Deep in his Boothbay man cave musician Gary Blackman Sr. shows off one of his prized possessions: the original, handwritten, coffee-stained lyrics to Garden Party, Rick Nelsons 1972 hit. Blackman was a longtime fan of Nelsons, and recalled his feeling of devastation upon learning Nelson died in a plane crash in 1985. I was a big Ricky Nelson fan, he said. Ricky Nelson was the guy I loved the most. (Sherwood Olin photo)
Almost every evening he’s at home in Boothbay, usually beginning sometime around 7 p.m., Garry Blackman Sr. starts livestreaming on his personal Facebook page. For a half-hour or more Blackman plays a virtual DJ, spinning a selection of songs chosen from the 20,000 or so 45 rpm records in his collection.
Usually following a particular theme, the nightly mix can include classic hits, forgotten classics, obscure B-sides, novelty songs, one-hit wonders, and more. Usually the playlists are grouped a particular theme, such as one-hit wonders from 1974 or top 10 hits from 1965.
With evident enthusiasm, Blackman accompanies the music with a steady commentary and occasionally profane commentary, offering details on the songs and artists he’s playing; mixing in bits of trivia, telling stories, and sharing inside jokes with his small but growing audience.
“It’s all live, and they’ll talk, and I talk back, even if a record is playing,” Blackman said. “If somebody asked me something, I’ll always answer, Of course, I try to wait for a break in the record, so I don’t go on the vocals, but it’s been good … There again, I go, ‘hey, if it don’t work, I’ll stop doing it.’ I listen to them (records) myself, anyhow, so I don’t care.”
Blackman said he started doing the near-daily livestreams almost on a whim last August, encouraged by his wife, Karen. Slowly but surely he’s built up an audience. Some of his streams have been viewed hundreds of times.
Due to copyright issues, Facebook frequently blocks his streams, but Blackman is undeterred. When he is blocked, he gets a notice on his phone and he immediately clicks to resume playing.
“Meta will block me,” he said. “Yeah, because they have the rights to it, and they don’t, you know? I say, ‘I don’t know how you get off blocking me when you say you have the rights to this and you own this.’ I said, ‘You don’t own it. See, that’s a record I’m playing. It belongs to me … I say, ‘Hey, you block me all you want. I’m going to keep doing this until the day I die, so have fun.’”
Now 68 and retired from his day job as the owner of an oil burner repair service, Blackman’s nightly streams are just one current musical outlet for the lifelong musician. A skilled guitar player, Blackman is a well-known figure in the Boothbay region and held in particularly high regard across the state by fans of traditional country music.
A stylist in the vein of Don Rich and Roy Nichols, Blackman has spent his career flying the flag for traditional country music in local groups like Murky Waters and the Baby Blue and the Sidewinders. One of his most high profile gigs was an eight-year stint playing in The Wild Horse band, backing up Maine Country Music Hall of Famer Bobby Reed.
Boothbay Tele-master Gary Blackman Sr. shows off his main instrument a 198Os USA-made Fender Telecaster. This is one of two USA-models he takes to every gig but he rarely if ever his backup. Were only a three-piece band, so if I break a string, I can just grab it and go, he said. (Sherwood Olin photo)
Currently Blackman keeps busy leading his own trio, the All That Matters band, featuring local music veterans Bill Rice, of Alna, on drums and Skip Morgan, of Boothbay, on bass. The band can be seen at Crystal Falls in Chelsea and at local venues like Robinson’s Wharf is Southport.
Despite his busy performing schedule, Blackman said he never gave a thought to leaving Boothbay region to try his hand in a bigger market.
“I’m just a part-timer who liked what I was doing.” he said. “I never had any desire to go anywhere else.”
Blackman started in music the same way many young musicians began, by watching a sibling, in this case his brother, Robert A. “Bob” Blackman. A lifelong musician himself, Bob Blackman passed away in February 2023 at the age of 72.
“Bobby was a big, big part of what I do,” Garry Blackman said. “He taught me a lot growing up. He started playing when he was a youngster, too – 12, 13, 14, years old. That’s when I kind of took a liking to it. So like, every weekend, there’d be people, show up the house and play … We had bunk beds. His had the guitar. I’d grab it and try to remember what I’d seen Saturday night.”
Before long Garry Blackman had garnered a reputation as a guitar player. By the time he was in second grade he was performing in front of his classmates and for school talent shows. He was playing for pay in local bands with his brother before he was out of high school.
