William Mylar - September 2011

This is a working documentation of the life and career of American singer-songwriter and musician, William Mylar.
This page will be updated as information becomes available and as time permits.

SUMMARY
William Mylar (aka Mylar) was born William James Adelman to Gordon P. Adelman and Carol A. (Popescu) Adelman in Sacramento, CA on September, 28, 1954.
Mylar coined the term Folk Wave in the late 1970s to describe his unique solo presentation of original and arranged cover music. Folk Wave was inspired by the Punk and New Wave movements, although, at the time, Mylar's music was primarily rooted in American folk-based rock and roll and especially influenced by the improvisational styles of the Grateful Dead.
William Mylar has never performed the same show twice and his live solo performances averaged 4 to 5 hours. Mylar is considered by many as one of the pioneers of eclectic singer/songwriting.
Mylar also began his own record label, Mylar Records, and the publishing company, Baby Troid Music in 1982. Mylar Records produced tape cassette albums, beginning with Mylar's "Folk Wave Music". The album was recorded using a single track on master cassette tape format. In 1997, Mylar made available two of the first MP3 formatted songs on the world wide web, featuring "Sweet Alibi" and "Let's Dance", performed by the Barking Spiders.
Mylar has won numerous songwriting and performance awards from ASCAP, West Coast Songwriters, Just Plain Folks, NARAS (Grammy) and was listed in Who's Who in 2000.
Mylar has been fiercely independent, turning down several offers to sign with major record labels.

EARLY LIFE
At 7 years old, Mylar amazed his parents by playing Beethoven's "Fur Elise" on the piano after watching his mother, Carol, practice the piece a few times. Mylar began piano lessons shortly after and the piano would be his main instrument through high school. Mylar also became accomplished at the flute and trumpet while in grade school.
At 13, Mylar began to perform in professional musical theater when it was discovered he had a marvelous singing voice. Princeton University director, Milton Lyon, provided Mylar with personal vocal training when he was 14, while both were employed at the Sacramento Music Circus.
As Bill Adelman, Mylar was a popular child actor into his teens. He starred in many local and professional theatrical productions and on television. He worked with many famous actors, including John Carradine, Tony Geary, Jessica Walter, Jo Anne Worley, Kathleen Freeman, Sterling Holloway, Lyn Bari, Giselle McKenzie, Robert Goulet, Frank Gorshin, and many others.
In high school, Mylar played piano and organ and sang with local rock bands. He performed with many Sacramento area musicians and bands, some who went on to become famous, including Craig Chaquico, Timothy B. Schmidt, and members of Cold Blood and Stoneground.
Mylar taught himself how to play guitar, so he would have an instrument to play when traveling. He also wrote some of his first songs while in high school.
Mylar's theater work as a backstage technician landed him jobs with the Sacramento IATSE union and he began to work rock concerts, as well as theater productions. This experience allowed Mylar to learn how these productions were staged and to work with bands like the Grateful Dead. Mylar had been intrigued by the approach the Dead had to music since he was in junior high school, and their impact would become an important part of his music. Mylar would also work on occasion for Bill Graham Presents, which gave him more opportunities to be part of Grateful Dead shows.
After winning a theatrical scholarship to California State University at Sacramento, Mylar worked in professional theater until 1977. During this time Mylar also traveled quite a bit, playing guitar in a kibbutz band in Israel, performing and teaching guitar in Texas, Los Angeles, CA, and various parts of the United States and Mexico.
In 1977, he began to perform music professionally and changed his name to Mylar, a name for a fictional character in stories he wrote for creative writing classes. In 1978, Mylar lived in San Francisco, CA, where he studied and performed music with other musicians, including Michael Bloomfield and Punk bands, like the Wet Farts, who performed some of his original music.

