Blast From The Past: The History of Mark Davis at The Piano. The Beginnings of a Professional.

Ever wanted to know how I became the person I am?

Below are some photos of my Grandfather (Pampy) and I and a little history of my music background. My mother's father, my grandfather was George E. Cheney. I think he got the nickname Pampy since I couldn't say Grampy at the time. He and my grandmother Lyda lived in the same house with my parents. We lived in Wollaston, Massachusetts a neighborhood in the City of Quincy.

When I was growing up I was not good at sports.

I needed a hobby.

My grandmother (Gar) used to play the piano accompanying my grandfather who sang.

He had a tenor voice and sang a lot of opera. This hurt my ears. The songs he sang by Mario Lanza were so sad I would plead with him to stop.

I was born in 1954 and Elvis was coming on the scene. I was riding a hobby horse to all of his tunes. I couldn't read song titles or artists on 45's at such a young age but I could tell by the label who the artist was.

Pampy taught me how to play the piano while I was growing up. He would go over my lesson every week. I took lessons from Mrs. Dennehy across town.

The one bad thing I remember about Pampy was when The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, we were not allowed to watch them. He thought they were a bunch of "no talents." I disagreed with him and in later life ended up playing The Beatles songs at talent shows in Junior High School and High School. I became more popular in school after that!

After my mother passed away, my brothers decided that I should have the Grand Piano that I played alongside Pampy at my mother's house. This piano was manufactured in the 1920s Our choice: trash it or rebuild it. We decided to have it completely rebuilt. My brother Glenn said, "Your Mother wanted you to have this." He also said that about anything from her house I did not want - including some scary clown candles.

My grandfather on the right) and I. I have no idea who the other gentleman is. 1956?

Pampy and I relaxing in our Wellfleet cottage located on Cape Cod. This was during the summer of 1955. Could that be a big-screen TV? (On the left)

Me and my Pampy (He always liked George Harrison best) No, it was Lawrence Welk he ALWAYS liked best and watched faithfully.

It's me in Wollaston with my future Marshall and Wendall Baby Grand Piano performing the song - Saturday Nights Alright for Fighting (Hint: Think Elton John)!

In Rockland, Massachusetts at The Piano Mill before they delivered my newly rebuilt piano to my brand new Man Cave aka The Music Room (Thanks, Rob for the excellent rebuild of the piano and Romney and his team for the fantastic Man Cave).