Germantown residents Boz Heinley, Buck Buchannan, Kim Empson, Charlie Cooper and Wain Ballard make up the Humbleman Band, who will be playing at the Mermaid Inn, 7673 Germantown Ave., on Saturday, Feb. 23, 9 p.m.

by Len Lear

PART TWO

Charlie Cooper, 69, who was featured recently on these pages, is a long-time resident of West Germantown who has been a self-taught IT pro for 35 years, the last 20 of them at the University of Pennsylvania, and a lifelong musician who has seen his share of ups and downs. Charlie also founded the Humbleman Band 20 years ago, which has played often at venues in Northwest Philly and just released a terrific CD, “Beautiful Day.” I thought his observations about the worlds of computers and music were well worth paying attention to.

• How has the business of music changed since the beginning of your career?

“I never made any money with music, so ‘business’ is a stretch, but I understand the question. I’ve tried to minimize how much it has cost me. Ha! I’ve only played in original bands. A cover band never appealed to me. While I can admire the technique, the chops of the cover bands leave me missing the art. As a much younger musician playing in a Philly band, you simply weren’t taken seriously unless you were playing your own music. Your own material was essential. As the years have gone by, I find original music is much more of a challenge to ‘market.’ People want to hear what they know, not what they have to lean in to get. Where tribute bands and other cover bands were once dismissed, they are now the standard. ‘Humbleman’ is one of the few I know still standing. Reverend Chris and his band are another notable exception.”

• Where have you played mostly over the years?

“We’ve mostly played here in the Northwest. The Mermaid Inn has been a terrific place for us. Our friend, the gifted musician Richard Drueding (God rest his soul) let us open up for him a few times there around 2000 until we get our own thing going. We tried bars in town a few times but were never able to pull folks there. We’ve played block parties, street festivals, fundraisers and private parties. At some gigs there were more people in the band than there were in the audience; others were just so exciting, so happening, so much fun. It’s been a great ride!”

• What was your favorite gig of all time and why?

“We have had some terrific gigs over the years, but the best for me was the one we just had this past November. It was the release of our fourth record. Our good pal Jim Hamilton graciously offered to host it at his and his family’s Rittenhouse Soundworks recording studio in Germantown. I had low expectations and modest hopes. It turned out to be pretty sensational for Humbleman. The studio and performance space is such a terrific room visually and acoustically. We had a great turn out, which I am very thankful for. We are quite happy with how the record turned out and are very proud of it. It was great to be able to perform it all the way through with people actually paying attention. A special treat for me and the band was to have my oldest child, Curtis, sit in on guitar; Curtis has been doing this off and on since he was 14, but this one was really special for me.”

• How and when did you get into IT work?

“In San Francisco I got quite involved in Democratic Socialist politics. When I returned to Philly in ’76, I wanted to continue that work but wound up in a radical … ‘cult’ is probably the best way to put it. That’s a story in itself. When I stumbled out of it in ’80, I was 30 years old with no marketable skills. I managed to get a job driving a truck for the Philly Inquirer, despite my literature degree. It was a job I was delighted to have, all in all. Unfortunately, I injured my back. I wound up in a workers comp legal mess and was sent to this doctor who I believe was inept and unethical and who operated on my back. It took a long time to recover.

When I was able to work again, I was told I couldn’t drive a truck anymore. I showed up at the unemployment office, unable to any longer do the only marginal skill I had acquired, with a degree in literature (still). It was ’82, and there was a need for IT people. The magnanimous Commonwealth of PA offered to let me collect unemployment as long as I went through a re-training program. The only one offered was computer programming. I attended the Physically Handicapped Training Center (PHTC), a project of PENN and HUP , and emerged nine months later with a job in IT.”

• What was the hardest thing you ever had to do?

“Raise two children and be a good father and husband. The hardest thing was do all of that in the no-future neighborhood of South Philly where we lived in the first nine years of our family. It was tough. The job at Penn and some luck enabled us to get out of there and move to Johnson Street in Germantown.”

• What is your greatest regret, if any?

“I’ll take that to mean the greatest regret I am willing to talk about; Ha! On a simpler level, I regret I didn’t start playing music earlier. I’ve heard it said there’s a time when a bird learns its song. I started when I was 22 or so. I wish I had started when I was a child.”

• Which talent that you do not have would you most like to have?

“I wish I could play any instrument really well. I’m pretty much a hack on guitar and worse on piano. Why? Doing so would allow me to express myself better and share that expression with other musicians. I wish I were jazz-good.”

• What is your most treasured possession?

“Materially, I guess it’s my home, though that’s mostly the possession of the mortgage company. My guitars and my piano are true treasures, though they are nothing special by instrument standards. They rock!”

• What is your most impressive characteristic?

“I’m not sure I have one.”

The Humbleman Band will be playing this Saturday, Feb. 23, 9 p.m., at the Mermaid Inn. For more information, visit humbleman.bandcamp.com