A long, long time ago – and there are many who still remember – the teens of Toronto, Ohio would gather at Youth Harbor where the music definitely used to make us smile.  The songs that defined our coming of age would play on the jukebox, punctuated by the taps of ping-pong balls and shouts of laughter echoing through the repurposed bank building. 

The best nights, though, were when a live band would play. It was screaming loud, crowded and hot, overflowing with intense teenage energy – all that heartbreak and desire, the secret yearning, cautious flirting, jealousy, joy, despair, excitement, romance – tendrils of emotion that attached themselves to the sounds of wailing guitars, electrifying bass, soul-soaring organ, and heart-thumping drums.  We danced away our troubles, profound as we felt they were, pulsing together in the colored lights, living the rock & roll lyrics to a depth that only teenage passion can reach.

“Youth Harbor” indeed!  Decades have passed since it closed and was eventually razed.  Sadly, the city’s population has declined through the years as Toronto High School graduates then and now kept moving away to seek their fortunes elsewhere. However, not everyone has left. In fact, some of the music guys who used to play in those young rock bands are still playing somewhere or other in the valley.  Five of those have taken it upon themselves to regroup annually when the old hometown puts on a festival of some sort, be it the all-school reunion, Labor Day, or the Fourth of July.  They are The Remainders.

Although this particular configuration of musicians is not an exact replica of any of the bands from the Youth Harbor heyday, all members have played together at some time in one band or another.* All are authentic boomers, too, graduated from Toronto High School in the first half of the 1970s.  Residing in Toronto are guitarist Dave Baker and keyboardist Karen Shell (that’s me).  Lead guitarist Mike Styer now lives in Mingo Junction; bassist Jeff Hayes lives in Wheeling; and drummer Dale Graham lives up around Youngstown.  Joey Candal has not “remained” quite that nearby, but is still a Remainder, nearly always trekking from back east with his keyboards to perform with his old Youth Harbor pals, still so adept at playing the old songs that he can step right in with nary a rehearsal.  His distant location afforded me the opportunity to play with this band whose music I used to dance to at YH and which inspired me to later take up rock & roll (so if you Toronto-ites don’t remember a female keyboard player from Youth Harbor days, your memory is correct!)  Another female who sometimes lends the band her powerful voice is Mike’s daughter, Shelby Styer, whose youth is excused by virtue of her childhood having been a total immersion in boomer music.

Last summer, Baker decided the Remainders ought to make a CD of some of the music they used to play way back when. So Mike, Dale, Jeff, and I all joined Dave at Rick Witkowski’s Studio L in Weirton to record the best of the band’s originals from long ago, plus a new one written just for the CD.

Hence was born “Our Town,” an EP of five songs with a photo of Youth Harbor on the disk and moody cover art by local artist Susan Skrabak Kulstad depicting the street outside Youth Harbor as the crowd begins to gather in the twilight – now available here at Hassamarra Publishing for $12.75 plus S&H. 

PURCHASE HERE

More about the songs

*If you’d like to get a little band history, Mike Styer has lately been posting quite a bit about ancient musical escapades on his Facebook page.