The focal point of today's discourse revolves around the origins and significance of the theme music that has accompanied our podcast, "so Far so Good." Our esteemed guest, Bob Keppel, shares the compelling narrative of how the lyrics were crafted by his Uncle Jim, a talented musician and educator who harbored a profound affection for Tipp City, his hometown. This episode elucidates the collaborative efforts that ensued when Heather Bailey, driven by a desire to commemorate Tipp City, sought to revive this cherished piece of local history. We delve into the intricate process of transforming handwritten lyrics into a contemporary musical format, employing modern technology to bridge the past with the present. As we explore these themes, we invite our listeners to reflect on the rich tapestry of community connections and the enduring legacy of familial creativity that continues to shape our collective identity.

Takeaways:

• The podcast episode delves into the significance of local culture, exemplified by the song about Tipp City.
• Bob Keppel shares the rich history behind the song written by his Uncle Jim, connecting generations.
• The process of creating a unique theme for the podcast involved utilizing AI technology creatively.
• Listeners gain insight into the community's bonds through shared stories and mutual support among neighbors.
• The episode highlights the enduring legacy of music in family traditions and local heritage.
• The discussion encompasses the broader theme of how art and generosity can strengthen community ties.

New York may be nice.

Give me paradise.

Give me my own hometown, Tip City.

It's really rather small.

Its buildings aren't so tall.

But it's my own hometown, Tip City.

You know your next door neighbor.

Welcome to so Far so Good.

I'm Jim Ranft.

And I'm Sarah Gillenwater.

Every grant has a story, and every.

Story takes us farther.

Each episode we share the people, partnerships, and moments of generosity that strengthen our community.

Today, we're excited to share another one.

Our guest today is Bob Keppel.

And this is a unique episode for us of so Far so Good in that you've been hearing our theme music for the last several episodes.

And we're going to give you the backstory on where that theme music came from.

And the key to this is the lyrics came from Bob's Uncle Jim, who you say is Uncle Jimmy.

Is that what Heather told me?

Uncle Jim, Yeah.

And so give us a little bit of his background.

Well, Uncle Jim, he was five years older than my dad.

My dad was the youngest of the four kids.

Uncle Jim was a bass fiddle player, and he graduated Muskingum College in New Concord and became a music teacher.

But he lived in New York City most of his life.

And when he came to visit my aunt here in Tip City, as well as when we came to Tip City, we fell in love with Tip City.

But Uncle Jim, when he came to Tip City, he went back home and he wrote the song Tip City.

And the words and the music, it just.

It's just unreal how somebody could put that together.

But my uncle did, and the rest is history.

Yeah.

So Heather Bailey's here with us today.

And.

And this is a lot of.

This was her brainchild.

Heather, tell.

Tell us about how this all happened.

Hi.

Thanks for having me.

You know that every year I work on writing the annual report.

It's just what I do.

And I start 12 months ahead of time.

So this year, I'm thinking about next year's annual report.

Okay.

How am I going to make it unique?

And I started wondering, had anybody ever written a song, a poem, a ode to Tip City?

And I reached out to the Historical Society great Susie Spitler, who's there for everything that we all need from the Historical Society.

And I posed the question to her, and she said, well, I think that they did.

Give me a minute.

Well, she found it.

At least she found a section of it, a photocopy of it, but it didn't have many notes, didn't say who it was by, doesn't have the name of the piece, I can decipher the line lyrics that are handwritten, but the notes were also handwritten.

So when we tried to scan that, the computer wouldn't read the notes, if you will, it couldn't translate it into the music.

AI is what we were looking for, but I could derive the lyrics.

So it was my attempt to get ready for next year's annual report that dredged this up.

And then at the same time, I thought, wait a minute, Jim and Sarah need an intro and an outro for their podcast.

Maybe, maybe we can bring all these together.

So because we didn't at that point have the music, and for the podcast, we wanted kind of a theme song, kind of almost a jingle kind of a version.

So as a result, Heather's husband Frank put it into one of the AI programs.

