The Sundowners

December 31, 2025

By Larry Carlin

50 years ago, on this date, I played a gig that would have a significant impact on my musical life. It was one that I was reluctant to accept, but in hindsight, I am forever grateful that I did.

I was just 21-years-old and living in State College, PA, while attending Penn State University, and playing mostly rock and roll gigs. But in November of 1975 I got a call one day from a guy named Carl Houtz, who owned a music store in town. I had been in the store once or twice, but I had never met him. He said that he had a country band called the Sundowners, that he had gotten my name from a mutual friend, and that he needed a bass player to play in his country band, especially for a show on New Year’s Eve. I wasn’t very well versed in playing country music at that time, and I told Carl that I might not be the best guy for the job. But he said that he really needed someone, and that the gig paid $150 for each member. The sound of $150 – which today equals about $900! – piqued my interest. So, I agreed to go to an audition at the store a few nights later.

When I went to Big Z Music to meet the band, I was immediately mortified that I had made the wrong decision to even audition. Back then I was a young, long-haired, bearded hippie, and the three guys waiting for me were older, clean-cut townies, and there was a distinct dichotomy between the locals and the college kids. I thought that they would take an instant dislike to me, and I was wary about trying to play music with folks that I had nothing in common with but music. All I wanted to do was play a few songs and then hightail it out of there.

Carl, who looked a little like country singer Porter Wagoner, greeted me with a warm smile. He was the rhythm guitar player and lead singer. He introduced me to Larry Pence on pedal steel, and Bill Seymour on drums. I then got out my bass, plugged it into a store amplifier, and we then proceeded to play some Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, and Merle Haggard songs. To my surprise I found that it was easier to play along than I anticipated, and that if I wanted the job, that I could probably handle it. But still, it was country music, which I did not have much interested in playing. Despite the big money offer, I was not keen on playing with these guys, even for one gig.

We played about six or seven songs, and when I started packing up Carl said that the band had regular Saturday night dates at four different venues in the outlying area that paid $50 each (which would be $300 today), and that as a warmup to the New Year’s Eve job, it would be great if I could at least play the December dates with the band. I asked him what the venues were, and he said that there were two American Legion posts, a VFW post, and a fire house – all places that, on a normal day, a long-haired hippie would never be welcome in. I told Carl that I would think about the offer, and I got out of the store and headed home, thinking that while the lure of the money was inviting, that there was no way that I was going to be risking my life each week at any of these redneck places.

The next day I was surprised when I got a call first thing from Carl, telling me how much the guys liked my playing and that they thought that I would be a good fit for the band. I thanked him for the offer, and I said that I did not it was going to work out, as I was busy with other projects and that I did not have time to play a different kind of music that I was unfamiliar with. But he pleaded with me to play with them, if only for the month of December, as they really needed someone one. He seemed like a really nice guy, and the lure of the lucre for the holidays got the best of me, so I agreed to play with them only for one month.

But after I hung up the phone, I wondered, “What have I gotten myself into? I am going to get harassed and maybe beaten up by the locals on the first night of the gig!”

Much to my amazement, not only did I end up playing with the band for the month of December, I stayed with them until the end of August of 1976, when they disbanded after Larry the steel player left town to take another job elsewhere. Despite sticking out like a sore thumb at the venues that we played, never once did anyone say or do anything negative towards me. And, besides living off the money that I was making each week (my portion of the rent in a group house back then was only $50 a month), I got a free musical education in learning how to play a style of music that has paid off more than the expensive one with the diploma that I paid for at the university.

Though I have only played one more New Year’s Eve gig since 1975 – I prefer to spend the evening with my wife and friends – five decades later I am still playing music, and I still sing some of the songs that I learned from the Sundowners. I am forever indebted to those three guys for taking a chance on a young and inexperienced kid who totally misjudged a learning and golden opportunity that has paid countless dividends for the past 50 years.