04/04/2020
For all of my musician friends, as well as friends who love music, this may be the best guitar work you have never heard of from a dear friend many of you have never heard of I am honored to have this music. Side 2 will be up likely later tonight but while I have 2 albums to post, (4 videos) this is the first one that is done of my dearest friend Stan Hamm. You have to read the following paste, and then, well then, no kidding listen to some of the best guitar work you've ever heard of, but, you'll have to read the following to fully understand why this is so important. This is the first time ever this music has been made public outside of a very few individuals who had copies of the music. Now after you read all of this and listen to side 1 of Bit's and Pieces, share the heck out of it. Oh Yeah make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and you'll be the first to get notifications of when videos are completed.
Stan Hamm was as close friend as I ever had. We first met, when I, as an inner city guy moved to the tiny farming community of Hillsboro Kansas in 1979. I had a massive love affair with Larry Norman's music as well as the, unconventional Christian life. You might say I was among those early Jesus People that while coming to Jesus in my teens never grew out of being a Jesus Freak. Heck, I still have the long hair and beard.
Early on, I didn't play much music, a tad bit of harmonica, I tried to sing but hadn't crafted that skill yet, and piddled around on the bass guitar. I was in two words, pretty bad. It was as Stan and I tried to get together to "jam" one day that he brutally told me, I needed work, and man oh man was he right.
In short, Stan was the best slide guitar player and one of the best players I ever heard play at the time. Over the years I got to hear and work on some level with some greats. I took Stan's words to heart about my need to practice and worked my butt off. I started playing bass every opportunity I got, I practiced, and practiced, and still practice and in July of 2018 I was inducted into the International Blues Hall of Fame as a Great Artist from the state of Kansas. Whether I deserve that honor is another question but I am honored and I know Stan would have been proud of me. Notice I said would have, I say that for a reason.
Stan and I were such hippies in a traditional world. My wife, daughter and I, lived in Intentional Community in Hillsboro Kansas with a group of other believers from Marion Mennonite Brethren Church. The church had purchased old Tabor College dormitories and Stan, my wife and daughter lived on the top floor of South Hall. There were some 30+ individuals from the church that lived within a block or so of the dorms where 15-17 of us lived off and on. While we didn’t observe a common pot regarding sharing our finances together, we shared meals, cars, baby sitting, worship and teaching time and so much more. We were involved in small groups in a way before the concept of small groups was popularized by Willow Creek outside of Chicago. We were a close knit group of believers, living in community, and loving Jesus together.
Stan and I started doing a worship service at Tabor College along with my wife, we started up a teaching time in a contemporary non traditional way, and, we started up a jail ministry that had been closed by Abilene's Dickenson County Jails earlier due to a Tabor student, we didn't know trying to break someone out of jail that operates to this day. Stan, David Loewen, Jerry Ediger and several others visited the jail every week for some 2 - 3 years. Man the stories out of those experiences would fill a book.
As is often the case, Stan and I were so close. He struggled with traditional religion and while he was a genius at the guitar his relationship with his charismatic parents played havoc on his emotions and faith. The concept of being judged never sat well with Stan, and played havoc with his faith. I am reminded to this day of something the Bible says, "there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus."
It was in 1985 that I took a job in Greenville South Carolina as the Ministry Coordinator / Manager for Rob Cassels Band and ended up doing some booking of a lot of various bands, Christian and Non Christian. The many Christian concerts I had promoted in Kansas opened up the doors for this opportunity. Some of those I worked with and booked were among the great players of my lifetime, some in the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, but Stan? Well Stan was still one of the most fascinating guitar players I ever met, and to this day, the best slide player I ever heard.
After a number of years, I would visit Stan in Kansas. He had visited me in East Tennessee years earlier, but we kept in touch. I could tell that Stan was having more and more struggles and questions. While I couldn't diagnose or provide counseling over the phone at the time as a friend I had started working in rehab for persons with mental illness where I would eventually work for almost 20 years at some of the top programs in the country also doing consultations and certifications of facilities. As I did that work, as I spoke to Stan, I felt he had Bi-Polar disorder. He needed help, I wanted to be there to help him.
