Steve Madewell
There are a few things I remember from when I was younger than three years old; letting my brothers parakeet go because I didn’t think a bird should be in a cage, looking into water filled metal pail at a bluegill and being fascinated with it’s beauty, trying to push my foot into a concrete step my dad had poured because I wanted to leave my mark.
I also recall my Mom and Dad singing in church.
We moved to a small house west of Dayton, Ohio to what were then the rural outskirts of the city. There were always guitars floating in and out of the house but I never remember Dad playing anything except “you better come into my kitchen ‘cause it is bound to be raining outside”. We were always taking trips “back home” to Tennessee. It seemed that my Mom would sing for the whole car ride down and if I wasn’t being picked on by older brothers Bob and Frank, I was singing with her.
I spent a great deal of time roaming the pastures and wood lots around our house and I enjoyed being outside then. I still do. My youngest brother Jeff was born when I was 9. As a toddler Jeff was enamored with drums, but at the age of 14 I bought him a guitar and he rapidly surpassed what I could ever hope to be with regards to electric guitar. His dedication and capabilities has always been a source of inspiration.
When we moved to a house outside of the village of West Milton, I was 12, Frank left for the Navy and Bob went to college. Bob started playing guitar in earnest when he went to college and he was into the folk scene in a big way. Frank was always into rock and roll and Motown. When they came home I was exposed to every thing from the Kingston Trio to Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes. I inherited a Kent 12-string guitar from Bob when he upgraded and left the Kent at home. Moving to a new school in the middle of a row crop agricultural landscape in Miami County left me with a great deal of time alone. The guitar became my salvation from insecurity and loneliness. I played for hours and hours on end.
The exposure to my older brothers' diverse musical tastes lead to hours of trying to figure out Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton licks while also learning songs from the Bands’ Music From The Big Pink and Johnny Cash tunes.
I played my first party at 13 and I guess that is when it all really got started. I marched through a number of High School bands equally as diverse as my early musical exposure. We played lots of after game mixers and did the local battle of the bands. I think I sampled nearly every element of the musical scene afforded by a small town...choir, stage bands, barber shop quartets, religious musicals and what ever other opportunity that afforded the chance to sing and play guitar.
I went to college at Miami University in Oxford Ohio. The first woman I met on campus proved to be best friend and life long partner...MJ. It took three years and a very tough and circuitous route before found our way to be together. I also started performing in acoustic duo’s and trios and it was absolutely great fun. She and I were in the Western College of Miami and this program required a tremendous number of essays and term papers. I was a lousy typist...(pre word processor) and I have a horrible time spelling. I did a major research project that manifested with a mini concert instead of a paper and I became enamored with the cultural value and history of music.
And once again music was a bit of a salvation.
At the end of my freshman year brother Bob got me a series of summer gigs at a bar by the Wright Patterson Air Force base. It was a basic “sit in the corner and play...and not too loud” while people got smashed. It wasn’t at all like playing for an attentive college crowd but the pay was great. I guess that was the first musical compromise I had to make. That experience however introduced me to the notion that I could make some money playing music.
There was another introduction that summer as the result of a summer day job I had at a nature center. Prior to that point in my life it simply never occurred to me that I could have a career in the conservation field. I knew that I had been raised with a great appreciation for the out of doors but I didn’t recognize this as an attribute. With the educational experience I was getting in an interdisciplinary college and my upbringing I was inspired to do what I could to promote and share my values toward the natural world. When I went back to school I changed my focus from Philosophy to Environmental Studies.
I continued to perform through the remainder of my college years and continuously struggled with the idea of music or conservation as an ultimate career choice. Amid the biology and zoology courses I would slip in classes like electronic music composition and voice. For a year or two after leaving college I performed pretty much full time while working in part time or seasonal park jobs or doing guitar repair in music shops.
The band I was in split up and I ultimately secured a full time position with the Greene County Park System. This is a wonderful part of Ohio that has a rich Native American and early pioneer history. At that time we were living just south of the cool little town of Yellow Springs. We later moved to the Narrows section of the Little Miami River valley.
While I was tickled to have landed a full time job doing environmental education, the salary was so low that performing was essential to generate the income our family needed. So music was yet again another salvation, but for the first time it was the cash that was truly important.
While working with Greene County I did a tremendous amount of solo work in the greater Dayton area but I also performed with numerous bands. During this time I had the great experience of being the opening act for many national recording artists like Leon Russell, Jonathan Edwards, John Prine, Doc Watson, New Grass Revival, John Sebastian and that was a great experience.
While music was helping pay the bills my music wasn’t developing. However my conservation career was. I had pretty much figured out the most important thing I could do for conservation was buy land, and some how get money to do that.
For the past 27 years I have worked for three different Park Districts in a number of capacities from one end of Ohio to the other. Mostly I have been involved with writing grants and securing funds to buy and preserve land and also developing management strategies for natural resource inventory and protection. It has been and continues to be a very rewarding career; however, music has always played a major role in my life.
My conservation career moved me to northeastern Ohio in 1986 where I have continued to demonstrate my commitment to the environment and still fulfill the desire and need to play music. Through out my adult life I have worked to balance a demanding yet inspirational profession, a family and my love of music. This has not always been easy and it would not be difficult to slide into a pool of self doubt regarding the virtue of total devotion to one calling, but I am what I am.
A few years ago, things began to change in my life and I found myself flirting with lyrics and music as an art form. This was something I had not allowed myself to do for several decades. With the encouragement of my dear friend, Alex Bevan, I completed recording a light hearted selection of original compositions in 2003. Rivers and Trails has a river and fishing theme and is a collection of songs based on the experiences I have had in the out of doors growing up and living in Ohio. It was the first major effort I have made to bring these two elements of my life together.
For well over a decade I have spent a considerable amount of time using fly fishing as a tool to introduce people to the resources of Northeastern Ohio. I had more than enough personal experience to work with. The project is a simple presentation of voice and guitar. This recording effort, although humble, seemed like the appropriate homage to pay to this important part of my life and the goodness it has brought my family and me.
Quote: "Steve Madewell is quite an accomplished steelhead trout fisherman and an all-around sportsman, but he's an even better purveyor of fishing tunes with snappy lyrics that have outdoor folks tappin' their toes. Just listen to "Spawn 'till I Die" on his new CD, "Rivers and Trails" and you'll have to agree his songs are something special." D"Arcy Egan Cleveland Plain Dealer
In 2007 I finished recording Arrow Creek. I started writing the songs on this CD in 2003 and thought that I would be done with the project in 2005. As it turned out some things well beyond my control delayed the completion of the project until this year...
One of which was the Lake County flood of 2006. Many people have helped us recover and rebuild from this experience. For this I am most grateful.
In an interesting way it was very liberating to realize a great many things that we lost, were in fact just things. In many ways several filters were removed from my eyes regarding things that are and are not important.
I am hoping to move on with yet another recording project this fall.
I am performing predominately original material in listening venues and at community and home concerts. I will continue to do the occasional bar and club gig too!
To contact me regarding additional information on bookings please feel free to email me:
steve@madewellmusic.com