FOLK WAVE MUSIC
In the late 70's, Mylar wanted to be separate himself from the usual Folk artists and singer/songwriters of the day, who often performed mellow acoustic music while seated in front of a microphone. His huge voice often drowned out his trademark Gibson Hummingbird acoustic guitar, which would become the one and only guitar he would perform with for several years.
Mylar wanted to present a performance that mimicked Grateful Dead shows, with the bravado of the Punk scene. He used a 100 foot chord and a Lawrence guitar pickup to amplify his Hummingbird through a huge PA system, which was loaned to him by a friend. The PA was designed for larger bands and music halls, but Mylar would set the system up in coffee houses and pubs. He didn't use this arrangement so much for volume as he did to make his sound as crystal clear as possible.
Back in Sacramento at the Fox and Goose Public House, Mylar tried out his new performance style one night. He performed for over an hour with songs blending into one another, while dancing and jumping onto chairs and tables in the venue. The crowd exploded into applause after witnessing this first set, which was to be the opener for another Folk artist, who was accompanied by the world renowned Jazz pianist, Jessica Williams. The other performer seemed upset over Mylar's performance and there was also some question about the booking arrangement. The story, which may be disputed, has it that Ms. Williams asked Mylar what kind of music he was supposed to be performing and he told her it was New Wave based Folk and Rock. She apparently responded that she did not come to hear "Folk Wave music" and she and the other artist left the venue. Mylar continued to perform until 2 AM and at one time led the audience in a conga line out of the pub and into the parking lot. His pioneering performance ran six hours with two short breaks.
Word of Mylar's Fox and Goose show spread quickly throughout the Sacramento music scene and by 1980, Mylar was touring all over Northern California, performing his Folk Wave in bars, cafes, pubs and college campuses.
In 1981, Mylar wanted to record and met with attorneys who represented major record companies. Mylar was very leery of both the corporate record industry and notoriety. John Lennon's assassination in December of 1980 had a big impact on Mylar and he did not want to become a celebrity. Mylar's experience as a child actor and his work with many famous people also made him worry about his ability to stay accessible to his audiences. While the lawyers were interested in Mylar's music and the large following he was beginning to generate, they wanted publishing rights and control over his compositions. They asked if Mylar could write more songs that could be used in television and radio commercials.
Instead Mylar decided he would produce and market his music on his own. Some of Mylar's fans were recording his live performances on cassette tape, so Mylar decided to try and record a "studio" version of his material on cassette.
Using a borrowed sophisticated recorder that used metal cassette tape, "Folk Wave Music" was recorded on a single track, with only Mylar's vocal and his Hummingbird. He amplified the Hummingbird, using a stereo power amp with simple 3-band equalization. Mylar carefully recorded each song in track order and created the master cassette live. The process took several days, since each song had to be recorded perfectly. This meant not only avoiding mistakes playing and singing, but to make the album consistent each track had to be recorded the same as every other. Placements of artist, guitar, and microphone had to be exactly the same for each recording; down to the details of items in the kitchen he used as a studio. Mylar even recorded at specific times of the day and night. The ordeal was painstaking, but Mylar finished the "master" in less than two weeks. He had hundreds of cassette copies made and packaged them similar to major studio cassette albums.
This was the beginning of Mylar Records, one of the first independent recording labels in America. Mylar also created his own publishing company, Baby Troid Music. Folk Wave Music was released in 1982.
Mylar sent copies of the cassette to college radio stations and also sold them at his live performances. Most commercial album distributing was pretty much controlled by major record companies, but Mylar managed to put the album into local record stores. "Folk Wave Music" was hailed by many critics as groundbreaking because the quality of the recording nearly matched cassette albums from major record companies. This meant that musical artists could record and market their own material without having to sign with a record label. To be certain, Mylar was not the only artist making his own recordings on cassette tape and selling them, but what made "Folk Wave Music" remarkable was the way Mylar produced and marketed his work. Getting the music to the masses was another story. College radio, while not mainstream, was very popular with younger audiences. Several songs from "Folk Wave Music" received a lot of airplay and the tracks "Randy's Fence" and "On The Radio" were even listed as number one on some stations. Unfortunately there was no mechanism in place to provide independent labels, such as Mylar Records, the ability to track airplay and Mylar never received any radio royalties. The only benefit that came from having Mylar's music played on college radio stations was his growing notoriety and his fan base began to build rapidly. Mylar was now packing college campuses, local bars and coffee houses. Other musicians began to seek him out as people wanted more Mylar and his Folk Wave music. Also, it wasn't long before other solo artists began to get off their chairs and use an eclectic approach to their performances.
In 1981, Mylar formed a band with jazz guitarist, Glenn Hair. The band, called Nobody, included Paul Williams on bass, Maria Tejes on vocals and assorted drummers. Mylar began to perform his music in a different context and his Folk Wave already began to give way to this new rock band. Nobody, while short lived, provided Mylar the ability to expand his music and have his songs performed in an improvisational manner, similar to the Grateful Dead. Nobody is arguably credited by many as one of the first Jam Bands, outside of the Grateful Dead, which would not become a popular genre until the 1990s and the advent of bands like Phish and Widespread Panic.

