At age 72, Hank Helton has spent the higher a part of his life enjoying and singing in bands. By the numbers…he has carried out with 10-plus bands over time. He owns 9 guitars, together with acoustic, electrical, a hybrid acoustic/electrical, a bass and a bouzouki (8-string Irish guitar). He says he additionally performs a modicum of piano, just a little banjo and a little bit of Irish whistle. And he writes music and lyrics as well. He is executed a lot of this whereas additionally working full-time and elevating two youngsters along with his spouse, Shelley at their dwelling in Springfield.
Helton is an outgoing one who is constructive and enjoyable to be round. It is apparent that music has saved him younger in some ways. At present, he performs with Skibbereen, a Celtic band he based and named for an Irish city in southwest Cork. He additionally performs within the Colin Helton Band, a rock group with southern affect that was began by his son, Colin.
He describes how he feels when enjoying dwell to an viewers. “It’s so gut-level, heart-level satisfying to achieve a crowd of individuals and sense their enjoyment,” he explains. “It is completely fulfilling and enriching. There is a separation of thoughts and physique. It is virtually out-of-body in its cosmic results. I really feel like I’m in a second when time ceases to exist.”
Helton, who moved to Springfield throughout his junior 12 months in highschool, says his dad and mom fostered his curiosity in music from a younger age. “When my two siblings and I had been rising up, our mom was a singer in a feminine trio a la The Andrews Sisters,” he notes. “We had been additionally avid churchgoers, and we discovered plenty of African American non secular songs that we would sing within the automobile. We had been all within the church choir and the varsity choir. Our dad and mom additionally inspired us to play an instrument. I took up the trombone. My brother performed clarinet, and my sister performed the flute. The seed was born out of these childhood experiences.”
Photograph courtesy of Rebecca Steele.
The Skibbereen band at Kenny’s West-Facet Pub in Peoria on St. Patrick’s Day. From l-r: Colin Helton, guitar: Rachel Helton, violin; Invoice Steele, drums; Hank Helton, guitar; Tom Myers, guitar. All members additionally do vocals.
Helton obtained his first acoustic guitar in 1970 as a junior at Southeast Excessive Faculty. He taught himself to play. He purchased his second acoustic guitar his senior 12 months. He added an electrical guitar to his repertoire in school. After school, he and his brother began the Helton Brothers Band, which lasted from 1974 to 1977.
He and Shelley married in 1981 and moved to California so he might attend Musicians Institute. After a number of years in California and the start of their two children (Caitlin and Colin), they returned to Springfield within the late Nineteen Eighties.
“I took a break from performing in the course of the ’90s,” says Helton. “I began an actual property appraiser enterprise, and it continued till 2019. I additionally turned an actual property dealer in 2006.” He continues his actual property profession as a dealer with The Actual Property Group.
Within the late ’90s, music known as him again. He joined Stone Ring Circle, a Celtic band that developed into Emerald Underground. He says he turned enamored with Celtic music, which led him to start out Skibbereen in 2010. Skibbereen performs a 90-minute set at Peoria Irish Fest yearly, together with enjoying a number of reveals at numerous venues throughout St. Patrick’s Day season. The band performs many different gigs, together with the State Truthful, all year long.
Colin performs guitar and his spouse, Rachel, performs violin for Skibbereen. About half of the music is authentic, penned by Hank and Colin within the Irish ilk. They throw in a few cowl songs by Flogging Molly and a teaser of “Danny Boy.”
“In 2021, quickly after Colin began his band, I sat in on one in every of his gigs,” remembers Helton. “He loved enjoying with me as a lot as I loved enjoying with him, so I turned the second guitar participant. Colin composes many of the music for his band.”
Photograph courtesy of Gretchen Tucka.
The Colin Helton Band in entrance of the Governor’s Mansion after their Levitt-AMP efficiency final summer season. From l-r: Jeff Tucka, Colin Helton, Tom Myers, Matt Mifflin and Hank Helton.
The Colin Helton Band performs 5 to 6 gigs a month, often at native venues. Through the summer season, they play at a few of Springfield’s outside festivals, together with the Legacy and Down Dwelling occasions. Final summer season, they fronted Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown on the July 4 Levitt-AMP live performance, which supplied one in every of their largest audiences.
Helton provides that every one the band members play a number of devices and play by ear. “If we have now the important thing signature we will play the tune. Everyone knows music nicely sufficient that we will go to our instrument and play how we really feel it ought to sound. If it would not sound fairly proper to Colin, he’ll ask, ‘Are you able to do this or alter that?’ We do plenty of jamming and improvising.
“Issues decelerate a bit within the winter, however it offers us an opportunity to regroup, set new objectives and write new materials,” notes Helton. “I’ve a bunch of songs that I’m fleshing out that might work nicely for Colin’s band. I am going by means of all these lyric and music sheets that I’ve written over time to seek out the gems that we’d add to Colin’s set.”
When requested whether or not lyrics or melodies come to thoughts first, Helton says it might probably go both approach. “A number of occasions a kernel of an concept for a tune will come to me as only one line of a lyric. However inside seconds a melody begins in my head. Or it is the opposite approach round. A melody might come to me first.”
Helton says his favourite style of music has modified over time. “I went by means of a section once I was a part of a jazz trio, and I turned very into jazz. I might say my least favourite expertise was in California once I performed with a lounge lizard band for a time. Assume Engelbert Humperdinck and Tony Orlando and Daybreak.”
What does the longer term maintain for Helton? It isn’t completely clear. The music trade is transient. Musicians come and go. Bands fold and new bands begin up. However Helton is constructive that he’ll proceed enjoying his coronary heart out.
Jean Campbell is a Springfield freelance author who enjoys sharing tales about mature adults residing their finest lives.
