About Me
I'm a guitar player/singer. My main gig is playing lead guitar with hillbilly swing music man Wayne "the train" Hancock (waynehancock.com & myspace.com/waynehancock).
As long as I can remember I've been attracted to the sound of music. I remember as a child my mother was always whistling or singing around the house and she often had the radio tuned to a station that played big band swing music by the Dorsey Brothers, Glen Miller, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Harry James and others, as well as a variety of songs by the popular vocal artists of the day, like Frank Sinatra, Patti Page, Dean Martin, Peggy Lee, Nat King Cole...
When I was six years old my parents took my sister and me to see the movie "Blue Hawaii" (Nov. '61) which starred Elvis Presley. That movie made a huge impression on me. Seeing Elvis for the first time, hearing him sing and seeing him strumming a guitar, I was awe struck. My sister got a record player that Christmas. I was mesmerized by the little machine and remember playing it every chance I could. Along with the record player she also got some records. My favorite was "Jingle Bell Rock" by Bobby Helms.
The following summer, when I was seven, our family moved from Green Bay, Wisconsin (where I was born in '55) to San Jose, California. Music, by way of radio and records, remained a constant companion. When I was nine years old I got my first guitar and soon afterward began taking lessons. Pat Simmons, guitarist and vocalist with the Doobie Brothers, used to come in for his lesson just ahead of me every week. Pat wrote the song "Black Water" which was a big hit for the Doobie Brothers in the mid 70's.
Surf music was at it's zenith in '63 and I remember hearing such great songs as "Pipeline" and "Walk Don't Run" on the radio. I loved the instrumental guitar music of Duane Eddy, the Ventures, the Rockin' Rebels, and so many other great bands and artists that were around at that time and I still do.
One day I happened to catch a band that was playing "Pipeline" in a garage up the street from our house. As I watched and listened to them I wished that I'd be able to play guitar like that one day. It was also around this time('64) that I saw my first live professional musical performance: Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, dressed in full regalia along with silver sparkle twangy Telecaster guitars, I was totally blown away! Besides the music I was listening to on the radio at that time, I also listened to records, most of which were old 45's handed down to me from my cousin. Some of my favorite songs off records were: "That'll Be The Day", "Lookin' For Someone to Love" and "Peggy Sue" by Buddy Holly, "Bye Bye Love", "Wake Up Little Susie"and "Claudette" by the Everly Brothers and "Blue Moon of Kentucky", "All Shook Up" and "Too Much" by Elvis.
A few years later, when I was around twelve years old a neighbor loaned me some records to play guitar along with. Among them was a Hank Williams album. Wow, what a revelation that was! I'd never heard anything like it before. I loved everything about it, his singing, the songs, the instrumentation, everything. Needless to say that record and the music of Hank Williams made a big impression on me. It was as if the sky had opened up! I played that record over and over so much I about wore it out. When I got a little older and had some money the first record I ever bought was "Hank Williams Greatest Hits".In my high school years ('70-'73) I sang and played guitar with various local country and rock 'n' roll bands, playing mostly for dances and parties. During that time I also discovered and began listening to the Blues music of Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and many others. The first artist I ever paid to go see in concert was B.B. King in '72, he was absolutely fantastic! I still get goose bumps when I think about that show. In the early 70's I was also exposed to Western Swing and the music of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. My introduction to the music of Bob Wills and Western Swing came by way of Merle Haggard's great 1970 album "A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World". The album was Merle's musical salute to Bob Wills. Along with Haggard's band the Strangers the album also featured Texas Playboy members Eldon Shamblin on guitar, Johnny Gimble on fiddle, Tiny Moore on mandolin, Joe Holley on fiddle and Alex Brashear on trumpet. During this time I also tuned in nightly to listen to Bill Mack's radio show broadcast from station WBAP in Ft. Worth, Texas where I heard a variety of great classic Country and Western Swing music.
In the mid 70's I began to get into Bluegrass music and played in several Bluegrass bands. I played shows alongside Bill Monroe, Ralph Stanley, Lester Flatt, Doc Watson, Norman Blake and also with master musician Mark O'Conner on several occasions. During that period I also jammed with the legendary fiddler Vassar Clements and met fellow Bluegrass picker Vince Gill through a mutual friend and jammed with him too. He was an incredibly talanted musician even back then.
I met rockabilly legend Carl Perkins in 1977 when the Bluegrass band I was playng with at the time, the Morgan Brothers, were appearing, along with him and many others, at the Chicago Folk Festival. He came up to me between shows, shook my hand and introduced himself. He kindly complimented me on my guitar playing and our show and said "That music you boys were playing sure took me back home."
In the late 70's I began playing as a solo acoustic act and in the early 80's I played shows with Ricky Nelson, Conway Twitty, Hoyt Axton, Ricky Skaggs, Taj Mahal, John Prine and legendary jazz mandolinist Jethro Burns of Homer and Jethro fame. I remained active in music throughout the 90's playing both solo and with a variety of bands.
In the summer of 2002 I moved to Austin, Texas. Six months later, in January of 2003, I hooked up with hillbilly swing music man Wayne Hancock when he was in need of a lead guitar player for his band. I've been playing and touring with Wayne ever since and had the pleasure of playing on his latest CD "TULSA". I really enjoy playing guitar in Wayne's band because there's so much freedom to play and improvise. We never rehearse or use set lists, every show is unique and different so it never gets boring. I really like Wayne's music a lot. He's like Hank Williams, Bob Wills and Carl Perkins all rolled into one. Wayne has a strong soulful voice and a bunch of really great songs. He truly is one of a kind.
In case you might be wondering why Wayne calls me "Johnny", my middle name's John and he just likes calling me Johnny. Another reason he calls me Johnny is to avoid any confusion whenever steel guitarist Eddie Rivers plays shows with us. The funny thing about it is Eddie Rivers' real name is Mark Molick and Wayne's first name is actually Thomas, Wayne is his middle name.
Since I've been with Wayne I've played shows all over the U.S. as well as in Scotland, Sweden, Norway, France, England, Spain and the Netherlands. Although Wayne's schedule keeps me plenty busy I still find time to play an occasional acoustic solo show now and then. I plan on doing a solo recording project sometime in the near future.
