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I was born on September 5, 1962 in Chicago Heights, IL. I was a rather lovely child, full of grace and good humor, at least from what I can figure out. The picture above from
1962 shows that at least. I moved to Minnesota at age 4 in 1966. So, I guess I could call myself a Minnesotan. I always
remember loving music as a child, and my mother always had, shall we say, a "varied" musical collection. I grew up listening
to classical music, Elvis Presley, Leonard Nimoy, Michael Parks, John Raitt, Glen Yarborough, Harry Belafonte, The Carpenters, and other things a good rock and roll guy hates to admit he ever listened too. Here I am at age 8 enjoying a beautiful Minnesota
winter circa 1970:
I remember spending a lot of time at my Grandpa Berg's place on Lone Lake near Aitkin, MN. My grandfather had a garden and
he would garden and fish a lot. We were up there nearly every other weekend. Below is a shot of my grandfather and me harvesting
potatoes in 1967.
Music always intrigued me, and my first love was classical music. I especially liked Ravel's BOLERO, Schubert's "Unfinished"
Symphony, and about anything orchestral. I was, in fact, a classical music snob, which made me very popular in school. I took
up the violin in 4th grade, and played it through my high school years, though the last three years were more for the social
aspect of orchestra rather than the artistic. Here I am with the Northdale Junior High 7th grade orchestra from our 1976 yearbook!
It was in junior high I took up the guitar at around 9th grade. I had been playing my mother's Sears Silvertone, and
eventually I bought an inexpensive (35.00) guitar at Musicland in the Northtown Mall. It was at this time I formed my first
band with a friend named Robert Hanson. Robert and I had a shared love of science fiction. I don't know how I conned him into
writing "songs" but I did, and we started recording on a cheap tape recorder. We called ourselves UMM. Below is a picture
of the CD we never put out..
Well, Rob ended up going to Saudi Arabia because his dad got a job there, so we stopped playing together. I was addicted
to writing though, and I continued to write space operas and the occasional love song to Kate Jackson, my favorite Charlie's
Angel. I also learned to record by using two tape recorders, my dad's and mine. I have many early experiments in double tracking.
Well, I got a job a the local grocery store and finally got some money and bought my first decent guitar, an Ovation.
I had that guitar from 11th grade until 5 years after I graduated from college.
I played in some pretty marginal high
school bands, and they always took the incarnation of myself on guitar, my friends Rob Dosedel on bass and Jeff Hockett on
drums, and whoever we could find on lead guitar. Our lead guitarists were Ken Cybyske, Dave Petsuch, Mike Menege, Scott Tronson,
and myself.
We had several names, from The Ken Cybyske Polish Disco and Blues Project, The Rappers, The Suburban Rockers,
The Elements, The Steve Berg Band, Hockett's Rockets, and just "the band." We practiced in Jeff's garage and tried to learn
songs. We tried out for the talent show as 11th graders and we were pretty bad.
This is, in fact, a funny story. We
were auditioning lead singers, and we settled on Ross Schoenenbaum, a theatre guy. However, after he got the job and found
out how awful we were, he suddenly developed throat problems and could not try out for the talent show. We had Annette Larson
sing for us, and the song we did was "In The City" by the Eagles. We were afraid of being loud, so we made Jeff play with
brushes. I had no electric guitar so I played through the schools amp and borrowed Annette's father's Rickenbacker that was
just huge. It was awful. We did not get in the talent show.
THE COLLEGE YEARS
1981-1986
Mack Driver
After graduating from High School, I went to Anoka-Ramsey Community College in Coon Rapids. My friend Rob Dosedel went
to College of Saint Thomas. He started a band over there and needed a rhythm guitarist, so he asked me to join. The band consisted
of Rob, a guitarist/Hendrix freak named Kevin Connelly (he is an attorney now), Ken Barens on drums, some guy named Dave on
keyboards, and me.
We were slated to play some talent show run by a fraternity. We thought a good looking girl singer
would be good for us, so we got a woman named Annie Duetch to sing for us. We did two songs, "The Hard Way" which I sang which
was a Kinks song, and "Heartbreaker" by Pat Benetar, which Annie sang. We rocked and took third place, which was 25.00, so
split between us all we made about 4.12 each.
Annie, by the way, was the inspiration for a song that has haunted me
ever since called "Only Teasing (For Annie)." Many people tell me it is the best song I've ever written. I don't know, but
it is currently recorded but unavailable.
We never did much else, though we practiced a lot. We went through many
names such as The Weebles, Ken Barens Band, until we finally settled on Mack Driver.
