Dale Maxey's Story

Below is most of my personal musical history:  Use what will suit your project.

At about the age of 8-years old I began playing guitar and singing some in church.  At that time I would usually accompany my Dad.  Dad played the guitar and auto-harp.  I didn’t do a lot during those years, but kept up the skills I had learned.  I could hear the chords to “I’ll Fly Away” at about this time also.

At age 15 I really began to focus on playing well and learning all I could.  I bought several books and just had a genuine thirst for musical knowledge, and have maintained that thirst throughout life.  My idols were Chet Atkins and then most of all, Les Paul.

I started to Whitmell High School in the eighth grade and played some there in the years to follow for special occasions with Joan Herndon – singer.  My first electric guitar was a Silvertone.  I began playing rhythm guitar with the Jones Boys, managed by Bob Jones of Jones Radio and TV on Craighead St.  Soon after that, the lead guitar player, Jim Gainey, stopped playing with the band and I became the lead guitarist.  Ronnie Hamlett then became rhythm and lead guitarist for the band.

My second guitar was a Les Paul Special, blonde color and it was great.  In 1958 I bought the Les Paul Custom Black Beauty - $450.00 with case.  In 1975 I sold it for $780.00.  That person sold it in 1995 to George Grunde (sp) Guitars in Nashville for $6,000.00.  A couple months later a session musician bought it and it is now regularly used on albums out of Nashville.  So my guitar achieved some degree of notoriety.  We don’t know how much the session musician paid.

Frankie Holiday and The Hi-Fi’s became the new name for the band.  At the end of our second summer at the Club Oasis, Carolina Beach, NC, fall of 1960, I stopped playing rock and began playing with The Bill Paul Orchestra.  We played dance band music.  There are typically many more chords in this style of music.  I played as rhythm and lead guitarist for about 4 years – my VA TECH years.  In 1965, winter quarter, I stopped playing and stayed at TECH to study electrical engineering.

I played some at church from 1966 to 1970 and then essentially played with no groups until 1995.  I really got interested in reading music, both vocally and instrumentally.  For the next 5 years I took voice at the Greensboro Music Academy and sung with four groups: The Piedmont Triad Men’s Chorus; The Greensboro Choral Society; The Greensboro Barbershop Society; and The Oratorio Society of Greensboro.  All of 1999 and 2000 I taught guitar, voice, bass and beginning piano in my home.

Starting about 1997 I played lead and rhythm guitar with the following groups and sung with all:

Starmont Brass Orchestra             16 instruments                   Danville, VA                 Sideman          1-yr

Jimmy Storms’ Combo                  4 instruments                   Danville, VA                 Sideman          1-yr

Highway 65                                   5 instruments                   Madison, NC               Sideman          1.5-yrs

Fifties Plus                                     6 instruments                   Madison, NC               Sideman          6-mos.

Good Sounds Band                        3 instruments                   Reidsville, NC              Owner              2-yrs

The Dale Maxey Trio                      4 instruments                   Reidsville, NC              Owner              6-mos.

In March of 2001 I started playing the Bb clarinet.  Fall of 2001, The Dale Maxey Trio cut a CD in Mt. Airy, NC at STUDIO ONE.  All of the music I wrote except, Mark’s Blues. You can visit this sight at http://www.netonemusic.com/ and a web page for my CD furnished by STUDIO ONE at www.netonemusic.com/DMT .  The CD is titled “Oh, Things Aren’t The Same”.  I encourage anyone wishing to record music to check out STUDIO ONE.  The prices at still $40.00 per hour, latest equipment, laid back atmosphere.  I played the clarinet on several of the songs.

Music I’ve written. All but two are registered with The US Copyright Office. Those two are copyrighted with original manuscripts from 1959:

“Maxey’s Madness”                        1959                        Instrumental                        Rock

CD Material:

   “Maxey’s Mania”   1959   Instrumental   Rock

   “She Never Knew I Loved Her”   1996-2002   Love Song   Country

   “The Mississippi Blue Catfish”   1997-2002   Song   Folk

   “I Fell In Love Right There”   1996-2002   Love Song   Jazz

   “I’d Choose You Again”   1996-2002   Love Song   Country

   “Oh, Things Aren’t The Same”   1996-2002   Song about seniors   Jazz

   “Walnut Grove”   1996-2002   Song about seniors   Jazz

   “All Presence, All Knowledge, All Power”   1996-2002   Religious   Gospel

End of CD Material

“He Brought Me Back Into His Fellowship”                        1996-2002                        Religious                        Gospel

 “For God So Loved The World”                                       1996-2002                        Religious                        Chorus

“I’ve Been Thinking About Leavin’                                     1996-2002                        Love Song                     Country

“It’s Too Late Too Play”                                                    1996-2002                        Song                              Country

And for the next CD

“Road Signs”                                                                       1996-2002                        Song                               Country

“Summer Time Playing At The Club Oasis”                          1996-2002                        Song                                Beach

Sincerely,

Dale Maxey

Dale Maxey