by Rich Fisher, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Rich Fisher

Trenton, NJ — When serving as track announcer for Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, Jim Beviglia doesn’t feel he has any certain style.

He does, however, enjoy himself and sometimes throws in a little call every now and then to entertain himself.

And if folks in attendance are rock ‘n roll aficionados, they will be amused by it as well.

“I just try to be myself, which hopefully means being very accurate, serving the race the best I can, and having a little fun in the process,” Beviglia said. “With the racing being as great as it has been the past several seasons at Pocono, I don’t have to add anything to make it sound exciting. It all happens naturally.

Jim Beviglia says “my love for music works its way into my race calls.”

“But my love for music works its way into my race calls. I always try to insert lyrics into certain points of races if they fit. For example, when a horse is close to the lead on the inside but can’t get out to close because there are horses on the outside, I’ll say that it has ‘no direction home,’ which is from (Bob) Dylan’s ‘Like a Rolling Stone.’

“Or if there’s a horse just absolutely blistering on the front end with no regard to saving energy, I’ll say it’s been ‘cut loose like a Deuce,’ which is from (Bruce) Springsteen’s ‘Blinded by the Light.’ I get a kick out of that stuff even if everybody else thinks I’m nuts.”

The bottom line is when he makes a call like that he is merely combining his two great passions — harness racing and rock music.

Aside from his duties at Pocono Downs, which include writing articles on racing that also get picked up by Scranton and Wilkes-Barre newspapers, Jim is now a published author – with one book in print and three more online — and a popular blogger.

His expertise is in classic rock music, which has been his passion since growing up in the shadows of Pocono Downs in Old Forge, Pa. (where he still lives). Jim was 8 years old when he got hold of his brother’s book, The Beatles Greatest Hits 1962-1966. Obviously smitten by the Fab Four, he promptly memorized every lyric in one day

“I was a child of the ’80s and MTV,” said Beviglia, now 41. “That was a fun time to be a music fan, but all that time I was also working my way backward to the ’70s and ’60s and the classic artists. I still like good new music; it’s just a lot harder to find.”

Between watching Martha Quinn and the rest of the veejays, Beviglia made numerous trips to Pocono Downs, were his dad became a teller when it opened in the 1960s.

“I used to go to the track all the time as a kid, so it felt a little like fate when I first started to work there,” he said. “Getting to call the races is really special for me.”

Jim prepared for his career by getting a degree in broadcast journalism from Syracuse. And don’t be fooled by the word “broadcast” because most broadcasters are required to write their own copy.

He was hired at Pocono Downs at age 25 and worked in the TV department doing the racing show along with other on-air duties. When Mohegan Sun took over in 2004, Beviglia was hired by the publicity department, where he did the racing show for them as well as articles about racing. He has been calling races the past six years.

It was those early PR writings that steered Beviglia toward his “second” career.

“I started writing the stuff for Pocono, and people tended to like it,” he said. “I enjoyed it as well, so I decided to start looking for jobs writing online. I started small, but it’s worked out great from there. I now write for the print and online editions of American Songwriter magazine.”

Beviglia began his blog in early 2012 for a reason that most professional journalists can relate to — freedom.

“I wanted to write about music and not have to worry about word counts and stuff,” he said. “I could just go on and on.”

Thus, the birth of countdownkid.wordpress.com — the blog that features thoughts from Beviglia on the legendary names in rock and roll. The format of the blog is Beviglia counting down the songs of rock’s greatest artists and writing essays about those songs.

His first was on Bob Dylan, which immediately got noticed by some influential people.

“It started to get some attention,” he said. “American Songwriter contacted me, said they had been reading the blog, and asked if I would be interested in writing for them, and I jumped at that chance.

“It was also my blog readers who encouraged me to put the Dylan list in book form, which I eventually did with the help of my editor at Scarecrow Press, Bennett Graff.”

The book is called Counting Down Bob Dylan: His 100 Finest Songs and is scheduled for release this month. It is available on all major online booksellers.

“I started getting into Dylan on an in-depth basis when I was in college,” Beviglia said. “I had grown up on The Beatles and that ‘All You Need is Love’ ideal. But Dylan had a way of describing the way you feel when things aren’t so rosy, and, as somebody who loves words, his lyrics really captivated me.

“Since then I’ve been burrowing into his catalog and I’m always surprised and impressed. His last album was just as fresh and relevant to life on this planet as his ’60s classics.”

When doing his rankings, Beviglia admits they are based solely on his opinions, but he does have a scientific method to his approach.

“I tried to base them on how well the songs achieve their objectives and the visceral impact they make on the listener,” he said. “A lot of hard-core Dylan fans like to delve into all the allusions and arcana in the lyrics, but my book, I hope, will detail how Dylan’s music makes you feel.”

The Dylan project is his first actual physical book, but Beviglia also has three e-books on the market analyzing and ranking songs from Tom Petty, Elvis Costello and Radiohead. They were released via Endeavour Press, an e-book publisher in London.

“Usually, I profile artists that I really enjoy and have the kind of song catalog that will withstand the scrutiny of going 100 songs deep into it,” he said. “That really narrows it down, but there are several other artists that I have in mind for future lists and, hopefully, future books.

“I’m just beginning a new book on Bruce Springsteen from Scarecrow Press. That should be out next year around this time. I also have an idea for a book about the music of the ’80s and how it played a part in my life growing up that I’m hoping to finish soon; it’s about half-finished.”

Beviglia also wants to keep his blog as active as possible, crediting those followers as a big reason for his success as an author.

Ironically, Jim’s musical career goes no further than cruising down the highway.

“I actually never did learn an instrument,” he said. “I do consider myself an excellent singer in the car along with the radio, although my loved ones would beg to differ about that.”

Sounds like they might need to write a blog critiquing Jim’s music, which might really be interesting. But for the time being, Beviglia will remain the music writer/track announcer in the family.

As for where he will be a few years from now, Jim has no plans of leaving the track to become a fulltime writer.

“It’s hard to say what the future holds,” he said. “I feel like my co-workers at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs are like a second family. They’ve all been wonderful to me from the time I started working there. And I love calling the races.

“Plus, I’m not yet near the point where I can make a living from my books, so I’m happy to do both for now.”

He certainly does a nice job of combining both. Even if some folks at the track think he’s nuts.