Gary Putthoff is a songwriter and musician. He has been entertaining audiences for many years. In this exclusive interview, Gary talks about his life in music and tells us how he became a songwriter. Hang with us as he reveals his newest song.
Musician and Songwriter – Gary Putthoff
Rosie: Welcome back Gary! It’s been awhile since our last interview. You’ve branched out a lot these last few years.
Let’s first talk about how you became interested in music.
Tell us, did you go to school to learn more about your craft or did it come natural for you?
Gary: My father played the guitar on his lap with a metal slide, he called it Hawaiian guitar. It was always fun when he got out his guitar, this is where I got my desire to play. He only knew a few songs, one was the crawdad song. I re-did this song it is on my first published album “Chasin’ Dreams” and the slide riff at the end of the song is a tip of the hat to him.
I had formal training with guitar lessons I pursued in college.
Musician and Songwriter – Gary Putthoff
My first remembrance was playing my neighbor’s guitar, I was 12 years old. A mutual friend of ours gave me an exact model that she had in her basement and I have kept it over 45 years now. My newest release “You Didn’t Say Goodby”uses this guitar to get that vintage sound that is sought after. I have often wondered if it is the same guitar.
I minored in music at Penn Valley and was in the jazz band there. I graduated from UMKC with a degree in Communications. I worked at KCUR 89.3 the college station for 3 years producing all the Saturday afternoon shows. Those shows included, “Many Phases of the Blues,” Cypress Avenue and more. I had created my own program there called Jazz Next Door which featured local artists. I also worked with Gaylord Marr. I worked at his home cataloging music for his library, now called the“Marr Archives” at UMKC. I also did some interviews for the Blues Society magazine. That one is with, Lindsay Shannon (KC Blues historian.) It’s now registered in the KC Historical Society articles.
Rosie: That is so cool! You have been on quite a musical journey.
What has been your longest running gig?
Musician and Songwriter – Gary Putthoff
Gary: The longest running gig I ever had was at a place called the Chestnut Inn on 12th street. It was at the end of being a famous country bar in KC with a rich history. Played every weekend there for a year with George Kelly.
Rosie: You and I have both discussed how authoring and songwriting are very much the same.
How did you become such a great songwriter?
Gary: I always wrote songs for fun. I took an online course through songwriters magazine to get some basics, like how important the “hook” is.
I became more serious about recording. I took a course in advanced recording at UMKC Conservatory of music which helped a lot.
Rosie: I bet you learned so much.
What are you currently working on?
Gary: I continue to write and record these days with the Blue Ridge Band. Friends and I play occasional gigs and at jam sessions. As I mentioned, I have released another new song “You Didn’t Say Goodby.” It’s about someone leaving without saying goodbye. The image is a picture of my girlfriend, Terry at Indian Rocks Beach.
Now For Gary’s Newest Song!
♪ Click on the photo below to listen. ♪
“You Didn’t Say Goodby”
Gary Putthoff ‘s girlfriend, Terrie at Indian Rocks beach.
Rosie: Great song and image!
Where can our readers find your songs and connect with you for more updates?
As promised, we are going to take a look at the behind the scenes of my recent book launch for my new children’s book, “Beasley Helps.” Without telling you too much, I don’t want to give the whole story away. I will however, try to explain a few fun facts for you and why I decided to use the images I made for this book.
When and Where Did This Book Launch Take Place?
In case any of you missed it, my book launch was held on my business Facebook page at, “Books by Rose.”
It ran for 12 days, from April 06, 2022 to April 21, 2022. We started daily, at 9 am (CST) with images and clues to my story. I’m always confused on what dates to pick. With me being so symbolic about my books, I looked at the numbers. “Twenty-one” is a backwards “12.” The 21st of April was also our dad’s birthday. I think he would have liked that. It seemed to turn out perfect.
Day 1
“Where Did All The Trees Go?”
“Where Did All The Trees Go?”
We had lots of answers and guesses on this one. We had many that were even worried about those trees. I felt for them, as we had to have many trees removed here at our home this past year. They were at least 75 years old and were decayed so much, they were becoming dangerous for us to have them around.
I will tell you one good thing. The trees in this story were removed to build something new for a very good cause.
Day 2
“What’s All That Noise?”
“What’s All That Noise?”
One visitor thought it was the trees that fell that made all the noise.
Nope, but some very big machines were working very hard to clear a large portion of land on, Farmer Bill’s farm.
Someone had suggested a trespasser was trying to get by, they even suggested a horse. This little fella was much smaller than a horse, but carried a loud bark!
Day 4
“Brother Read a Book to Little Fella One Day And He Let Out A Big A-ROO!
“Brother Read a Book to Little Fella One Day And He Let Out A Big A-ROO!
Okay, by now you know it’s safe to say, there’s a dog in the story, right?
Why was he scared?
How I came up with this idea. When I was around 3 or 4 years old, my brothers had a book all about animals. I loved looking through that book, well, until I came to one page. I’ll never forget, it was photo of a Moose and that big Moose scared me so much, I had to close the book. I thought back on that memory and wanted to include it my story.
