“My daddy was an old fiddler, and I probably had the burn to play since I was in diapers because they would have music get togethers and people playing fiddles and guitars, and we’d meet in one house one month and another people’s house another month, and I’d be there hearing that and I was just burning to play,” Hofer said. “So I started playing on the piano when I was five or six and then got a guitar, and the rest is history.”

They also retired young, deciding that they wanted to focus on school activities, and McCreary and Willer were part of the legendary undefeated 1971 Trojan football team led by future Iowa Hawkeye Mark Fetter. The Emeralds played what they thought was their final show at Sheda’s Bar and Grill in Chelsea on Sept. 24, 1970. Sedlacek, who now resides in Marshalltown, graduated from STC in 1971 and went on to run a successful wholesale meat company for decades, while McCreary, a member of the Class of 1972, got into organic farming north of Toledo and Willer (also Class of 1972) moved to the Des Moines area. Hofer, who graduated in 1971 and now lives in Kerrville, Texas, left after about a year and gravitated more toward rock n’ roll, eventually becoming the bassist for 2021 Iowa Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame inductee Hot Jam.

“I always tell people he went on to become that, and I went on to become a meat cutter,” Sedlacek said with a laugh.

Fast forward half a century, and The Emeralds received an invitation to reunite and perform at a class reunion. They said yes, and they’ve had several subsequent opportunities to rock and roll in the years since then.

Sedlacek’s Marshalltown home features a shrine to the band that includes his first accordion and their first microphone.

Where it all began

Like so many other kids around the country, Sedlacek and Hofer, both 11 at the time, saw The Beatles and their famous performance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964 and decided they wanted to start a band of their own. They bought guitars and worked hard to learn how to play them, but Sedlacek didn’t feel the instrument was the right one for him. Instead, he opted for an accordion because, in his words, it was easier to move than a piano and he had already been taking piano lessons.

Before long, they connected with McCreary, who played guitar and took out his first bank loan to buy a Gibson ES-335 he still uses today, and Willer on drums — neither had yet celebrated his 10th birthday — and The Emeralds were born.

They specialized in covers and played a variety of the popular music of the time, from the British Invasion sounds of The Beatles to country, polka and waltzes. Their inaugural public performance was at Dick’s Restaurant in Toledo, and each member was compensated with a free malt — which cost 40 cents at the time.

Before long, The Emeralds became seasoned road warriors as their parents drove them to communities all across the area — Chelsea, Belle Plaine, Traer, Reinbeck, Conroy, Victor, Marshalltown, Tama, Toledo and Ely, to name a few — and they were playing two nights a week every weekend all through 1966, 1967 and 1968.

Between the marathon four to 4 ½ hour sets and the late night teardowns, the members began to feel burnt out and ready to live normal lives again, so they called it quits after a show at Sheda’s, which is now known as the Silver Dollar. Between the smoky bars of the time and the rowdy crowds they often played for, all of the members needed to take a step back.

“We saw more drunks by the age of 15 than most people see in a lifetime,” McCreary said. “Now, to be in a bar without smoke is just like ‘Wow.'”

After his music career in Iowa ran its course, Hofer moved to Texas in 1980 and started a career as a general contractor, recalling that he “didn’t play a lick” for almost 12 years. During a “Walk to Emmaus” Christian event, he rediscovered his passion and has been heavily involved in praise and worship music ever since.

Running it back

A few years ago, Sedlacek’s class reunion committee co-chair suggested that he bring his accordion to the next class reunion and play some songs, and while Sedlacek was initially hesitant, his wife Rene let it slip that he had just gotten a new one.

Before long, he was reaching out to Hofer, McCreary and Willer to see if they’d be interested in playing, and they all agreed. After a practice or two, that old sense of cohesiveness was back, and they’ve now done it the last two years for the annual class reunion at the Eagles Club in Tama.

“It’s kind of amazing that we were all alive since we’re all, like, 70 years old,” McCreary said.

On Thursday afternoon, the trio of original members who still live in Iowa, gathered in Sedlacek’s basement on the west side of Marshalltown, launched into the first song they ever learned and the first one Hofer ever sang for money, “Red Roses for a Blue Lady.”

As expected, they didn’t miss a beat. They’ve even started to book a few gigs outside of the class reunions at places like the Iowa Veterans Home, The Embers and The Silver Dollar, where they thought their story had ended some 54 years ago.

“We don’t want to play every weekend, but we can kind of be picky and choosy about what we want (to do),” Sedlacek said. “Now is when it’s fun, you know?”