period. To do that, Shupe lived frugally, driving a VW bug so long that it went through two engines, and subsisted on a steady diet of Taco Bell. For years, he and his band drove to their gigs in a van with a trailer in tow to hold their equipment. On tour, they stayed with acquaintances or sometimes slept in the van. To remain in the music biz, Shupe mowed lawns, taught music and snowboard lessons, maxed out his credit cards and hired himself out, as a studio musician for other bands, commercial jingles and videogame and movie soundtracks ("Work and the Glory," "Xena Warrior Princess," a CBS TV series whose name he can't even remember). These days he lives in a modest house in Provo with his wife and baby and hasn't made much use of that public relations degree he took from Weber State. The big money hasn't rolled in yet, but he's still playing his fiddle for a living. "It's a feat to play music and make that your livelihood," he says. "Hitting the big time is more similar to winning the lottery than not. It's like gambling. There just aren't many Garth Brooks. We've been really blessed to have enough success to continue." Shupe has done it on his own terms, despite his eagerness to stay in the business. He actually turned down a contract offer from a record company a few years ago because he wanted to retain creative control, which went squarely against the wishes of his band at the time and brian nicholson, deseret morning news Ryan Shupe, second from left, and the Rubberband perform at First Night Salt Lake last December. those boundaries." Since forming the Rubber-Band as a vehicle for his music 11 years ago, Shupe has become a prolific songwriter in addition to being a fiddle/violin virtuoso. He files his songs in one of five color-coded notebooks "One is for crappy songs I wrote," he says, "one is for songs I think are OK but are lacking a certain je ne sa quois, another is for ideas I like but they're not a full song yet, another is for songs I have completed and another for songs I'm working on. If I get stumped on a song, I just put it in a folder and get back to it someday. I have no problem ditching a song. If it's not working, put it away for a while." "Ryan is a musical genius," says RubberBand guitarist Craig Miner. "He's always got multiple songs going through his head. He's probably simultaneously writing 30 songs at a time, going back and forth. He's a music factory. He practiced long and hard really early and got die. Ted's great-grandmother is reputed to have hosted fiddling parties in pioneer times, and many of his relatives played in various bands at one time. When Ted's other children Darren, Tara, Bonnie and Stacey were old enough, Ted gave each of them fiddle lessons for 30 minutes every morning in their Ogden home before they dashed out the door for work and school. "Music is not a choice in our family," says Ted. "We did the same thing in my family when I was growing up. It's like brushing your teeth; kids wouldn't do it if they weren't compelled. It was just part of the education. I wanted my kids to carry it on." The five Shupe children followed this routine five days a week into their teenage years. "I didn't know any different; I didn't realize most people didn't do that," says Ryan, who eventually began to study with Ted's brother, Jim, who started the Utah Oldtime Fiddlers Association and played violin in the Utah Symphony. "Aside from anything it would do for the kids, this was my one-on-one time with my kids," says Ted, choking back tears. "Once I left the house (for work), it was really consuming. But in the morning I had them. My greatest memories are working with my kids." The Shupe children played in bands as well as an informal family band, with Ted on bass and his wife, Sandy, on guitar. The children continue to play in bands, and they have branched off to other instruments. Bonnie plays drums; Tara the mandolin, guitar and violin (she is studying jazz guitar at the University of Utah); Darren the banjo; and Bonnie the bass. When Ryan was 7, Ted decided it was time to form a band to utilize his son's fiddle talents. He searched for other kid musicians and formed the PeeWee Pickers. They played at Lagoon for $25 a day plus food for two summers, then they took their act on the road. Each summer, they loaded up the family's motor home and toured. They played in Europe. They played at the world's fair. They played for President Reagan. They played in nearly every blue-grass festival in the country. Ted managed the group, sending out press material and booking dates. "I could get them booked anywhere," Ted recalls. "If you closed your eyes, you couldn't tell they were kids." Among those who saw Shupe on stage in those days was Miner, when he was 8 years old, a year younger than Shupe. "It was at the Kiwanis Park in Provo at the