“My brother had a band called Bobby and the Country Regionaires, because that’s we all did was country,” Blackman said. “We were brought up on Ferron Young and Ernest Tubb and all that. Mom and Dad listened to that. That’s all they listened to.”
Blackman said he was never troubled by being excused from one class to go play a few tunes for another. He was a less than dedicated student and ended up leaving Boothbay Region High School early to get married and raise a family in 1974. Meeting in junior high school, Garry and Karen Blackman celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last July. The Blackmans have three adult children.
One of Garry Blackman’s earliest bands, Baby Blue and the Country Sidewinders, opened up for the legendary country artist Dick Curless at the Boothbay Railway Village Museum on two different occasions when Blackman was still a teenager. Blackman got to spend some time with the man who penned the classic “Tombstone Every Mile,” but he didn’t think much of the experience at the time.
“It didn’t mean donkey to me,” he said. “I was young, though. Had I been 35 years old, maybe it would have been different. Now, when I listen to Dick Curless I go ‘you dumb (obscenity),’ you know? I just listened to one of his albums yesterday.”
Steeped as he is in traditional country, Blackman has grudgingly added more classic rock songs to his repertoire in recent years. He did so mostly at the behest of local rock musicians like his nephew, Blaine Blackman, who recruited Garry to fill in with the local rock band Sweating Bullets from time to time.
“I said ‘Blaine, I don’t do Van Morrison, I don’t do ZZ Top, I don’t do these guys,” Garry Blackman said. “He goes, ‘I think you’ll be all set.’ ‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘Well, I’ll give it a whirl.’ I’ve been there ever since.”
Beginning before he entered the workforce, Blackman’s music career has outlasted his working days. For the entirety of his working life, Blackman held down a day job and maintained a busy gig schedule.
Fresh out of high school he worked for a shrimp-packing factory in Boothbay Harbor. He did some landscaping, some cemetery maintenance, and eventually got a job working for the Boothbay Public Works under the late Phil Andrews.
By then, the Blackmans had purchased on house on Spruce Point. It was a fixer-upper but it fit the budget, even if money was tight at times.
“I paid $48,000 for it back then,” Blackman said. “It was an (Federal Housing Authority) home. I had to go Damariscotta through FHA. I think my payment was 80 bucks maybe, or 120 bucks, something like that a month.”
Gary Blackman Sr.s main guitar shows the wear and tear typical of a working instrument. The worn spot on the face of the guitar, below the bridge, shows where Blackman most often rests his fingers when hes playing. (Sherwood Olin photo)
He stayed with public works for eight years, leaving to take a position as a delivery driver with Lewis Oil Co. A year and half later, the company’s owner, Brian Mulligan, offered to send Blackman to school to become an oil burner technician.
Remembering his high school experience, Blackman was reluctant to go, but he allowed himself to be convinced. It took him two tries to pass the written exam, but he earned his technician’s license and later added his master’s certification.
Learning in a classroom could be a challenging experience, Blackman said, but he never struggled in the field when he could actually put his hands on the problem.
Blackman stayed on for a while after Louis Oil was purchased by Dead River Co., but following a difference of opinion regarding management philosophy, Blackman left in 1994 to start his own business, Garry’s Heating, which he operated as a sole proprietor until 2024.
That first year, business started slowly, but Blackman hung tough.
“I was getting $90 for cleaning back then, and I started in September and I told the wife; said, ‘We’ll have cleanings. Something. I’ll do all right,” he said. “Well, I was getting maybe a cleaning a week; maybe troubleshooting once a week, or whatever. Somebody kept saying to me, ‘Garry, hang on the slow going. You have got to be in business for at least a year.’ And I go, ‘Why?’ He said that way they know you mean business … you’re going to be there.”
It did take a few months before he had enough business going to make an appointment with financial advisor, but he ended up ignoring the advice he was given anyway, Blackman said.
Blackman ended up getting sued just once, related to chimney work he had subcontracted to another company. He eventually settled the case for $5,000, but not before fighting the case tooth and nail. Blackman said he would have taken responsibility immediately if he believed he was in the wrong, but he truly felt he was not.
“I was in business almost 30 years, and only got sued that one time,” Blackman said. “I just laid it on the line. There it is, you know. That’s how I was taught: if you’re wrong, you’re wrong. If you’re right, you’re right.”
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