The Long & Winding Road
From Biggsville to San Fran & Points In-between, Local Guitarist Continues to Make Music
Ronnie Lee & The Fabulous Malibu's from the Burlington, Iowa 'suburb' of Biggsville, Illinois might not have lived up to their 'fabulous' moniker, but for one of the members, this mid-1960s high school band was his intro into a lifetime of music.
Dan Eilers, a transplanted 'Macombie Homie,' who is closing in on 78, continues his music – playing his guitar and singing around town regularly at The Café, Park Place and The Wine Sellers – and teaching guitar lessons a few times a week at Square Music. He also partners with the Two Rivers Arts Council on a regular basis, with his bride, Cyndi Helling doing the storytelling and Eilers making the story come to life via folk music on his guitar. But it was that initial experience with his high school bandmates, which led them to the Combo Clash (aka Battle of the Bands) at the Illinois State Fair that opened Eilers' eyes – and ears – to truly fabulous musicians, including Texas Blues player Lonnie Mac.
'Everyone at Combo Clash was way better than we were,' Eilers laughed. 'But that was the first time I'd heard really good musicians in a live performance. I realized what a gap there was between us and them, but I was hooked.'
Eilers is solely a guitarist, but can play 'a little bass' should the need arise, and a singer. His music career – not only playing, but teaching guitar – spans around seven decades, which could be called not only 'The Long and Winding Road,' but also, 'Oh the Places You'll Go!' Following the 'less-than-fabulous' Malibu's gig, Eilers enrolled as Western Illinois University's first philosophy major in the late 1960s.
I Think, Therefore I Play He first taught a few freshmen some basic guitar lessons when he was a senior in high school, and that parlayed into teaching some of his WIU classmates the rudimentary basics on the guitar. charging around $5 a lesson. Of course, he continued to play music when he wasn't going to class.
'I fell into the band, the New Action Five and we actually had our photo in the Courier when we played the Winter Wiggle in the cafeteria between Corbin and Olson,' he recalled.
It was also during his time at Western that he met fellow classmate Doug Beale. Eilers had heard Beale debate a time or two about the Vietnam war, and was impressed by his public speaking skills and rhetoric. A friendship blossomed, which led to another story a few years later.
Eilers, as the first philosophy major, could've also been the institution's first philosophy graduate; however, in November of his senior year, he decided to move to Elmhurst after being recruited to play in a band called FOG. While the gigs were here-and-there, Eilers had to take a day job, so he started working for the Elmhurst Post Office. Enter Beale once again. He was hired at the same post office, and shortly after, the 'silly young adults' (Eilers' words) decided to hitchhike to California, with a stop in Denver along the way.
'Doug told me, I think it was around 1971, that he was headed to San Francisco because at that time, that was *the* place to be, so I decided I wanted to go along and keep learning from Doug,' he explained.
Hitching a Ride
The two set out from Elmhurst, Dan with his guitar on his back, and hitched their way to Denver without any issues. In those days, hitchhiking was common, and it wasn't unusual for Eilers' family to pick up hitchhikers. And he and his Biggsville teammates had perfected their 'hitch' to and from basketball and football practices back in the day.
So the pair landed in Denver, and from there, hopped on a 'big old jet airliner' for San Francisco, which Eilers called 'a learning experience.'
If You're Going to San Francisco, be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair Eilers used his musical talent to literally sing for his supper during the few weeks he was in San Francisco. He got there around the tail end of the 'Hippie Era;' however, when playing in the famed Ghirardelli Square, along with some other long-haired musician friends, tourists took their photos as they thought they were seeing the true hippie experience, Eilers again said with a laugh.
'We were not an accomplished group, but it was a way to make money and a way for me to focus on music,' he shared.
Among the experience of just being near the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood in the 70s, he also got to see The Grateful Dead and he saw *the* Yogi Swami of the era, Swami Vimalananda, who gave Eilers the mantra he still uses to this very day to meditate.
And just like that, after two or three weeks, Eilers and Beale, 'split' and made their way to Salem, OR home of Beale's parents.
