Although the Lit Club gigs paid well (we were, after all, only a trio), I was having trouble concentrating on my studies at Pitt with all the band activity. Since I was on academic probation and desperately needed to get my act together so I could graduate, I told Chuck I needed to get out. He started looking for a new drummer and eventually hooked up with comic book mogul Greg Eide, who had played in a band with Otters' bassist Jim Spitznagel many years before. Before Greg could start gigging, I also did a couple of gigs at Carhahan's Hotel in rural Sutersville, PA and one last disastrous gig at The Bullpen in Imperial, PA (I have since come to believe that the cliché of yelling for "Free Bird" began at this very show). Starting in November, Greg took over on drums, they added bassist Don Waller, and played for a couple more months before breaking up.

After I moved to Detroit in 1980, Chuck recorded a follow-up single "Rockin' at the Midnight Grill"/"Rattlesnake Woman" on Bishop with Greg Eide back on drums. Chuck and I recorded a potential third Bishop 45 "Night Time Highway Rock & Roll"/"Blue Diamond Tears" in early 1981 after I moved back to Pittsburgh. That remains unreleased, as does a version of Chuck's 1962 recordings of "Little Miss U.S.A." and "You're so Square" that I overdubbed drums on. Greg played with Chuck again at a service at Bryn Mawr Church in May 1981 (as Morning Train) shortly after Chuck's first daughter Mandy was born. At this point Chuck entered the "child-rearing" period while I went on to play with various other bands.

This got Chuck rolling, because in mid-1988 we did a number recordings with Jim Bird joining in on string bass, then rehearsed for a Bryn Mawr service in September under the name New Morning Train). An open stage performance at Graffiti followed, then another Bryn Mawr service. We started playing somewhat regularly in 1989, first at Bryn Mawr services and Pittsburgh Blues Society open stages, sometimes with Andy Gabig.

In April we also backed Wendy Blankenbicker, an old friend of Chuck's who sang gospel in a more country-ish style. That summer we recorded a full cassette album of Wendy's material, which was released under the title "What If It's True?" We traveled to Wendy's hometown of Fairfield, PA several times to play showcase services to promote her album. We also did a return gospel sing at Bryn Mawr in September 1990, this time playing on a flatbed trailer. By this time Wendy was busy with work and family commitments and was leaning more towards singing with backing tapes, and this was our last group performance.

During the summer of 1989 we were joined by a harmonica player named Garron Sarvas at the Blues Society jams. Garron's first gig with us was in Fairfield, and he's been part of the band ever since.

Chuck shifted gears in December, inspired by his love of traditional Celtic folk music and the more electrified British folk played by groups like Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span. He organized a "12^th Night" celebration at Bryn Mawr in January, and we struggled to adapt our gospel blues trio to the demands of the new music. We did two more 12^th Nights at Bryn Mawr in 1990 and 1991 (all under the name Ghosts on the Road).

We continued to perform alternately as New Morning Train and Ghosts on the Road through 1990 (sometimes in the same night, as we did on May 5 when we followed a service in Fairfield with a blues jam in Delmont on the way home). We did a series of open stages at Moondog's that summer, sometimes guesting, sometimes hosting. Even though it was billed as an "acoustic" open stage, it didn't prevent aspiring guests from wheeling in their own amplifiers and overpowering the minimal equipment we'd brought along. This understandably killed our enthusiasm for open stages. It did, however, lead to some work with singer/harmonica player Lucy Van Sickle, an old acquaintance of Chuck's who had performed brilliantly on the "Mysterious Ladies" LP. She and I rehearsed some of her original material with the goal of making a demo tape, I asked Jim to join us on bass, but the chemistry wasn't right, and we went our separate ways.

Not one to be pigeonholed playing roots music, Chuck and his brother Jim recorded as cassette album of what some might call New Age music in early 1990. He and I followed it up with another one, "Ancient Voices", which resulted in some airplay on WYEP-FM and a concert where we were accompanied by a slideshow of Egyptian artifacts and archaeology.

Chuck's interest in the British folk music had been increasing and he started devoting more of his energies to those pursuits. I didn't share those interests with the same degree of passion, and I was also busier working Mon Gumbo, so I didn't get involved. Chuck began performing solo as Owl-Stone the Minstrel and also with the group Carnival of Souls. We did a few gospel shows in 1991 and 1992, but after that Chuck and I went in different directions.

By late 1997 Chuck felt a need to rock up his folk music a little and asked Jim and me to play in his latest project Jack of Shadows. We played a couple of gigs joined by Chuck's son Chris on guitar and his daughters Mandy on vocals and Stephanie on fiddle. Since then we've recorded a number of his originals in this style along with a cover of "Matty Groves" for a Fairport Convention tribute that never materialized.

Thanks to the miracle of the Internet, Chuck learned in 1998 that he had been inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame thanks to his Bishop Records 45's almost 20 years earlier. New Morning Train now became first Raven & the Sleepwalkers, then the Fabulous Tempests for shows at Rosebud and the Next Decade, where we opened for the next generation of rockabilly bands. These young rockabilly bands were long on sideburns and tattoos, but short on rockabilly style. They were, however, impressed with Chuck's newfound status and track record of almost 40 years of performing and recording.

The rockabilly phase passed within a few months, but not without giving Chuck a burst of energy to continue his roots music pursuits. In 1999 we worked together to produce his first CD, a compilation entitled "Old Ghosts & Broken Dreams". The CD is a retrospective of Chuck's career of playing blues, folk, and rockabilly, with tracks recorded as far back as 1962 and as recently as 1999. A similar compilation of his British folk material is currently in the works, as are some new recordings.