Musical Interests

Music has always been a treasured part of my childhood and lifestyle.  I was born into a unique family of musicians.  My sisters played, my brother played, my uncles played, my cousins played.  I came from a long line of musical talent and I thank my father for passing his talents along to me.  Ekker and Lance reunions were anchored around music.  With my grandparents having twelve children each, and both families musically inclined, twenty to thirty pickers and singers at reunions could generate quite the talent show and a shit-kicking dance environment.

A special childhood acquaintance "Buddy Merrill",  who when on to work for "The Laurence Welk Show", grew up in the same childhood area as my family.  Buddy was my inspiration for the desire to play the pedal steel guitar.  Buddy Merrill, Lesley Bahuain and my father, Darys Ekker, playing music in the Southern Utah area until, while Buddy was competing in a talent show in Salt Lake City, Utah, he was noticed by Laurence Welk. Buddy was offered a job on his television show at age 14.  Lesley and his family left the remote community and made their way to California.  Lesley's family would keep in touch with dad and mother and visited their Utah home town for many years.

Buddy Merrill  soon setup a professional recording studio as a side business.  Buddy and Lesley would send recording to dad and mother produced in Buddy's studio.  I have tapes and CD's of most of Buddy Merrill's work and the tapes that Les and Buddy recorded together.

This is a recording Les and Buddy did around 1958.  Buddy is playing all instruments to include the drums.  Les played rhythm guitar and sang.

Black Board Of My Heart - Les Bahuain and Buddy Merrill -1958

This is Buddy Merrill recording where he is playing all the instruments to include the drums.

Bed Of Roses

The Blues

"Easy 3 and Me" band.

In January of 1959, my father purchased a new Gibson Les Paul Custom guitar. The photo to the right is of me and my little brother LaMont watched intently as I practiced.  I was twelve years old and the new guitar was an exciting step up from the Epiphone guitar I had played from age eight.

I played the 1959 Sunburst until one night in Lava Hot Springs, Idaho, at the Wagon Wheel Lounge, it was knocked off the band stand and cracked the neck.  I replaced the guitar with a 1979 Sunburst.  Needless to say, I regret the incident as you will see in the first 25 seconds of this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjGaJj_-itE

 

The photo to the right is of the Ekkeer family playing for my sister's son's wedding dance. Our father playing rhythm guitar, my brother LaMont on drums, my sister Ina singing, and me playing lead guitar.  My other sister, Connie, could not be there, but she also has a beautiful voice.

In 1986, the family was together for Thanksgiving at Connie's home in Price, Utah.  I took the opportunity to record some music.  The technology I used at the time was a four-track cassette recorder.  I played lead guitar and then added the bass and pedal steel guitar.

Hay It's Good To Be Back Home Again - Dad

It Don't Hurt Me Half As Bad - Ina

One Day At A Time - Dad

In 1997 the family did some recording while in Hanksville.  We used Ina's Karaoke machine.

Grow Old With Me - Connie

If You're Not In It For Love - Kaci

MORE TO COME:

During a trip back home to Hanksville, the younger generation cousins, Neal Ekker, Kevin Hatch, Bert May,  and my brother LaMont set up in the Hanksville school.  I had my reel-to-reel recorder and taped some songs.

Lady Madonna - Kevin, Lamont, Neal, and Bert

It was a passion of mine to use the latest technology to record in a home studio environment.  I started recording my two girls, Kim and Michelle. Kimberlee was eight years old when we did these recordings.

Daddy's Hands - Kimberlee

The Hands That Rock The Cartel - Kimberlee

MORE TO COME...

I did some self recording with a drum machine to produce recordings.  I would set the drum track with an acoustic guitar and sing the lead.  I could add up to ten tracks with the four-track cassette recorder.  I added bass, lead guitar, pedal steel guitar, and up to three harmony parts.

Silver Wings - Perry -1984

MORE TO COME...

Adrian and I would also did some home studio recordings.

Ghost Riders In The Sky - Perry And Adrian-1989

Becoming a professional musician.

My first real experience playing lead guitar in a band that got paid was at age 16.  My father's band "The Canyonlanders", named for the Southern Utah country that surrounded my childhood, was well know in Southern Utah. 

