Many students still hold to the notion that their professors, along with their fourth grade teachers, live, work and sleep in their offices. Two Ohio University professors and a teaching assistant are proof that a guitar just may go well with a tweed coat.
Journalism professor Robert Stewart, English professor Robert Kinsley and teaching assistant Stephen Tootle are scholars by day, musicians by night - and even morning, in some cases. Kinsley's band, Eight A.M., is named after the time the band rehearses.
Tootle sings and plays rhythm guitar with Cosigner, a band that has evolved into a quartet since its inception in his hometown of Visalia, Calif., near Bakersfield. It began as a solo project and he released one CD. After moving to Athens in 1998 to work on his doctorate with OU professors Alonzo Hamby, Chester Pach and Charles Alexander, he played solo gigs and his CD floated around the small town, reaching the ears of current band mates Josh Antonuccio, Chris Pyle and Angie Pyle.
They began Cosigner in fall 2002, after meeting at a wedding.
Visalia, a town of about 100,000, lies in the San Joaquin River Valley and is the center of the world
according to Tootle. It is a unique culture, home to descendants of Okies and is a strong music scene.
His ties to the valley of California are evident by walking into his office in Bentley Annex, where he has maps of the area surrounding Visalia tacked to the walls. He now considers Ohio home, and is marrying an Ohio student in a week full of life changes including his (and her) graduation and his 30th birthday.
Tootle's lyrics during his college days focused on history as well as girls and Visalia, though they have become more personal as he continues to live and learn.
History is too complex to distill down to a pop song he said.
Antonuccio said at Cosigner practices the conversation is half musical and half political and historical; he said he thinks they discuss a different American president at each practice.
Kinsley's band, Eight A.M., is also a quartet, with occasional support from his son Tristan on electric guitar. He said his profession does not become too much of an issue in his band, though writing music as well as poetry comes from a love of reading and writing.
University Program Council concert co-chair Maggie Brown, a senior journalism major, had classes with both Tootle and Stewart. She said she was curious when she found out her professors had bands, and when planning the event, she thought that many students also may share that curiosity. Students also may be impressed to see the professor at a more human level she said.
The whole idea behind it was sort of a secret agent theme
said Brown.
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Stephen Tootle, founder of the band Cosigner, is also a history professor. Tootle will perform with two other bands, Eight A.M. and The Bob Stewart Band, at the Forum Theatre in the RTV Building, 8 p.m. Saturday night.