And if we've got a leak, we've got the right guy with us because Bob can do everything.

We needed the intro.

We wanted it to be kind of a upbeat theme kind of music.

You know, think of like almost a 70s sitcom kind of thing.

And so Frank, Heather's husband, put it in AI and generated a bunch of different versions and came up with the one that we're using, which is kind of a hand clap version of it.

And you'll hear it, you know, at the beginning and the end of the episode.

And so now, you know, Bob came in this morning for this interview and he's staring at the actual sheet music for this.

So tell us, you know, how did you come across that once you realized you needed to be on the trail?

Well, when we were looking for information for the podcast, we went into my aunt's file that we had at home, and my aunt had the original lyrics in the original music.

It's, it's amazing.

And, you know, I can't read a lick of music and I don't know, Bob, I know you sing and choir and stuff.

Do you have any feel for what this song sounded like in the, in.

The era, or did you ever hear it?

Did he ever sing it?

I've not sung it, no.

Did your uncle, did you ever hear him sing it or play it?

I've heard him sing it, yes.

Yeah, we'll have, you know, certainly we'll have to find somebody with the musical skills so we can get a version of the real deal.

Yeah, so we'll get, we'll get some copies of that.

And now some of the background, though, on your uncle.

He not only was a, you know, a teacher, but he served in the military.

Yes, he Was in the army, and then he was in the.

The Army's 394th Army Band.

There's a great picture of him.

Yes.

And so he.

He played, you know, probably stateside or do you know if he ever got to go overseas for anything he did?

He did both stateside in.

And this was World War II.

World War II, yes.

Yeah.

Excellent.

So then where did.

Where did he grow up?

Vandergrift, Pennsylvania.

That's where I'm originally from.

It's about 23 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.

So he.

He then ends up in New York.

New York City, where he meets his wife, who's.

There's also an interesting backstory there.

Yes.

My aunt was a Rockette from Radio City Music Hall.

That's dream.

That's a dream right there.

I mean, what little girl doesn't watch that?

And, like, I wish I could do that.

So did.

Was she a Rockette when she met him?

I believe so.

So she was a Rockette for quite a while.

So Uncle Jim had some game.

Yeah.

Or as I could say, Riz, my uncle.

Besides teaching in the public schools, he also had many gigs where he played in clubs and places with his bass, fiddle with groups.

So he probably met my aunt that way.

So did he do kind of larger groups or more ensembles?

Do you know, just ensembles?

Yeah, Yeah.

I was.

When I found out he played bass, I kind of was looking for versions featuring a bass, and we will have one kind of after the credits.

But, you know, they talked about slap bass, and it was also big in the early 50s with kind of rockabilly and Elvis's, you know, before electric.

So did he play any other instruments?

Yes, I'm sure he played some other.

Probably as a music teacher, right?

He probably had to.

Yeah.

My aunt was the vocal music teacher here in Tip, but my dad played the trumpet.

My dad was one of the original 15 members, or eight members of the Tip Community Band.

Oh, that's awesome.

So when your aunt Ann, who's a vocal teaching legend in Tipp City, I had the pleasure of knowing her.

And Heather's got a little side story about your aunt.

Oh, your aunt had patience.

Wait, Ann who?

Fill me in.

Anne Keppel.

Anne Keppel.

Okay.

I think some people call her famous.

She.

She taught at the schools, and she.

Did before me, though.

Oh, long before you.

Yes.

So that's why I'm in the.

In the dark over here.

I'm sorry.

The old people will talk.

Okay.

I'll sit and listen.

I was fortunate enough when I came to tip in 63 I was a 6th grade in Nevin topic and after 6th grade going to junior high at Central.

I had my aunt fortunately in Central there for two years before I went to high school.

Because when they were building the new old high school, the president middle school, she had a sight problem her whole life and she was very much losing her sight and then went with the new school.

She didn't really think that she was going to be able to accommodate going into that building.

So she spent her many years at tip was in the older buildings.

She was an amazing person with the sight problems.

You would not know because with sight going her other senses were very top.

