Emergency

I was born in Waukegan, Illinois, home of the famous TV and radio comedian Jack Benny. I had the privilege of graduating from Jack Benny Jr. High school and had the honor of shaking hands with Jack Benny when he came to my graduation and handing me my diploma that year. He only did it twice from what I heard.

I attended Waukegan, Township HS from 64 to 68 and it was during this time I got interested in music and meet and played with several of my fellow band members & friends.

It started when my cousin Don Knuth suggested that we imitate the Beatles who were just coming out with “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “PS I love you,” so Donald introduced me to Bobby Rodriguez who was Paul, Charlie Alden who was John, and I was George Harrison, and Donald Knuth who was Ringo.

The rest is history. Yes, we imitated The Beatles at a talent show and lip-synced their songs, and even dressed like The Beatles along with long hair wigs. It was my start into the music world.

It was after that Bobby Rodriguez, Charlie Alden, and me started a band called the Gremlins. This was around 1964 when the Rolling Stones just came out with “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” along with several other great groups that were coming out at this great time in music history.

We had a couple of band member changes over that short
time and the people that left moved on to other band opportunities a couple years latter. One of them was
Ray Spoor our drummer who went on to play with the
“Out Spoken Blues” about three years later and Ken Chriszanowski who later on played with Colors of Autumn along with Charlie Alden.

It was around 1966 that I left the Gremlins and joined a band called “Blue Grass” which was from 1966 to 1968. We had a couple band member changes also those two years, but the main band members during the height of our band in 1968, played in two “Battle of the Bands” from the Chicago land area, which was held in Liberty Ville, Illinois and sponsored by the famous "Music Box" store there.

We won second place in one of those band battles, and there was a recording contract for the first place band winner. Our band members were Gary Rosenberg (organ), Herb Eimerman (Base) Johnny Gray (lead Signer) Gerald Lambert (lead Guitar) and Ken Chriszanowski (drums). The earlier Blue Grass members were Jim Anderson (base) and Kevin who was our drummer.

At this time the Vietnam War was at it's peak and I didn't believe that the war was going so well then, so I decided to go to college instead. It was at Ricks College now called BYU, Idaho where I played with a group called “The New Freedom Singers” and we did allot of live performances in different cities all over the country promoting songs of America and Patriotism. We also wrote a song called “A Boundless Moment” which won first place at our college home coming in 1969. I also created a folk group during this time called "Marmalade Mode" and we did a couple pillow concerts and wrote several of our own songs.

When I left, Blue Grass in August of 1968 they broke up and Herb Eimerman went on to play for “Hot Momma Silver” and was very successful. Herb also played with and was good friends with Robert Stanley who was also with "Hot Moma Silver" and has a new CD out now called “Roadman’s Hammer”. Dore Capitani was also their organists at that time and now enjoys doing sculpture in Pam Springs California from what I understand.

Today, Herb Eimerman has produced several CDes and his latest one called “Just Barely Famous" is doing very well. Several other of the people that I played with and knew like Bobby Rodriguez and Charlie Alden, and Dore Capitani went on a couple years earlier and formed a band called “The Barking Abbot” and made several records during their time playing together.

I graduated Ricks college with an Associates of Fine Arts degree, and then attended Utah State University. I ran out of money going to school while at Utah State University majoring in Communication Design & Marketing, so I decided to enlist in the Air Force. I figured I could continue my education at a later date and have it paid for after I got out of the service. I spent most of my four and a half years at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany called USAFE.

I decided while I was working as an Illustrator in the Air Force at USAFE that I would get involved in the entertainment field again. On my job I was doing visual aids & briefing for the Joint Chief of Staff General Jones and General Haig who briefed the Secretary of Defence and President Nixon during the 1972 Israel war. I decided to leave the Air force in 1976 when my tour was up, but really enjoyed my time in the service while I was in with no regrets.

During this time in the military I decided to enter into a talent show at the base level and there were five of us who won at the base level. I won Comedy and four other winners were selected in the other categories that went on with me to compete with over 200 other talented winners from all over Europe that had won in their categories also.

Out of these 200 winners, they picked 24 of us out to be flown to Las Vegas to compete in the all service Worldwide Talent Show with over 200 other winners from around the world. At this level, all the people were great, almost like Americian Idol. I didn’t win the World Wide competition, but had alot of fun and was quite an adventure in doing it.

The winners of this World Wide Talent Show went on for a year as the USO show along with other famous celebrities and put on shows around the world for a year entertaining our troups.

During this time in the service in 1975 I also was honored in winning First Place World Wide Photography and Third Place Inner Service World Wide Photography. Over the years with other companies my work has appeared in magazines such as The Buick Classic, Supper Bowl Programs, Canton Hall of Fame Programs, Readers Digest, Walt Disney Magazine, TV Guide, and several other well known publications. My design & photography on the Great American Race Calendars has been seen by millions of Americans around America, Canada and Mexico.

Today I still play the guitar and write music from time to time. I am really enjoying and excited what I am doing now with music on the Mac computer and what can be done.

Allot of the songs you here on "Junk Jive" are a combination of using the computer keyboard, creating & mixing music & sounds with my sound and arranging it into the style of music I have always loved to dance to.

I created Junk Jive, because I have always loved dancing and having a great time doing it at clubs and perties. I hope you will enjoy Junk Jive and dancing to it as I have.


Sincerely
Gerald Lambert