pengwen
01-16-2006, 12:58 PM
By Ben Moffett
"On July 25, 2005, William R. Smiley, Zen clown and pan man, lately of Magdalena, N.M., took down his tepee and moved. His new accommodations are filled with Tangerine Dreams, Marmalade Skies and Marshmallow Pies." -- Arizona Daily Star.
Smiley's death from cancer this summer sent shock ways from Tucson to Akron, Ohio, and especially left a void in the lives of folks in Magdalena, where he was a sort of Pied Piper, not unlike Professor Harold Hill of "Music Man" fame.
Professor Hill single-handedly established a boy's band in River City, Iowa, while Smiley put together an equally remarkable girl's band in Magdalena -- Jane, Alexis, Hayley, Linda, and more. And thanks to Smiley, they are today the Magdalena Steel Chicks, who will travel to Akron April 28-30 to demonstrate their skills and memorialize their founder in song.
"We have all new instruments now," said Linda Mansell, aka Mama Switchblade, owner of Mansell's Coffee Shop. Mansell said the homemade instruments, made from 55 gallon oil drums and other material of that ilk, have been inducted into the International Association of Pan Museum, a kind of pan hall of fame in Akron.
The Steel Chicks' Akron gig is part of the International Association's convention, which includes bands from across the U.S., and many other countries from Switzerland to Nigeria, indicated the growth of pan music, The music is described by the association's president, Angel Bice, as Caribbean in flavor, a blend of Calypso and rock and roll using steel drums that carry a tune. Bice is co-owner of Panyard, a company that manufactures pan instruments.
The Steel Chicks will sing a new song called the "Steel Dragon" about Smiley at the shindig back east, and will use instruments from manufacturers Panyard and Solomon since Smiley's historic1960s homemade versions have been retired to the museum.
Bice calls the family of pan drums "the only acoustical instruments developed in the 20th century." And Smiley was in on the ground floor.
The members of the band, most of whom are mentioned on the Steel Chicks Internet Site, include Hayley and Valerie Madigan, Linda and Alexis Mansell, Jane Leonard, Allison Sahyoun, Dreena Barker, and Mesa Rose Coral. More information about them can be found on the band's website which can be Goggled with the words "Steel Chicks Pan."
Click here (http://www.atmystudio.com/steelchicks/whochicks.html)to go to their site.
Linda Mansell said Smiley approached her some time ago about helping him set up a band and offered to teach her how to play the drums. It didn't take long to round up a crew. Most are students at Magdalena High.
"He's one of those guys that when you meet you like instantly," said Armand Romano, a friend in Magdalena. When Smiley died, about 100 people showed up at a matanza in Magdalena celebrating his life.
Six months after his death, he is still in the news. On Christmas Eve, Arizona Daily Star staff writer Tom Beal wrote a story about him in a round-up of interesting death notices that the newspaper had run in 1985, the first paragraph of which is also the first paragraph of this story.
"Bill and (his wife) Linda, who taught at the University of Arizona, met in Tucson while watching a Western movie at the American Historical Society, where Bill volunteered," Beal wrote, noting Smiley was a member of the "counterculture."
A bio of Smiley on the Steel Chicks website quotes him as saying he was "born and grew up in California. Republican parents sent me to military school to learn and respect discipline. I was their contribution to the Hippie movement.
"At 18 I was drafted in the Army. Gomer Pyle was more of a soldier than I. After discharge I attended the University of California at Berkeley on the GI bill. During summer break, 1963, my cousin, George Hamill, introduced me to the world of Pan.
From then on, although he became a cultural anthropologist, he was a self proclaimed "pan man." His bio is too long to print here. Read it on the 'net..
(Click here (http://www.atmystudio.com/steelchicks/whochicks.html)to go to their site.)
The Steel Chicks will make him proud in Akron, I'm sure.
"On July 25, 2005, William R. Smiley, Zen clown and pan man, lately of Magdalena, N.M., took down his tepee and moved. His new accommodations are filled with Tangerine Dreams, Marmalade Skies and Marshmallow Pies." -- Arizona Daily Star.
Smiley's death from cancer this summer sent shock ways from Tucson to Akron, Ohio, and especially left a void in the lives of folks in Magdalena, where he was a sort of Pied Piper, not unlike Professor Harold Hill of "Music Man" fame.
Professor Hill single-handedly established a boy's band in River City, Iowa, while Smiley put together an equally remarkable girl's band in Magdalena -- Jane, Alexis, Hayley, Linda, and more. And thanks to Smiley, they are today the Magdalena Steel Chicks, who will travel to Akron April 28-30 to demonstrate their skills and memorialize their founder in song.
"We have all new instruments now," said Linda Mansell, aka Mama Switchblade, owner of Mansell's Coffee Shop. Mansell said the homemade instruments, made from 55 gallon oil drums and other material of that ilk, have been inducted into the International Association of Pan Museum, a kind of pan hall of fame in Akron.
The Steel Chicks' Akron gig is part of the International Association's convention, which includes bands from across the U.S., and many other countries from Switzerland to Nigeria, indicated the growth of pan music, The music is described by the association's president, Angel Bice, as Caribbean in flavor, a blend of Calypso and rock and roll using steel drums that carry a tune. Bice is co-owner of Panyard, a company that manufactures pan instruments.
The Steel Chicks will sing a new song called the "Steel Dragon" about Smiley at the shindig back east, and will use instruments from manufacturers Panyard and Solomon since Smiley's historic1960s homemade versions have been retired to the museum.
Bice calls the family of pan drums "the only acoustical instruments developed in the 20th century." And Smiley was in on the ground floor.
The members of the band, most of whom are mentioned on the Steel Chicks Internet Site, include Hayley and Valerie Madigan, Linda and Alexis Mansell, Jane Leonard, Allison Sahyoun, Dreena Barker, and Mesa Rose Coral. More information about them can be found on the band's website which can be Goggled with the words "Steel Chicks Pan."
Click here (http://www.atmystudio.com/steelchicks/whochicks.html)to go to their site.
Linda Mansell said Smiley approached her some time ago about helping him set up a band and offered to teach her how to play the drums. It didn't take long to round up a crew. Most are students at Magdalena High.
"He's one of those guys that when you meet you like instantly," said Armand Romano, a friend in Magdalena. When Smiley died, about 100 people showed up at a matanza in Magdalena celebrating his life.
Six months after his death, he is still in the news. On Christmas Eve, Arizona Daily Star staff writer Tom Beal wrote a story about him in a round-up of interesting death notices that the newspaper had run in 1985, the first paragraph of which is also the first paragraph of this story.
"Bill and (his wife) Linda, who taught at the University of Arizona, met in Tucson while watching a Western movie at the American Historical Society, where Bill volunteered," Beal wrote, noting Smiley was a member of the "counterculture."
A bio of Smiley on the Steel Chicks website quotes him as saying he was "born and grew up in California. Republican parents sent me to military school to learn and respect discipline. I was their contribution to the Hippie movement.
"At 18 I was drafted in the Army. Gomer Pyle was more of a soldier than I. After discharge I attended the University of California at Berkeley on the GI bill. During summer break, 1963, my cousin, George Hamill, introduced me to the world of Pan.
From then on, although he became a cultural anthropologist, he was a self proclaimed "pan man." His bio is too long to print here. Read it on the 'net..
(Click here (http://www.atmystudio.com/steelchicks/whochicks.html)to go to their site.)
The Steel Chicks will make him proud in Akron, I'm sure.