There was a demand for Dad's band for any sort of occasion.  Especially New Years Eve's and Cattleman's Association dances.

This photo was taken in 1963 during the "The Friendship Cruise".  There was a dance held at Anderson Bottoms near the confluence of the Green and Colorado River's between Green River and Moab, Utah.  Band members were, Dad, me, my uncle Ted Ekker,  Lloyd Mecham, and his son Randy.

Tex McClatchy, who had a jet boat service, hauled band members, except Randy,  equipment, guitars, drums, PA, and generator, in his large jet boat to Anderson Bottoms.  There, we setup on a sandy bar along the Green River and started playing authentic cowboy music.  It was a 16 year olds dream.

The friendship cruise audience was a collection of river boaters from every walk of life.  There had to be over a thousand soles ready to party.  Half or which were young single river boat cowgirls.  This young lead guitarist was in seventh heaven.

Now, Randy the drummer, was a heavy drinker.  By 1:00 AM, he was wasted enough to start missing drums with his sticks.  Soon, about every other song, he would swing at a symbol.  The next time we looked, he was passed out face up, behind his drums in the sand.  We played on without a drummer until the sun came up before we pulled the plug on the generator. 

It just so happened that Randy drove his own boat and did not travel in the large jet boat with his drums.  He insisted that he would haul his drums back to Green River in his boat.  He was still tipsy when he took off up stream the following morning.  We followed but knew something was wrong when Randy's drums come flouting down river.  He had hit a rock in the river and punched a large hole in his boat.  Other boats recovered Randy but he gave up on saving the boat or his drums.  Randy could not afford to replace the drums or the boat so that was it for Randy as Dad's drummer.

The Canyonlanders evolved from Lloyd Mecham as bass player and his son Randy as the drummer to the younger cousins in the family.  Steven Hatch and his brother Kevin were both progressing as a drummer and bass player.  For several years, The Canyonlanders members were Steven on drums, Kevin on bass, me on lead guitar, and Dad on rhythm guitar.  There was an addition of a saxophone player in Greg Hunt.  Greg was my next door friend, somewhat younger than me, but we played together as kids.  We did everything together.

The new Canyonlanders played together for many years. It seems playing for dances came to my Dad's band without asking.  We even traveled over the Thousand Lake mountain to play for a Cattleman's Association dance in Richfield.   Dad took a 1956 reel-to-reel tape recorder that night.  This example song is poor quality in it's recording, but we had a ball, and it is fun to try and preserve a little history.

The Canyonlanders - 1960.

During high school and then collage, I played in Dad's country band, but ventured out to join other young pop 1960's bands.   In high school, some friends and I formed a 1960's rock-and-roll band.  We played for high school dances and held street dances in the summer.

During collage in Price, Utah at the Collage of Eastern Utah, this is where I started playing bass guitar.  During school in 1966, my mother made me have a picture taken with my bass guitar.

After returning home from Vietnam, in 1969, me  and my wife and small daughter (Michelle) migrated from Utah to Idaho for work.   My sister Ina was singing lead for the house band "Easy 3 and Me" in Lava Hot Springs.   I would set in once in a while and pick lead guitar with Ina's band.  When the "Easy 3 and Me" moved on, the Wagon Wheel Lounge was looking to hire another house band.  An upcoming local group, "The Night Riders",  were auditioning for a lead guitar player and Ina suggested that the piano player, Adrian Ruger, contact me.

The original band members in 1974 were Leon Perkins, Adrian Ruger, Perry Ekker, and Kurt Cain.  

Live recordings with a two-track cassette recorder at the Silver Dollar Bar in1982.

Cherokee Fiddle - Leon Perkins

Fire On The Mountain - Leon Perkins

Ace In The Hole

Amarillo By Morning

Night Riders reunion:  These are a few songs recorded live in Lava Hot Springs the weekend of the Night Riders reunion in 1998.

Love Was Made for You and Me  - This is a original song written by Perry Ekker.

I fall to Pieces

Here are a few instrumentals with Perry playing his new Rains Pedal Steel.

I Fall to Pieces

Save the Last Dance for Me

Sensuous Woman

The Blame