Story was the second band and the one that propelled me into becoming a paid, working musician practically over night. I first met the band when I was the drummer for Roller. (*Read about that chance meeting here.)
Story was an established group made up of incredibly talented guys who would become my life-long friends. They were a working band, with bookings nearly every weekend, making good money for full-time college students. Best of all, they had their own bus! Sort of. It was an old milk truck they refurbished, complete with the band name and logo airbrushed on its sides. They dubbed it “The Whale” and it was cool. My advice to any young musician who wants to play music and make money is, “get in an established band and skip a hundred steps in the process.” I really lucked out when I got the nod from the guys in Story.
They taught me that music is a business that’s to be taken seriously. Not TOO seriously. But, seriously. It’s a great job that also happens to be a lot of fun. It seemed rather natural to all of us to put “job” before “fun” while we got to live out our rock-n-roll dream. Writing about it now brings back incredible memories of how enjoyable it was to work and play music with these guys. I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to look at playing music as a serious business, while also being an incredible privilege. The dedication and professionalism of this group lead me to be the kind of musician who’s prepared and shows up on time. And let me tell you, that right there will get you more jobs than anything.
(1982 – 83) The band members were:
Chuck Fulcher – lead vocals, harmonica, acoustic guitar
Dan Neuman – lead guitar, fiddle, mandolin, vocals
Joe Krasnov – lead guitar, vocals
Dean Fresonke – bass guitar, vocals
Mike Turnbull – drums, vocals
Tom Lynch – Sound Engineer
Monica Whalen – Lights
After a couple of the guys graduated from college another version of the band continued on for about another year.
Jeff Christiansen joined the group when guitarist Joe Krasnov had a finger severely severed in a car hood incident on Sept 14, 1984 while the band was in the middle of a 3 week gig in Lewstown, Montana.
(1984) The band members were:
Chuck Fulcher – lead vocals, bass guitar, harmonica
Dan Neuman – lead guitar, fiddle, mandolin, vocals
Joe Krasnov – lead guitar, vocals
Jeff Christiansen – lead vocals, keyboards, acoustic & rhythm guitar
Mike Turnbull – drums, vocals