I mean, somebody would sing something and she'd say, no, that's just a minute, that's it's going to be a little.

You know.

And she would.

She just had an amazing ear for music.

Well, let me tell you about her amazing ear and how she would apply it to the.

The elderly, if you will.

So we can all do math here.

When would Ann have been born?

20S, I think.

1914, I want to say.

Oh, okay.

When my grandfather retired from his day job, he sat down and wrote a long list of the things he wanted to accomplish after retirement.

It took him a long time to get through this list, but he got through most of it.

And one of the things on the list was to take vocal lessons.

And he would go to miss Couples and take vocal lessons and then he would come back and then he would practice in the living room.

Brax, I have a cassette tape of him singing his music.

And he loved sea shanties.

That's what he liked to sing.

And so I think she had to be very patient because Emmert Studebaker had a lot of talents, but it.

It wasn't.

Singing was not in the list.

No, it's very.

It was very aspirational.

It was aspirational, but, you know, that's a whole.

That.

That friendship between the two of them was wonderful.

Yeah, Emorett was a Renaissance man for sure.

So at this point we'll play.

We've got a few versions of this, but I'd like to hear a version we did that was more of what we thought might have been what it sounded like.

Kind of a big band era, you know, considering it was the forties.

Bob's already heard this version.

New York may be nice Give me paradise Give me my own hometown Tip City it's really rather small.

Its buildings Aren't so tall?

But it's my own hometown tip city?

You know your next door neighbor?

Your friends are always true?

If you have need of favors?

They'll do their best for you?

And when you get back home?

Vowing never more to roam?

Say thanks to you hometown tip city?

You'll never get lost or think of the cost?

When you're in your hometown Tip city?

Sa.

To settle down?

I know I'll pick this town for it's my own hometown.

Tip.

City.

So what do you think, Bob?

Maybe in the ballpark.

Yeah, I think that would be kind of similar to what it would have been.

I would say the big band.

Big band.

Sounds like Bob brought.

He's got a tape recorder with him that actually has a version of this.

I'm not sure how this would play out.

We may try to get a little better fidelity version of that so we can throw it out there sometime on a podcast, do you think?

You know, what would your uncle think about.

Wow, Here we are 80 years later on something he would have never even known about a podcast.

No, he wouldn't have.

But I think he'd be quite proud to have it played in this day and age because just tells what a great place tip city is.

You said you were from Pennsylvania.

When did you move here?

Okay.

And I've lived in tip since 63.

You owned a business?

Small business, yes.

Well, I spent 30 years downtown.

I worked for Audi, Frings, with Frings and bailiff, the funeral home and the furniture store.

It was interesting how small towns, the two of them came together.

The furniture maker was also the undertaker who made wooden coffins.

And this was much before funeral homes, so it was just an undertaker.

And I have to tell you a funny story about a workbench we had in the back room there.

My wife probably won't appreciate this, but it's a funny story.

She brought lunch into me at the furniture store one day and we went to the back room and there's a table longer than this, not quite this wide.

And we were eating lunch there and I said, do you have any idea what this table is?

She said, yeah, it's a workbench.

I said, no, this was the undertaker's table.

She said, what?

And now it's in your home dining room table.

No, that didn't happen.

No, it didn't happen.

I did get some things from the store, but that stayed there.

But yeah, and get back to the story there.

I was with them.

I Started with Adi as a junior in high school and I worked there for 20 years selling furniture and things, installing window products.

So then it was unfortunate when the store closed in 89.

So then I started my own place.

I had couples floors and windows for 10 years.

So with 20 at the furniture store and 10 with my store, I was in that building.

And when I came to Tip, one of our three groceries that we had downtown was Brubaker's.

And Brubaker's was in the eastern part of that building, and that's where I started my business.

And then when the antique business started up in there and wanted more room, I moved into Chaffey Building and was there for the remaining 10 years.

So I spent 30 years downtown and I saw a lot of changes with Tip city in the 30 years.

But you live downtown still?

Yes.

Do you still?