'It really was an exploration phase,' he added.
Then it was back to Elmhurst and the USPS.
Neither Snow nor Rain nor Heat While the job 'paid horribly,' Eilers said, the post office was hurting and needed employees, so he was hired back right away at a whopping $5 an hour. He hadn't been back very long when he was part of a major national movement: the Elmhurst P.O. was the second post office to go on strike because of wages. It was because of the strike, that wages for postal workers got a whole lot better, he said.
That was yet another experience that opened Eilers' eyes to the way of the world, and inspired him to stand up for causes he believed in over the years. And those causes led him right back to Salem, OR just shortly after he left. Of course, music continued to play a central role in his life as he played gigs here and there, while working during the day.
When One Door Closes Back in Oregon, by day, Eilers worked for Open Doors Workshop, which was a precursor to the organizations we know today like Bridgeway and Mosaic. The organization employed individuals with developmental disabilities, and Eilers was their bus driver, getting the clients from home to work every day. He also drove a dump truck and a semi for the organization.
By night, he lived in a rental, while thinking about his next move, but he wasn’t really sure what that next move would be. But like what happened before, it was the music that again led the way, this time from Oregon to Door County, WI.
'After I quit because of an issue at Open Doors, I was hitchhiking back to my step-van in Salem, this was about 1973, and a woman in a Cadillac picked me up. She had a four-year-old in the front seat, and he was leaning over the seat, staring at me,' Eilers said. 'He started singing 'Row Row Row Your Boat,' and when he said 'life is but a dream,' I thought, 'you know what, you're right.' I headed to Wisconsin.'
It was a Gas, Man
Gas station worker by day in Door County, and picking up a few gigs during the summer of '73 at night with a band trio, Eilers lived in a summer cottage in upper Wisconsin and made the most of his time before heading back to … Macomb and WIU.
That same fall, Eilers returned to college, this time studying elementary education. He made it all the way through the curriculum, nearing his student teaching requirement when he decided that classroom teaching wasn't for him. However, he had started teaching more guitar sessions and he found that what he learned in his el ed classes was really helpful to his music lessons.
'I started to teach guitar lessons seriously in 1976, and I think those classes at Western really made me a better teacher than most,' Eilers pointed out.
Since Macomb was out of the equation yet again (for just a bit – more on that later), Eilers returned to his original stompin' grounds of Biggsville, and then landed a gig at The Ground Round in Burlington, Iowa in the late 70s.
The HoJo, Music & the Love of His Life (Besides Music) The Ground Round was located in the Howard Johnson (HoJo), and Eilers played for diners four hours an evening, four nights a week … and this hooked him for what has morphed into his true musical career. He was playing at night, and during the day working for Musicians Pro Shop in Burlington, which was a 'gig' he had for 13 years. He also played at other Ground Rounds in the Midwest, including Bloomington and Cedar Rapids, IA.
Musicians Pro Shop was an authorized Peavey store, and the bigwigs from Peavey would visit the Iowa shop often, where Eilers was teaching guitar lessons and working on the floor, selling Peavey and other music equipment.
And four out of the seven nights, he was at the Ho Jo, where Cyndi Helling was working as the hostess.
'I saw her and it was automatically just on,' Eilers said with a smile. 'It was love at first sight.'
The pair married in 1977, and had a daughter, Liz, in 1982. Eilers played and taught and was in sales, while Helling's career in radio began. The latter set the stage for the family's life in Macomb.
Mr. Music Please
In between teaching and working at Musicians Pro Shop, helping raise Liz and supporting Helling's career in radio (at a time when female on-air personalities weren't always welcome, especially in smaller markets), Eilers played festivals, including Burlington's Steamboat Days for 12 consecutive years, playing with the Ken Carlyle Band for three years, as well as the band, Double Cross for three years. Dan was also the front man for Willie Dee and the Bobcats, which played at The Café and the former Purple Pride back in the day.
(Fun fact: Eilers is the Willie Dee behind the band … his name is William Daniel, but he was dubbed Willie Dee by a high school classmate).
