Siloam Springs men get musical with 'Brewin' Beans'

Song pays tribute to local coffee groups.

Photo Submitted Ron Harp (left), and Randy Steele pose in the sound booth while recording their song "Brewin' Beans" at Beaird Music Group's recording studio in Nashville. The song was written by Harp and Steele and sung by Steele. It will be available for purchase on July 16 anywhere that music is streamed.
Photo Submitted Ron Harp (left), and Randy Steele pose in the sound booth while recording their song "Brewin' Beans" at Beaird Music Group's recording studio in Nashville. The song was written by Harp and Steele and sung by Steele. It will be available for purchase on July 16 anywhere that music is streamed.

SILOAM SPRINGS -- For the last 40 years, a group of men have gathered from 9-9:30 a.m. to have coffee together in downtown Siloam Springs, and now two of those members are releasing a country song about the experience on Friday.

The song, which is titled "Brewin' Beans," talks about the men who come down and have coffee together and play a game where they try to guess a number that one person has thought of.

The song will be available on Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio and wherever else music streams, said Ron Harp, one of the writers of "Brewin' Beans."

"The genesis of the song is really about what has happened here in Siloam Springs for over 40 years at a special location downtown, which at the time was Richard's Cafe, where there is a group of men having coffee together basically at two different tables," Harp said.

One table consisted of men who worked and the other table had retired guys, Harp said. The group meets on weekdays at what is now The Cafe on Broadway, Harp said.

The working guys would attend as business allowed and each table averaged about six to nine people, Harp said. Around 9:25 a.m., the retired table would jokingly tell the working table it is time to play the numbers game to decide who paid for the coffee and then to get back to work to pay their social securities in, Harp said.

About 14 weeks earlier it occurred to Harp that the coffee group was not unique to Siloam Springs or the group from The Cafe on Broadway, Harp said.

"I had seen other groups of men having coffee at other locations here in Siloam, other states like Iowa, small towns, Enid, Okla., different places that I've been," Harp said. "You would commonly see men taking the time to have coffee together, and it occurred to me at that time that maybe this should be memorialized in a way, in a song."

It dawned on Harp to write the song one day when 93-year-old member Bob was telling stories of his past, Harp said. The group had heard these stories many times before but listened politely out of respect, Harp said.

There were two different generations over the years sharing stories about what they did as teenagers, and Harp began writing verses down. That night, Harp texted Randy Steele, a local singer and another member of the group, about the song and forwarded the lyrics.

Harp and Steele worked together to add and rearrange lyrics until they had a song.

"So after it was mostly formalized we thought it would be fun to share it with our coffee group, unannounced with a guitar, and we did that about a week after we continued developing the song," Harp said.

The guys in the coffee group were moved by the words and they encouraged Harp and Steele to record the song so they could each get a copy of it, Harp said.

A colleague of Harp's from his Edward Jones days heard Steele sing "Brewin' Beans" over Harp's iPhone and connected Harp to a contemporary Christian singer named Dalton Lee, who has recorded in Nashville, Tenn., but presently lives in Fort Smith, Harp said.

Lee came up from Fort Smith and heard the song, Harp said. He agreed the song needed to be recorded and recorded in Nashville at Beaird Music Group where Lee had recorded at in the past, Harp said. Lee called the studio in Nashville to see when they wold have a slot open for them to record the song.

The opening came two weeks after the meeting on June 4. Harp, Steele and Lee made their way to Nashville to record "Brewin' Beans." For Steele, the experience at Beaird Music Group was the culmination of a lifelong dream.

"I've played guitar from Arizona to New York, but I've never had the studio time," Steele said. "So when you walk in and there's Reba's platinum record, Brooks and Dunn's and Eddie Arnold's, Randy Travis, Waylon (Jennings) and Willie (Nelson), history drips off this place."

Steele said he is the beneficiary of generous and talented people in Siloam Springs who have helped his career over the years.

Steele credits Mike Larson who hired him to play at a Jaycee function in 1974 and the Parks and Recreation Division for allowing him to play at the first summer concert in 1975. He also credits other people like Mark Barnett; Janis Longhorn Jan Lauderdale and Don Roberts.

In the end it's all about a song that shines a spotlight on a very common but mainly unknown facet of life. There are three names mentioned in the song: Bob, Hank and Joe.

When Harp played the song for different people who are members of a different coffee group they said there were guys like Bob, Hank and Joe in their group.

Harp also said it is a song that the nation needs right now because it offers the message of taking the time to have coffee together and not be so hurried.

Lee believes the song is a way for his generation to learn about the previous generation.

"I believe it's important that people, especially from my generation, understand the importance of community because I think it is a value that has been lost inside of social media," Lee said. "I think this very much brings back a sense of a time gone by."

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