AFTER FOLK WAVE
Mylar married Judith Carrera Lehman in August of 1983. Judy had a daughter, Linda, by a previous marriage. Later in the year, Judy became pregnant, with their son, Lennon. Mylar decided to discontinue touring to be home and help raise his new family. He went to work full time with the State of California, eventually becoming a manager for information technology projects and programs.
While Mylar no longer toured, he continued to perform locally, both solo and with bands and never stopped writing music.
In 1984, Mylar recorded California Gold Rush music from the Old Put Songster by John Stone for a number of California school districts. Mylar is considered an expert on music from this period in California history.
In 1986, Mylar wrote "One World, One People" and recorded it using a four track recorder, playing all the band parts himself. While this version of the song never wound up on an album, it would become a solo track on a later release. The song became very popular in Europe and was at the top of the charts in France for a short time.
Throughout the 80s and the early 90s, Mylar performed sporadically with local bands such as Carp, Late Nite and The Pocket Rockets and musical artists, including Joe Craven, Utah Phillips and Maggie White. He also formed the William Mylar Band, a three-piece band with Mike Van Arkel on bass and Pete Miller on drums.
In 1997, Mylar formed the Barking Spiders with Glenn Hair and Mike Van Arkel. The Barking Spiders included John Bianchi on drums and vocals and brought back Paul Williams, this time on guitar and vocals. In addition to local venues, the band began playing on cable television. Mylar would go on to perform more shows than any other artist on the Friday Night Live cable program, until the show ended in 2005.
Hair left the band shortly after its inception due to his popular demand as a jazz guitarist. The remaining members recorded "Demo 1998", which began as a demo recording and became an album. "Demo 1998" was the first CD produced by Mylar. More importantly, two Mylar compositions from the album, "Sweet Alibi" and his popular rave song, "Let's Dance", became two of the first MP3 formatted songs on the new and growing internet. Again, the format was still in its infancy and Mylar never received royalties or any compensation for these songs.
Most of the bands Mylar performed with maintained some form of the Jam Band theme. When performing live, Mylar continued to instigate improvisational interpretations of his music as much as possible.
In 2000, with his children grown, Mylar began to perform more often. He recorded and released the solo album, "Real Mylar", which would be named the 17th best Folk album in America in 2002, based on customer satisfaction by the internet consumer portal, BizRate. He was quickly recognized by the Sacramento community with a SAMMIE award nomination in the Folk category.
While the local scene did not forget about Folk Wave, Mylar was more anxious to revive his Jam Band, the William Mylar Band. Along with drummer, Pete Miller, Mylar added Jim Irion on bass and David Molina on the Mandolin. Due to commitments with his other band, Molina was replaced by Ken Burnett.
In 2003, Mylar released "Listen", which featured new material and performed with a mixture of Jazz, Rock, Folk and Pop styles. The album received critical acclaim most places, but Sacramento reviewers saw "Listen" as a departure for Mylar from the eclectic Folk style they were used to. Although some in the Sacramento music scene reacted coolly to this album, Mylar featured a number of popular Sacramento area musicians, including drummer, Bruce Spencer, Amy Anne and Xeno from Xenophilia, keyboardist and harmonica player, Tom Whinnery, and, of course, Glenn Hair, who, at the time, was the co-founder and first president of the Sacramento Jazz Association.
Mylar started to tour again in an attempt to bring more awareness to the CD. He performed solo throughout California and had successful performances at the Knitting Factory and the Rainbow in Los Angeles, as well as popular venues in San Francisco.
In October of 2004, Mylar embarked on a tour of Europe, stopping off for a show in New York City. This was not the first time Mylar performed outside of the USA. Mylar was part of a kibbutz band when he lived in Israel in 1974 and he performed in bars in Baja California, Mexico, mostly for fun and free drinks. If there was a guitar or piano around, Mylar would play it for himself and anyone who cared to listen.
In New York, Mylar performed a solo show and also with a band called, The Wanting. He met The Wanting bass player, Alex Tansor, through a Phil Lesh fan web site, called the Phil Zone. This was to become an important step in Mylar's career because he eventually began to seek out jam sessions and open mike venues in order to play in other parts of the world via the world wide web. Mylar figured he could interact with other musicians and find venues to play and people to play with through the internet. The internet also became a great tool for sharing music with these musicians so they could all rehearse material before Mylar was to meet and perform live with them. More often than not, Mylar found musicians of equal or greater abilities. The performances, complete with improvisation, were very successful, and often came off as if they had all been playing together for years. The internet helped Mylar find venues to play in Florida, Chicago, North Carolina and just about anywhere else he travelled.
With two prominent CDs, venue owners and booking agents were receptive to Mylar when he contacted them directly and asked to perform. The owner of the Orange Bear in New York City asked if Mylar could play regularly there. When Mylar reminded him he was from California, he remarked that Mylar was welcome to perform there any time he was on the east coast.
