Kelly Emerson, left, and Gary Garbleman have performed together in South County for 18 years as The Kegg Band.
Long before Kelly Emerson picked up his first electric guitar at age 12, he was inspired by his banjo-playing father, Bill Emerson, who was elected into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame in 1984.
Since then, Kelly Emerson has mastered not only the electric but also steel- and nylon-string acoustic guitars, five-string banjo, harmonica, and been both a lead and backup vocalist.
In the beginning, he played what he planned as a full-time career in nightclubs — in the Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia area, also taking in New York City and the New Jersey shore.
“Music was always very important to me,” said Kelly. “When I was 10, my older brother started playing and I started listening to Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple,” he said in an interview Dec. 11. “I wasn’t raised by him, but my father was an inspiration, and I made up my mind to make my own music.”
It was obviously in his genes, but it also took a lot of hard work.
Upon moving to Sundance, a community just southeast of Sun City Center, a little more than 18 years ago, Emerson has performed for many Florida audiences as half of The Kegg Band with Gary Garbleman while working full time for the Sun City Center Community Association.
The Kegg was chosen for a name because it used two letters from each of their names, he said.
Meanwhile, Emerson started with the SCC Community Association as general maintenance, with a certification in pool service, and was soon promoted to maintenance supervisor. Then, about 10 years ago, he gained the title of senior maintenance supervisor.
In February 2008, he began training Michael Chute, a licensed electrician, to supervise the South Campus. Now that Emerson is leaving Jan. 1, Chute will take over the position of senior maintenance supervisor for the association, managing maintenance and special projects of all the association’s community property and buildings.
Emerson and his wife Amy chose to live in Sundance because it is an equestrian community and they own two horses.
“Amy’s passion is horses,” Emerson explained.
She was a pacemaker technician at Bay Area Cardiology until recently, and has since moved to Franklin, Tenn. — right outside Nashville — where she has taken a position at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
“She left 12 weeks ago, and I’ve kept it pretty quiet,” he said. “I wanted to be sure I had all the pieces in place before telling anyone because I’m leaving with such a heavy heart. I love this job and I love the people here. But she’s got this great opportunity, so I think I’ll be a street musician for a while.
“It’s fun,” Emerson said. “You play anywhere, and rub elbows with other musicians, leave your guitar case open and people come by and put money in. The [talent] scouts are always walking around — you never know what’ll happen.”
He said he never intended to take his music to Nashville, but when his wife landed such a wonderful job after a layoff in Florida, he wasn’t going to miss whatever opportunity might be calling him.
The “call” got stronger due to a big coincidence after he applied for a job on line.
He said, “I went up to visit Amy on a seven-day vacation, and while I was there I got a call from someone I had sent a resumé to several weeks before. I was on Career Builder online and had applied for a job. By strange coincidence the callback came while I was 11 minutes away [from the employer] and I was able to meet with him right away.”
The employer gave him a tour of the facility and introduced him to everybody working there and called his boss long distance, passing the phone to Emerson, who was hired by telephone as maintenance supervisor and environmental safety director for Green Hills Health and Rehabilitation Center.
It’s a big change at 53, but he says he is looking forward to it.
“I know I’ll miss all the good people here,” he said. “But I’m looking forward to ‘busking’ — that’s the term for street musician, the practice of performing in public for money.”
He said he isn’t looking for a band, but wants to continue writing songs and performing backup vocals and lead guitar.
To find out more about Emerson and his music, visit www.thekegg.com/index.php/about-us.
