 |
October 2008 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Sargent celebrates 125 years - and welcomes home a native son |
|
|
|
|
Thursday, 05 June 2008 |
 By ELLEN MORTENSEN
Chief Managing Editor
SARGENT - - One of the most popular annual events in all of Custer County is Sargent’s Fair & Chokecherry Jamboree. As the community celebrates their 125th anniversary in 2008, this year’s Jamboree was bigger and better than ever.
Those attending this year’s Jamboree were in for a a special treat, as a native son returned to demonstrate his musical talents Tuesday evening to close out the festival. Michael Westbrook, son of a long-time Sargent doctor, was born in Sargent and left the area in the late 80s.
According to information on his Website, Mike’s mother and father moved to Sargent from Louisiana in 1965, where Mike's father became the towns only doctor. Despite no one else in his family being involved in music, Mike taught himself to play guitar at age the age of 12, and started playing in a local bar band at age 14.
"It was a great experience, and a thrilling time for a 14-year-old kid," Mike recalls. "We'd load this old '68 Chevy pick-up with all the gear- lights, P.A., instruments, everything- and when we were done there wasn't room for even an extra microphone stand. Then we'd travel to whatever small town we had a gig in that weekend, play, load everything up and get back to Sargent at anywhere between three and six in the morning."
Mike has always been grateful to the man who was the core of the band, Kevin Divine, for giving him his first paying gig.
"To this day, I don't know why the band hired me. I was just a rhythm guitarist, they could have gotten by fine without me,” Mike says.
On November 9th, 1985, Mike's father passed away after a month - long illness. After a couple of years, Mike's mother decided to move back home to Shreveport, La., and Mike followed. Mike went to a year of high school in Shreveport, then moved to Lincoln for six months, then to Seattle for six months, before landing back in Shreveport in the summer of 1989.
At around the same time, Mike took a 5-year hiatus from playing music, and started riding motocross again, a sport he started participating in at the age of 11 back in Nebraska.
"Rural Nebraska is a paradise for dirt bikers," Mike jokes. "Lots of rolling hills, very remote - and a lot good tracks, since there are plenty of farmers with land they may not be using, and the equipment to build them."
Even during his hiatus, Mike always kept an old (barely playable) acoustic guitar around and still played, but was not performing live gigs or writing any songs. Then in 1994, as a surprise, Mike's brother Robert got him an electric guitar and a digital effects processor. This spurred Mike to work his way back into music.
"It was a great thing my brother did," he says. "After he got me that new guitar, it started to become clear to me that playing music, and creating music is a part of who I am, and I couldn't deny it- and I'd be irresponsible to deny it." He adds, "I don't mean to sound egotistical, but when you possess a talent for something, or even a gift that seemingly came out of nowhere like my musical ability did, I think you're a fool if you don't nurture that gift and try to do something meaningful with it. It must be there for a reason, I have to believe that." |
|
Last Updated ( Friday, 13 June 2008 )
|
|
|
|
Huskers.com
