These three entertainers were the reason I started thinking about moving from North Dakota to Tennessee back in 1962. I met them in Minot during one of their shows at the time when Jimmy Dean was performing his "Big Bad John" hit song.

Jimmy Dean, who has his name on class-act sausage was a very likeable person. He told a few funny jokes and kept me laughing for the few minutes we were together back stage.

George Hamilton IV was a down-to-earth, easy-going guy who seemed more interested in me than in himself. George was very kind and gave me good advice about the music business.

Patsy Cline was my favorite, because she was a better hugger than Jimmy or George. After learning that I'd made my first record, she told me I should "go to Nashville" if I was serious about music. A few months later, I was singing my songs with new friends at the old Wagon Wheel next door to the famous "Tootsies."

Many musical friends of mine in North Dakota agreed to audtion before I finally got a group together. We did a lot of rehearsing in this basement room at a popular Bismarck hotel.

While employed as a graphic designer at Dybdal Advertising in Bismarck, one of our clients was Kye Trout. Since he was successful in the oil business, and had once played guitar on CBS radio years before, he took an interest in our music. It was his generosity that made the recording of two songs on the SOMA label in Minneapolis possible.

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Jay Rees & the MONARKS

Jay Rees & the MONARKS was only one in thousands of musical groups who have dreams of becoming recording stars. We had fun, but we never succeeded in reaching our goals.

Sharing these memories shows why I was motivated to conceive and promote MCUSA.

My musical friends, Roger Bender, Kenny and Norman Ciavarella (and pretty sister) Kenny Weissman, Bob Glaser, Roger Hardy, Larry Heil, Ellen Stanton, James Kutz, Robert Miller, Larry Ost, Gilbert Hanson and others -- had good lives long after our little record became nothing more than a closet-keeper.