Jabo Bihlman next up at Music On The Mountain
By Ross Boissoneau
Sun contributor
For Jabo Bihlman, music is a calling. The Traverse City guitarist, singer and songwriter performs at clubs, wineries, and on Aug. 5 at Music On The Mountain at The Homestead.
But he also works with television networks and streaming services. He’s a producer and engineer at his home-based recording studio. And he tours nationally and internationally.
Not bad for a kid who hated guitar. “I had a couple lessons when I was 10 or 12 and hated it. I was a jock—in high school I played football and pole vaulted.”
Despite the early lack of interest in music, shortly after high school he picked up the guitar again. “My brother and I started jamming. He had a drum kit, and a friend of his had a (guitar) body and neck. I bolted it on—I had no knowledge of it, but I figured out the strings and started playing.”
In the years since he made the Frankenguitar, he has created a career while cultivating a love of the blues and blues-based rock. He studied guitar heroes like Eddie Van Halen (his favorite), Alex Lifeson of Rush, and Steve Ray Vaughan. “Those were the guys I was paying attention to,” Bihlman says. His first year at college his parents got him an Ibanez guitar, and after graduating with a degree in psychology, he immediately headed to Los Angeles to Musicians Institute. “I realized it’s what I wanted.”
The program was still in its early years, and Bihlman says the one-year course of study was intense. “They crammed four years into one,” he says. He began working wherever he could in the Los Angeles area. “The strip was still happening.”
He and his brother Scot wrote, played, worked day jobs and did what they could to make it, spending four years in Los Angeles before moving back to the Chicago area where they’d grown up.
He absorbed the blues music the city was famous for, and ended up joining the band of Son Seals and becoming his musical director. He also was working a day job at an ad agency – for a while. “I hated it,” he says with a laugh. “My wife was working as a bartender.”
By this time, his parents had moved to Frankfort, where they had long vacationed, turning the family cabin into the family home. That was attractive to him, especially after he lost his job. “I got fired from the ad agency. We said, ‘Let’s go to Frankfort and see what happens.’ I decided to start playing, doing solo acoustic, playing with Ron Getz. My brother was on the road and he ended up here too.”
Bihlman got hooked up with a then-new program called Synch, which places music on television shows. He was able to get some of his original music on programs like Burn Notice, Sons of Anarchy and others, which provided exposure, a new income stream, even awards. “I got hooked up with All My Children. They put a bunch of Bihlman Brothers music in it.”
He won Emmy Award for CBS News Documentaries “Surviving the Bradley,” and “Edmund Fitzgerald: 30 Years a Legend.” Currently the Amazon Prime series Cross uses his music.
He still rocks out with his trio, and his show last year at Music On The Mountain drew one of the biggest crowds of the season. He says the changes in the music industry mean live shows are more important than ever, and he still loves playing for a crowd.
“I just played the Houghton Lake Blues Festival. The crowd was great. People knew my music, so that was awesome. It rekindles your desire.
“I still love playing guitar,” he continues. “I’ve been doing this a long time. I’m still a work in progress. You have to have the desire and motivation. There’s no gold at the end of the rainbow.”
But there is music at the top of the hill. Jabo Bihlman performs at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 5, at the top of Bay Mountain at The Homestead. Tickets are $22. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit tinyurl.com/Tickets-MOTM.
