It’s about the music. It’s always been about the music.
He’s playing music right, now, in fact, at Oglebay’s Rt. 88 Barbecue. Jeff “Smokedaddy” Tappe, the one with the guitar and pocket trumpet, will be there until 9 p.m.
But he won’t be playing his music. Tappe never does, and he’s quick to point that out. It’s about the music, but not his music because, well, there’s no such thing as his music.
At least not how Tappe sees it, anyway.
“I’m a cover guy, and I readily admit that,” the performer said. “I play other people’s music, and I’m fine with that. And, ya know what? No one has ever complained to me about it.”
“I’m a cover guy, and I’ve made a little bit of money over the years being a cover guy,” Tappe said. “I’ve never been a songwriter. I’ve tried, but I’ve never been able to get anything down that stuck. I would come up with things, and tweedle around with things, but I never could get good words, so nothing ever stuck.”
So, he stuck with the words of others.
“There is no way I could put a number on the number of songs I know off the top of my head, or the number of songs I can work out on my guitar by hearing just a few notes,” Tappe explained. “I have always had a really good ear when it came to songs. I remember being able to hear it, play back the tape a little, and be able to play along with the song and know it forever.
“They have it a little easier these days thanks to technology,” he said with a chuckle. “In the end, though, it’s about the music.”
Dancin’ and Prancin’
Those nights started with The SHOP Band, a collection of musicians that included people like Shadyside’s Eddie Garczyk and the late-great Ron DiLorenzo of Wheeling. It was Saturday night, and it was after the fireworks at the annual Oglebayfest celebration.
“We used to make a line as a band while playing polkas, and we would march around Hess Shelter,” Tappe remembered. “We would climb on the tables sometimes. It just depended on what Ron and his trumpet decided to do.”
In 2000, though, a change was made, and suddenly “Smokedaddy and the Crawfish” became Oglebayfest’s Saturday evening headliner. Tappe, in fact, was “Smokedaddy.”
“We did that show for a lot of years – like 15 of them until there were a lot of changes that were being made – and those 15 years were awesome,” Tappe said. “Those years were some of the best in Wheeling because of the amount of fun I saw in the people of Wheeling during that evening every year.
“It was a big homecoming night, too, because a lot of people who had moved away came home for Oglebayfest every year to see their families,” he explained. “I just remember everyone smiling, laughing, and having the time of their lives. Those were great nights.”
Death Do Us Part
One of his hardest gigs?
“My dad wanted someone to play ‘Country Roads’ at my mother, Shirley’s, funeral,” Tappe said. “I don’t think he wanted me to play it, but I couldn’t let anyone else do it.
“But yeah, that was one of my toughest gigs,” he said. “But I probably have played that song more than any other song I know.”
Tappe is now 61 years old himself, but he’s nowhere near slowing down. During the day, he takes care of the food for the residents at Warwood Manor, and during most evenings, he’s performing in a venue like Garbo’s on Warwood Avenue.
“I had a great relationship with music all through high school, and, like so many other people, I had a great record collection that I listened to all of the time,” Tappe recalled. “I played music all through college and then, throughout my life. I went to WVU for music, and then I discovered I would need a little more to pay for life, so I got a culinary arts degree at Northern, too, that I have used for a lot of years.
“But music is my thing. I hear music in my head all of the time,” he revealed. “Song after song, and I can’t get away from it. They are all songs that I know because, for whatever reasons, I’ve collected them in my head.”
These days, he’s more “roots acoustic,” but Tappe’s preference has shifted depending on what’s new, what he likes, and, most importantly, what the masses demand.
“Back in the day, I was a rock-and-roller like most people were then, but I have evolved through the years from one genre to the next. I’ve never been against learning new music, and some things I’ve really liked while other things I haven’t,” he said. “It’s the same with everyone, sure, but it determines what I’ll play during my shows, too. That’s the big difference.
“Listen; no matter what, I am going to be playing music until the day I die. I know that. It’s been me and music for a very long time, and that love affair is not going to end any time soon,” Tappe said most seriously. “I love people, sure, and I love my favorite sports teams. Those are passions, but music … I have no greater love.”
