Bio: The Players

Dale Beltz

Dale was a founding member of the band "Jetstream" in the 70's, played with the band "Spy-dels" in the 80's and with "Dee Wils and the City" in the 90's. Throughout the years Dale has shared the stage or performed with: Elvin Bishop, Buddy Miles, Greg Kinh, The Dynatones, and Tommy Castro, as well as with members from Steely Dan,The Robert Cray Band, The Tommy Tutone Band, Survivor, Queen Ida, Rogers and Bergin (Roy Rogers) and Linda Tillery and The Loading Zone.

Dales motto is: "Let's just let it rip and have some fun"

Ray Garcia

While stationed in Germany I sang with a band known as The Sonys (pronounced Sunnys) after a buddy dared me to go up and sing some songs. It must have been the beer. One of our German friends knew the band and so he went and asked them if I could play when they took a break and they said yes. After the first song the band came back up on stage and we rocked the place. Rock songs were not being sung in English yet (this was 1961) so this really caught everyone’s ear and the band insisted that I joined them. I sang with them for about a year.

When I got home from Germany, I met a guy in a bar we used to stop in after night school (Junior College) and we started jamming on Sunday afternoons when there was hardly anyone there. I knew the owners and they would give us free pitchers of beer. A month later you couldn't walk into the place on Sunday afternoons. Mike was a guitar instructor at a music store and played with a band on weekends. One night the lead singer told them he wanted more money or he would quit. That night he knew I stopped in after school so he had "Mom" relay the message that they were stuck without a singer and told me to come to the bar they were playing. It was a topless bar with the dancers doing their thing in front of the band. Several times that night he had to move over and nudge me and tell me to sing. Distracted? Who me?

In Sonoma County we formed a band from a jam group of fellow workers from Hewlett-Packard and we played places like Main Street Saloon and Jasper O’Farrells in Sebastopol and The Royal Oak in Santa Rosa. Two bands came out of this group. One was SJB with Mark Terrien on Lead Guitar Dave Lorenz on Bass, Jeff Hamilton-Gaehart on Drums and Roger Stancliff on Keys , the other was feedback with Dave Ballo on Lead Guitar, Wayne Simoni on Bass, Tom Cavaretto on Drums and Roger Stancliff on Keys.

I met Steve Comins jamming with some other friends in Occidental (later to be known as The Sofa Kings) and he invited me to come and jam with Civilized that was in 1996. The rest is history, as they say ....

I play a:

• Fender California Fat Start
• Taylor CS340E Accoustic/Electric
• Squire Telecaster

My influences are too many to write down

Janine "J9" Arendt

Then one day, my mother asked me if I were still interested in the idea; because she worked with a fellow whose group might be interested in a female vocalist. So, with a little trepidation and a lot of excitement, I e-mailed Mike about sitting in with them one evening. Upon my arrival, I found that I already had met one of the members (Brian) as I had been friends with his wife for several years. That helped me relax, as I attempted to "audition". Well, I guess they saw potential in what little I did that night, because I was invited back the next week, and the next week. Hence, began my relationship with the group. And let me tell you, it has been one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life.

I've always had some sort of musical hum in my head. Maybe it's due to the fact that my mother used to put a running vaccuum under my crib to help me sleep as a toddler. In any case, I was always creating tunes, making up lyrics, and playing any assortment of household items growing up in rural Sonoma County. My professional musical training began in the third grade when I started playing the flute, and subsequently the saxaphone. This led to acceptance at Interlochen (a private arts high school) on a musical scholarship. Unfortunately, I declined the offer and chose instead to start singing here at home. I sang in a variety of church choirs and in some musical theater. My big singing break was in "A BBQ for Ben", a modern day version of the prodigal son story. It was no Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, but I did have the majority of the solos and the proverbial bug had bit. Since that time, I took any opportunity to sing that I could find. I worked with a song writer for about a year, working on original pieces for local open mic nights, and entered a variety of karaoke contests. I even won a dozen live crabs one night! Wow! The big time!

Brian Rushka

The first song that intrigued me was "Eve of Destruction" by Barry McGuire. Then "You Really Got Me" by the Kinks struck a chord. I was amazed by the bass line on "Substitute" by The Who. "Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones really knocked me out.

