I
was born in a small town hospital on Sunday, the 5th of April
1943, the second son of Dorothy and David Maloney. My parents
named me David Joseph after my Father's Father.
My Dad
was an out of work New York actor who found his way upstate
to the village of Honeoye Falls, about fifteen miles south of
Rochester. He came to the area with a well-to-do Irish family
by the name of Moran, serving as their chauffeur, bartender,
general handyman and companion.
My Mother
was a pretty, blond, local girl who worked in the mercantile
dry goods store in town. Though she graduated from high school
with honors, there was no money for college due to the desperate
circumstances that existed during the great depression.
My older
brother Peter was the first born, then me, with our sister Rebecca
next, then brother Michael and finally Paul, the youngest.
We
grew up in a large double house across from the high school
above Honeoye creek, which ran through the middle of town. The
"crik" and the lower falls provided amazing, endless
opportunities for youthful adventure. Most of my waking moments
as a boy were spent either rambling around the creek bed and
climbing its cliffs or playing any and all sports, depending
on the season.
My parents
maintained a strong interest in the arts and therefore music,
theater, and performance were an integral part of our family
dynamic. All the Maloney children were given the opportunity
to learn either the piano or some other instrument, but as it
turned out, I was the only one who stayed with it. I continued
to take piano lessons from the age of 7 to about 15, at which
time high school sports and activities captured all my attention.
It was,
however, my Father's singing voice and ukulele playing that
really fascinated me. I asked him if I could learn how to play
the "uke" and he wrote out some chords and lyrics
for me to work on. One day he returned from the road as a traveling
salesman and handed me my very own ukulele. It was a Harmony
Model and I was thrilled and grateful….I almost couldn't believe
it. I began practicing in earnest. My siblings still remember
how someone in the family was always hollering upstairs for
me to stop tapping my foot, as it was driving everyone crazy
below. From then on I sang and played at every opportunity,
school and parties, Boy Scouts, and in local talent shows.
I
entered Cortland State College in 1961 majoring in Physical
Education, playing on the soccer team, and immersing myself
in college and fraternity life. In the "frat" house
we formed a Kingston Trio-like folk group called The Gamma Greenbriars,
performing all over campus and even in town. My passion for
singing and performing was apparent early on and it's not hard
to see how it eventually led to my life's work.
In 1969,
after four years of teaching in Syracuse, NY, my love, Tebby
George, and I got married and headed west to California. We
were on a path to realize our aspirations to become the artists
we had always dreamed of being.
On our
first night in San Francisco we went to a local folk club called
the Drinking Gourd and on-stage was a young singer with long,
flaming red hair, a magical voice, and a passionate delivery.
As it turned out that singer was Ginny Reilly, who was performing
her first full night there. When I approached her between sets
about the local folk scene, she quickly dismissed me with a
clipped comment about the time and effort it takes to get ahead.
We still laugh about that first meeting which I remember vividly.
Ginny does not!
Three
months later, on January 11, 1970, Ginny came to our small apartment
on Sacramento St. for a trial rehearsal. This rendezvous was
arranged by Jay Kellum, a veteran San Francisco bass player
with a reputation for putting groups together. He told us that
solo singers were a dime a dozen and by working together we
might find more opportunities to perform and possibly make a
living doing what we loved. He urged us to leave our part-time
jobs and fully commit to the music.
We took
his advice, continuing to rehearse everyday under his direction.
After about three weeks we performed a short, three-song guest
set at the Drinking Gourd. The audience that night loved us
and we were hired on the spot to go to Lake Tahoe and perform
in the lounge of a new steakhouse there. We were paid $100 apiece
for four nights with a place to sleep (in a room with 6 other
employees) and a free steak dinner each day.
As it turned
out we were an instant hit with the tourists as well as the
locals. That very first weekend in Tahoe City, we were asked
to play the rest of the week at a steakhouse in Palo Alto. And
so we played over forty nights straight that winter, driving
up and then down from the mountains twice each week.
Our
crowds grew quickly and soon there was a buzz brewing about
this new act with a great sound called "Dave & Ginny."
At that point we were a working partnership and today as Reilly
and Maloney, we're still making sweet music together. ~David
Biographical Notes:
• Peter
Maloney has lived in New York City since 1964 enjoying a long
career in the theater, television, and movies as an actor, director,
and playwright. He is also an accomplished magician.
• Rebecca
Maloney served as an RN at California Pacific Medical Center in
San Francisco for 29 years and is currently enjoying life in
Cape Cod, MA.
• Michael
Maloney is the Pastor of Lima Baptist Church and School in Lima,
NY.
• Paul
Maloney lives near Woodstock, NY where he plays bass with a
variety of musicians and bands. He also works at an independent
publishing house in Kingston, NY.
• Tebby
George is a bay area sculptor and teaches life sculpture
at City College Fort Mason in San Francisco.
• Tebby
and David have a son, Danny, who is a sophomore at Sir Francis
Drake HS in San Anselmo, CA.
• Dorothy
Maloney, at 94, stays current with world events and politics
and enjoys playing Scrabble® during frequent family visits.
She has a gallery of her original oil paintings in her home
and possesses a vast knowledge of art history.
• David
K. Maloney passed away in August 1987.
Ginny
Reilly started life in Evanston, Illinois, in 1946. She grew
up in nearby Lake Forest, 30 miles north of Chicago, where her
family environment fostered a love of music. Though neither
parent played an instrument, her father, a lawyer, regretted
all his life that he had given up piano lessons as a boy, and
made sure that all three of his children learned to play. (Ginny,
however, had a great resistance to practicing, and managed the
unusual feat of not learning to play the piano in spite of nine
years of lessons.) Television was in its infancy then, and one
of Ginny's first memories of singing was to the piano accompaniment
of her teen-aged brother Pat; they would imagine they were auditioning
for the Arthur Godfrey Talent Hour. When she was twelve,
her family moved to a ranch house that had a large recreational
basement. Although it had been intended as a place for her parents
to entertain their friends, it was mostly used by Ginny as a
practice studio; she would spend hours singing along to the
records of Peggy Lee, and Nat King Cole, as well as the great
Broadway musicals of the 50s and 60s. She learned many songs
during this time, some of which appeared in Reilly and Maloney
shows, such as "It Had To Be You," "Bewitched, Bothered
and Bewildered," "Fever," and "Lida Rose" (from The Music
Man).