Blues brother

There’s a stereotype for every profession, and priests are no exception. They’re solemn and officious. All their hobbies are religious. And they certainly never rock out. Right?

Wrong. The Rev. Armando Guzmán, the chaplain at Archbishop Murphy High School in south Everett, can attest to that.

He plays guitar in a rock band called Bob and banjo in a bluegrass band, The Priest and the Publicans. He’s sold waist-high drawings and paintings of popes, Mother Teresa and Pablo Picasso for hundreds of dollars. For five years, he’s been building an art studio addition to his Shoreline home – with his own hands.

And though he enjoys his job as a priest, Guzmán relies on his side life as an artist and musician.

“I need art and music because that recharges me,” he said.

Guzmán started his first band in the late 1980s, shortly after he’d been ordained and assigned to a parish in Olympia.

“I went to this parish picnic. It was really dull,” he said. “I said, ‘We need some music or something’ and they said, ‘We can’t afford that.’”

So Guzmán started rounding up musicians at the church for a band of his own. He discovered his drummer while making a counseling house call.

“(He) was considered legally blind,” Guzmán said. “I went over there and there was a huge drum set. I asked the stupid question, ‘Do you play drums?’”

Thus the “Bland Band” was formed. The title aimed to keep audience expectations low, Guzmán said.

It was the first in a long string of bands Guzmán has performed with over the years. He’s had to move a lot, as priests are frequently transferred from parish to parish.

“Every time I move, I have to start a new group,” he said.

The Bland Band was followed by the Blandeleros, the DieHards, the Jalapenos and now Bob.

Guzmán’s bluegrass band, The Priest and the Publicans, will perform at the Northwest Folklife festival in Seattle later this month. He performs in his priests’ garb, a black button down shirt with a white collar.

“(The rest of the band) wanted to dress like altar servers but I said no,” Guzmán explained.

He practices music an hour or two every day, and his instrumental range is broad.

“I’ve publicly played 10 different instruments without embarrassing myself,” he said. “Guitar, banjo, mandolin, piano, recorder, Native American flute, harmonica, electric bass and accordion.” He also plays the penny whistle.

Art is another talent, one that Guzmán has only picked up again recently. His Web site, www.armandoarts.com, displays the drawings and paintings of artists, musicians and religious figures he’s done over the years.

When Pope John Paul II died in April 2005, Guzmán, who was working at St. Mary Magdalene parish in Everett, found his talents in demand.

“Whenever a pope dies, you’re supposed to have a large picture of the pope with a shroud and have a mass remembering him,” Guzmán said. “We looked around and said, ‘We don’t have a big drawing.’”

So he set to work and did a three-foot high ink drawing of the pope.

“People were stunned because they didn’t know I do art,” Guzmán said. “People said, ‘You should produce (cards) and run them off.”

He went to Kinko’s and ran off small cards of the drawing, selling them for 25 cents apiece at the church.

He made $700.

“People would give me $20 for four,” he said.

Guzmán also has sold his work at auctions.

An art major in college, he worried that after he started work as a priest, he’d have no time for art. At first, he didn’t.

“I had all these requests, and just doing priest stuff I almost had a nervous breakdown,” he said. “I stopped doing art.”

Now he tries to blend his job and his artistic interests. He spends two days a week at Archbishop Murphy, holding masses, hearing student confessions and doing counseling.

But he also teaches an informal guitar class at the school on Wednesdays and the occasional art class. He’s performed with his bands at cast parties after school plays, though he has yet to play in front of the whole school.

Still, not many students know about his side life, he said.

“I want to do more art and put it up at school,” he said. “I want to start an art club and a guitar club.”

In addition to his work as chaplain, Guzmán works a few days a week as part of a regional ministry team that serves Skagit County parishes.

On his days off, he’s at home in Shoreline, building an addition to his house: an art and music studio. The studio, which Guzmán has been building for five years from scratch, has grown larger than the house itself.

“I learn a lot from the guys at Home Depot,” Guzmán said.

He’d eventually like to retire and work on his art more fully. That’s at least a decade away, but even part-time, his art still enriches his life.

“Art is about seeing,” he said. “The more you get into art, the more you see — more than other people do.”

Music has the same enhancing effect, he said.

“I just noticed a poster in the (school’s) music room that says, ‘The more you know music, the more you get out of life,’” Guzmán said. “Musicians hear more. It enriches your soul.”