056: Paul Sontheimer

056: Paul Sontheimer

Author: Chip Schell May 28, 2023 Duration: 47:26
Up until he was a teenager, Paul Sontheimer excelled at piano, which was no surprise considering his mother was one of the best piano teachers in town. Still, when he got to high school, he decided to switch instruments and picked up the cello and eventually bass. After playing in local prog rock band Astaroth for a few years, he leaves Erie in 1979 and moves to Dallas where he lands a job with Showco and eventually travels the world as a roadie and then sound engineer for rock tours wi...

There's a rich, often overlooked layer of American music history that wasn't recorded in famous studios but in the clubs, bars, and ballrooms of cities like Erie, Pennsylvania. The Erie Music History Podcast turns the volume up on that local scene, specifically from the 1960s through the 1980s. Host Chip Schell, a local musician himself and author of “9 Years Of Rock: The Story Of The Concerts At The Erie,” sits down with the artists who were actually on those stages. Each conversation is a deep dive into a specific time and place, pulling stories directly from the people who lived them. You'll hear firsthand accounts of the venues that have long since closed, the bands that packed them, and the nightlife that defined a generation in the region. This isn't just a nostalgic look back; it's an oral history project preserving the sounds and stories of a vibrant community. By focusing on interviews with the performers, the podcast captures the raw, unvarnished reality of what it was like to make a living-or just make a racket-in those decades. Tuning in feels like finding a box of old flyers and live tapes in a basement, each episode revealing another chapter of a collective history that shaped the area's cultural identity. For anyone interested in the grassroots of rock and roll or the social fabric of a Rust Belt city, this podcast offers a uniquely personal archive.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 84

Erie Music History Podcast
Podcast Episodes
002: Tim McLaughlin [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:08:57
A great storyteller, Tim McLaughlin covers everything from his first bands to his time with Quill Eller and their trip to LA to his stints with Tennessee Back Porch, Major League and more. Tim still plays today and may b…
001: Christine Lorraine Morgan [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:16
Bass player for the Generic Beat (and others), Christine was part of a very eclectic and creative Erie music scene in the 1980s. She's also a local historian, writer, photographer, and one of the moderators of the "Past…
000: Welcome To The Erie Music History Podcast! [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 3:30
A brief introduction to learn what the podcast is all about -- and what it won't be. New episodes will drop each Sunday. Postproduction assistance for this episode provided by Ally Schell. Check out her awesome resin art…