Boy Scout Troop 303

January 2011

 

Congratulations to Assistant Scoutmaster Richie Kossuth for receiving the Greater Pittston 2010 Person of the Year Award!

 

Sunday Dispatch Article from January 9, 2011

 

If life in Greater Pittston were a song, Richie Kossuth would provide the back beat. For providing that beat and for his behind-the-scenes benefit work for a myriad of causes Kossuth is the Sunday Dispatch 2010 Person of the Year.

 

Many Greater Pittston folks know Kossuth, 49, as the co-owner - with his mother Marie Griglock and brother Billy Kossuth - of the venerable downtown business Rock Street Music and as the drummer for Pittston’s rock ‘n’ roll party band Flaxy Morgan and dynamic rock duo CNR with partner Jason “Jaybird” Santos.

 

What many of those same folks likely don’t know is Kossuth is one of the founders of 12/24, the TSO-inspired Christmas holiday seasonal band which raises money for autism research and support through The Earthly Angels Autism Fund.

 

They likely don’t know Kossuth, Flaxy, CNR and Rock Street donated time and talent and equipment to an estimated 40 benefits in 2010.

 

They likely don’t know Kossuth is an Assistant Scoutmaster for St. Rocco’s Boy Scout Troop 303 where he was mentored by Len “Singie” Sanguedolce.

 

They likely don’t know, unless they are parishioners of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church, that Kossuth is a lay lector, something he has been doing twice a month for 35 years without fail.

 

Rock Street Music is a business big and savvy enough to have provided the sound for the MSNBC truck at the Obama inaugural, but not too big or self-important that it can’t supply sound for, say, Pittston Knights of Columbus or church events.

 

In 2010 Kossuth and Rock Street provided the sound equipment and technology for the Pittston Tomato Festival and Oktoberfest and on four stages at Concert for a Cause. Let’s just say they all got great deals. In 2010 Kossuth and Rock Street recorded a 12/24 CD with a portion of the sale proceeds going to the Earthly Angels.

 

In 2010 Kossuth, with Gene Guarilia and Dave Williams, played a fund-raiser for Charles Barone and Elwood Richards, two city firemen who are battling cancer, at a highly-successful tent event called Benefit for Heroes at the Jenkins Township Fire Hall. Later in the year Kossuth and Santos, as CNR, played a second gig for the firemen at the firemen’s beer hall at the Pittston Tomato Festival. Asked how he was paid for the Tomato Festival gig, Kossuth laughed and said, “I’ve got a case of coolers in the shop.”

 

CNR also played a fund raiser for the Wyoming Recreation Board among other free or reduced price benefit gigs.

 

Kossuth’s natural father, Rich Kossuth, died at age 26 in 1964 when Richie was three. The elder Kossuth ran Richie’s Record Rack, a pioneer music store on William Street, Pittston. He was also the leader and accordion player for the Rich Kossuth Orchestra and was an announcer for WPTS radio. Richie said he has precious few enduring memories of his father. In one, they bounce on the bed together as on a trampoline.

 

Kossuth was raised by his mother Marie, a Hughestown councilwoman and polka enthusiast, and her second husband Rich Griglock, whom he considers his father.

 

Richie started guitar lessons when he was eight, but switched to drums at 10, when he found his muse in teacher Jimmy Musto. Kossuth joined a band called Starstruck in high school. He later played with Synch, whose singer Jimmy Harnen would later make a solo national hit recording of the Synch song “Where Are You Now?”

 

Kossuth got a taste of national fame with Synch on a mid-80s tour when they opened for The Hooters and headlined with John Cafferty at Penn State. Kossuth is not on the studio version of the song, but is on the live version on the album “Get The Feelin” which was recorded live at Seton Catholic high school after the school, the smallest in the area, won the contest for a Synch show.

 

But Kossuth is best known for Flaxy Morgan, the rock band he founded with Jeanne Pisano in the early 1990s. In addition to the benefit gigs this year Flaxy played bazaars and festivals from Pioneer Days in Carbondale to Never Too Old to Rock in Nanticoke and many more in between during the summer.

 

Flaxy has gone through lineup changes, but Kossuth has always been the constant as leader and drummer. He’s no heavy-handed thrasher. “Most of it is just straight beat,” he said of his style.

 

The genesis of Rock Street Music was Just Drums, a music store that operated out of various Pittston locations, where Kossuth worked, you guessed it, for free.

 

Well, not exactly. He worked for “points” which he could use toward drum equipment he wanted to buy. Later he became a full-time employee.

 

When Just Drums went out of business Richie’s mother Marie Griglock and his brother Billy dropped a surprise on him. “One day I walked in the house and they said ‘we got you a loan, you’re going in business.’ ”

 

Richie and Billy, with brothers Rossi Kossuth and Gary Griglock chipping in, ran the business out of his mother’s garage on, appropriately, Rock Street in Hughestown for two years before moving to the current location at 148 South Main.

 

Rock Street expanded into everything but horns. The business thrived. Lately though Kossuth said advancing technology is eating into the recording end of the business.

 

Recording at Rock Street’s 16-track – and not so long ago state-of-the-art – studio where Mere Mortals and George Wesley, among many others, cut tracks, is being hurt by digital home recording devices.

 

Kossuth does not have any kids, but among the many things he does for others is playing dad on Sundays to Alexis, 9, and Bianca, 5, the nieces of his girlfriend.

 

Coming out from behind the scenes as an old-fashioned do-gooder wasn’t easy for Kossuth. He likes to talk about Rock Street and 12/24, music in general, and Boy Scouts but he doesn’t like to talk about himself.

 

When he was told he’d been selected person of the year, the phone seemed to go dead on his end. After prolonged silence, he said, “I’m speechless.”

 

When he found something to say it was to suggest other people for the honor. When he finally accepted he said, “I’m honored beyond belief.”

 

Kossuth said one of he big influences in his life was his “Gram” Edna Bucheri, who died five years ago.

 

He’s sad she’s not around to enjoy the Person of the Year honor with him. “Maybe she’s reading the heavenly Dispatch,” he said with laugh.

 

Last January Cadillacs’ guitarist Dave Williams organized a benefit concert “Love for Lora” for his sister who is battling several life-threatening diseases. That’s where Kossuth began his year, providing sound and lighting and entertainment with CNR for the Lora benefit.

 

“As usual,” Williams said. “You can always count on Richie and Rock Street.”

 

Asked why he donates so much of his time and talent for sick folks, Kossuth shrugged and said, “I’m healthy.”