Music trio 3 Cents to perform at Lewistown Moose Family Center
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LEWISTOWN -- Ask Mark Knarr and Bill Huff about the history of music and bands in the Juniata Valley and the two men will give you their two cents.
Add David Bargainnier to the conversation and you'll have 3 Cents, a band the trio formed in October 2023 that performs easy listening music.
"I started back in high school," said Bill Huff, vocalist and guitarist for the band, who graduated from the Lewistown campus of Penn Highlands High School.
"I was playing with a local band, the original Fantasy," he added of the 1970s band. "I come from a background of many singers. I consider myself more of a vocalist than anything."
For Huff, music has been a labor of love.
"Most of the bands I've been in have been vocal-oriented for me," he explained.
3 Cents performs Saturday at the Lewistown Moose Family Center, 80 Brady Lane, Lewistown, from 7 to 9 p.m.
Music has also been special to Knarr, the drummer for 3 Cents. Originally from Yeagertown, Knarr has been involved with bands for years, especially starting in college when he majored in education at Clarion, where he ran lights for a college band.
A friend of his brother's taught him to play hand drums. After he came back to Lewistown to teach, he continued hanging around local bands. Eventually, he joined the Lumber City Slickers with local musician John Mannino and his wife, Missy.
Knarr later performed with another local musician, John White, who introduced Knarr to Bargainnier. Bargainnier had also played with the Lumber City band at a different time than Knarr. "David came in to help us out," Knarr recalled.
Knarr and Bargainnier both joined Rubee Creek before finally winding up forming 3 Cents.
In need of a vocalist and guitarist for a gig recently, they sought out the help of Huff. Knarr and Huff had played football together in high school and Huff found a special chemistry when the trio took to the stage.
"Bill stepped in and filled that date," Knarr recalled. "He enjoyed playing with us and kept it going after that."
Bargainnier, who plays saxophone, dobro, harmonica and bass guitar, grew up in Towanda, Bradford County. He started playing different instruments in high school and found himself performing with the Wyalusing Adult Band. "When I was in middle school, I'd play Thursday nights with my dad," Bargainnier said. "I played with them for a couple of years.
He also performed with C. S. and Co. in high school, performing "any place we could play where they didn't ask how old we were," Bargainnier laughed.
Eventually, while still in high school, Bargainnier enlisted in the United States Army in March 1978. He did his basic training at Fort Dix, N.J., then went to the Naval School of Music, formerly the United States Armed Forces School of Music, in Little Creek, Va., near Norfolk.
Bargainnier was stationed with the 113th Army Band in Fort Knox, Ky., and performed in their concert, stage and combo bands, playing clarinet, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone and some harmonica.
He also played in college at Albright University in Reading. After becoming an anesthesiologist, he played with the contemporary rock and roll band, the Indoorfins, for seven or eight years in Lima, Ohio.
"I played sax and bought them a building," he said, referring to "The Room," which the band used for practice and as a sound studio. "I also played with a country band later on before I came to Lewistown."
Bargainnier participated in the Greenwood Furnace Folk Gathering and Folk Music College, both in Huntingdon. After working in his own private practice for 21 years, he moved to Mifflin County to work at Geisinger-Lewistown Hospital.
He also enjoyed gliding at the Mifflin County Airport. Bargainnier admits becoming involved as a musician "just sort of happened later," he said.
The three men also share a bond after serving in the military - Huff with the United States Marines and Knarr and Bargainnier with the Army.
The trio said the hardest part of playing together has been learning the set list. "Playing other people's songs, we do have a combination of different types of sound," Bargainnier explained. "They are popular songs, but we play our own thing."
Having a diverse range of instrumentation in the group also allows them to play a diversity of music. "We play popular songs from the '60s, '70s and maybe a little '80s," Huff said. "We have a wide array of instrumentation, so we try to incorporate that into songs that will work in public.
"Most of the music we play are good sing-along songs," he added. "We have a pretty good following presently."
For more information, find them on Facebook.