When I first met Ben Stalets he was a young pup of a singer still wearing skinny jeans. He was performing with his Boy Band, breakdancing on stage, and embroiled in what many may refer to as a “legal situation,” but even then he was the coolest and most gracious of artists.
That was long before Covid and politics turned everything sideways. I’d bump into Ben here and there, wherever the artists gathered in Toledo. He’d always have his guitar handy, damn near in his back pocket it seemed, and he’d whip that sucker out just about anywhere where two or three of us would listen. Then Covid happened, and all the while Benny was finding deeper levels of humanity through his job working with Toledo’s homeless population, and thus sharpening and honing his songwriting and storytelling skills, and during Covid we started trading songs and poems by the week, while we were all stuck at home.
Over the last four years I’ve had the amazing first hand experience of watching an artist grow and find their voice. I’ve got to watch first hand as he wrote and polished many of his best hits, sending me an audio text, then another an hour later, then another the next day, and then after about a week I’d get the final version of ‘this is it.’ Sometimes I’d get a chance to offer a small snippet of feedback, but most often it was just the simple encouragement of ‘hell yeah, you got something good going here.’ But every time it has been an honor to get one of those texts and hear the songs before they’re finished products, and for years now I’ve had the benefit of that creative friction and inspirational spark that comes from working next to an artist that shows up to work at it everyday.
Since Ben and I have gotten close, I’ve watched him sign a record deal, record a record, get interviewed by everyone including a Japanese music magazine and our hometown Toledo Blade who called him “the folk hero Toledo needs,” and rightfully so. His shows, honed by spending week after week playing in downtown Toledo bars, have grown so good that I’d willingly spend money on tickets to see Benny play anywhere I can drive to. He’s gotten that good.
And Ben Stalets wasn’t the first musician that has ever asked me to read poems to open for them, but since Covid hit, he’s been gracious enough to invite me to emcee and open a half dozen of his biggest shows in Toledo, including his last record release party, and because of that, his shows have become some of the largest crowds I’ve ever read poetry for, and his fans have become some of my biggest fans and supporters, too.
So, a few months ago when Ben messaged to ask me to be a part of his Backyard Birthday Blowout, another big summer outdoor concert and party, this time on his birthday Saturday August 10th, I couldn’t say yes fast enough. The fact that it also was set to have a thrift store booth from Sausage Burp Vintage Clothes and a booth from Culture Clash records, my favorite record store in the world, and that it would be hosted by Rob from Over Yonder Concert House and feature special guest Don “Doop” Duprie, and the sound guy would be Toledo great John Zenz, three of the best humans that I’ve ever met in my artistic endeavors, man, it was shaping up to be the best summer night I could ever ask for. And it was that, and so much fucking more.
Poster for the show
My girlfriend Jess, and my middle child Iris and me, we got there early that night, a cooler full of energy drinks and water on the ready as Don Duprie was warming up and going through his sound check routine. Having one of my kids hanging out with me while I get to do what I love, man, that’s always a special thing in itself. Told you the night was the best and I’m just now telling you how it went down.
a photo Jess took of Iris that night
The backyard blowout was held behind two Old West End Toledo houses that share a driveway. Rob from Over Yonder was already set up checking tickets. I’ve written about Over Yonder just as much as I’ve written about Stalets over the years, and I remind you, if you love live songwriter music in an intimate listening atmosphere, Over Yonder Concert House is as good as it gets. Rob and Over Yonder are both true hidden gems in Toledo. I hadn’t seen Rob, or Ben, or many of my favorite Toledoans much since last year when I moved into my camper full time and away out to parts unknown. So it made it extra special all the way around to be there.
photo by Jess
The crowd filtered in as I got to see some of the best and brightest Midwest humans join us. Ryan Dillaha, Detroit area songwriter and poet was there. Ryan played the first backyard show with Ben a few years ago, a show I got to emcee. Dillaha, in addition to his solo songwriting, has also fronted a John Prine cover band, and you know how I am about John Prine. Larry Meyer was there. Larry has played drums with just about everybody in Toledo over the years. It seems he’s out three nights a week jamming somewhere, most often with his band Old State Line. Larry is one of the coolest cats around, and he’s an intaglio artist of sorts in that he cuts his own print images and prints stamp art. Over the years, he’s made and gifted me two of the neatest pieces of art I own, a Willy’s (precursor to the Jeep Wrangler I helped build for a decade in Toledo) print and a Woody Guthrie T shirt that says ‘this shirt kills fascists,’ and everyone knows how I am about Jeeps and Woody Guthrie. Plus, Toledo musician and best pal Justin Frey was there, and so many others.
