rocky Rogers and DOUBLE BASS player John “Sam” Samborsky to see if they would join us in a little venture. They knew us only by reputation and not really very much but cheerfully jumped on board. So John and I honed our skills and enlarged our bluegrass repertoire and I incorporated some banjo and John some mandolin. In typical McGale & Smallwood fashion we started booking clubs and a few festivals right away. John and I didn’t care that we weren’t purists in the genre, we just wanted to have fun…and fun we had. So John McGale, Jeff Smallwood with Rocky and Sam was born. We stuck pretty close to a setlist to accommodate Rocky and Sam but we’d throw a few curve balls in and they would happily hang on tight to make it through the tunes. Rocky and Sam were the most lovable and charming guys that ever graced our stage!
Yeah…John McGale had a huge impact on my life and we’re still friends to this day and we occasionally still play together. When we first met I was 21.