With this being a farm book, I wanted to pick a bull. We live in the suburbs, so finding a bull around here is next to impossible. Our friend came to the rescue! This photo took our friend a very, very long time to get that shot. Every night she’d ride past the pasture, of course the bull was on the other side. No way was she going to climb in there to risk her life. Finally one day, it all worked out and she got her photo. Thanks again for this photo, Susie!
Day 5
“What In The World is Going On Here?”
“What In The World is Going On Here?”
This one is my favorite images in this book. Once you see the whole photo, you will understand more why I love this one so much.
First of all, Farmer Bill is my older brother. He’s the one in a frenzy about something. Ha, Ha! (Thank you, Bill for posing for this book. You did great!)
My wonderful husband, Farmer Bob, is pulling a rope with something very strong and big attached to it. He actually posed for me out on our deck and we laughed and laughed. (Thank you, Bob!)
The men you see behind him are my two older brothers. Farmer John and Farmer Jim. It means a lot to me to have them in this book. John passed away almost 11 years ago and Jim passed away last October.
Oh and the pig? He belongs to our friend, Angela. She lives in the suburbs, too, so having a pig this size in her neighborhood, is somewhat special.
Day 6
“Someone Has A Bright Idea!”
“Someone Has A Bright Idea!”
This part of the story is what authors call a “solution” to the problem in the story. We know there’s a problem with Farmer Bob struggling with something. The pup in the story remembered something he thought would work. I’ll get to that in a moment and revealed one thing that worked.
Day 7
“Someone Came Up With An Idea Using Recycled Products.”
“Someone Came Up With An Idea With Recycled Products.”
In our story, our pup friend made many, many trips back and forth to gather all these things. When he returned these items to Farmer Bill’s barn, I can only imagine how tired he was.
This was a fun day in my book launch as we all talked about what to make with recycled products.
Day 8
“It Will Take You A Million Years To Guess This One”
“It Will Take You A Million Years To Guess This One”
Ha, this one stumped everyone and we had many laughs.
This is part of the story, I’ll have to reveal what this is, because it was very confusing.
This image has something to do with drums. Let’s just say, if you and your kids enjoy music, this last part of the book will be something you will enjoy reading, making and talking about.
Quick story and what I learned about this image. When I was in my first year of college studying Early Childhood Education, I attended a band with a female drummer. I had never seen anything like her talent and energy before. Well, that was it, I wanted to be a drummer. Here’s where the problem came in, I didn’t have drums or even drumsticks. A friend of ours did play the drums and he suggested for me to get different sizes and widths of wood and something with a “ding” sound to practice until I was able to get a drum set. Well, long story short, I never learned to play, but to this day, I can pick out the drums in a song and love that sound so much. By the way, I’m glad I stayed with the Early Childhood Education, because it has served me well over the years.
Pay 9
“Meet New Friends, Cocoa and Fred”
“Meet New Friends, Cocoa and Fred”
These animals show up in the story for a very special reason. Liked we talked about, Fred the pig is our friend’s and Cocoa belonged to our friend’s, as well. Sadly, Cocoa the horse passed away many years ago. Thanks to our friends, Perry and Angela, for allowing me to use their pets for this story.
Day 10
“Will You Be Able To Find All 12 Of These?”
“Will You Be Able To Find All 12 Of These?”
I’m giving the reader of this book a bonus activity to find 12 of these bones. As you will see, I wrote this on the back page. I did it this way for a few reasons. I didn’t want it to be a “search and find” book, however, I do have three books of those, if you’re interested in them. Another reason, I didn’t want to distract the reader from this story.
Day 11
“Title Reveal”
Title Reveal
Yay! Finally, the title reveal and what my new book is what about!
If you have been following, Books by Rose, you know “Beasley’s Journey” was the 1st book I wrote back in, 2014, followed by, “Beasley and Friends to the Rescue in 2016.
This 3rd book of Beasley has set on the back burner for a few years and I’m so glad to have it finished. The love of it grew bigger and bigger over time with new ideas coming to me every time I sat down to finish it.
I have to admit, I struggled with what type of illustrations I was going to use for this book. My friend Paula had given me all of her Beagle photos. Since the 2nd book, those Beagles, Lexy and Penny, had passed away. Thank you for all your photos, Paula.
One day I’m on Facebook and another friend of ours had a Beagle that looked just like them. That’s where the dog you see named, Spike came in. Thank you, Jim and Debi for Spike’s adorable photos.
Day 12
“Cover Reveal”
“Cover Reveal”
The day I had been waiting for, my cover reveal!
I couldn’t have made this book without all my family and friends support. As you will see in the book, this story is about pet rescue shelters. I’m going to be saving up a portion of the royalties to support our local shelters. I hope you will be able to help those shelters in your community, if you wish to do so.
If you would like a paperback or Kindle copy of this new release,
There’s a big reason why I had my book launch for 12 days. “Beasley Helps” was my 12th book. I also celebrated 8 years of my business, “Books by Rose,” on April 27, 2022.
I have a very special video of something to share with you soon. I can’t wait to show it to you!
Tell us some exciting news you may have coming up in the comment session below. Do you have a new book you’d like to share? How about your plans for spring or summer? We love to hear from you.