Well, close.

I live on East south street, so I'm very close to downtown.

And my church, Zion Lutheran Church is there at 3rd and Main.

And we're celebrating our 200th anniversary this year.

Oh, excellent.

So as far as emotions go, I mean, I'm sure when this idea was presented to you, it brought a flood of emotions in one way.

And now that it's, you know, coming to fruition, how do you feel about it?

Oh, it would be quite proud for the whole family.

I mean, my.

I can see my aunt and my dad and Uncle Jim, my other aunt Evelyn.

There were two girls and two boys.

I would see all four of them now smiling and thinking what a great thing it is that Uncle Jim's song.

Coming in the forefront in a full circle.

Yes.

So did Jim have any children?

No, they had an adopted child.

Okay.

No children.

They had four dogs.

Full size poodles and what?

I mean, full size, it's like the giant really big poodles.

And one year, a good friend and I, we would vacation together and we went east.

One year we went to visit my aunt and uncle in New York.

And they first said when we got there, said, how did you find us that easy?

It's pretty easy to just go boom, boom, boom right down to 60th road.

Well, we got there and they were going to go to Radio City Music hall because a associate that my aunt had with the Rockettes, her daughter was going to be performing that Night for her debut.

So we got to go with them to that and see, like a second generation coming out in the Rockettes.

But we went to a small hole in the wall Italian place, and that was a lot of fun for dinner beforehand.

But anyhow, we're staying in the basement, this friend and I.

And you look up the stairs and you'd see these giant poodles.

And we're thinking, we're not going up there.

They were called Samson was the biggest one.

Delilah, Fifi, and Suzette.

And when they would come to visit my aunt on Horton Avenue, she lived with Pauline Clapp on Horton.

On Horton Avenue, they would put a dog bowl in each of the four corners, and he would put their food in there.

And until he would say, okay, Fifi, you can go.

Delilah, you can go.

You know, he would let them know and they would sit there until he would be saying, okay.

Yeah.

So Bob's got a whole bunch of pictures in his folder, too.

Are there any pictures of the dogs?

So when we put this out on social media, we've got the.

The.

The poodles.

Oh, yes.

All right.

Oh, they're.

Yeah, there's one even at the piano.

Musical talent throughout the whole family.

There's one saying that they're saying their prayers before dinner.

So these were their children?

Yes, the four.

The dogs are saying their prayers.

The four poodles were their children.

And then they adopted a son who said they had one.

Adopted?

No, a daughter.

A daughter.

Okay, that is funny.

Well, Bob, we really thank you for sharing this with us and allowing us to, you know, share your uncle's music with the whole town.

This is one of those things we were talking.

We talk about ripple effect things, and I don't know where this is going to go, but I. I would love to see maybe the high school band teacher take a look at this and come up with something.

Community Band actually might even be the best.

Gail has looked at it.

Great.

Well, maybe we'll have Gail on and.

And they can give us an update on this.

But thank you very much again for coming in and listeners, stay tuned, because I'm sure you're going to hear more about it after the credits.

On this episode, there'll be a third version that's just a trio.

It's where you can hear that bass even a little bit better in a version that would have probably been late 40s, kind of a jazz version.

And future episodes, we might sneak some other versions in at the end of the episode just for fun.

Thanks for listening and thanks for being a part of our community.

Hi, I'm Jim Ranft.

And I'm Sarah Gillenwater.

Every grant has a story and every.

Story takes us farther.

Join us next time as we continue sharing the people and stories making a difference in our community.

So far so good.

Are all.

You never give us One thing of the cross.

New York may be nice Give me paradise Give me my own hometown Tip City City.

It's really rather small Its buildings aren't so tall.

But it's my own hometown Tip City.

You know your next door neighbor your friends are always true.

If you have need of favors they'll do their best for you.

And when you get back home home Vowing never more to roam.

Say thanks to you hometown Tip City.

You'll never get lost or think of the cost when you're in your hometown Tip City.

When it's time to settle down I know I'll pick this town for its money.

My own hometown city.