Growing up listening to my favorite artists, I was drawn to music very passionately. I joined my 1st hard rock band during my freshman year in high school with some friends from my hometown of Bayonne, NJ. It was a wonderful learning experience for me that taught me how to collaborate with other musicians and what it was like to be in a band. After my high school years I had moved to Toms River, NJ. Not really knowing anybody in such a new surrounding, I spent alot of my time writing songs and learning as many songs as I could from the artists that I loved. At age 19 I started playing solo acoustic shows at coffee houses and bars around the Jersey shore areas. I continued to play my acoustic shows for quite a few years after that learning how to better my performances, sound, and appearance on stage, and what to play depending on what the audience was like. At around age 22 I joined a jam band called Adam's Ghost playing lead electric guitar for the first time with a totally new sound from what I had played in the past with my acoustic guitar. I was with this band for about a year. It really gave me the experience of what it was like to play on a stage in front of a larger audience than I had experienced in the cafe scene prior to that. At the same time I was going to The Music Academy in Toms River to advance my skills as a guitarist and trying to learn as much as I can. Not too long into my schooling, my teacher had introduced me to a guy that was looking for a guitarist for his band. So I auditioned for the band and got the gig. I left the band Adam's Ghost and became the new guitarist for the pop/rock band called XIT88. For the next 3 years I was in that band playing such hot spots like the Stone Pony, and the Starland Ballroom in NJ, and The Crash Mansion and The Continental in NYC, to only name a few. We were doing rather well playing shows for such artists like John Eddie, DeSol, The Psychodelic Furrs, Josh Kelly, Duncan Sheik, Jeffery Gaines, Default, and many others. I did my best to play my heart out at every performance. During my years with XIT88 I had drawn many wonderful and loyal fans that have stayed with me even after my breakup with the band. Now, I am out on my own trying a whole new approach to my musical carreer as a singer/songwriter, focusing on my own passion for music and writing about life experiences. I am hoping my music will take me on a whole new adventure.THESE BANNERS CAN BE ADDED TO YOUR PAGE BY GOING TO THIS LINK AND COPYING THE CODES .... http://www.freewebs.com/xdream3r/anthonymanno.htmTo all that tried to add a banner on their page and had a hard time getting it to work, here ya go.... this will do the trick... a very special fan of mine put this together for us all.... a page so people can copy the links.http://www.freewebs.com/xdream3r/anthonymanno.htmnow the banners work and are better in that when you click on the banner, it will take you to my page !!!Courtney, you rock !! Thanks again girl !!!
