Myocardial Infarcations Can't Stop Clarion Man from Discovering Self, Compact Discs, Synth Horns

There are always some really great articles in the CLARION NEWS that epitomize this unfortunate PA county, but today when I glanced over the front page this one found a soft spot in my heart.

"'Annoying' heart attacks aside, Jack and his music are back"Jack Giering, a well-known local musician from the 1960s bands “The Plants” and “The Scarlet Pumpernickel,” survived five heart attacks during the past few years. The health crisis lead Giering to record a compact disc of his music

Giering, 61, ... had been forced to deal with -- as he calls it -- "the minor annoyance of five heart attacks." Doctors predicted his demise within six months....

"The doctors told me to crawl into a casket and wait. Well, I did the opposite."

"The doctors lied repeatedly when I looked at the obvious remaining blockage on the post-op photos and asked 'Why didn't you fix that?' They told me that it was of no consequence."

"I called my awesome family doctor -- Dr. Paul Hamm -- and I refused to go back to the doctors in Pittsburgh."

"They sent me to Passavant Hospital where the doctors sadly told me they didn't know how to fix my problem.... A young specialist, Dr. Maroquinn, spoke up and said that he was game to try to fix it if I was."

"He fixed my heart. Honestly at last. I started recording as soon as the open wound from the tracheotomy from my first heart attack healed and continued to the present between health crises."

Giering, self described as "tougher than a $2 steak," put to paper 112 original songs.

Eleven of those songs have been recorded and are now available on a compact disc entitled "Lone Wolf."

Giering said the genesis of "Lone Wolf" was his exposure to the "remarkable capabilities of keyboard and computer technology." Shortly thereafter, as someone familiar with Giering's skills and obsessions might have expected, he learned how to extract exquisite bass and horn sounds and the "soup stock" was started.