Mainly through lack of interest
we fizzled out, although after I left Mack Driver saw many other incarnations and spliter groups, the most successful being
The Hubcaps.
Television Star
I did a television program for Cable where I sang a couple of my own songs and a song by the band Horslips called "Rescue
Me." This was around 1981 and the show was called EXPRESSIONS. This was kind of surrealistic and very strange to look
at it today. I had hair and weighed about 120 pounds. I sang a song I wrote called "Clowns" and another called "Did
You Proud." There were also interview sections where I talked about how I was in music for the money and the excesses,
dreaming as I was of trashing hotel rooms.
Incidently, I made my first solo stage appearance at Anoka-Ramsey. I
auditioned and got in the talent show in the comedy division. I sang two humorous songs by Loudon Wainwright III called "Hometeam
Crowd" and "B-Side." I won the contest and 50.00. It was fun, and not as scary as I thought. Below is a picture
of me showing my winning style!
Minus/Plus (Formerly The Necroids)
The Necroids are pictured here to the left, otherwise known as Minus/Plus. This is the last gig we played, and pictured in
this last incarnation left to right is Howie (don't remember his last name) on drums, myself, Bruce Hinrichs (now a well respected
author) and Don Johnstone. This was perhaps one of the most schizophrenic bands I have ever been in. The core of the band
was Bruce and myself, and the other players varied. We played four gigs of any consequence before self destructing (quite
literally)
The Necroids was a big band locally for the alternative punk thing circa 1980-82. They played quite
often at a place called The Launching Pad in Coon Rapids. Bruce wrote a lot of the songs, and I replaced the lead guitarist
in 1981. We had a big gig at Thumpers in Coon Rapids (to quote Spinal Tap, don't look for it, it's not there anymore), a well
attended political fundraiser, the New Brighton Municipal Liquor Store and Off Sale Lounge, and lastly at Starks in the Saint
Paul area.
I was much younger, and we had two other drummers and intermittent bass players (Bruce usually played
guitar except on a couple songs.) The fundraiser was fun, playing new wave punk in a room full of conservatives. The gig in
New Brighton was awful, as it was usually a country bar. They turned our power off. At Stark's we played really really well,
but by then we hated each other.
I did learn a lot here, and got my first exposure to playing to real crowds,
and my first exposure to problems with ego, in that Bruce got upset if my songs were liked better than his. I never felt and
equal, just a hired gun.
We did some formal recording and worked on a video but it just fizzled and died.
The picture to the right is our appearance at the American Legion in Coon Rapids for a political fund raiser. I look
and am amazed. I have a tiny part down the middle, as opposed to the ever growing large part down the middle. I am playing
my Ovation Viper, which I would love to have back. In fact, if I ever see an Ovation Viper or UK II, or any Ovation electric
again at a store, I will probably grab it. They were great guitars!
To hear the Necroids live, click the play bar
below and listen to the clip from the New Brighton Municipal Liquor Store and Off Sale Lounge as we perform "Social Security,"
which incidently re-emerged on my new CD The Left Is Right. It is kind of interesting to hear an early early version
of this song...
Below is a flyer for our Thumpers gig in 1982:
The Mods
I played in the Mods from 1983-84. They are covered extensively on The Mods page on this site. To get to that page quickly,
click the Mods Across America! graphic below.
Bemidji State University: The "Turning Point"
Going to Bemidji State University was a turning point for me. I finally got out of the house, and was to some extent,
on my own for the first time ever at the ripe old age of 21 or so. Other than some really different roomates, it was a great
experience, and one that changed my approach to music.
It was at Bemidji State that I met a very talented guitarist
named Michael Schultz. He was the best guitarist I had ever seen live, and he played in a fingerpicking style similar to Leo
Kottke. He wrote songs that were "deeper" than mine, and seemed able to have meaningful experiences and translate them to
music. All I know is that I wanted to fingerpick like hime, so I worked harder on my fingerstyle playing.
Mr. Schultz
introduced me to Bruce Cockburn, Leo Kottke, as well as other guitarists I was unfamiliar with. I met Michael at a Michael
Gulezian concert at the Rendezvous Room on campus. Gulezian (now a fairly well known "new age" guitarist) wowed us with his
unique 12-string work and wacky humor.
I cannot under-emphasize the affect Mr. Schultz had on me. From that day forward
and for the next couple of years I wanted to play like him, be like him, and hang out with the guy and pick up as much guitar
knowledge as I could. The change in my playing from '84 to '86 is pretty evident.
