Though I don't recall any specifics of the event, I first met Jonathan Klizas on a Sept. morning in 1958 when we both started St. Vincent de Paul School's kindergarten in Stirling, New Jersey. We ended up spending significant portions of the next 15 or so years together. Along the way he took up guitar. Sometime after I followed. Much of what I played in those years (and am still playing today for that matter) I learned or lifted from him. We joined up with two other friends/schoolmates and formed a garage band, which had a run of dance and party performance dates in the late sixties/early seventies. By the time we were aspiring to something approaching adulthood, our musical interests had changed somewhat, or perhaps I should say Jon's had. I had followed Jon along on his various ventures through rock n' roll, folk, blues, and traditional genres over the years. By about 1973 Jonathan had begun to study music seriously. He found a teacher and worked passionately at classical guitar, eventually progressing to the point where he himself was a teacher. In subsequent years I moved thousands of miles away to Tacoma, Washington. I saw Jon once in about 1979 when he visited me there. After that we fell out of contact until late last spring when I got an email asking if I was the same Steve Koehler who once lived in Gillette, NJ. I visited family in New Jersey in June of 2000. While there I made a (much too) brief visit to Jonathan and his family. Among other surprising things, Jon had entered geekdom since I had last seen him, and had amassed an impressive array of digital recording paraphernalia in his basement. We hit upon the idea (or it hit upon us) of collaborative recording. I came home and recorded Don't Let Your Deal Go Down on my very modest setup here. I put an mp3 of it on my site, and emailed Jon about it. He replied that he wanted to work with it--add a "Prelude" etc. I had no idea what in hell anyone could do with the thing, but told him to go ahead and knock himself out with it. My original recording of Don't let Your Deal Go Down was two tracks--one vocal, one banjo. Jon added some three tracks of mandolin, and two or more of guitar. He built and wove his music around and through it. I was enthused by the result. His approach to the tune was different. The current mp3 file is the final mix. This promises to be a fun process. I'm excited about the prospect of future collaborations. --S. Koehler, Aug. 2000

Steve & Jonathan circa 1964

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