originally published: 01/13/2023
(ASBURY PARK, NJ) -- The Light of Day WinterFest 2023 has announced the Asbury Angels class of 2023 and inductees include Gerald "Gerry" Carboy, Dolores "Dee" Holland, Gerard "Arthur" Robrecht (aka Arthur Kill) and Guardian Angels, Tex and Marion Vinyard. The inductees were recognized on January 13th at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park by Eileen Chapman, Jean Mikle and Tony Pallagrosi.
The mission of the Asbury Angels is to honor and memorialize the lives and history of members of the Asbury Park musical community, including but not limited to, musicians, tech support persons, DJs, journalists, club owners, record company personnel, managers and promoters. The inductees must have been deceased for at least a year before they can be inducted.
Asbury Angels 2023
Gerald “Gerry” Carboy - A professional musician for most of his life, Gerry started playing upright and electric bass at the age of 12. An Upstage alumni, as well as a composer, producer, teacher and performer, Carboy joined with David Sancious and Ernest “Boom” Carter to form jazz fusion band Tone, which released three acclaimed albums and toured nationally and in the U.K. Carboy was also a founding member of Holiday Express and more recently, he served as musical director and bassist for The Motor City Revue, an 11-piece Motown tribute band, and was also featured in Lisa Sherman’s Decades of Divas show. During his career, Carboy played with Barry Miles and Silverlight, Tal Farlow, Jeanie Bryson, Vic Juris, Kevin Eubanks, Ben E. King, Rob Thomas, Gary U.S. Bonds, Southside Johnny and Springsteen. Carboy was named one of the best bass players from New Jersey by USA Today New Jersey in 2016.
Dolores “Dee” Holland - A piano prodigy, Dolores had the ability to play compositions she heard note for note. Her parents played music, and as a young child, growing up in Neptune, Dolores stayed with her godparents, who were both musicians, to help them get over losing a child of their own. They played classical music regularly and at the age of two, Dolores was able to play a piece by Antonin Dvorak on the piano after hearing it. Her musical ability helped carry her family through the Great Depression, keeping her family fed and housed without charity, as she played gigs at a young age. After graduating from Neptune High School in 1943, Dolores moved to Washington D.C. to live with her sister and work for the federal government; she continued to play piano, and when she returned to Asbury Park following the war, she played piano and organ both in several churches and at clubs on Springwood Avenue, including Cuba’s, the Turf Club and the Orchid Lounge, in an era when only a handful of women were playing music on Springwood. One of the best-known groups she played with was The Squires of Rhythm. She continued playing at Second Baptist Church in Asbury Park well into her 80s; she also spent more than 40 years working for the federal government, retiring from Fort Monmouth in 1988. She became known as “Queen Dee” and “Mama Dee,” as she helped inspire new generations of musicians to follow in her footsteps.
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Gerard “Arthur” Robrecht, aka Arthur Kill - A musician, stagehand, artist, environmentalist and the quintessential storyteller, Arthur’s band, Arthur Kill and the Pollutants, was a noted avant garde punk group. A member of IATSE Local 21, he worked behind the scenes for more than 30 years as a stagehand and technician at the Stone Pony and Fast Lane nightclubs, as well as at music festivals in Asbury, and was credited by music promoter John D'Esposito with helping to establish the Bamboozle and Surf & Skate festivals. Arthur’s “Stinky Cheese” graffiti tags could be found through the city in the early 2000s, as a commentary on what he thought of the beginnings of redevelopment in Asbury Park. His artwork, whatever the medium, be it acrylic, enamel or oil, was always humorous but always had something to say. Concerned about people trampling on the small dunes just south of the Casino building, on the border of Asbury Park and Ocean Grove, Arthur built a new dune system, hauling Christmas trees to the spot and helping shore up the area after Superstorm Sandy. A stinky cheese sign on that small beach honors his memory.
Guardian angels, Tex and Marion Vinyard - It was raining that night in 1965 when a 15-year-old Bruce Springsteen knocked on the door of a duplex on Freehold’s Center Street owned by Tex and Marion Vinyard. “I heard you’re looking for a guitar player,” he said, but it took two days before Springsteen was allowed to join the band. They were named The Castiles, after a brand of shampoo lead singer George Theiss was using at the time. Marion and Tex, who had no children of their own, became their surrogate parents. A lot of adults had no use for rock n’roll in the mid-1960s, but Tex loved to listen to DJs like Murray the K and Alan Freed. He and Marion moved the furniture out of the dining room to give the band a place to practice. Marion served them sandwiches.
“Tex was someone who opened his house completely and let us come in and turn it up as loud as we wanted when everybody else was trying to get us to turn it down,” Springsteen later said of Vinyard.
“They fed us, talked to us, bought us guitar strings and whatever else we needed to make music,” Theiss said. Tex also got them gigs, including at New York’s Café Wha? He drove them to Brick to cut their first record, a single, recorded at Mr. Music in May 1966.
Tex was a forklift operator and union leader at Kimberly-Clark in Spotswood, while Marion would work for the Monmouth County Board of Elections for 50 years.
At one point, Tex would manage more than 20 local bands. Tex and Marion are remembered at Freehold’s Vinyard Park, dedicated in 2002 and located at the former site of their Center Street home.
Springsteen said the Vinyards' influence on his musical development is immeasurable. Tex co-signed a loan so Springsteen could buy a decent guitar and amplifier.
“They are the unsung heroes of rock 'n' roll, without which we wouldn't have had a place to practice and hone our craft,” he said.
Marion remembered in an interview when her husband brought The Castiles home.
“I said OK. I guess it’s because I never had kids, and I enjoyed them,” she said.
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