I did a few gigs as I played twice
in the Rendezvous Room and once out for lunch. The "turning point" was a concert I did in the Beaux Arts Ballroom in March
of 1984. I got some friends to play with me on some songs and did an hour and a half show of mostly original material. It
went really well, and was fairly well attended (about 40-45 showed up), which may not sound like much, except that evening
Bemidji State was playing for the national hockey championship at Bemidji against a New York team.
You can listen to three songs from this concert by going to the Bootleg and Rarity page. Just click on the poster for
the concert above and you can be taken there right away!
Well, I graduated from Bemidji State University in 1986, and to the left is a lovely graduation picture of myself. My degree
is was in English/Education and I looked forward to what I thought would be a career in Secondary Education. So there I was
- no job, no money, and vague notions of where I was going. Pretty exciting, eh?
The "Lost" Years (Musically)
1986-1989
Some may think the "lost years" are so because they coincide with a relationship I was in at the time that ended.
This is not the case at all, and the person out there who was with me for that time should not take offense, because I was
really writing a lot of music and was not that held back at all.
The problem was the music was not very good. I
don't know why, but I could not write anything, in retrospect, that was any good. Songs like "Not This Time," "No-One,"
"Good Old Boys," "Those Who Listen," seemed at the time great, but soon turned banal and sour. The reason
was I was not writing ABOUT anything. It was not until my re-involvement in the church that I started gaining some focus to
my writing.
You see, I had always been afraid of "Christian" music as I often saw it for a cheap imitation
of good secular music. Therefore, I was always afraid to write in that genre. As I gained focus, I still realized that most
Christian music was still a cheap imitation of secular music, and I felt that it was time for me to lend a voice from the
secular world into this genre. I slowly started writing faith based songs.
Also, about this time a good friend of
mine named Phil told me that I should write about what I know, not about what I think I should know. So, I started writing
about my faith journey. That brings me to the next section.
1990-Present - Maturity and Age
Sometime in 1990 I wrote my first "Christian" songs. Included in this was "I Call Out Your Name," "Sheltered
Life," and, "Tell Me What To Do," all of which ended up on my first recording ALL ALONG THE WAY. Then came
what I want to call the second "turning point."
This "turning point" was a service we did at
Champlin United Methodist Church on June 23, 1991. I got a little band together with a friend of mine from work named Craig
Ebel, my cousin Donna on keyboards, and friends Shawn and Jill Olson on vocals. My friend Phil Holt wrote a story about a
young man named Will and the choices he made that shaped his life. We did one original song of mine called "Bad Things
Happen" as well as some cover tunes like "I Have Decided" and "Amazing Grace." We rocked the place
and they stood and wept - quite literally. I realized at that point the power music had to aid me in my ministry. It remains
one of the high points of my musical career. Below is a video capture from the service:
There I am lurking on the left (I had hair) and next to me is Jill and on the far right is her sister Shawn.
I
went on to do another service that was a little harder edged and included my song "Tell Me What Do" as well as Sheltered Life."
I also later did a "folk" service and an acoustic one which used two of my songs "I Call Out Your Name" and "Broken World."
Well, I started recording in earnest, and released a few versions of my songs on tapes with home made covers and sold
them for fund raisers.
I did this for awhile, and got a bit sidetracked when the relationship I was in ended, and
my life was in turmoil for a couple years. I did write some pretty good "divorce" songs at the time, like "The End Of Things"
as well as a couple others which will never see the light of day. I didn't really re-emerge until about 1996 when I decided
I was going to take some positive steps toward performing again.
I went and visited a guy named Lindy Zabel at Woodbury
United Methodist Church who was a musician who had done the Nashville thing and ran the music ministry. The best piece of
advice I ever got came out of him. He said to just go and pick up my guitar and play for whoever will listen, whether it be
10 people or 1000.
I started doing that and have ever since. I've been booking small concerts at churches and I have
played before 10 to 300 people. I've played youth retreats, confirmation celebrations, ice cream socials, coffee houses, and
straight ahead concerts, as well as a show at the New Union in Northeast Minneapolis. I've played with bands, solo, with my
wife, and with friends.
I was married in 1994 and that has been wonderful. My wife Erin is classically trained and
an adept keyboard player. We play together as well as perform seperately.
Since 1996 I've released 7 CD's, and
they are:
All Along The Way (1996)
Independence Av. (1997)
End Of The Day (1998)
Extended Play (2000)
Live (2002)
The Left Is Right (2002)
Stephen Berg (2005)
Over the course of things, I've met some very wonderful and caring people.
So that's
about it, that is my story. I like it, and I hope you do too!
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