the h.e. pabst story

one has to go back to the beginning... july 19, 1953, to be exact, to get the entire story.... it was the day after the wife of a u.s. air-force serviceman, stationed in munich, germany inadvertantly tumbled down a flight of stairs... and 'jump-started' the life of her nerwborn son... suffice to say that since his birth (the next day) on july 20th of that year, the 'rocking and rolling' life of herbie e. pabst has continued to evolve...

early exposures to music in herb's world included listening to his grandfather play classical music on the violin... the elder pabst also imparted musical knowledge to the young lad, teaching him about notes, harmony and basic music theory...

by age 6, herb was taking accordian lessons.... and by 10, he'd branched out to the trumpet, participating and performing quite successfully with the boy scouts in many drum and bugle-style competitions.

the biggest change came at the age of 12 when a musically-budding herb discovered the 'magic' of the 6-stringed 'wood and steel' box.. the guitar felt like 'home' to him... and the journey of this young man's passion for music-writing, production and performance had begun.

ironically, when herb (who is also a present-day master carpenter and craftsman / designer) launched his first 'adolescent-years' garage rock 'n roll band... he appropriately titled the group, "the curly maples". throughout the rest of his high school years, he was in and out of several bands, continuing to hone his guitar and vocal skills.

it was now the early 70's... after high school, herb joined the u.s. navy and was assigned to the carrier u.s.s. franklin d. roosevelt. for the better part of a year, he resuscitated his trumpet-skills and performed with memphis division of the navy orchestral ensemble. at the same time, Herbie 'held onto the guitar' with both hands, playing with an assortment of rock and folk groups, often performing in concert for other service personnel aboard ship. it was a very musically-rich time in this young artist's life.

herb continued to mature as a songwriter, laying down his first tracks at cyprus recording studios in jacksonville, florida in 1973. these were basic 4-track demos... but were nonetheless a major rung on the ladder of herb's growing career.

after his stint with the navy, herbie found that his preference in songwriting-style was leaning more toward the country-folk-rock sound that was at the time evolving 'in and of itself' out of the west coast....

in 1980, returning to the northeast, where he'd spent much of his youth, herb made a connection with jamie gensch and 'the red rider band', and spearheaded them into "if walls could talk" studios in passaic, new jersey, where the beginnings of a lifelong friendship and production-partnership with studio owner glenn m. taylor took root.

the very next year, pabst founded his own 'blue earth records' and returned to 'if walls could talk' to record his own first single, 'melody man' b/w 'loving you and remembering". the single was nationally promoted in the states and was reviewed quite favorably... It also received significant radio airplay in canada, with very positive response. herbie continued to write and record prolifically through the early 80's.

in 1985, studio-pal glenn taylor tapped pabst's 'other' talent... and asked herb to build him a 'dream-recording-studio'... in his new home... herb put his knowledge of acoustics, music and construction all into one 'think tank' and would oversee the construction of a 2,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility (see mix magazine, august 2004) which, to this day employs the best of both the digital and analog sound-recording worlds (www.taylormadeprod.com). the new facility has also been host to many subsequent pabst-song productions.

herb lives with his wife and two sons in suburban essex county, n.j. and continues to write and record... as well as tinker with several high (and low)-tech pastimes, such as directing, editing films, writing screenplays, building fine furniture, designing web sites and even beekeeping....

this 11-track cd-release is a compendium of the 'first 30 years' of home-grown and studio-produced pabst songwriting and performance... they are truly 'all natural'!

for more information contact us at info@hepabst.com.