With life in mind, he put down his guitar.
Wives, children, and careers were the primary reasons why Bob Gaudio made those difficult decisions after initially picking up the six-string instrument when he was a teenager in Brooke County. The guitar represented an escape, a fresh adventure, and a very different reality from the work whistle off in the distance.
Gaudio “got out” of the Upper Ohio Valley during the first half of his adult life while working in Pittsburgh’s food service industry and attending law school at Duquesne University, but he also returned to the region (as so many do), too, for what has transpired to be his second half. That guitar, though, has been back in his hands for more than a decade, and now, soon to turn 70 years old on September 29, Gaudio has fans.
“I don’t know if I would go that far, but I am still out there as often as possible because I’m alive, and I love playing and singing for people. An audience gives you more energy than anything I’ve ever experienced before. It’s the kind of energy that humans do best because you’re all together, and you are sharing something that makes other people happy,” Gaudio insisted. “And the people who are there aren’t there to debate or to get into an argument or anything. They are there for the music.
“Some of my friends who come to my shows think so differently than I do politically, but the shows and the music and the words have nothing to do with politics at all. Instead, it’s all about life and about living life the best way possible,” he said. “But those friends come to the shows, and they sing with me, and then we hug after the show. It’s what I call America.”
The Second Coming
He was tinkering.
Gaudio’s youngest son, David, was 12 years old and interested in music himself, so the lawyer decided it was time to grab the ole’ dust rag to see if he still knew a few key chords.
One evening, when he dared attend an open mic night in Wheeling, a member of the Catch Blues Band heard Gaudio take his turn to play a song or two. Following his performance, musician Michael Roeder extended an invitation.
“He invited me on stage with him and his Catch Blues Band during the Italian Fest back in 2011, and that really got me started,” Gaudio recalled. “That’s when I realized I should have been playing all along, and thanks to Matt Welsch, who hired me to play some Sunday brunches at the Vagabond Kitchen. Those things really got me started.
“Jon Banco then placed me in his rotation soon after he heard me, and I’ve had the chance to play in a lot of venues throughout the Upper Ohio Valley ever since,” he said. “So, I guess I’m a lawyer-slash-musician, and I call myself a troubadour because I don’t do anything fancy with my show. It’s me, my guitar, the microphone, and the amplifier, and that’s it.”
Although it may sound as if Gaudio purposely offers nothing more than a bourgeois show, the West Virginia public defender has refined his artful talents since returning to local stages.
“It’s all about playing,” he insisted. “Playing is how you improve, and I was reminded about that after I had started playing in the venues again. Before 2011, I had just been picking up my guitar and playing around a little, and then I would put it right back down. But when you start practicing again and when you start playing with people like Roger Hoard, you get better. The same goes with your voice, too, and that is why I usually set some time aside each day.
“It’s that 10,000 hours things. Just keep playing, and you’ll get better and better. It’s a process, and if you wanna play well, you have to keep playing,” Gaudio said. “So, that’s what I have done. Play.”
Play that Funky Music
He knows Rob Parisi. He used to play with Rob, in fact, before all of the Wild Cherry fame came thanks to winning one-hit-wonder status in April 1976.
Gaudio, though, veered in different directions.
“I was happy for Rob and those guys because they were local, and they got discovered,” he said with a smile. “It’s a shame the one song was it and that they didn’t come up with anything else because they had the chance back then. But at least they had the one hit, and I’m sure the royalties have been nice ever since.
“But back in the 1970s, I was in rock bands just like everyone else who ever picked up a guitar. There were a lot of bands out there back then, and our radio stations were playing their songs, and some of them even came to the area for concerts,” Gaudio remembered. “You were either going to be a rock star or a major leaguer back in those days, but most of the guys ended up in the factories and the mills just like their dads.”
These days the Troubadour performs often within the border of Oglebay Park or at bars/restaurants in the Wheeling area. This Saturday evening, Gaudio is scheduled to play at the Belmont Brewerks in Martins Ferry from 6-9 p.m.
“When I was younger, I was usually rhythm guitar and vocals because my vocals were strong then and still are even now close to 70 years old,” he said. “Singing and playing, honestly, keeps me sane, and it gives me therapy because I really love what I play. Now that I think of it, I have been playing music since I was 16 years old.
“Music is one of the best things we do as human beings. Some people want to insist that love is what we do best, but I have seen love destroy a lot of people, so I will stick with music,” Gaudio added. “Music separates us as humans from the other animals. We create noise, and we put words to it, and it makes people feel. Music is the best thing we do as people.”