Played folk songs on a borrowed acoustic guitar. My aunt Beverly played piano and organ in hotel lounges in Ottawa. My Mom sang show tunes. My cousin Les was in a band called the Staccatos and they had a couple of Canadian hits after signing with Capitol Records. Later they changed the name to Five Man Electrical Band and had a hit "Signs". They were the biggest thing out of Ottawa since Paul Anka and Rich Little.

Played clarinet in the 9th grade. Tony D'Angelo was my teacher. He played jazz clarinet when he wasn't teaching music in high school and observed that I wasn't learning to read music but depended on my ear.

Auditioned for a high school talent contest with my friends Chris Healey and Ingrid Baker. We put the group together 2 hours before the audition. We did "If I Were a Carpenter" with a little harmony and finger picking. We had never performed in public and the judges pressed us to feature Ingrid more. We were rejected. I knew we could do better but 2 hours isn't enough, is it?

At 14, got my first electric guitar, I remember only that it was white. At a city recreation hall, performed "CC Rider" well enough to impress someone. A limited repertoire.

Chris and I worked together learning songs from Jefferson Airplane's "Surrealistic Pillow".

Dropped out of high school. Traded up to a maple fingerboard, blond Telecaster the next year with a Bassman amp. I became hooked on Jeff Beck, Cream, "Super Sessions" with Kooper, Bloomfield and Stills; Johnny Winter, Hendrix, Doors, Paul Butterfield Blues Band. "Sergeant Pepper" was a revelation, making me a Beatles fan. A friend introduced me to soul music: Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Wilson Picket. I later fell in love with The Four Tops, Supremes, Martha Reeves and Stevie Wonder.

I brought my guitar to Le Hibou, a coffee house in Ottawa, and actually got up on stage to jam after hours with B. B. King! I made him smile for a few minutes. He probably was amused that I had the balls to play in front of anyone!

Joined a top 40 band for awhile and was kicked out. Mostly I just dragged my guitar to any kind of jam session I could find. Little training, limited range, lots of heart, no sense.

Discovered I had to make a living. Sold the Telecaster.

Carole King's "Tapestry" got me back at the piano.

I entered the music business working part time for a booking agent. Designed psychedelic posters for dances. Auditioned as a singer in a Montreal act featuring horns and Chicago covers. This was in '71. Didn't pass the audition. It was live in club full of people with no rehearsal. I was definitely not ready for anything like that!

Bought a Les Paul Deluxe. Loved its sustain. Went back to school. Sold the Les Paul. Got married. Didn't play any music for 8 years. Moved to Texas then California. In 1980, bought a cheap, stripped Les Paul "The Paul". Jammed with friends occasionally. Started playing keyboard.

Decided to get serious again. For a few months in 1987 I took songwriting lessons with Gary Marks. This was the first time I took an organized approach to studying music through the piano.

Ray Garcia suggested I show up one night to play with Uncivilized. Been going back ever since. Over the years I've made music with Ray, Mark Terrien, Steve Comins, Al Holup, Wayne Simoni, Chris Vogel, Jim Smith, Greg Cerda, Steve Casa, Amy McLintock, Ken Stacey, Howard Burke. I've learned much from each of these musicians.

And, I am grateful to be playing.

Dave Day

By this time, Dave is 14 and his neighbors, having been serenaded by 5 years of accordian "music", enthusiastically chipped in to buy it from Dave so he could finally get his guitar. He didn't have enough money to buy a bass guitar, so Dave would would practice on the last 4 strings of his guitar. About that time radio was invented and Dave heard that some guys were looking for a bass player, but they didn't have a place to practice. What Dave lacked in musical equipment, he made up for in real-estate: he had a nice place in the country where a band could practice and nobody would complain.

So Dave borrowed a real bass and started playing with these guys. A few years later Dave started a band with Bryan Dorsett called Smokin Motion. They played a few clubs and Battle of the Bands until their lead guitar player joined the Army which ended this band. Bryan Dorsett, however, is still one of our favorite substitute guitarists.

Dave spent the next several years of jamming with friends, but nothing formal and this became less frequent. It seemed like Dave would hang up his axe. This was, in fact, the day the music died.

Then one day Dave awoke to the sound of destruction. He went out side and found his wife, Faith, tearing down the old sheet rock from of a room that they always thought would make a great music studio. She said that it was time for Dave to get back on the horse and play music again (actually she just wanted him out of her hair). Once again, Dave's real estate holdings proved to be a significant factor in his musical success, not unlike Elvis and Graceland.

