Harvey Myers can’t remember a time he didn’t have a guitar with him. In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, he was one of those kids, ubiquitous in every town, who could – and did - play and sing Neil Young, James Taylor and Cat Stevens songs into the late night. Trading tunes and drinking Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill underneath Pier 60 on Florida’s Clearwater Beach, friends were made, chords were learned and girls were impressed. All was right with the world.
A stint in the Navy reinforced Myers’ love of performance, as he entertained his shipmates with the latest from Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Bad Company and the like. During one of his tours of the Western Pacific, his rock ‘n’ roll band, Destiny’s End, performed on land in Subic Bay, Australia and the Fiji Islands.
Even during his post-military career as a computer programmer, music was a significant part of his life – weekend garage bands, solo gigs when he could find the time … and all the while he was amassing a powerful catalog of more than 400 cover songs, from all musical categories. Harvey Myers’ songbook includes hits, deep cuts, crowd-pleasers and even a few things he learned way back when under Pier 60, beneath the long-ago Florida moon.
As a solo performer, Myers performs nearly every night of the week, throwing every ounce of passion and energy into the music he loves. He writes, too, and has begun recording sessions for his first album. “I have discovered,” he says, “that playing music is almost as pain relieving as morphine.”
Although he often performs with a band – or as a duo with his son, the prodigiously-talented Brad Myers, Harvey is in his element as a solo player, just him and that ever-present acoustic guitar.