THE FOLLOWING IS A NEWS-GAZETTE STORY BY JENNIFER BAILEY
ABOVE: Tom “Tommy K” Kirkpatrick will be celebrating his 40th anniversary Friday as the regular weekend pianist at the Possum Trot Supper Club in Oakwood.
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OAKWOOD — For 40 years, live music by pianist Tom “Tommy K” Kirkpatrick has been synonymous with enjoying weekend dinners at the Possum Trot Supper Club in Oakwood.
The Vermilion County native, now 74, was born and raised 3 miles from the Possum Trot. He started playing piano at age 11, taking lessons from the same Fischer Theatre organist who taught Dick and Jerry Van Dyke.
A 40th anniversary celebration for Kirkpatrick will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday at the supper club. Some special guests will assist in playing the piano that night, including young musician Josh Dill of Indiana and the Dave Schroeder of the Danville Municipal Band and Vermilion Festival Chorus, as Kirkpatrick expects to be doing a lot more talking with diners.
Harry “Ike” Eisenhauer of Danville, who was celebrating his birthday at the Possum Trot on the first Friday night that Kirkpatrick performed there, was also going to be a guest but may not make it due to health issues.
“Ike has a little piece of my history,” Kirkpatrick said. “I played ‘Happy Birthday’ for him,” and would also play “September Song” for him by request.
Kirkpatrick said he’s had a lot of great times with local residents through the years, celebrating their birthdays and other life events. He’s now seeing generations of families come through the supper club’s doors enjoying his music.
“People know Tommy very well,” manager Joseph Roberson said.
When Roberson started as a server at the bar and restaurant, he first saw Kirkpatrick’s picture as a young piano player in the supper club’s entryway. There’s still the photo depicting Kirkpatrick from about 40 years ago in his tuxedo shirt, suspenders and bow tie for the old-time piano playing he did, and a more recent photo of him as the resident pianist.
Kirkpatrick said his old outfit came from the 1980s restaurant owner who had the bartenders, waiters and waitresses and piano player wear the tuxedo shirts to try to discourage a “rough crowd.”
Roberson said the Possum Trot has long been known for its live piano music.
“It’s just neat to see, because obviously I’m just a baby in the grand scheme of the Possum Trot; everybody knows Tommy,” Roberson said. “He just adds something to the atmosphere that no other place in the area has. He is a major selling point of the restaurant. A lot of people come just to see him. Every week there are just many requests, ‘we want to sit by the piano,’ ‘we want to be near the piano’ and ‘we want to see Tommy.’”
Even though people can hear Kirkpatrick’s tunes throughout the restaurant, many want to watch Kirkpatrick while he plays.
“That’s the most popular section in the restaurant,” Roberson said of the area where customers can watch Kirkpatrick play.
Restaurant history
The Possum Trot sees families, couples on date nights and others who come for the bar and music.
“It is a unique atmosphere being in the fact that it’s a bar, but at the same time, it’s a restaurant family feel. You can sit there and have a good time and get up and cut a rug if you want to; it just depends on how you’re feeling that night,” Roberson said.
The Possum Trot, now owned by Greg and Nina Wright, sits along the road of what used to be called Possum Trot Run, Roberson said. Possum Trot Tavern began as Possum Trot House in 1930. About 100 years earlier, a settlement of Kickapoo Indians proclaimed the hill west of the tavern as Possum Trot Hill, according to a history of the restaurant from Jack Freeman, who said his parents sold the Possum Trot in 1971 after 41 years in business.
Greg Wright’s family also owns the Beef House restaurant in Covington, Ind.
Kirkpatrick started playing piano at the Possum Trot in 1984 for then-owner Judy Smith, and he’s been playing during weekends ever since. Kirkpatrick previously had a band and played at weddings and events. He came out one night to the Possum Trot to hear the piano player, and found out there wasn’t one that night. A neighbor also at the supper club that night recognized Kirkpatrick and told Smith she should have him play the piano because he’s good.