Dave now had the tools, the talent, and the room, so he corralled a few guys at work that wanted to play and started jamming again in Dave's new state-of-the-yard music room. Most of the music was original rock and roll. The band was called Civilized. Today, Dave, Mike, and Dan remain from the original Civilized, and after several name tweaks, we still practice weekly in Dave's music studio and the rest is history.

Mike Seibel

My big show business break occurred early in life, in 1972, in Rincon Valley Junior High's pit orchestra dress rehearsal for "Fiddler on the Roof". About half-way thru counting an 8000-measure percussion rest, the first-chair drummer Scott Saturday poked flute-player Carlene Jackson in the butt with his drumstick. After the conductor stopped everyone, and Carlene's scream finished reverberating, Scott was demoted to second chair leaving me as the first chair drummer! Despite the big break, the recording contracts failed to materialize. Demoralized, I decided to fall back on an engineering career and went to college where I ignored drumming to concentrate on Ohm's law and $1 pitchers. Scott Saturday, in comparison, went on to musical stardom. There is a lesson here in drum sticks and butt-poking, but it eludes me. I did learn a lot from Scott, who is and was an excellent drummer - thank you. But "If I Were a Rich Man" still causes a Pavlovian twitch.

After college, working at HP in the mid-1980s, a colleague had a garage band (living room, actually) and needed a drummer. They even had a crappy drum set already there for me to play. Despite not having played for many years, I nervously joined them, and had a great time playing predominantly country songs. We never got good enough to play out except for old folks in rest homes who weren't easily able to escape our performances. But we had fun and it kept us all off the streets.

Having rediscovered the joy of the drumset, I joined the Santa Rosa Junior College evening Jazz Band. Here I was able to remember how to read sheet music again, recalled the joy and terror of site-reading music, and had fun playing all the old big-band jazz charts. I played there for several years, both in the beginning and intermediate bands.

Then one HP picnic in the early 1990's, I jammed with fellow HP'er Steve Comins who invited me out to play with his band at Dave Day's house. We hit it off well, and I became a regular member of that band, and quit the JC Jazz Band. I also bought my first drum set at that point, a white Tama Swingstar.

The band ("Civilized") was fun. Years later, I sold my Tama kit and bought a new-fangled electronic kit, with knobs and buttons and things that lit up. It was based on the Alesis D4 brain, and used Boom Theory "Space Muffin" drums and Latin Percussion LP-Spike cymbal pads. I enjoyed the electronic drums enough that during the "Uncivilized" period I upgraded them to state-of-the-art Roland V-Drums, which are much better.

I have always played for fun, and never been serious enough to claim I had a style worthy of "influences". However, if I did have a style, I wish it would be like the awesome David Garibaldi (I wish I could do Squib Cakes like that) or Carter Beauford (of Dave Mathews band), and or the immortal Buddy Rich who could make a simple double-stroke snare roll sound better than anyone else's solos.

Mike plays or uses:

Dan Podell

Dan's connection to music began, like most children of the 60s, listening to groups like the Beatles, the Stones, and he even admits, the Monkeys. At age 16 he got a job in a Milwaukee "hippie" music store selling records and tapes. The shop's owner also staged concerts, and Dan started working shows as gofer, picking up musicians at the airport, ferrying them to venues and hotels, and filling in as a stage hand. Getting to see groups like Fleetwood Mac, Frank Zappa, and Yes in concert, he had an up close look at many bands of the 70's, their performances, and the work behind the scenes.

Fast forward through 10+ years of photography on the road and then college to Hewlett Packard employment and Dan's fortuitous friendship with Dave Day who asked him to help out with the sound for his "studio" band. As a music lover, a tech guy, and Dave's friend, Dan was compelled to agree.

In the 20 years since that fateful connection, Dan has learned the art of "sound engineering" as well as building and upgrading his live sound rig to provide the best in small venue live sound for Civil Unrest. His archives of recordings of the several incarnations of these (un)civilized musicians consist of piles of tapes and CDs which certainly deserve a place in rock and roll history, or at least in Dan and Betsy's spare room.

Dan regularly sells and buys music gear on eBay, always working toward the best sound for Civil Unrest and keeping UPS and the USPS happy. Now that his equipment fills a considerable chunk of his garage, Dan sometimes does the sound set-ups and support for other bands as well, but being a part of the evolution of Civil Unrest is his most regular and gratifying musical endeavor.

Visit Dan's live sound website at: DP Sound