He also served as an Illinois Artist in Residence in 1983 at the Metcalf School at Illinois State University. The elementary school served all students, but its strong suit was its program for students with hearing impairments, Eilers said. 'As the artist in residence, I incorporated folk music into the social studies curriculum. I had up-and-coming country star Suzy Boggus, who I met at Steamboat Days, come in and do a program for the PTA with me,' he added. 'But when we taught the students who had hearing impairments, they had the lyrics to the song on the screen, a teacher would sign the lyrics and the kids would almost be sitting on top of us so they could touch and feel the guitar when I played. It was one of the most meaningful experiences of my life.'
Eilers also has recorded two CDs in his lifetime, 'Billy Goat Hill' in 1980 and “Mountain Time” in 1990, both recorded at the studio at Musicians Pro Shop.
Hi Ho Hi Ho It's Off to Macomb We Go ... I Got the Music in Me
Helling got an offer from Macomb's WJEQ which was owned by Bruce and Nancy Foster, so in the summer of 1989, the Eilers-Helling duo moved to Macomb. Eilers still commuted to Musicians Pro Shop in Burlington every day until he was offered a partnership by owner Joel Kipp to open a Musicians Pro Shop in Macomb.and during this time, Eilers continued to operate the store at 135 S.
Randolph St. (now the home of Nomad Tattoo), which he continued for 19 years, selling guitars and other musical instruments, repairing guitars and offering lessons …. lots of lessons, often teaching as many as 30 students of all ages at a time. During the summers, starting around the mid-1990s, Helling and Eilers would make their way to Colorado for vacation (which set the stage yet again for another phase of their lives), where Eilers often attended folk music and bluegrass festivals.
After a few weeks at their favorite vacation destination, they'd return to Macomb. Eilers closed up his shop in 2010.
Helling retired in 2016, and the couple was able to follow their dream of mountain living. In the summer of 2016, they decided to rent their house on West Adams Street and move to Colorado.
Rocky Mountain High
Helling worked at the Trading Post near their mountain home, and Eilers played at the Beaver Meadows Resort Ranch year-round for four years. They remained in their home in the unincorporated town of Red Feathers Lakes, 50 miles from Ft. Collins, but in 2019, they decided that being 100 miles round trip from a grocery store, doctors and fine dining was just about enough. They sold their home, purchased a camp site and continued to summer in Colorado for the next five years.
'Colorado has been such a big part of my music experiences,' he noted. 'We really loved it there – the climate, the wildlife, the beauty. We were really fortunate to live there.'
After their Macomb renters decided to vacate the Helling- Eilers residence, the pair decided that maybe it was time to return to Illinois.
Hi Ho Hi Ho It's Off to Macomb We Go ... Verse Two 'When we came back, I went into Square Music and asked Adam (Oliver) about teaching opportunities, and that was that,' Eilers said. 'I started building back my teaching clientele.'
Eilers has been teaching guitar lessons four days a week at Square Music since 2024, and helping out on the floor.
Square sells good beginner guitars, Eilers said, and he and Adam can help with restringing and doing other necessary maintenance for customers.
'I have students from 8 to 76, and I try to teach by something I heard many years ago, 'repetition is master,' he explained. 'And while I try to be as helpful as I can be when teaching, it's the practice that makes it happen.'
His lessons are $30 for a half-hour and $50 for a full hour, and besides learning a musical instrument, learning how to play guitar is also a 'neurological exercise,' Eilers noted, as you're learning to use your left hand, which for many is the nondominant hand, for the finger board. Three of his current students will showcase their skills at a special concert from 2-4 p.m., June 20.
Oliver is also helping Eilers record some of his new original songs, as well as cover songs, for Spotify, including Eilers' own take on 'House of the Rising Sun.'
And if you don't catch him on Spotify, you can find Eilers entertaining the crowd on the first and third Fridays of the month at Park Place, about once or twice a month at The Café and periodically at The Wine Sellers.
Final Verse
'Macomb has been so good to me,' Eilers concluded. 'I'll be 78 in a few weeks and the fact that I can still go out and perform, and people come to see me, I'm really lucky.'
