"Hmm, interesting name," he remembers thinking.
Some time later, in an equally random way, he came across the word "Squeeler." That, too, stuck.
 Boyd Ritner, once nervous about getting onstage, shows the exuberant relationship with music that will get him onstage with the Bush Hawg Squeelers this Friday. |
Their name? What else besides the Bush Hawg Squeelers?
"I seem to get into the groups with the great names," sighed Kidd, listing "Midlife Crisis," "Red Brick Stew" and "Midrange Honk" as predecessors.
The Squeelers, made up of Ritner as lead vocalist and major contributing songwriter, Kidd on lead guitar with backup and occasional lead vocals, and Bland on bass and backup vocals, will make their debut at Apple Jack's in La Honda this Friday evening, Feb. 23, from 9 p.m. to midnight.
Their music is a mix of Americana, rock, folk or blues, Ritner said. It's got country and folk roots but isn't restricted to those styles, said Bland. It has a "strong pop-rock undercurrent," added Kidd.
Most of it is original, featuring Ritner's work and some songs he has written with Kidd in the few years they have known each other.
"We spend a lot of time writing together," said Kidd, an accountant who swears that numbers and music aren't dissimilar.
There will also be some covers, of John Prine, John Hiatt or Kris Kristofferson vintage, Ritner said.
It's a casual band, "loosely formed," Ritner said. He hopes they'll perform on a regular basis.
"It's a real fun group to play with," said Bland, who will assume the "classic role of a bass player" in the ensemble, setting the rhythm and grounding the songs. Kidd and Ritner have played together before, particularly at open mikes, but "it's a new experience to have a bass player."
"All three of us are very energized by (our music) and I think that will carry over" to listeners, said Ritner. "Hopefully they'll see us loose and happy and having a good time."
That might describe his own progression through music, beginning when he took two guitar lessons at age 9.
That was, however, a bumpy beginning. Ritner took to music, but not to music theory.
"I hated the technical stuff," he said, explaining why he dropped guitar after those two lessons.
But at 17, as a student attending junior college in San Diego, he bought a second-hand guitar for $25 at a garage sale. He set about learning to play it - his way, by ear, judging what worked according to what sounded good.
"I don't know a quarter of the chords I play," he said. "I just know what sounds right."
In his early 20s he began writing songs. Rhyming came easy; that, too, began in boyhood when he and his grandfather formed a habit of communicating in poetry.
"That forged my ability to write verse," he said.
He looks back now on those early songwriting attempts as "young and naïve mutterings," but they set a groundwork for the quality songs he was turning out by his mid-30s.
"That man knows how to write a hook like you wouldn't believe," said Kidd. "I tried to write a Boyd song once. I wanted to see if I could write something that good."
Songwriting, Ritner said, is a matter of "fun and therapy." Writing songs serves as a release of pent-up emotions and a way to express or wrestle with conscious or under-the-surface fears. Some are "close-to-home" personal explorations, he said.
Among the songs Ritner is best known for at the weekly Cameron's open mikes is "Eyes of Steel," a sensitive paean to a man Ritner once saw climbing off a tractor on the Coastside. Ritner said the man had the look of someone who had worked outside all his life and judged him to be in his early 60s. He learned the man was actually a hale 93.
Many of his songs touch on universal themes like relationships, lost love or watching children grow up (Ritner's daughter, Laurell, attends California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks; his son, Jason, serves in the Navy somewhere aboard a submarine.)
There is "Put Your Songs Upon the Couch," which Ritner said he wrote as a plucky response to a therapist to let her know he was just fine. His moving "Come On Home" is about death.
"It's a spiritual thing, based on the idea that I hope to hear someone calling me home when it's my time to go," he said.
But getting up on stage to perform those songs was a battle for Ritner. He was a "closet writer and player" until 40, when his family gave him a good guitar and nudged him toward public performance. Open mike host Auri Naggar coaxed him to get on stage, but he demurred. Several false starts later, he did.
"That was the scariest thing I've ever done," he said.
"I could hardly get a sound out," he said. "It took me two years to open my eyes onstage because I was looking at my lyrics."
Once again, Naggar stepped in. "He said, 'Don't you want to see the audience reaction?'" Ritner said. "And I said, 'Yeah, you're right.'"
When he looked, he found it paid off.
"I know once in a while I connect with somebody, when I play 'Come On Home' and I looked out to see several people crying," he said. "It's very satisfying to know I reached somebody. That's why you have to look up."
Apple Jack's can be reached at 747-0331.
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AT A GLANCE
What: Bush Hawg Squeelers
Where: Apple Jack's, Highway 84, La Honda
When: 9 p.m. to midnight Friday, Feb. 23
Cost: Free
Information: 747-0331
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