Friday, January 20, 2006

Buddy Holly lives on

Buddy Holly lives on in the hallways of North High School, where I teach. I was tickled to see that one of NHS' students, Richie Lee Luckenbill, has made the pages of the Des Moines Register:

D.M. teen keeps Buddy Holly's hits hot
Meet Richie Lee, a 15-year-old sophomore at North High School. Lee lives so far in the past, musically, that it's not a question of whether he pays attention to the rappers and rock stars idolized by his peers.

This kid has yet to succumb to Beatlemania.

Lee is fixated on Holly down to the tiniest detail. He even styles his hair into a pompadour every day.

"I've got naturally curly hair, and it pretty much stays in place," he shrugs. His mom is his stylist.

He wears glasses, but he reserves the Holly-style black, horn-rimmed frames for performances.

In his bedroom, he straps on a replica Fender Stratocaster (the guitar Holly helped to popularize) and sings into a microphone on a stand, recording his own versions of "Peggy Sue" and "That'll Be the Day" on a primitive cassette recorder.

Primitive by today's standards, not the 1950s.

Lee is taking his vintage sound on the road throughout 2006 - at least on weekends, when school isn't in session.

This kid is really, really amazing. I look forward to seeing where life takes him, because he's definitely going places.

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