Hi-Line Living: Music Man

For decades, John Steinhardt performed at nightclubs and bars around the world, but recently he has spent much of his time sharing the stage with young musicians at Hays-Lodge Pole High School.

Steinhardt, who sings and plays guitar, keyboard, harmonica, trombone, trumpet, bugle, banjo and drums, was hired by the school district last year as its first music director in eight years.

Altogether, Steinhardt has 15 years of experience teaching music at schools in California, Texas, Montana, Wisconsin and Wyoming, but when he came to Hays-Lodge Pole to be interviewed for the director position, he saw a happiness and innocence among the students that he had not seen at most schools.

"They were different," he said. The cockiness exhibited by students at a lot of schools wasn't there.

"They were generally warm and loving," Steinhardt said. "That is what I like about these kids."

For much of his adult life, Steinhardt has been a professional musician and songwriter, performing a mix of cover songs and original rock, country and sometimes show tunes. He has performed in nearly every state in the U.S. and in other countries including Canada, Newfoundland, Japan and South Korea.

He has released 42 albums and DVDs of music, written two books and last year, when it was released, tracks from his album "I am not who I think I am" were played on 96 radio stations throughout the U.S.

Throughout the years, Steinhardt has played with 27 bands, but has now developed a one-man band act and is known by the stage name Johnny Schizoid.

The name came about because in his act, Steinhardt dresses up in different costumes that range from a hillbilly, to a nun, to an alien.

People would compare his tendency to dress in different costumes and adopt different stage personas to someone with schizophrenia, and the name stuck.

In his act, Steinhardt uses pre-recordings of himself playing instruments and plays them back while on stage performing, creating the effect of himself playing with a band. By his side on stage is an array of instruments, including as many as 10 different guitars.

Between the instruments, costumes and full lighting and sound systems, setting up can take as long as four hours, he said.

His show consists of mainly rock and some country, he said. At one time, he played 85 percent cover songs and 15 percent songs he had written. Two years ago, the cover show was retired and now he performs his own original music, he said.

Steinhardt's long, adventure that has taken him to Hays-Lodge Pole High School, began on the Wisconsin farm where he grew up.

At age 8 he played his first musical instrument, the trombone. Steinhardt said it was soon after that he found his musical passion.

His father was the son of a musician, and mother, herself  a music enthusiast, enjoyed and encouraged his pursuit of music. As the years went on the list of instruments he knew how to play grew, when he was 11 years old, he took up the guitar and at age 13 drums, and so on.

"There was a renaissance of music going on at the time. Of course with rock-n-roll and

people just loved to hear music," he said.

Crowds today, he said, are different.

Whereas back then the music was the central focus when people would come to the bar, now oftentimes people's intention when they go to a bar is to drink. The live performers, he said, are fewer, with most places opting to hire a DJ or use a stereo or juke box to provide music, making any music, little more than background noise.

Some large cities have a vibrant music scene, but in the small bars in which he got his start, live performers are fewer.

"Those wonderful days of live  music, they have vanished," he said.

After graduating high school, Steinhardt earned a degree in music education and performance from the University of Wisconsin and then hit the road.

Throughout the years, he played with 27 different bands while on the road. He would open for well-known musical acts such as Willie Nelson, Cheap Trick and Tommy Twotone.

One gig he played was as part of a United Nations group in the Sinai Desert in Egypt, where members of the militaries of 14 nations were stationed to keep the peace between Egypt and Israel. Steinhardt played that event from  the back of a flatbed truck doing what he described as "all these crazy things." The most memorable part for him, he said, was when he performed the song "I am King Tut," a song comedian Steve Martin performed on Saturday Night Live.

"It was just this strange feeling to put that King Tut mask on with the costume and then do this crazy Steve Martin song," he laughed.

Steinhardt said he remembers large men from the Soma military who were there dancing in circles.

Though he has opened for prominent A-list musicians, Steinhardt said he often didn't get a chance to know them too well.

One time at a Willie Nelson concert, Steinhardt  tried to sell Nelson a song. Steinhardt tried to get backstage, but was turned away by a muscular body guard who sported a tank top with the name Gator emblazoned on it.

Later at the concert, he tried to approach Nelson again who was on a bus. He was prevented from seeing Nelson, who was supposedly asleep, but handed the man the cassette.

Two years later, while performing in a club owned by Nelson in Texas, he shouted out to Nelson, asking him if he got the tape.

Nelson's only response was to give him a quick thumbs up before walking out the door of the club.

Before taking his job last year, Steinhardt was no stranger to north-central Montana.

In the late 1990s, he came to Havre where he lived for a few years. He said that he thought the area with its farmers, ranchers, railroad workers, families and schools, as well as the vast prairies and high mountains was "the backbone of America."

He became a fixture on the local bar scene, performing at Shamrocks, the Eagle's Club, the Tip-It and other establishments. An outdoors enthusiast, he loved the hunting and fishing that the area provided, and he made a great many friends.

The music, though, soon took him away. It was the chance to  return to the area that was another incentive, Steinhardt said, for him to accept his position at Hays-Lodge Pole, and move to Zortman with Beverly, his wife of nearly 12 years.

For a few years at a time, Steinhardt has taken a break from recording albums or life on the road, to settle down for a short period of time and take a teaching job.

Teaching, he said, is something he loves because it is a chance to share and pass on his passion for music.

"And that is what I really like about teaching, is just to be with the kids and play music, and they learn much more quickly when  they are with you playing the part and different instruments. And that is the best part about teaching," he said.

Performing as a musician on the road, Steinhardt said, is not too different from teaching music to students.

"It's actually the same because when you are in front of kids, you are performing," he said. "You develop a character, and you are performing for them the instrument and the music, you make sure it is done to perfection, and they respond to that just like an audience," he said. "They are no different."

When he initially took the job, Steinhardt was going to give the job a year to see if it was worth staying. He said part of what caused him to want to stay, is the amount of musical talent he sees at Hays-Lodge Pole.

"There is a lot of talent in our school, a lot of musical talent," he said.

Some of his students, he said, do seem to have the potential to go far professionally in music, and he tries to show them how to advance.

Schools, though, he said, have changed greatly from when he was in high school.

In schools today, he said, there is so much going on in terms of academics and activities that it can be hard to make school band or music a priority.

To be a musician, even in high school, he said, takes concentration and work, which can be difficult in an age of cellphones and short attention spans.

"Right now, it is almost as if there is a lot of noise that is going on and all that noise hits a young person and spins them out of control to the point that they can't stay in one place and focus on maybe one thing at a time," he said.

By contrast, he said, students who were encouraged by parents and the world around them to find something they were passionate about learning, become good at it, go on to high school and college, and then eventually pursue their passion.

That, Steinhardt said, is what he tries to teach his students.

Technology has also changed, with people able to create music through computer programs without ever using a traditional musical instrument.

People no longer need to pick up an instrument to make music anywhere, they can now just pick up a cellphone, he said.

Since he took the job as band director, Steinhardt and the Thunderbirds Band have had a Christmas concert and played their first pep band in eight years this year when they came to  Havre for the district basketball tournament. Later this year, they will play their spring concert in May and play at graduation.

Though Steinhardt said he will likely stay at Hays-Lodge Pole until he retires, he has not given up his other musical pursuits.

He is now in the process of recording his new album "Shadow Man" and plans to hit the road this summer.

Steinhardt is also striving to achieve another longtime goal of his to sell two or three songs he has written to a major recording artist.