I kicked the show off about 15 minutes late. Benny had afforded me 30 minutes of reading time, up to my discretion, and I decided I only needed about 17 minutes of it. Note to every other performing artist reading this, unless you’re a feature or headliner or star, less is almost always more. It’s always better to leave an audience wanting one more poem, or song, than giving them one, or two more than they can comfortably sit through. After I read, I had the honor and pleasure of introducing Don Duprie to Toledo.
me kicking off the show with some poems. photo by Jess
Doop is hands down the best songwriter, and best working class artist I’ve ever known. A lifetime firefighter from the small Detroit suburb, River Rouge, a suburb that was hit harder by NAFTA than just about any other place in the U.S., Doop has written hit songs for other stars, and with his band, The Inside Outlaws, he recorded albums with legendary Detroit producer Jim Diamond, and eschewing any and all acclaim, Doop shows up to work at the fire hall five days a week, then goes home to his guitar, notebook and glass of whiskey to write songs. I’ve gotten to know Doop and many in his inner circle of songwriter friends over the years, and I pay attention enough to observe that local Detroit songwriters mention Doop’s name in near hushed and reverential tones. The man is an award winning, Detroit outlaw legend.
When I introduced him at Benny’s Backyard Birthday Blowout, I told everyone the story of how I first met Duprie, introduced to him by mutual friend, one of the best poets, and a phenomenal songwriter in his own right, John Freeman. Johnny got me invited to read poems at a huge benefit to raise money for a monument to the 1932 Ford Hunger March. The benefit was at UAW Local 600, the local that hosted Nelson Mandela in 1990. I read poems and Doop played on a night that featured a dozen bands and poets. Doop played perhaps his most famous song that night, a song I think is the best working class hymn written in my generation. It’s called “What Am I Supposed To Do?” A song about a 29 year autoworker lamenting the closing of his factory and loss of his career. A song that’s covered by Flint, MI native Whitey Morgan, and many others.
On this Saturday night in August, Don Duprie sat on a chair, his guitar in his lap, and he told stories and sang songs for about 45 minutes. In addition to that go-home-from-work and sit-down-and-write-songs -work ethic, Doop has played shows in bars all in and around Detroit and it shows. His stories ticked seamlessly into songs as he told and sang songs imploring unity in the working class, commemorating many of Detroit’s union and blue collar ethos, and some of its less talked about and forgotten folks and neighborhoods. Any chance you get to see Don Duprie play his songs, go. You owe yourself. The fact he played on a 70 degree perfect summer night in a backyard in Toledo, to a casual audience of near a hundred folks, and that I got to introduce him, read poems with him, and sit and listen while watching Ben’s crowd and my adopted hometown of Toledo embrace him? That was a priceless night of art for me amongst a growing list of dream come true moments in my artist life.
Don "Doop" Duppie playing music on a perfect Saturday night in Toledo
We took a brief 15 minute intermission. Folks mingled near the tastefully curated thrift and vintage clothing racks from Sausage Burp, and the hand picked and curated records from Ben’s favorites available from Culture Clash. Sausage Burp, an online vintage clothing thrift store that offers pop up sales and Culture Clash, voted the best record store in Toledo by the same Toledo City Paper readers that voted me their best writer, are small local businesses that are frequent guests, supporters, and hosts of Ben’s shows, and sometimes mine, too, and that of dozens of local Toledo artists. One of the things I love the most about Ben is that his big shows not only feature me and other local favorite artists of his, but he also always makes sure to include those that support him and other artists the most, and he’s often performed to the benefit and aid of Toledo’s local homeless. A hardworking, work at it everyday artist that promotes others, and works to make their community a better place? No wonder I’m a fan and honored friend of Toledo folk hero Ben Stalets.
