After more than 5 decades, beloved Modesto band to end run. History may surprise

They’re brothers. Get that straight.

Because each member of the iconic Modesto trio Home Grown, interviewed individually, were quick to point out that they are more than simply friends and bandmates.

Asked if they are “close friends,” lead singer Bruce Johnson responded decisively, ”Brothers.”

Michael Lingg, who plays guitar, lap steel guitar, harmonica and sings, concurred: “Honestly, we’re like brothers.”

And Patrick Durr, who plays guitar, ukulele and sings in the trio said, “We call ourselves musical brothers.”

After 53 years of brotherhood and music, the members of Home Grown have decided it’s time to say farewell to public performances.

They will do so to a sold-out State Theatre audience on Sunday, March 29.

People are eager to be there.

Tickets went “Fast!,” State Theatre General Manager Gabriela Guerrini said in an email interview. “(Home Grown’s) fans were ready once tickets went on sale.”

Many of those fans might remember the trio from its first gigs in 1973 at the old Vintage Restaurant in downtown Modesto, when they got together for what was planned as a single summer to play a little music.

That single summer turned into more than five decades of performances, music, harmonies, travels, original songs, albums and — get it straight — brotherhood.

They called themselves Home Grown from the beginning.

“We needed a name, wanted something local and something kind of earthy, and it fit the area,” said Durr, 77.

Johnson, 73, said Durr and Lingg came up with the name, “and I agreed completely because we were basically, all three of us, were from Modesto, and so we’re locally grown, Home Grown.”

Saying that so many bands of the time had “silly names,” Home Grown sounded “unassuming,” said Linng, 76. “Home Grown just seemed natural. It just felt good.”

All three were in other Modesto bands before, including a couple in which Durr and Lingg played together.

Lingg said he came home from college that first summer and he and Durr talked about playing again.

“About the same day almost, I met Bruce Johnson and we shared the same love of the same bands, the same songs ...,” he said. Hence, the trio was born.

The first song they sang together was “Peaceful Easy Feeling” by the Eagles, Lingg said. Their voices sounded good together “and it just clicked.”

Home Grown played its debut show at the Vintage, a steakhouse that opened in 1973 and closed in the 1980s, according to a 2019 story in The Bee.

“The Vintage Restaurant was part of why we existed,” said Lingg, a Downey High School graduate. “People said it was really popular and had a little stage where a trio could play.”

After that summer, they were enjoying their connection and decided to keep it going. Home Grown hit what was called the “steakhouse circuit,” entertaining restaurant patrons, Durr said.

Their cover songs include those from classic bands such as The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, Crosby, Stills & Nash and other popular artists and groups known for harmonies. They also penned original songs to add to their playlists.

“To me, if you can put in an original song with a bunch of covers, that’s success,” Durr, a Modesto High graduate, said.

He said the band’s genre could be classified as Americana, “but, really, what we’ve always enjoyed is a variety of genres and eras ... big band, folk, early rock ’n’ roll.”

The offers started coming

The trio began getting calls from other steakhouses, including up and down the Bay Area peninsula.

“Once you start playing in an area, different owners will come in to check out the competition and different owners would come over ask, ‘Would you like to play for me?’“ said Johnson, a Davis High School grad who also plays maracas, cow bell and tambourine.

People of a certain age might recall other places in Modesto that Home Grown played in its early decades — Bookies, Tree Frog Tavern and Cask & Cleaver among them.

They also began to play at weddings and other events — some of which were particularly notable.

In 1976, they were contacted by promoter Bill Barr, according to Lingg, who wanted Home Grown as the opening act at that year’s Mountain Aire Festival at the Calaveras County Fairgrounds in Angels Camp. (Modesto-based Barr produced the early years of Mountain Aire before the festival was taken over by Bill Graham Presents).

“That was the first time we played before a really large audience,” around 10,000 to 12,000 people, Lingg said.

On the bill that year were Poco, Pure Prairie League and Seals and Crofts. “That was a big deal,” Durr said. “It was a great audience.”

It wasn’t Home Grown’s only “big deal,” though. The trio represented Modesto twice in Kurume, its sister city in Japan. And they performed the national anthem a cappella for the Oakland A’s and the San Francisco Giants at their stadiums.

The A’s wanted the band to lip sync to a recording at the Oakland Coliseum, but that was a no-go for the members, who insisted on doing it live.

“We didn’t get it wrong,” Johnson said. They also sang live at Candlestick Park before Giants games.

Johnson said each time performing the anthem was “such an honor.”

They have their favorites

When each was asked which of the major performances was his personal favorite, Johnson said his was in Japan.

“Probably the biggest thrill was playing in Japan a couple of times,” he said, adding that he “fell in love with the Japanese people, and they love American music. It was just so exciting and an honor to do it.”

Japan was Lingg’s favorite, as well. “I have to say, Japan was a chance of a lifetime,” he said. “They treat musicians and entertainers like royalty. They respect what work you put into your craft and your art.”

For Durr, it was a tossup between Mountain Aire and the national anthem performances. He called each of the latter “a pretty nervous time.”