Smith obliged, asking Kirkpatrick to play a few songs.
“So, I played a few. A customer sent me up a beer … and I just had a good old time,” he said. “When I was done, she walked over to me and said ‘you want to start playing for me Friday nights?’”
He said he told her OK, I might do that. They talked more about it, and 40 years later, with some other restaurant ownership changes, he’s still there.
When Kirkpatrick first started playing at the Possum Trot, the old beat-up piano that was there looked like an old time one someone would have had in a saloon in the Dodge City, Kan., depicted in the TV western “Gunsmoke” or something, he said.
He played it for quite a few years, and then the next restaurant owner, Johnny Lee, bought a nice upright piano with an open front. Kirkpatrick played that piano for a number of years, and then around 1997, Kirkpatrick purchased his current piano, a Yamaha concert grand, 7-foot piano. It was in the piano store where he works in Champaign.
“It’s a special treat for people in the area …,” Kirkpatrick said about having live music with such a nice piano. “That’s part of the reason it sounds so good.”
Good following
Kirkpatrick still plays Friday and Saturday nights at the Possum Trot.
“I’ve had some really good following here and customers through the years,” Kirkpatrick said.
Some of the kids who have sat on the piano bench with Kirkpatrick now have their own kids. He said he’s probably getting close to the third generation of families bringing their kids back to the restaurant.
It’s incredible to think about all his years playing, Kirkpatrick said. It makes him feel good that some of these kids too, who played the piano alongside him, became interested in music themselves and have gone on to become accomplished pianists, including Ashley Leverenz, who is now a doctor.
He’s also seen a lot of customers and friends pass away.
Kirkpatrick said Urbana resident Dick Cogdal, who died earlier this year at age 107, always requested the song “I Can’t Get Started”.
Such requests are one of the reasons Kirkpatrick said he’s been able to keep up playing so long at the Possum Trot.
For himself, Kirkpatrick said he doesn’t have a favorite song to play.
“I have a lot of favorites,” he said. “I like to play things with life, and a beat and happy stuff, maybe ragtime and swing and just boogie; or maybe Jerry Lee Lewis burning the keys up on the piano. I have a lot of fun with people on that. I’ll even get a little crazy and may end up with my feet on the piano and end up breaking a string. People like that.”
His most requested songs are more of the simple, recognizable piano songs, such as “The Entertainer” from the movie The Sting, and “Tennessee Waltz.”
Another often requested song is “Last Date” by Floyd Cramer.
Many people have their favorite songs, Kirkpatrick said.
He attributes muscle memory to knowing most of them without sheet music. He said that, just like when someone first learns how to walk, you have to work at it until you get it down.
“I don’t remember as many (songs) as I’d like. I have no idea how many I’ve got in my head,” Kirkpatrick said. “To come from the heart and do the best job, you just have to have it in your head.”
If there’s a song he doesn’t know, he used to have a catalog library near the piano and a couple file cabinets of sheet music. Now he can find a song and has customers’ favorite songs on his iPad.
Kirkpatrick said he enjoys playing piano every weekend.
“This is my best therapy,” he said. “There’s no better medicine.”
“Any good, dedicated musician will tell you the same thing; music is, it’s a special connection,” he said. “It’s kind of like Billy Joel’s ‘Piano Man,’ the lyrics to that are ‘to forget about life for a while’ and a guy at the bar ‘makin’ love to his tonic and gin.’”
“It’s just kind of a release, get away from the troubles of life and everything, have a nice meal and have a drink and listen to live piano, which is a rare treat,” Kirkpatrick said.
He appreciates the restaurant ownership maintaining that through the years.
Looking toward the upcoming years, Kirkpatrick hopes to stay healthy and says, “I will never not play the piano.”
He said it’s just like Danville’s Dick Van Dyke saying, “I’m still dancing and enjoying myself and I will to the end.”
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