Mark Dalton
It was a particularly auspicious evening in the mid-1970s, that night I met Steven Flynn for the first time. I had been playing a few gigs here and there with harp player and vocalist Jr. Earl, a local Pike Place Market music hero, and he called me up for a gig at the Victrola Tavern. The Victrola was down under the Pike Place Market, where Post Alley tunnels through on its way down to Pioneer Square. The Victrola got its name due to the three jukeboxes (count ‘em!) ganged together at the bar, filled with great tunes from the 50s and 60s. You could put a few bucks in and rack up a great hour’s worth of listening.

Jr. was always up for experimenting onstage, and tonight, he told me, we were going to play a gig WITHOUT a guitar player! Now, in these more sophisticated times, this may not seem like a really big deal, but in the mid-70s, most of us had grown up in strictly
Steve on Keyboard with Mark Dalton on Bass Guitar
guitar-based bands. I had never played a gig without a guitarist in my entire life!

So, we drifted on down to the Victrola, and here came this funky old Volkswagen Bug pulling up, and Flynn jumped out, dressed in the requisite downtown hippie chic, with the passenger’s front seat in the Bug removed in favor of a plywood platform to slide his Fender-Rhodes electric piano in alongside. Flynn was then, as he is today, a friendly, cheerful guy on the gig, and I could tell we were in for some fun. . . after the first few tunes, I promptly forgot about needing a guitar player that night, and so did everyone else in the room. The sound was a little different, dynamically, and the gig was a blast - only the first of many great evenings I’ve spent with Flynn behind the keys, in the more than a quarter-century since. A great guy and great musician, Steve Flynn has been a strong asset to the Seattle music scene, and a thoughtful, supportive friend to his musical compadres, since he arrived on the scene — with and without guitar players!

Mark Dalton
Fall 2002
Mark Dalton's Bass
Mark Himself
Isaac, Mark and Dave

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