From New York, Mylar went to England. After 2 shows in London, Mylar was surprised at the way audiences sat quietly, listening to his music. He was used to noisy cafes and bars, where people tended to socialize and talk more than focus completely on the entertainment. He soon found out that musicians in Europe are treated with the same respect and courtesy as other professions. Also, the polite audiences rarely spoke directly to Mylar, but they enthusiastically applauded his work and bought his CDs. After London, Mylar performed in Oxford at the Turf Tavern, a popular night spot for the large student population. The Turf is said to have been a hangout of former U.S. President, Bill Clinton, when he was a student at Oxford.
By the time Mylar was ready to travel to Amsterdam, he had nearly sold out of the suitcase full of CDs he brought with him. Mylar had been able to pre-book only one show in Amsterdam. He appeared at the Bourbon Street club and played with a house band that night. Thinking he was just doing a showcase, Mylar was surprised when the owner paid him and insisted he return the next night to open, solo, for another band. At that performance, one of the band members asked him to look up another musician at the Waterhole on the Leidseplein. Mylar went there and wound up playing with that band for the rest of the night.
His next stop was a live radio show in Mol, Belgium. There he performed "A Painless Time" for the first time in public. As of this writing, the song, while almost a staple at many Mylar shows since 2004, has yet to be published on a commercial recording.
Back in Amsterdam, Mylar went to a coffee shop to see about performing and the owner had already heard of "Mr. Meelar" and hired him on the spot. While Mylar's European tour exceeded financial expectations, the experience of being so well received was also more than Mylar had hoped for. In addition, it allowed him to once again meet and work with other quality musicians in another part of the world.
Back in the states, Mylar continued to work with his band and as a solo artist. Since 2001, Mylar also began to sit in with other bands, as a guest guitarist and vocalist. He worked with Melvin Seals of the Jerry Garcia Band, who often sat in with the World Beat band, Mind X, and he had also been working with the popular Folk Jazz trio, Xenophilia. In addition, he began to work with bands in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Mylar especially enjoyed discovering and supporting younger artists. In 2005, Mylar began producing the CD, "Supergirl" for Amy Anne, vocalist for Xenophilia. This was Amy Anne's first solo CD and included guest artists, including Xenophilia's other founding members, Xeno and Hence Phillips, and a budding singer/songwriter, Jackie Greene.
Mylar first met Greene in 2000 in Placerville, CA while promoting one of his shows at an open mike at the Cosmic Cafe. Greene was performing in a duo with Ben Lefever and Mylar liked the Tom Waits material they performed and asked them to open for his upcoming show. After Jackie turned 21 and began to perform in Sacramento, Mylar worked with him a few times to help promote his career, which was beginning to take off as others discovered Greene's obvious remarkable talents. While recording "Supergirl", Greene had signed with Verve Records. His manager, Marty DeAnda, asked that he use an alias so as not to compromise his new recording contract. Jackie Greene appeared on the album as Gino the Wino.
"Supergirl" became very successful with internet downloads and the track "Johnny Depp" became a hugely popular on the video portal, YouTube. The song, written by Amy Anne, Xeno and Hence Phillips, has been used in scores of videos, which continue to receive millions of hits with nearly every Johnny Depp motion picture release.
During this time, Mylar also began performing more and more with other musicians he met via the internet. He started sitting in with bands such as Left Coasting, the Dedicated Maniacs, and West County Outlaws in the SF Bay Area, The Republic, in southern California, and many other bands around the country. He also worked with popular Blues recording artist, Alice Stuart, a former guitarist for Frank Zappa, Barry "The Fish" Melton, and many other legendary musicians and artists.
Mylar also began recording and producing music for commercial television, radio and web sites. The instrumental portion of Mylar's song "Don't Hate" from the "Listen" album was used as background music for the California DMV's first Flash web site.
In 2007, "Zoners", members of the Phil Lesh fan site, the Phil Zone, produced a West Coast Zoner Jam at the Jerry Garcia amphitheatre, in McLaren Park. The event was simply a gathering of bands, musicians, poets, and dancers performing in the vein of 1960's free concerts in the park. While many of the participants were too young to remember those carefree and innocent times, the event is as close as it could possibly come to realizing the feel of the free concerts that regularly occurred in San Francisco during the 60's.
For the first event, Mylar put together a band that included Stu Allen and Marty Holland, members of the Melvin Seals and JGB Jerry Garcia tribute band. In 2008, Zoners produced an east coast version and the events are now annual on both American coasts. Mylar has participated in all of the west coast Zoner jams and the 2nd east coast jam in 2009. Each time, Mylar has brought a different arrangement to the jam.
In January of 2009, Mylar opened the David Nelson Band tour in Pahoa, Hawaii. The David Nelson Band is probably the closest arrangement that mirrors the Grateful Dead experience of the 1960s and 70s. While they only perform a few Grateful Dead songs and should not be confused as a tribute band or a spin off jam band, the David Nelson Band brings the same high quality musicianship, fun and sound as the Grateful Dead or Jerry Garcia Band.
Mylar's current band, includes Glenn Hair, songwriter and bass player, Tim Fisher, who has performed with members of Stoneground, Frankie Lee, and Blues diva, Dana Moret, Steve Wall, guitarist for the award winning Beer Dawgs, Peter Philis, drummer for Mind X and JGB, and Butch Minor, drummer for many Sacramento area jazz bands. In addition, guest members have included Michael Klepic, keyboardist for the Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute band, Skinnin Lynard, mandolin guru and songwriter, Ken Burnett, singer/songwriter, Ricky Berger, and Amy Anne.

