Musician Gerry Glombecki was a folk fixture in Tucson for nearly 40 years.
He began playing gigs at coffeehouses when he moved to the Old Pueblo in 1973 from his hometown of Chicago. As one of the founders of the Tucson Folk Festival, Glombecki made it his mission to promote other acoustic musicians.
"We've gotten a lot of these musicians out of the closet and into the kitchen. Now we're getting some of them out of the kitchen and onto the stage," Glombecki, an early member of the Tucson Kitchen Musicians Association, said in a 1986 Tucson Citizen article.
The Tucson Folk Festival began in 1986 with 65 acts performing 17 hours of music on two stages over two days. It now is one of the largest free folk festivals in the country, boasting more than 400 local, regional and national musicians and attracting more than 10,000 fans to the two-day event.
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This year's 25th annual festival in early May was Glombecki's last. He died unexpectedly May 25 of a heart attack. He was 63.
A 1997 Arizona Daily Star review of one of his CDs summed up the musician: "With his gentle tenor, blues-folk influences and literate lyrical skills, Gerry Glombecki long has been one of Tucson's most respected songsmiths."
Glombecki's composition credits include lyricist for network television programs and animated specials. He earned his Screen Actor's Guild card with small roles in television specials and motion pictures. He collaborated over the years with musicians including Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Travis Edmonson.
After receiving the blessing of Edward Abbey shortly before the author's 1989 death, Glombecki wrote one of his most popular songs, "The Ballad of George Hayduke," based on a character from an Abbey novel. Glombecki won first prize in a state poetry competition for the tune.
In 2002, Glombecki was inducted into the Arizona Blues Hall of Fame.
Lifelong music lover Alicia Foley was a fan of Glombecki's.
"I used to go out just about every night to hear different players all over town, and Gerry was a favorite because he was so good at what he did. He put poetry into music, his own brand of poetry," Foley said. "He was kind of like Tucson's own Jimmy Buffett. When you went to hear him you left happy."
In the early 1990s Glombecki began selling the Delta Slider Blues Bottleneck he handcrafted from recycled bottles. The traditional guitar slides are favored by blues musicians to create continuous transitions in pitch. The slides are sold throughout the country, including at B.B. King's Blues Club in Memphis.
Glombecki also developed a popular "caddy" for microphone stands that is equipped to hold a beverage and a tip cup and display a CD of the musician's work, said Wendy Adams, a singer-songwriter who works at Guitars Etc., where Glombecki's slides are sold.
"Gerry was a great musician," she said. "He was all about encouraging other musicians. He would come into the store every week … and always had a big smile for me and was always a real personable dude. He made me laugh. That's the long and the short of it."
To suggest someone for Life Stories, contact reporter Kimberly Matas at kmatas@azstarnet.com or at 573-4191.
