I was 27 when I moved to Mt. Vernon Place, on Charles Street Baltimore City!. I had moved to Texas and moved back to Baltimore, 4 years later. Baytown Tx. was not for me. My best friend, Charlie Gatewood, and I had had enough “Oil Refinery” life.
I loved it there on Mt. Vernon Place. My whole world turned within 2 blocks. The, much smaller and much less famous, Washington Monument (or as they say in Bawdamore, the Warshnin Monmint) stood in the middle of a small, city park.
I had gotten an apartment above a legendary book store, Peabody Book Store, which was also a bar, “Beer Stube”. I had also secured a job at the corner record store, Record and Tape Collector. That was a dream job for a twenty-something year old hippie, in the ’70’s.
Peabody’s was a dusty place, full of dusty books. H. L. Mencken and F. Scott Fitzgerald used to drink there. The owner, my landlady was a crusty old gal named Rose Boyajian Smith Pettus Hayes…..she married a lot. Rose had folk singers, playing in the bar at night and that is where I met Tony Blake, who later became my room mate. I stared playing duo gigs with Tony. Through Tony, I met Don Wickham, to this day, the best Harmonica player I have ever known. He later moved to Austin and was a founding member in Stop The Truck, our country band. One time at Freddy Powers’ Pickin’ Party, Don played a solo and Freddy stopped everything and said “Ladies and Gentleman, THAT is how a harmonica is supposed to be played!” Anyway, we expanded into The Tony Blake Band. We would play at Leadbetter’s, in Fells Point. Tony was a really great singer and great finger picker. I learned a lot about playing guitar from him.
It is also where I met my dear, old friend, Junia Walker, Keith Hudson’s manager. He was walking down the street with a satchel of LP’s under his arm, and he was a Rasta..I just had to say “Hi” and THAT story is in this blog under Keith Hudson, Reggae Legend…..and My 1st Recording Session…..
About a year into that time, I met a girl who I fell absolutely in love with. She worked, in the same block, at Green Earth, a Natural Foods restaurant. We moved in together, next to Peabody Conservatory of Music, on the other side of the monument, onr block away. I remember the bath tub in that apartment, it was HUGE, the spigot was in the middle, coming out of the wall and two people could, easily, be comfortable in it. She was studying Classical Piano with Leon Fleischer, a true piano legend. We lived right across the alley from the Peabody rehearsal studios, so there was always music pouring out of the windows that faced us. It was like something out of a movie. One window would have someone singing opera….another, a string quartet, another….a solo oboe. It was really, really cool! We would sit on our roof and listen.
In the next block, was basement grocery store, run by a nice Korean couple. In the park, across the street, there were fountains, in the East and West sections. I used to draw a crowd throwing sticks for my sister’s dog, Radha. He was a true water dog. He would leap and dive after any stick. He would also hold on to a stick, tightly, while I spun him, in the air, at shoulder level. I would let go and he would fly into the fountain. He LOVED that. He was tireless. We were on the News, during a hot spell, when a TV crew was filming people in the fountains, one summer. He was a Celebri-DOG!
It was, all in all, one of the happiest times of my life. I worked, lived and played in a two block radius. Yep, City livin’!
Tony Blake Band L to R, Karl Baake-Guitar, Steve Carter-Bass/Vocals, Don Wickham-Harmonica/Vocals, Ken Hebden-Piano, Joe Bananas-Rub Board, Tony Blake-Guitar/Lead Vocal
Bottom right, Black Ironwork, 4th floor, my place. Radha’s fountain!
My Entertaining Life-Steve Carter 