As soon as we graduated high school my fellow bandmate Craig Bickhardt and I decided to give it a go as a career. We kicked around doing bar gigs for a while till we met FC Collins and Rick Bell, and Wire & Wood was born. Wire & Wood quickly became the darlings of a limited country rock scene in the Philly area. The band became a fixture at the legendary Main Point headlining and opening for national acts the likes of Danny O'Keefe, John Hammond, Leon Redbone, and JD Souther.
We thought success was upon us when we were invited to open for Bruce Springsteen at Swarthmore College. We decided it was time to move to the home of the country rock movement, so we packed up the truck and headed to LA. Kinda like the Hillbilly's without the black gold! We played around LA for a few years until we signed a deal with the upstart October Records. The label sent us back east to Woodstock, NY to record at the famous Bearsville Studio. After completing three tracks, including one that featured Neil Young's pedal steel player Ben Keith things grounded to a halt. As it often happens with new companies, the money ran out. We hung in for a while but the demise of the label lead to the breakup of the band.
After the dust settled, Craig Bickhardt began to draw interest as a solo artist. I played a bunch of shows and did some recordings with him, one of which was called "Overnight Sensations". The recording wound up in the Academy Award winning film 'Tender Mercies" starring Robert Duvall. Right around that same time Craig and I made a little lunch money off a song that we co-wrote with Mike Sembello called "Yes I Love You" that was recorded by Sergio Mendes.
Craig decided to move to Nashville at the same time that I began to develop an interest in some harder edged music. I continued to hone my craft as a "Gun For Hire" as well as producing a bunch of Philly bands. Some of my studio rat friends and I started to plot and scheme resulting in the formation of a power band called The Reactors. The band was great but we just had too many writers going in different directions.
A little later down the line I hooked up with Jim McFadden and fired up Hoi Polloi. Jimmy's British pop sensibilities partnered with my Americana influences proved a great match. We wrote and recorded many songs together and "The Hoi" became the first Philly band to release recordings on CD. We achieved a modest level of success but not enough to support raising our families.
At that point I began to feel that I had reached a crossroad when I received a call from my old friend and incredible guitarist Chip Roberts. Chip and Robert Hazard were starting up a band and asked if I had an interest in joining. I was a big fan of Robert's and jumped at the opportunity to play with him. It's been about twelve years now that I have been performing with Robert and I still feel honored to take the stage with such a great talent.
Following the untimely and devastating passing of Robert Hazard, I received a call from Hooters guitarist John Lilley asking me to lend a hand with his highly anticipated solo project. I quickly discovered that John had compiled a great mix of folk, americana, and good ole rock tunes over the years that were right up my alley. As an extra bonus, playing with John has also provided the opportunity to work side by side once again with my long time friends Tom Geddes, Rick Bell, and Tom Hampton. I feel very fortunate to be working with John, who in addition to being a superb talent is also a wonderful human being.
Well, that's my story and I guess I'm sticking to it. I'm sure there are some other versions out there that I would roll along with just as well. In the meantime, I'll be working on my own music and perhaps a surprise or two along the way. Thanks for listening and visiting my page.
Fred DiTomasso
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