Books, Cassettes & More
Bob wrote an assortment of books, music, rags, created cassettes in the early days, and even made a 45 rpm recording.
Scroll down the see the assortment.
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The Journeyman Piano Player: (Adventures in Gracious Dining)
This book has been deemed "required reading" for anyone thinking about entering the piano business.
Turtle Lake: Portrait of an Extortionist
Follow this wild tale of Jim Peters as he engineers a brilliant heist which strikes so fast "the game was over before anyone knew it was on."
Dan Petrella, ass't Wayne County Prosecutor, writes that the book should be published "for the public safety."
Cover picture is from the Woodbridge Tavern, a colorful old rumrunning joint from the Prohibition days. Located only a few blocks from the Detroit River, infamous hoodlums picked up smuggled booze from Canada at this place for over a decade. Bob and his Dixieland band played under the moose for many years in the 1970s and 80s. Bizarre stories in this book relate to those days.
Bob had a great uncle who, uh, participated in the party, supplying whiskey to some guy named "Al" from Chicago.
During the writing of this book, Bob's friends were calling him up and asking if their "real names would be used" in it. Certain names have been changed to protect the guilty. But not all.
Note: we offer a reward for anyone who can find "gracious dining" anywhere whatsoever in these pages.
The story behind Turtle Lake could actually have happened. Bob played at Detroit area seafood houses for many years. At one of these places a customer, while waiting for his table, would talk to Bob casually during the week he was in town. The customer was very nice, friendly, obviously wealthy (he gave Bob huge tips), and also very naive. He related stories about his business to Bob which should have been kept as trade secrets, but the man trusted Bob because "he was nice and was the piano player."
Bob feared this information and hoped that no one else would ever learn about it. But finally Bob's friends encouraged him to write this book to possibly warn others as to what an intelligent, well-planned criminal could do to them. This became the story of Turtle Lake.
Bob changed details about customer's information to protect him from something like this.
The endorsements on the back were written by Detroit area prosecutors, cops on the street, Probation officers, fellow authors, a psychologist, and even by Bob's old friend Max Gail, a well known actor in Hollywood.
The cover design shows the two cabins on Turtle Lake, plus the ominous shape of a golden eagle above them. The golden eagle is one of the top North American predators.
The main character, Jim Peters, learned a brutal lesson from this eagle when he made the mistake of studying it "to see if I could incorporate some of its tactics into my plans..."
What he learned was that "when you think you are looking at it, it is looking at you."
A Canadian book reviewer writes" this isn't just a book, it's literature."
Two Children's Books
Bob wrote The Blue Horse for his daughter, Christine, when she was young. Christine loved to ride horses, so Bob came up with this cute little story and Linda drew some pictures to go with it.
These two little books are sold together. Little kids love them!
Somehow Bob came up with this outrageous idea that a cow could go flat out in the pasture. He says he has no idea of what the inspiration for this was or where the poem came from, but it's a roar from beginning to end.
The black & white cow has gone flat.
A Collection of Poems
Bob wrote poems most of his life. He says "they just sort of came to me." The poems range from weird to silly to insightful to poignant. The poem about the Three-Legged Cat is a goose-bumper.
The poem What is a Musician? was picked up by music publications across the country. It addresses the viewpoint of talent, desire to play, and just plain enjoying music on any level. It's actually a guideline for all things artistic.
(c) 1977
Cassettes
Yes, Bob even has stuff from the days of the cassettes. But there's more. Look further down and you'll see he actually made a 45 rpm record!
When cassettes were first invented in the early 1960s Bob was already a professional musician. Therefore cassettes were the "state of the art" at that time. We still have a few left over from those days, and still in their shrink wrapped jackets.
Boogies Blues & Rags was originally an LP recording. Then it was transcribed to cassette.
Pick any three cassettes for $10 with an order over $35. As you may have guessed, they're collectors items now.
Begorah! A 45rpm record lives!
This cover drawing (by Linda Milne) captures the spirit of the Arawanna party boat as it goes "sailing away on that particular day..." as the song says.
"Hey, it's Big Chief Turkeyfoot on water skis, he's coming down the river in his BVDs!"
Bob had a colorful gig playing daily on the Arawanna Princess riverboat in Toledo, Ohio. Named for a legendary Indian Princess in the area, the boat made excursions up and down the Maumee River.
Chief Turkeyfoot was a powerful war chief in the late 1700s. Bob put together the legend of the chief and Arawanna to create this song.
Of course, Bob had to write a song about it. Good friend Kerry Price belted out this tune in outstanding ragtime style to make this recording .
Side A (remember that?) has the Arawanna Rag on it.
Side B has a little boogie we made up for the recording session, so we called it (of course) the Maumee Boogie.
Arawanna Rag is modestly priced at a dollar (1 buck) each with orders over $35. Since we can't create a Buy Button for that small amount, please hit the "e-mail Bob" button on the left and tell us how many you want. We'll throw them in the package for you.
Piano Rags
Bob has composed about 40 piano rags.
Note: "composed" doesn't meant "written." He composes these in his head and has played them for decades. He said at the time,
"There's no reason to write them out because I'm the only one who plays them..."
Hmm. Well, that has changed. Now he's staying at home more and they're after him to write them out. It's happening.
The collection of Nine Rags was originally published as "Three Rags, Vol I," with Vol II & Vol III soon to follow. Hence they were all put into one volume.
The Ragged Music Box is in the style of Mozart. But since Mozart died 100 years before ragtime became popular in America, Bob decided to write one as if it had been written by Amadeus himself. It became one of the most requested tunes on his concerts.
Mimi, written and named after his sisters' childhood nickname in 1969, is another highly popular tune and is played regularly by both Bob and other pianists.