ArtfulDodger88

Hi, I'm Peter Bonta and here's the short version for now...I've been lucky enough to spend my life since graduating high school in 1969 working as a musician, audio engineer and record producer/studio owner. Along the years I've garnered a few Wammies, a couple of gold & platinum records and played on a few Grammy winning songs. There are times I've felt like the musical version of Forrest Gump or Zelig! Like I said, I've been lucky...I've been a member of the Nighthawks (1972-1974), Adelphi recording artists The Rosslyn Mt. Boys (1974-today), CBS & Arista recording artists Artful Dodger (1979-today), PolyGram recording artists Gene Ryder & The Lifters. I've toured and recorded with Mary Chapin Carpenter, Bill Kirchen & Too Much Fun, toured as keyboardist with Martha & the Vandellas, and played keys for Doug Sahm and piano/guitar/bass for Bo Diddley on more than a few gigs. I've played and recorded with Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Ricky Skaggs, John Starling, Al Petteway, Sharon White, Stuart Duncan, Jonathan Edwards and a host of other great musical guests at the Seldom Scene's 15th Anniversary Concert at the Kennedy Center. For 19 years, I owned and ran Wally Cleaver's Recording, a funky, "state of the art, retro cool" 24 track studio in Fredericksburg, VA, the "Cultural Hub of The Universe". I sold it a few years back to my long time wage-slave, the incredibly talented Jeff Covert, who runs it to this day. I've had the pleasure to engineer, record or play with Tom Principato, Bill Kirchen, Gary "U.S." Bonds, Big Joe Maher, Kevin McKendree, Gene Ryder (hands-down the best songwriter I know), Danny Gatton, Cliff Waldron, Ratso, Steuart Smith, Switchblade, Go Cat Go, The Fleabops, The Atomics, Jimmy Cole, Virginia & The Bluedots, Marti’ Brom, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's John McEuen (who dragged me on stage for a mando/accordion duet of the theme to Dr. Zhivago one night in Missouri), Sun recording artist Vernon Taylor, Mike Lynam at Run Wild Records, Gerry Rothschild (who's been the music editor of just about every major sitcom out of LA in the last 20+ years), Dave Alvin, Johnny Castle, my best pal Tom Shaper and the Backup Band from Cleveland, my dear friend the one and ONLY Chris Ippolito (accept NO substitutes) who taught me how to party like Rambo (ask Chris... or Rambo), Harry Connick Jr. (thanks Tom Shaper!), Jimmy Thackery, Johnny Gimble (thanks Bill Kirchen!), Bob Margolin, Kevin Welch, Kaz Kazanoff, Austin DeLone, Kenny Wilson (whose second album was the first I ever produced, thanks KW!), Saffire, Pete Kennedy, The J Street Jumpers, Linwood Taylor, The Uptown Rhythm Kings, The Grandsons, Asleep at The Wheel, Willie Nelson, Freddie Fender, Vince Gill, the inimitable Reverend Billy Wirtz, Bruce Ewan, Baltimore’s best and D.C’s loss, the phenomenally tasteful, under-acknowledged Eric Rose, Mark Wenner, Terry Garland, Tex Rubinowitz, Martha Hull, the incredibly talented and way too modest Lindy Fralin, my dear friend and sailing buddy, John Longbottom and Paul Martin (collectively, The Ferrymen), Del McCoury (I'm not worthy!), Jimmy Arnold (RIP), Robbie Fulks, Mark Johnson, Emory Lester, Lou Reid, Allison Krauss, the mighty R. Bruce, John Starling, the ever-gracious Jimmy Gaudreaux, the legendary Buddy Charleton, whom I was lucky enough to have as my first call steel guitarist, Mike Auldridge, Jimmy Cole, Fred Travers, Michelle Nixon, Tony Rice, songwriter Mike Henderson, Hazel Dickens, Dave Giegerich, The Johnson Mt. Boys, Dry Branch Fire Squad, Rickie & Ronnie Simpkins, Sammy Shelor, Linda Lay, Kevin Welch, Chris Gaffney, Maria Muldaur, Bill Emerson, Mark Newton, and Larry Stephenson (to name just a few). Apologies if I left anyone out, I'll add you as my creaky memory kicks in... I've also had the incredible good fortune to work on music projects with the legendary Tom Dowd, my hero Bob Dawson at Bias Recording (who has the best ears in the biz, bar none!), Tex Logan and the great producer Jim Gaines, all of whom have left an indelible mark on my craft. They have my eternal gratitude... as does the awesomely brilliant, handsome and extremely well-endowed Steve Sadler, one of the best electronics gurus in the biz, without whom the studio would have been a smoldering, sparking heap of techno-rubble (like Chuck Berry's). Looking back, I'm really humbled and lucky to have been a part of all that. The cool thing is, I was keenly aware at the time of how incredibly fortunate I was, so the memories are so, so precious too me. Thank you all!Too many years of high decibel surroundings took their toll on my hearing, so I felt it was time to move on, and finally get a "real" job...I now work at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC as an IT/AV specialist in the audio/video department, where I record and edit the museum's podcasts and a lot of survivor oral histories, and as systems administrator for data backup/integrity and anti-virus. A truly rewarding place to work with a great sense of mission!My plan is to "bail and sail" on September 1, 2010. My dear wife LeeAnn and I plan on sailing down to the Caribbean for several months, and then sail to the Azores across the Atlantic in our sailboat, Andiamo (see the pix!). From there, we plan on sailing in the Med for a year or so, or until we're sick of sailing... WATCH THIS SPACE!!! Film at 11... ;-)