Petaluma musician rocks his second career

Gary Grubb has had two separate careers as a professional musician. In his 20s and 30s, he played and toured with country bands based in the South Bay and Lake Tahoe areas. After a 20-year hiatus from the music business, he now leads Hot Grubb, a popular Petaluma band.

“We’re a country-rock, Texas blues, oldies dance band,” said Grubb of the five-piece group that regularly plays at local venues such as the Twin Oaks Roadhouse, the Big Easy, Redwood Café and Aqus Café.

Grubb formed the band about two years ago after getting acquainted with people in the Petaluma music scene. One day, he called a group of locals to invite them to get together to play music, and all five of them decided that day to become a band.

“We only have one rule,” he said. “It’s got to be fun.”

In his first musical incarnation, in the 1970s, Grubb played in bands that opened for the likes Johnny Cash, the Charlie Daniels Band, the Righteous Brothers and the Osmonds at shows in Nevada and the Midwest. From 1980 to 1985, he was the leader of Country Rush, the house band at the Saddle Rack in San Jose, the largest country-western nightclub in the Bay Area.

As a single father raising his two children, he decided to leave the music business and go back to school so he could get a more stable job. That decision led to a long career as a software developer. After his children were grown, he moved to Sonoma County, met his wife Peg and settled in Petaluma in 1996. Ten years later, he started to dip his toes into the local music scene.

Grubb credits John Crowley - who rejuvenated the Moose Lodge in 2005 and inspired him to join - with helping him to get involved in the community.

“Prior to that I hadn’t done anything (musically in Petaluma),” he said.

When Crowley opened Aqus Café a couple of years later, Grubb (in a trio with Larry Potts and Steve Della Maggiora) was the first musician to play at the café. As he met more people, he started playing with different musicians. He joined D’Bunchovus, a local quintet fronted by Pamela Joyce, and played with the group for four years before parting amicably.

“Playing with D’Bunchovus got me into playing more acoustic music,” said Grubb, who sings and plays guitar, Dobro and pedal steel guitar. “I loved playing with them, but I had a real strong country background and they are more eclectic. I decided it would be better for all of us if I went off and did my own thing.”

He primarily plays electric guitar in the Hot Grubb band, and favors a Fender Telecaster.

Other members of the band are Tucker McMullen, guitar; Kirby Pierce, keyboards; Fairel Corbin, bass; and Dan Ransford, drums. All of them play in other groups as well, but Hot Grubb has a regular rehearsal schedule and the band members use Google calendar to make sure they’re all available to play a gig.

Although Grubb has written a number of songs, he doesn’t feel they fit the Hot Grubb repertoire.

“We’re a dance band, and I don’t write dance songs,” he said.

Hot Grubb’s song list includes “You Never Can Tell” (Chuck Berry), “Mama Tried” (Merle Haggard), “Chattahoochee” (Alan Jackson) and “Folsom Prison Blues” (Johnny Cash).

Comparing his early musical career with his current one, Grubb said things are tougher now.

“As a professional musician, you used to be able to work and get paid enough to support yourself. Now it’s nearly impossible,” said Grubb, who supported himself by playing music from 1970 to 1985. “In order to sustain yourself as a musician, you have to travel a lot with name bands.”

But Grubb, 66, has no regrets that he stepped away from the music business while his kids were growing up.

“Now I’m in the same position as a lot of people who have worked hard, their kids are grown, they have some money in the bank, and they start thinking, ‘It’s time for me to have some fun,’” he said.

And Grubb is certainly having fun playing the kind of music he likes, in a band with talented musicians, for appreciative audiences throughout the North Bay.

(Chris Samson is the former editor of the Argus-Courier. Contact him at chrissamson@yahoo.com.)