The Mylar Band performs all styles of music for clubs and private events. Everything from Country/Bluegrass to Classic Rock to Blues and Jazz. The bands musicians has over 100 years of musical experience between them and does not disappoint.

In addition to performing as Wild Bill Mylar for the annual Sacramento Gold Rush Festival, several years ago Mylar added a new annual character, Wil O'Mylar, and performs traditional and modern Irish music every St. Patrick's Day, vocalizing with Gaelic brogue. His rendition of "Danny Boy" doesn't leave a dry eye in the house and is requested so often, you can hear people calling for Mylar to sing it at his regular shows.

There is a lot of theater still left in Mylar, which makes him more than a singer/songwriter or musician, but an all around entertainer. He'll even tell you, "It's all show biz".

Apr 2010 - Sep 2011
Mylar began performing regularly at Strings Pizzeria in Sacramento, CA twice per month. As of this writing Mylar continues his indefinite engagement there. Guest artists often appear and Mylar performs special themed music for holidays, such as Halloween, Christmas, etc. To our knowledge, Mylar is the only artist to ever perform Michael Jackson's "Thriller" solo. This was additionally remarkable because Mylar played the bass lick along with the rhythm chords and also included the Vincent Price rap.

Mylar continued to perform at the annual Grangestock Festival and both Zoner Jams.

During the summer of 2010, Mylar joined the Red Barn Productions (see Links page) Time Travel Weekend program in Old Sacramento, CA as Wild Bill Mylar. As he has done for the past 10 years at the Gold Rush Days Festival, Mylar performed on the streets of Old Sacramento every weekend and as a support musician for various acts, skits and other presentations inside the Eagle Theater. Time Travel Weekends was a very successful street theater event and Mylar was asked to help provide musical direction for the 2011 season. He coordinated the musicians in the house band, which also became known as the Dogtown Serenaders. The group exclusively performed music, written or published prior to 1860 and also provided support for other performances and historic re-enactments. The 2011 house band included Ken Burnett (mandolin), Casey Davis (pipes) and Jude Darnell (violin). They also performed with Liquor Cake members, Aaron Hendel and Bryn and Megan Tucker as well as pianists, Ellen Hoffman, Win Meyerson and Matthew Yates.

Mylar also performed with the Tim Fisher's One Timers, which also included Steve Wall, Ralph Hammer, Jim and Dana Papastathis and others at Constable Jack's in Newcastle, CA. The legendary Blues and Rock venue recently closed it's doors for good and Mylar also performed there on their last day along with many local luminaries, such as Lena Mosely, Steve Price from Pablo Cruise, and more.

Mylar now performs monthly at the world famous Torch Club in Sacramento, CA. At the Torch he gets to play what he calls "adult oriented" music - material a little bit more racy than his usual all ages shows."Quite the entertainer", exclaimed one patron and "I'll never be able to hear 'She'll Be Comin' 'Round The Mountain' the same way again", said another.

2011 has become a very busy year for Mylar as he continues to perform somewhere in Northern California every week. He began collaborating again with Glenn Hair and Ken Burnett and they hope to debut a new band for 2012 that promises to be quite different from anything being performed right now.
Please continue to come back to Mylarville.com for the latest news.