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Photo courtesy of Kristie Hanlon.
Hank Helton.
At age 72, Hank Helton has spent the better part of his life playing and singing in bands. By the numbers…he has performed with 10-plus bands over the years. He owns nine guitars, including acoustic, electric, a hybrid acoustic/electric, a bass and a bouzouki (8-string Irish guitar). He says he also plays a modicum of piano, a little banjo and a bit of Irish whistle. And he writes music and lyrics to boot. He’s done much of this while also working full-time and raising two children with his wife, Shelley at their home in Springfield.
Helton is an outgoing person who is positive and fun to be around. It’s obvious that music has kept him young in many ways. Currently, he performs with Skibbereen, a Celtic band he founded and named for an Irish town in southwest Cork. He also performs in the Colin Helton Band, a rock group with southern influence that was started by his son, Colin.
He describes how he feels when playing live to an audience. “It is so gut-level, heart-level satisfying to reach a crowd of people and sense their enjoyment,” he explains. “It’s absolutely fulfilling and enriching. There’s a separation of mind and body. It’s almost out-of-body in its cosmic effects. I feel like I am in a moment when time ceases to exist.”
Helton, who moved to Springfield during his junior year in high school, says his parents fostered his interest in music from a young age. “When my two siblings and I were growing up, our mother was a singer in a female trio a la The Andrews Sisters,” he notes. “We were also avid churchgoers, and we learned a lot of African American spiritual songs that we’d sing in the car. We were all in the church choir and the school choir. Our parents also encouraged us to play an instrument. I took up the trombone. My brother played clarinet, and my sister played the flute. The seed was born out of those childhood experiences.”
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Photo courtesy of Rebecca Steele.
The Skibbereen band at Kenny’s West-Side Pub in Peoria on St. Patrick’s Day. From l-r: Colin Helton, guitar: Rachel Helton, violin; Bill Steele, drums; Hank Helton, guitar; Tom Myers, guitar. All members also do vocals.
Helton got his first acoustic guitar in 1970 as a junior at Southeast High School. He taught himself to play. He bought his second acoustic guitar his senior year. He added an electric guitar to his repertoire in college. After college, he and his brother started the Helton Brothers Band, which lasted from 1974 to 1977.
He and Shelley married in 1981 and moved to California so he could attend Musicians Institute. After several years in California and the birth of their two kids (Caitlin and Colin), they returned to Springfield in the late 1980s.
“I took a break from performing during the ’90s,” says Helton. “I started a real estate appraiser business, and it continued until 2019. I also became a real estate broker in 2006.” He continues his real estate career as a broker with The Real Estate Group.
In the late ’90s, music called him back. He joined Stone Ring Circle, a Celtic band that evolved into Emerald Underground. He says he became enamored with Celtic music, which led him to start Skibbereen in 2010. Skibbereen performs a 90-minute set at Peoria Irish Fest every year, along with playing several shows at various venues during St. Patrick’s Day season. The band plays many other gigs, including the State Fair, throughout the year.
Colin plays guitar and his wife, Rachel, plays violin for Skibbereen. About half of the music is original, penned by Hank and Colin in the Irish ilk. They throw in a couple of cover songs by Flogging Molly and a teaser of “Danny Boy.”
“In 2021, soon after Colin started his band, I sat in on one of his gigs,” recalls Helton. “He enjoyed playing with me as much as I enjoyed playing with him, so I became the second guitar player. Colin composes most of the music for his band.”
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Photo courtesy of Gretchen Tucka.
The Colin Helton Band in front of the Governor’s Mansion after their Levitt-AMP performance last summer. From l-r: Jeff Tucka, Colin Helton, Tom Myers, Matt Mifflin and Hank Helton.
The Colin Helton Band plays five to six gigs a month, usually at local venues. During the summer, they play at some of Springfield’s outdoor festivals, including the Legacy and Down Home events. Last summer, they fronted Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown at the July 4 Levitt-AMP concert, which provided one of their biggest audiences.
Helton adds that all the band members play multiple instruments and play by ear. “If we have the key signature we can play the song. We all know music well enough that we can go to our instrument and play how we feel it should sound. If it doesn’t sound quite right to Colin, he’ll ask, ‘Can you try this or alter that?’ We do a lot of jamming and improvising.
“Things slow down a bit in the winter, but it gives us a chance to regroup, set new goals and write new material,” notes Helton. “I have a bunch of songs that I am fleshing out that would work well for Colin’s band. I’m going through all these lyric and music sheets that I’ve written over the years to find the gems that we might add to Colin’s set.”
When asked whether lyrics or melodies come to mind first, Helton says it can go either way. “A lot of times a kernel of an idea for a song will come to me as just one line of a lyric. But within seconds a melody starts in my head. Or it’s the other way around. A melody may come to me first.”
Helton says his favorite genre of music has changed over time. “I went through a phase when I was part of a jazz trio, and I became very into jazz. I would say my least favorite experience was in California when I played with a lounge lizard band for a time. Think Engelbert Humperdinck and Tony Orlando and Dawn.”
What does the future hold for Helton? It’s not entirely clear. The music industry is transient. Musicians come and go. Bands fold and new bands start up. But Helton is positive that he will continue playing his heart out.
Jean Campbell is a Springfield freelance writer who enjoys sharing stories about mature adults living their best lives.