CD chronicles teacher’s 30 years of music

Column by JOHN P. CLEARY

Dave Capus tried to be a star. Along the way, he discovered that being a musician was enough.

Capus, who is anything but shy today, was an introverted teen when he started getting serious about music. He played the saxophone before he heard it was easier to meet girls playing guitar. He went to college, got an education and promptly set it aside.

“I knew that if I was going to make it as a musician, this was the time,” he said.

So he folded up his diplomas, jumped in the car and hit the road. He went to California and New York; he played coffeehouses and colleges. After a few years, he realized that his big break wasn’t coming.

“You had to know somebody,” he said. “It takes more than talent and ability.”

So Capus came home to Elmira, where, for more than 30 years, he has been a staple of the local music scene. Capus, who uses the stage name KapEye, performs with a classic rock cover band, Nighthawk, and frequently forms an acoustic duet with Corning musician Steve Peao.

An English teacher at Horseheads High School, Capus has released a CD that chronicles his three decades of music. The disc, “Semi,” features 17 Dave Capus originals and another with lyrics by Leonard Durso.

The CD has been more than a year in production. Elmiran Andy Wheeler remastered Capus’ old recordings and produced new ones at his WiseMinds Productions studio. The songs range from the old-fashioned blues roll “Slow Down Charlie” to ballads such as “Colorado Song” to straight rock songs such as “Golden Shores.”

Capus’ voice shows some versatility, one moment a whiskey-soaked growl, the next clear and bright. It’s a skill he developed imitating the eclectic AM radio broadcasts he listened to as a kid.

Some of the music is serious, some of it is more fun. “Ayatollah Cola” was written in 1980 when American embassy workers were held hostage in Iran. “Osama Yo Mama” is a more recent creation. Capus wrote it on a drive to work from his summer place on Keuka Lake days after the Sept. 11 attacks. It’s gotten some airtime on local radio stations and has been extensively traded on the Internet.

Many of the songs are personal. Capus sings about his divorce, his son, his confusion during bad times and his love for his girlfriend, Carol Miller. It’s not always easy, he said, to let strangers see the true thoughts in his heart. But, always the teacher, Capus realizes there’s a lesson in his experiences others might benefit from.

“There are universal truths,” he said. “You might not live just like me, and I might not live just like someone else, but there are universal things that we all understand.

“I see it in the classroom. My students might not remember the details of Shakespeare or this or that, but if they can find that universal truth and carry it with them, then I’ve succeeded.”

He doesn’t feel any pains of jealousy when he flips on the television and sees some 19-year-old millionaire rock star. Capus’ artistic hunger is satisfied, and he gets his performance fix as often as he wants to. Millions in the bank would be nice, he acknowledges, but he’s comfortable, travels when he wants to and says he has no regrets.

“That wanting-to-make-it-big thing, that’s past,” he said. “My dream is now — you always have to have a dream — is to have one of my songs picked up and recorded by someone.”

The CD is available at Hamlin’s Music in Elmira Heights, Marich Music in Corning, via Capus’ Web site at www.kapeye.net, or by calling Capus at 607/732-8757.

John P. Cleary is a staff writer for the Star-Gazette. If you have a news item about a neighbor, give John a call at 607/271-8293 Monday through Friday. Or call toll-free 800/836-8970. His e-mail address is: jcleary@stargazette.com. Send birthdays and anniversaries in writing, and they should be received at least five days before the event. Neighbors runs daily on this page.

Local musician Dave Capus is worth a listen

Bob Rolfe | Senior Editor

For more years than both of us care to remember, I’ve known Dave Capus, an English teacher by profession who also has had a musical career for nearly 30 years.

As a goof on his own name, he came up with the moniker “KapEye” some years ago, and under that name, he still plays throughout the Twin Tiers. But he’s also released a new 18-song CD called “Semi” which is more than worthy of a listen. It’s material he has written and recorded over his whole career, but which was tweaked and embellished by a producer named Andy Wheeler, who runs Dragon Note Recording Studios in Elmira. Andy produced, with aid from David, and the result is a record that surprised yours truly for both quality and quantity.

Dave says the songs “reflect various combinations of the following: My philosophy on living, a universal truth about life (at least one line, anyway); a picture in words of a phase in my life (good or bad), and a look a my sense of humor.”

That’s a tall order, but Capus manages to deliver, starting with “Slow Down Charlie,” a blues number that at first sounds like a scratchy 78 recorded in the hey-day of Robert Johnson, but which quickly segues into perfect digital reproduction that’s totally modern.

Guitar work, often overdubbed, is good throughout, particularly on the moody “Colorado Song,” an almost anti-love ballad “to get me on my way,” and “If I Called My Mama,” in which a heavy guitar attack frames such lyrics as “there are bags packed and waitin’ under my eyes.”

“Jailbait Blues” is an excellent venture into the tricky world of talking blues, but the album hits its peak with “Keuka Lake Songs,” subtitled “My Divorce Trilogy.” The cycle includes “Keuka Lake Song,” “Sad Lines” and “Trouble Again,” but there’s a later fragment, “Life Partner” which sounds as if it was originally part of the same group. The cycle works, although the songs are very different, because anyone who’s ever had partner problems should be able to relate to what he’s saying.

He ends the CD with a reprise of a novelty he cut some 20 years ago, “Ayatollah Cola,” a ditty from the days of the Iranian hostage crisis. But there’s an unlisted 18th cut, “Osama, You Mamma,” which carries that feeling into the current day. “I think we’d like to bomb you, … the world would be a better place without the likes of you.”

Throughout, Capus is accompanied by not only his own guitar, but the instrumental work of some of the finest local musicians the area ever produced. The list includes producer Wheeler plus Steve Peao, John Manfredi, Rick DiGiacomo, Vinnie Ambrosone, John Dean, John Wisor, Jim Barbaro, Lex O’Brien, Harry Wellott, Bruce Vanderpool and Blue Denim.

All in all, a recommended outing. Copies are available at Marich Music in Corning, Hamlin’s Music in Elmira or on-line at http://www.kapaye.net or http://www.CDBaby.com/kapeye.

·  Bob Rolfe is senior content editor for The Leader. He can be reached at (607) 936-4651, Ext. 378 or e-mail rrolfe@the-leader.com.