“In the big ballparks, you sing a note and it’s coming back louder than you’re singing, only it’s delayed, so you have yourself yelling in your own ear. So you really have to focus,” Durr said.

There were other highlights in their career over the years, including winning grand prize with the original song “You Can Fly” as the soundtrack for a national City Video competition sponsored by the Arts & Entertainment Network. They rewrote the lyrics to be about Modesto. The video was shown on A&E.

Home Grown was the first recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Modesto Area Music Association (affectionately known as MAMA).

There’s information about its history, original recordings, photos and more on the group’s website, homegrowntrio.com.

Many other memories include — but are in no way limited to — performing with Elvin Bishop at Modesto’s National Guard Armory, playing at Mancini Bowl in Modesto’s Graceada Park, for chamber of commerce events, nonprofit events, at Modesto Centre Plaza, at the State Theatre, for large craft fairs in the Mother Lode and at ski resorts.

Another significant performance was at the Gallo Center for the Arts in 2007 before the downtown venue had even opened its doors.

Home Grown was among the first local artists to play prior to the Gallo Center opening, notably headlining a concert in its larger Mary Stuart Rogers Theater.

Called the Hard Hat Concert, it was “in recognition of contractors dedicated to the building’s construction with a performance by Home Grown,” according to the Gallo Center’s website history page.

Fittingly, the trio played in tuxedos and hard hats, Durr and Lingg said.

Home Grown’s busiest years were in the 1970s to 1990s. They continued to play regularly until the Covid pandemic hit, which shut down everything. They began shows again after, but not with the same consistency.

Learned to ‘fight fair’

For any band, 53 years is a long time to stay together — and to maintain that brotherhood. But all three said there were never any major disputes among them, just minor disagreements over such things as musical arrangements and set lists.

“We learned how to fight fair,” Lingg said. “We knew how to agree and to disagree.”

“We could argue and go home and then call back and apologize,” Johnson said.

Durr said that, like blood brothers, “sometimes you agree, and sometimes you don’t, but you still love them.”

So what’s kept them together all these years?

“Just our love for the music,” Johnson said. “I just really respect both of those men, how they play.”

Lingg said it’s been how well the three get along and that the music always has sounded good.

Durr, who answered in an email, said it’s been “the music and fun.”

“We decided early on to have fun. In the exchange of energy between the band and the audience, the initial energy must come from the band,” he said. “We truly enjoyed each opportunity to play music together, and the audience responded by also having fun.”

It’s been such a great ride, they’d never considered retiring the trio before now. But as they’ve gotten older, loading in and out their equipment for shows has become more difficult, And Lingg said he, for one, he struggles to hit certain notes.

“You want to go out with a bang, not a whimper,” Durr said. “You want to put on a good performance while you can still put on a good performance.”

Home Grown made the upcoming show a benefit for the State Theatre. “We are thrilled they decided to help us raise funds to keep our 91-year-old theater going for another 90 years,” manager Guerrini said.

“The State is honored that we are the venue they chose to have their farewell concert at,” she said. “We love the local connection to them and their fans.”

The State “seemed fitting,” Johnson said, since the trio has played there several times and it is “just a beautiful building now.”

Beyond the band

Home Grown was always a side gig, with the three men having careers and families they’ve raised over the years.

Modesto native Durr was an English and social science teacher at Modesto High School. He and his wife, Cheryl, married in 2004 and have four children and six grandchildren between them.

An elementary school counselor who has worked at several schools in the area, Lingg also worked for the nonprofit Center for Human Services. A native of Modesto, he married wife Kyle in 1986, and they have a daughter and three grandchildren.

Johnson, who moved to Modesto from Tulsa, Oklahoma, at age 11, took over his mom’s business, Spring Crest Drapery in Modesto, which he still runs. He and wife Julie have been married since 1998 and have four daughters and four grandchildren.

The musical kinship extends past the trio members. “Our kids literally grew up together,” Durr said, referring to “what we call the Home Grown family.”

Their families have spent holidays, barbecues, celebrations and other good times together.

“We all get along great,” Lingg said. “All the families really like each other — what a novelty.”

And there’s “always music,” Durr said, during the family get-togethers.

The music won’t stop with the farewell concert, but there are mixed emotions about ending decades of public performances.

Lingg called it “a little complicated.” He’s happy so many people want to be at the final show. “It’ll be a lot of fun, but it will be over in a blink of an eye, which will be sad. There’ll be a grieving period, I think.”

For Durr, “I suppose mixed feelings, knowing it’s time to put on a good show, but also the end of an era.”

Johnson called it “really bittersweet. I have a lot of thoughts floating around in my mind when I think of our retiring.”

Retiring from public performances doesn’t mean they’ll stop singing together.

“Music is an essential part of each of us. While Home Grown may no longer perform as a trio, I know that music will continue to be an integral part of each of our lives,” Durr said in the above-mentioned email.

Certain that they’ll remain close friends, all three said their family get-togethers will continue, with plenty of singing Home Grown favorites.

Because, as Durr said — and get it straight — “brothers still connect.”