a box of Ben's favorite music picks from Cutlure Clash records
After the intermission, I read two more poems. One about the UAW and its history, and in honor of introducing Ben and his band, one about Ideal Hot Dog in Toledo, perhaps the most folk Toledo poem I’ve ever wrote. Then, and now that I think about it, maybe I should have checked to make sure Noelle, his lovely partner, or Rob, or Larry, or the band, wanted the honors of doing it, but y’all know me, I do things and think about them later more often than the other way, so I got to lead everyone, all hundred or so of us, in a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday to Ben as he and his band made way to take the stage. Well, as he came onstage anyway. He got up there, hooked his guitar up and started looking for his band, who all stayed in their seats an extra minute, and quipped that due to my working class union poetry they were organizing and going on strike, an homage that tickles my blue collar heart almost as much as a brand new shiny pair of good work boots.
me, once again yelling working class poems into the Toledo night. photo by Jess
The band joined him, and folks two things: John Zenz is the most fashionable, wholesome, best sound guy in northwest Ohio, and Ben Stalets with his full band is a whole extra dimension of good music and storytelling that is damn near impossible to find anywhere else in the Toledo area. You can, but you gotta know the artists and venues to look for, but on a Saturday summer night outdoors, Benny and his band rocked through a well orchestrated set that knocked the socks off Toledo’s work booted hearts. Goddamn, the musical talent on display that night, all for the price of a supersized drive through fast food value meal, and so much more nutritious for your well being.
Ben and the Band playing on stage with Sausage Burp's vintage thrift pop up store in the foreground
Ben and the band are working on another record, and I’m maybe not supposed to tell you that, but you know, the whole do first, think later thing, but they were well polished and rehearsed for this show, and I know most of the songs that’ll probably make the new record, and I can’t fucking wait for y’all to hear it.
Ben Stalets writes songs for people that don’t normally listen to songwriters. Like roofers, jailbirds, low rent neighborhood dwellers, and Santa costume wearing boogla spinners, and sometimes he pens an anthem that’s pure folk, like his recent biggest hit “4th of July” that tells the story of a war torn, small town Midwestern young man. The band played all those songs that Saturday night, and more. In the middle of his set, Ben gave the band a break, performing solo for a minute, and launching into the long unedited story version of those aforementioned legal troubles. I’m not going to tell you all about it, you should buy a ticket and go see the man play you songs yourself, but know that my buddy Ben Stalets has learned to turn lemons into hit songs, and bad times into good stories that had us all laughing, crying, hooting, hollering and cheering him on.
It was a great, long night, full of the best summer camaraderie, and music, poetry, dancing, hugs, tears, laughs, all the ingredients you need to build a legendary summer tradition like Ben Stalets and Over Yonder Concert Series have done. They’ve been doing this summer concert three years running now, and it gets better, and more fun every year. I’m forever fortunate and honored to have been a small part in all of them, and my life as an artist and human is exponentially better for it.
Me and Benny talking after the show. Probably about hot dogs or more big shows. photo by Jess
In summation, I tell you that Ben Stalets and Don Duprie are amongst the finest American singer/songwriters working today, and you should go download their music, buy tickets, posters, and T shirts, and learn to love them, too. They both have achieved the working class gold star standard of providing soothing escapes from the harsh reality of life, the one thing folk heroes are born to do. Benny and Doop are just about as good as it gets and I’ll hang my sweat stained bandana on that hook all day long.
traditional late night feast to celebrate. photo by Jess
Love,
Dan
ps. I made this chapbook for the show, and the poems in it are so working class and important that I decided to mail a copy to most people I have addresses for, but I ran out of paper, and have to get more this weekend. If you want one of these and don't get one in the next 10 days....let me know.
Loving all the details. hanging on every word.
I went on youTube and listened to several songs by Duprie from his album Corridor. Truly impressive song writing and performance. I am now a fan.