Whitefish senior wins statewide award for song

Tyler Rounds stepped up the distortion on his Fender Telecaster Custom for his solo.

His buddy Scott Hanson thumped away at the bass line.

And David Luke threw in some fills as he laid down a solid rhythm for Wednesday's rehearsal of "Ovation."

It was yet another rendition of the Whitefish senior's original songwriting that was judged best in the music category of a Montana PTA Reflections contest.

Together, along with their friend Dan Reimer who covered for Rounds as the composer swapped guitars during single-track taping, the musicians cut a CD of Rounds' classic-rock original.

The song passed muster with the Whitefish PTA, then made it to the top of state judging.

Now it advances to the National PTA Reflections Program for a shot at fame beyond Montana.

The program annually gives students a forum to express themselves in four categories - literature, musical composition, photography and visual arts - and to be recognized for original works of art on a given theme. This year's theme was "A Different Kind of Hero."

"It's basically a song for my Dad," Rounds said.

The 17-year-old senior watched his father, Jerry Rounds, head out with the Army National Guard's 639th Quartermaster to support the Iraq war effort in December 2003.

A few months later, after just a year of self-taught guitar playing, Rounds composed and played the song for an audience at a natural resources camp last summer. He got a standing ovation.

Last fall, Luke's mother, Velma Luke, heard the three playing the song and insisted that Rounds enter it in the Reflections program.

Through that, Rounds' songwriting ability was scrutinized first by Whitefish and then by state judges.

On the day before his dad's March 3 return with the 639th, Rounds learned his CD had won at the state level. For the accomplishment, he's been invited to perform "Ovation" at the state PTA banquet in Great Falls this September.

If he should be judged best on the national level, the young songwriter stands to win $700, a gold medal and a trip to Anaheim, Calif., for the National PTA convention.

Even a second-place finish garners $200 and a silver medal, he said. He expects to know the results by June.

The three-man band - they're looking for a singer now - are a natural grouping.

"I gave Scott the basic chord structure and let him lay down the bass," Rounds said of their first practices on "Ovation."

It was just what Rounds envisioned. "We had the same idea," he said.

He needed to round out the rhythm section, and asked Luke to join in. Luke has been playing a variety of instruments since sixth grade, but just picked up drum sticks a year ago.

Again, it was right on.

Now they needed to make the recording, so hooked up with Reimer. He came in handy a couple ways - he plays acoustic guitar and has connections to the Nazarene Church of Whitefish where they spent two nights recording the track.

Reimer also wrote out the key chart for Rounds after he soured on the final note of his solo the first night.

On the second night, it came off without a hitch.

Rounds submitted the recording as an instrumental on his Epiphone Flying V, with Hanson and Luke's backup, but since has written lyrics to honor his dad:

"Now, home in the valley after another year's gone by," they start.

"Then, a half a globe of distance between he and I. Then I heard a voice on the telephone say 'Play a song for me.' So I picked up my guitar and this is what I played for thee …"

The chorus fills in, after each verse tells the story of Jerry Rounds being sent, returning home and considering the future:

"'Cause you don't know what you have until it's gone. But I ask you now, stand up and take a bow. Ovation."

They've performed the song publicly a couple times so far - first when they received the award at the local Reflections contest, and later for their Whitefish Junior Rifle Club's Christmas potluck.

All three will graduate from Whitefish High this spring, but plan to keep the band playing together at every chance. Rounds has completed a pair of songs so far, and the band is working plenty of riffs into more songs now.

Some are planned, others are chance.

"That song," Rounds said as the three of them finished another rock tune, "actually started from another song I made up, that I put my finger on the wrong string."

Rounds said his influences come from Led Zeppelin, Rush, AC/DC and Aerosmith, with some Steve Miller Band, UFO and Scorpions in the mix. Classic rock is what he remembers coming from his dad's stereo ever since Rounds was a kid.

Hanson, a backup bassist for bluegrass bands when his own dad, Robert Hanson, isn't available - his mom Brenda is a bluegrass fiddler - offers up country music and bluegrass tones.

For his part, multi-instrumentalist Luke admits to being pretty proud of Rounds.

"I just really want to congratulate my good friend Tyler here for putting together this piece when he's really had no training," Luke said.

"I've been playing since sixth grade, and I couldn't do anything like that."

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com