It was one night while living outside of Greenville South Carolina that I got a phone call at around 2 AM, To my surprise it was Stan. We spent some time talking. He asked about moving to South Carolina to live with us. I was ecstatic, you see you don't live in the close proximity of community like we had and not learn to love each other like a brother or sister. Such was the case for Stan. My wife and I never quit loving Stan and we were both excited about the possibility of being there for each other again.
There were some issues at Tabor for Stan. He had tried to go back to school as he had told me and because he had been living with his girlfriend, "living in sin," and they wouldn't take him back. He really struggled. I was so excited, Stan would be moving to the South to live with us and I could be there to be a brother, my wife as a sister, and we would hopefully see Stan grow back into his faith. We would conquer the demons and horrors he had fought with the charasmatic pressure and his mental illness.
At the time, while living in South Carolina I was working in Hendersonville North Carolina as the Director of a rehab facility for mentally ill adults. The Mennonite Brethren publication The Christian Leader had done a story on me. It was after work one evening that I got a phone call from former college friend Mark Loewen who had read the article and tracked me down. We chit chatted for some time and then towards what I thought was the end of the conversation Mark asked, "by the way, did you hear about Stan?" "No," I responded, "What's up?" Mark said something next that had my jaw dropping and a sudden impact of emotion that I had never experienced, "He shot and killed himself." I then responded with the dumb question people often respond with, "You're kidding right?"
Well, Mark wasn't kidding. It is now some 30+ years later and I think of Stan to this day on a regular basis. I grieve today over the loss of Stan. I recently lost my wife to pancreatic cancer, she was a marvelous singer who while she tried, couldn't sing the blues very well. I can imagine though, in her perfection now, she is singing the happy blues in Heaven with Stan. While Stan fought demons related to extreme charismania judgement and more within the traditional church, I spent enough time with Stan to know that his love of Jesus was real, it was those around him diluting that Jesus that caused him to struggle, on top of that, the mental illness didn't help one iota, unfortunately, people that should have cared, didn't seem to understand or was willing to go out of their way to help him. There were a few as I've looked back over the years, but I wonder, why had Stan called me, why was he seeking help from me?
With my wife's death came the transfer of old video and audio to keep her talents alive. While doing so I found 2 old cassette tapes of Stan that I have transferred. I am actually going into the studio this year to do a blues album and plan on redoing one of Stan's songs, one that isn't so "clean" or certainly not very "christian," if you will. I asked a mutual friend of Stan's that I now am blessed to play with, Chris Horn about what I was wanting to do, asking if he could help out, Chris's first response was, "It's too bad, who you really need is Stan." Chris was right, but unfortunately, I don't have him and it eats at me until this day. The song or songs I do are a great representation of Stan's genius in his writing. The audio I am posting is filled with genius that was Stan Hamm. I hope you enjoy it and find it entertaining, and thought provoking with the stories I have shared here. Stan and Mary Jane I am sure have shared stories in Heaven, I know Mary Jane told him, "Stan, Mike loves you so much." Here is getting his music out there to the public, it's about time, and, I think you, like I, will be impressed.
Bits & Pieces Part 1
1 - Song of Mourning
2 - Blue Fog
3 - Metalurgic
4 - Flint Hill Rock
5 - Clouds Gather
6 - Intro To Acid Rain
7 - Acid Rain
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* Mark Ediger - Drums
* Stan Hamm, Rhythm, lead & Bass guitars, suitcase on "Cloud's Gather"
* All songs conjured up &Produced by Stan Hamm
* Special Thanks to:
* Mark Ediger - for your time, energy, patience, new ideas, etc., etc., and
that seemingly endless recording session last fall
* Dan Kliewer - for your patience, hard work and low cost
* Kerry Klassen - for your thunderaxe
* Jerry Ediger - For use of your muscle ad pickup
Recorded at Sound in Focus with Dan Kliewer at the controls,
Finished June 14, 1984
Stan was as close friend as I have ever had. We first met, when I, as an inner city guy moved to the tiny farming community of Hillsboro Kansas in 1979. I ha...
