About Jay Munton

Native Annapolitan Jay Munton began his music education at an early age through devoted listening to the local rock and country AM radio stations WYRE and WCAO.

Music was always a part of family life. Jay’s brothers played guitar, drums and trumpet, his father was a jazz clarinetist, and his mother was in charge of entertainment at the local American Legion hall.

The music at home and the time spent at neighbors’ houses listening to 45 rpm records, broadened Jay’s exposure to a wide range of musicians and styles.

Through the culmination of these experiences, Jay began to develop an interest in rhythm guitar at about 9 years old. This changed after he heard the Rolling Stones’ Honky Tonk Woman. It fostered his curiosity in drumming — and he felt that playing drums might be a faster vehicle to live performing.

Jay continued playing guitar and drums through high school. Shortly after high school, he moved to Florida where he began his musical career in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area in the mid-1970’s.

Jay gradually worked his way back up the east coast and settled once more into the local band scene. His love of music and versatility has allowed him to continue to work as a solo vocalist and instrumentalist, as well combine his efforts with the talents of other musicians.

One of the musicians Jay often teamed up with is longtime friend and professional musician Joe Dyson. Jay and Joe were in several bands together over the course of 15 years.

About Joe Dyson

Jay and Joe were in several bands together over the course of 15 years.

Joe Dyson is from Baltimore and, like Jay, grew up listening to doo-wop, Motown, the British Invasion, and his dad’s country music.

Joe’s interest and keen ear allowed him to quickly pick out the guitar parts from 45 rpm records. His talent was recognized at a young age and he was encouraged to become a professional musician almost immediately after high school.

Joe worked at his regular job during the day and was a professional musician at night – until financial opportunities appeared.

“I made more money playing the clubs in Baltimore, than I made at my regular job.” A few semesters in music school, where he focused on music theory, enhanced his versatile guitar technique.

Joe can be heard singing a wide repertoire, including the music of the Beatles, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Bob Dylan, Elvis, Ricky Nelson, Jimmy Buffett, the Rolling Stones, George Straight, and others.

Over time, Joe became a guitar player for such groups as the Platters, Drifters, Bill Haley’s Comets, the early Smithereens and singers Martha Reeves, Otis Blackwell, Rick Nelson, and local legend Ronnie Dove, to name a few.

About Iver "The Driver" Franzen

Iver, at 58, is one of those guys who has a hard time sitting still. Birth and early rearing happened in Erie, PA, after which he bounced around New England during high school and summer jobs.

He attended two different colleges (one in Pennsylvania, the other in upstate New York), passing through several different majors before graduating with a BA in music. Afterward, he drove snow cats and dragged injured skiers down mountainsides as a professional ski patroller at Killington, Vermont, and spent those summers as either an architectural designer, carpenter, stage manager, or professional sailor. Then he drifted south and ferried booze-cruisers all around the Caribbean and Bahamas.

In 1986, he came back to the mainland and continued his maritime work as a commercial captain, which he still continues today part-time. He also went back to “school,” as an apprentice to, and later as a partner with, a world-renowned naval architect, and hung his own naval architect shingle in 1992 in Annapolis.

This work continues, with design and consulting involvement in projects such as Pride of Baltimore II, Kalmar Nyckel, Lady Maryland, tug Baltimore, and USS Constitution (“Old Ironsides”).

The one constant (sort of) during all this was, and still is, music. He picked up his first guitar at about age 12, and stumbled onto the banjo at about 16.

He sang in several a-capella singing groups during high school and college, including a performance at the Lincoln Center. He also played and sang in several bluegrass and soft rock bands during this time, with a bit of air time on a couple of Pittsburgh radio stations.

His bluegrass band was in the line-up and debuted several of his original instrumentals at the famous 1973 Union Grove Fiddler’s Convention, attended by 75,000 people. (Started in 1929, this annual Convention was finally outlawed in 1980.)

Later, in Vermont, he was part of a long-standing band that played the night scene after getting down off the mountain, and was a stage manager for the Green Mountain Music Series and Vermont Jazz Festival, working with such greats as Tom Paxton, Pete Seeger, Herbie Mann, Tom Rush, Chuck Mangione, Betty Carter, and Ray Charles.

He was also a founding member of the infamous Manic Mountain Boys, a bluegrass, band (“mob” might be more like it) playing New England bluegrass festivals.

After moving south, he continued to entertain in Florida, the Bahamas, and the Caribbean until a severe finger injury interrupted his playing for many years afterwards. He was finally able to get fingers working again about nine years ago.

He has since sat in with several Annapolis and Eastern Shore bands, including Them Eastport Oyster Boys and Jeffananna. He started playing the dobro about 5 years ago, which has become pretty much his primary instrument now.

"It’s a very cool instrument, and it doesn’t hurt the fingers!" he explains.

Iver still grapples with the guitar and banjo, so continue to expect those – and a little blues harp thrown in from time to time.