Guitar Club / "Road Trip" Coffee House

It’s STANDING ROOM ONLY ... As the GLHS GUITAR CLUB Rocks out @ Famous Dave’s

                     The "Road Trip" Performers

On Tuesday, January 20, 2015, The Governor Livingston High School Guitar Club took the their Coffee House on the 1^st ever “Road Trip” and performed @ Famous Dave’s restaurant on Rt. 22 in Mountainside from 5:30-8:00 PM

A total of 14 GLHS students and faculty members performed music in front of the standing room only dinner crowd. The student performers featured Ryan Hernandez, Teddy Cole, Annabella Hernandez, Adrianna Powers, Matt Nixon Matt Sylvester, Kilian Quinn, Sean Hannaford, Matt Ward and Matt Koutsaftes, while the faculty performers were Mr. Bud Ayres, Ms. Beryl Roman and Mr. Bob Segear.

The GLHS Guitar club is a volunteer club that is offered all school year long, every Wednesday during lunch in room 119. The four year old club was started by and supervised by Mr. Segear. New students are welcome every Wednesday; they can bring their own guitars, or use one of the guitars that Mr. Segear has. It is on a first come first serve basis.

Since it’s conception the Guitar Club has grown in popularity. Mr. Segear wanted to be able to involve more students and also give our students the opportunity to show case their talent out of school. He applied for and received two grants from the Berkeley Heights Education Foundation, which provided funds to purchase musical equipment to allow more students to participate and also the ability to take the coffee houses on the road.

The “Road Trip” Coffee House was a vision of Mr. Segear’s that would allow the guitar club members to create “good will” in our business communities of Mountainside and Berkeley Heights. Throughout the years our local businesses have generously donated money, gift cards, and food to our local schools and their organizations to which benefited our students from Kindergarten through the 12^th grade.

Last year Mr. Segear coordinated the two day drug and alcohol educational program called “The Days of Realization”. The program was by his TREND Club. In the process of making the event successful TREND solicited the local businesses for donations. The business community’s willingness to help was overwhelming. It was then that Mr. Segear decided we needed to do something to give back.

In September 2014, Mr. Segear contacted a few of the businesses in Mountainside and Berkeley Heights communities and asked them would they be interested in hosting a “Road Trip” Coffee house and followed by asking what was their slow night. The plan was to offer the road trip coffee house during one of their slowest business days and times, in private area of their business where customers could sit, eat and enjoy the musical performances. The secluded area would be away from the general dining area, so the students would only be performing in front of fellow GHLS students, friends, moms, dads, grandparents and siblings.

The first business to agree help with the 1^st ever “Road Trip” coffee house was Famous Dave’s on Rt 22 in Mountainside. The date was set for Tuesday, January 20, 2015 from 5:30-8:00 PM

Mr. Segear advertized the event at GLHS by email, posters, and announcements and within a short time had a list of students and faculty members signed up to perform. These students were excited to take their musical talents to the next level and perform outside of their homes and school.

Mr. Segear explained to the students and faculty member that they were ambassadors for our school district, because they were going to create “good will” by sharing their musical talent and bring business in to these loyal businesses on a night that would normally be a slow night.

Before the event Mr. Segear went to Famous Dave’s and met with the managers. He took photos of the room where the event would take place and sent these photos to all of the performers in advance, to ease the possible anxiety of the students. He wanted everyone to feel comfortable. Mr. Segear also was in constant communication with the Mountainside Police Department Officers, Sergeant Andy Huber and Detective Shaun Bendik. Both were in attendance the night of the event.

On the night of the big event Mr. Segear arrived to Famous Dave’s at 4:30 PM. He set up the room up, brought in the musical equipment and conducted a sound check. At 5:40 PM, the room was filling up with GLHS spectators and GLHS juniors, Ryan Hernandez and Teddy Cole opened up the coffee house with an blues/jazz guitar instrumental called “So What”.

Sophomore, Adrianna Powers sung a beautiful song called “A Thousand Years”. Faculty member Mr. Bud Ayres brought his upright bass, and together with Ryan Hernandez performed a jazz piece called” “Star Eyes”. Matt Nixon and Matt Sylvester both on guitars, performed two songs, “Black” and “Do You Believe in Magic” Mr. Segear sang along because he remembered when that song came out. It was 1965, by the Lovin Spoonful.

                              Ryan Hernandez & Teddy Cole



                                             Adrianna Powers

                                       Matt Nixon & Matt Sylvester

Two Musical Debuts
Annabella Hernandez brought her guitar and made her musical debut by performing with her brother Ryan. They played “Little Talks”. Kilian Quinn also made his musical debut on the harmonica by teaming up with Sean Hannaford, guitar and performing a crowd favorite, Billy Joel’s, “Piano Man”.

                                     Ryan & Annabella Hernandez

                                             Kilian Quinn

                                       Sean Hannaford


                        Ryan Hernandez Mr. Bud Ayres & Matt Ward

                                                Matt Koutsaftes

GLHS Hockey player Matt Koutsaftes took off his ice skates, picked up his guitar and performed two songs, “Everlong” &“Adams Song”. Matt Ward, sax, then teamed up with Ryan and Mr. Ayres and played “Blue Bossa” and Sean Hannaford played “We’re Gonna Be Friends”. GLHS Faculty member Ms. Beryl Roman gave the audience a treat by singing two songs , “The Greatest Love of All” and “How Do I Live”.

                                                Ms. Beryl Roman

And finally Mr. Segear performed a song written by Ivory Joe Hunter called “Since I Met You Baby”. He dedicated the song to his wife Ellen who was in the audience.

The musical program continued as all of the performers were invited to come out for an encore. The 1^st ever “Road Trip” coffee house event ended a little after 8:00 PM, almost two and one half hours.

At the conclusion of the program, Mr. Segear told the crowd that this event was all about promoting "natural highs". He said that the goose bumps that all of you felt were a result of your bodies responding to performances, listening to music and receiving applauds from the audience; Mr. Segear said that "natural high’s" cannot be duplicated from using alcohol, and or drugs.

The reviews were all positive, as parents, and performers alike could not say enough about the opportunity. Mr. Segear said that he was very proud of everyone for being, great role models and ambassadors for Governor Livingston High School and our school district.

As Mr. Segear was packing up the final pieces of equipment, Tim the Famous Dave’s manager, shook his hand and said that the evening was a total success because the coffee house made it worthwhile being open that night. He said that you can come back any time.

Great night for everyone!

If anyone would like to make a donation to the volunteer GLHS Guitar Club, you can contact Mr. Bob Segear @ 908-464-3100 ext 2713 or emailing him @ bsegear@bhpsnj.org.

"Thanks for Coming to School Today" ... Mr. Bob Segear

                                             Mr. Bob Segear