TAUNY - News

Allow me to officially introduce myself - my name is Molly Hyde, and I am a senior at St. Lawrence University. This summer, I have been chosen as TAUNY’s SLU Public Interest Corps Fellow, and I am working as a Media Assistant to the Heritage Awards Program. This means that I accompany TAUNY staff when they travel to Heritage Award-related interviews and events, capturing the event through photo and video, and then digitally processing related materials back at the office. I have been enjoying learning more about the North Country and look forward to working with TAUNY for the rest of the summer!

I accompanied TAUNY’s Camilla Ammirati in early June to speak with the members of the Adirondack Playboys, a 2016 Heritage Award recipient, and it got me thinking about my own musical experiences. As a classically-trained musician, I learned to read music at age 6 and have relied upon this skill throughout my musical career; whether I was performing in piano recitals, competing in county and state festivals, playing in school and community ensembles, collaborating with other musicians, or learning the more nuanced details of music theory, I always utilized my implicit knowledge of notes on a staff and the mathematical relationships between them. Most recently, I have begun to learn to play jazz music, and have even tried my part at improvisation, the act of creating a solo on the spot. The departure from written music, for me, has been difficult; I am used to having a detailed, step-by-step set of instructions in front of me at all times, but with jazz, all I have (at best) is a road map telling me where I have to go, but not necessarily how to get there. Luckily, my ingrained musicianship has allowed me to anticipate the actions of other talented musicians and effectively groove with them, sometimes abandoning the need for sheet music.

It was no surprise to hear about the same experience from the members of the Adirondack Playboys Band. Otherwise known as the Streeter Boys or, simply, the Streeters, the Adirondack Playboys are a longtime family band native to the Adirondack foothills and Northern New York area. Founded in the mid-1940s by brothers Duane, Ralph, and Cliff Streeter, the band is now in its second generation of Streeter musicians, upholding its tradition of old-time country music and square dance calling. Bassist Shelly Streeter Anderson and drummer Rick Petrie (the only non-family member in the band) both point to the other’s presence as a grounding musical force; they say that they’re always right with each other, knowing what the other is going to do, and they struggle in the event of the other’s absence. Shelly loves how playing with Rick means she doesn’t have to think. “It’s just so fluid,” Rick agrees. The two of them, Rick says, are like “spaghetti and meatballs, or macaroni and cheese” - they belong together.

The outstanding chemistry between the players in this band is vital, due to one of the things that sets them apart as a musical group but aligns them with traditional ways of learning: they don’t use any written music. Cliff, the only founding member who still plays with the band, never even learned how to read music. Shelly used to read music in school, but has since forgotten how. The band learns all of their songs by listening, or “by ear,” and learned their instruments by watching their family members or by teaching themselves.

Rick Streeter, current fiddler in the band, learned to play the mandolin in his youth by watching his dad, Ralph, play fiddle in the Playboys. “I played mandolin along with him, and I learned to play the mandolin pretty much the way he played the fiddle,” Rick says. “So the left hand was ready for fiddle when I wanted to start playin’ that.” Dale Streeter, current rhythm guitarist and vocalist in the band, started out playing his unamplified flat-top guitar in the band when he was 18, but soon taught himself bass guitar. He played bass until his father, Duane, passed away in 2008, and now is back on rhythm guitar. Dale then taught his sister, Shelly, the basics of what he knew on the bass, and she, being very musically inclined, was a natural, improving with every Playboys gig. Although drummer Rick Petrie is not a member of the Streeter family, he attributes much of his musical success to his father playing country guitar and singing to him. Cliff, who taught himself to play ukulele along with his older brothers when he was just 11, soon taught himself the lap guitar, and then the lap steel guitar. In the 1970s and ‘80s, after a break from the band following his father’s death, he taught himself the pedal steel guitar, and has been playing it in the band ever since. He says that he and his brothers were inspired by their mother, Berdina VerSchneider Streeter, who often played the fiddle or piano around the house, and would also play piano at house parties.

The house parties, which usually took place every Saturday night on alternating farms, were attended by neighbors and their children. At these parties, which were marked by square dancing, country music, food, drink, and an all-around good time, the partygoers would listen to each other and pick up new songs or new square dance calls. Along with listening to the popular tunes on the radio, watching these dances were exactly how Cliff and his brothers learned all the classic tunes that the band still play to this day. Dale and Rick Streeter, in turn, learned to call by listening to their fathers, Duane and Ralph Streeter, throughout their tenure in the band. Dale says he learned to square dance at age 5 or 6 while his dad would do the calling, and once he started playing in the band, he slowly started doing parts of the calls with his father and uncle.

Many people who play music, including me, are always hoping to someday find a group of fellow musicians with whom they mesh - and the Streeters have found that in their family band. Dale says that other groups tend to clash over their egos, but the Adirondack Playboys “don’t worry about that,” he says, “‘cause we just enjoy playing. We just come together, and we goof around a lot.” While the Streeters may not have the safety net of using sheet music during their shows, their musicianship allows them to excel at playing by ear and anticipating their bandmates’ actions. Most importantly, their mastery of their art is helping to perpetuate the custom of hand-me-down country tunes and square dance calls in the North Country - unequivocally both a family tradition and a tradition of family.

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