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Meet Pepper Street
Formed in 1980, band is a labor of love
By Karen Blackledge
The Daily Item
BUCKHORN — What do a chiropractor, a business owner and a computer systems analyst have in common?
They all play in the same classic rock band known as Pepper Street.
Dr. Dave Houseknecht, whose chiropractic office is in Danville, and Rick Martin, who works at Sprout-Andritz, have been playing together in bands since high school. Rick was the class president of their 1969 Muncy High School Class and Dave was vice president.
Pepper Street was formed when Dave’s former secretary asked him to play at her wedding. “We had played at her mom’s wedding 20 years before and it was so much fun we thought why not do more of this,” said Dave, who plays guitar and sings. Martin is the band’s drummer.
Other band members are Bob Yoas, of Loyalsockville, who owns Yoas Services, a third-generation business that does large format copying; and Pete Codispoti, of Williamsport, and a computer senior systems analyst at Broadart. Dave lives in Muncy and Martin is a Montgomery resident. Their sound man is Bert Smeal, of Williamsport, who works for Susquehanna Health System. He occasionally fills in on drums.
They entertained outside Aug. 12 during bike night at Quaker Steak & Lube at Buckhorn. This was their second gig there, starting off with Billy Joel’s “You May be Right.” As for the name of the band, formed in 1980, they got it from a street in Muncy. “A couple of the guys were driving around looking at street signs and came up with the name,” Dave said.
Dave said the band is into “its third childhood” by appearing before audiences. “It’s fun to get up before a bunch of people and play your guitar really loud and get paid to do it. It’s a great outlet,” he said.
“These are probably the best musicians to be in a band with. They all enjoy playing music. These guys are a blast with play with,” Bob said.
Pete is also a member of two other bands: “Brothers and Others” and “Banned Together.” “This is a great bunch of guys to play great music with,” he said of Pepper Street. “We play music that the other two bands I’m in don’t play,” he said.
Rick has played in four or five bands through the years including Bob McNett who appeared with Hank Williams.
“I’ve been with various rock and roll and country bands and now play with a church band,” Rick said.
They rehearse once a week or once every other week at Bob’s Creekside Studio.
Dave’s white bulldog, Norm Peterson, who is also his mascot at his chiropractic office, attends the jam sessions. “He lays there and listens and sometimes barks at Bob when he hits a bad note,” Dave said.
The band, on its Myspace page, lists itself as “the most dangerous band in the world” because “every time we play is dangerous.” While they play David Bowie, The Cars, Lover Boy, Styx, Free, The James Gang, The Ides of March, Todd Rundgren, CCR, ZZ Top, The Beagles, Van Morrison, Robert Palmer, Dion, The Young Rascals and many more, they are always striving to learn new material to keep their song list fresh.
Upcoming shows include Masser’s Wayside Inn, Paxinos, 6 p.m. Sept. 4; South Avis Inn 10:30 p.m. Sept. 19; Milton Moose 9 p.m. Oct. 3; Lock Haven VFW 9:30 p.m. Oct. 9; Shade Mountain Winery, Middleburg, 3 p.m. Oct. 10; and Tedd’s Landing on the Hill, Shamokin Dam, 7 p.m. Oct. 19. The band can be reached at drcas@yahoo.com.
