55+ literature at Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., and came to Syracuse in the 1970s to earn a master ’s degree from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. He set down roots, got married, focused on his copywriting career, raised two children and all the while nurtured his love of writing songs and performing bluegrass on the side. “Since the time I started playing at 13,’’ Cadley notes, “I don’t think I’ve not been in a band. It’s always been a part-time job.’’ He played as part of Cripple Creek, a popular Central New York Band in the 1970s and ‘80s. In 1999, Cadley, Paul Wakker and Karl Lauber formed The Lost Boys. Today, Cadley, the lone original member, shares the stage with Henry Jankiewicz on fiddle, Mark Allnatt on banjo and guitar, Ted Williams on mandolin and John Dancks on bass. “John is a much-respected fixture on the local acoustic music scene,” says singer and songwriter Joanne Perry, who has performed with Cadley as part of a trio. “At any jam he attends, he is flanked by excellent musicians, young and old, all eager to jam with him.’’ Cadley’s songs cover some of the usual terrain of bluegrass and country — life, love, loss, trials and tribulations, relationships — but it’s not cry-in-your beer music. It’s fresh, intelligent, thoughtful and thoughtprovoking and easy to listen to. It resonates for Central New Yorkers on songs like “New York Hills,’’ from Cadley’s 2007 solo CD, “The Closer I Get’’: “Well you can sing about the Smokeys and the hills of Caroline. Them rolling Blue Ridge Mountains and them whispering Georgia pines. The hollers of Kentucky where the shiners keep their stills. But just give this Yankee boy a summer morning in the New York hills.” Cadley says he has no set schedule and no real process for writing music. He does touch on certain themes
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John Cadley plans to retire later this year from his job as assistant creative director at Eric Mower and Associates. He plans to devote more time to music. “Since the time I started playing at 13,’’ Cadley notes, “I don’t think I’ve not been in a band. It’s always been a part-time job.’’ Photo courtesy of John Cadley. time and again. He ticks them off: “A longing for simpler times, a longing for youth, a longing for things lost that cannot be regained”… “I’ve often said my writing is Bill Monroe meets Jackson Browne,’’ Cadley says. As for method, he says, “the lyrics almost always come first. Then I try to find some music that fits the lyrics. “Every song is different, but you sort of feel when a song is ready to come out.’’
More About John Cadley — For more information on Central New York performance dates for John Cadley and The Lost Boys and the acoustic duo Cadley and Wenthen, go to www.lostboysbluegrass.com/ and www.cadleyandwenthen.com/. On YouTube: To see a music video of John Cadley and the Lost Boys performing “Black Dog,’’ go to: www.youtube.com/ watch?v=DFuy5ELA5IY June / July 2011 - 55 PLUS
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