I grew up in Florida and Seattle, and a lot of classic music came out of both of those places, Tom Petty, Jim Morrison, Gram Parsons, 2 members of the Eagles, Allman Brothers, Skynyrd... the list goes on for Florida. And in Seattle, or course, Jimi Hendrix, (check out the pic of me laying on his grave) Heart, all those nasty grunge bands, and a lot of others besides, including my friend Mark O'Connor. The interesting thing about this is the extremes. You can't get much farther apart geographically or culturally than Seattle and S. Florida. And I think it sort of defined the way I am and think and approach the arts. Gives me a pretty wide perspective on music and life. At the time I was growing up in Seattle, a DJ told me that Seattle was the main experimental market on the US west coast, so we'd hear stuff pretty much before everyone else. Cool.
I was in bands by the time I had been playing for a year or so.. age 15 or something. Then I moved back to Florida where I did opening acts for people like Sly & the Family Stone (was asked to join, but declined) Hank Williams, Jr, on tour with the Kendalls and Buck Trent, The Allman Brothers, Faron Young, John Anderson, Mark Chesnutt, and a big list of country greats. It was a good experience and playing arenas was fun. The first time I was in Nashville, I got to sing with one of the Jordanaires at Cinderella studio, hang out and talk to Pig Robbins, Charlie McCoy (producing) Dave Kirby, John Hartford (mid-Feburary and he comes walking up the hill to the studio in his bare feet!) and others, pretty much the A team of the time. Another cool memory was that I was invited by some guys from Tree Publishing to go to Buddy Killens Soundshop studios, heard some good new music and I held Marty Robbin's last master tape in my hands shortly before he died.
A few years later,I got to play what was billed as "The Worlds Biggest Indoor Country Concert," with Garth Brooks, The Judds, Alabama, Restless Heart, Sawyer Brown, K.T.Oslin, Ray Kennedy, and it was one of Roger Millers last shows, he was flat brilliant. That was at the 55, 000 capacity Sundome in St. Petersburg, Fl, which is around the size of the famous Shea Stadium!!! (yay Beatles)
I moved to the Savannah area in 93 to start a band called the Kelli Kemper band, and it wasn't long before we had a big following and had our own TV show for a couple of years. We even got to be in the movie Something to Talk About with Julia Roberts and Dennis Quaid, I was in a scene sitting at a table about 6 feet away from Julia, but my part got cut!! Grrr. Maybe they cut it because the girl I was sitting with looked exactly like Julia. Weird.
In early 97 I went to Nashville and recorded a CD of original country music with my friends Pat Lassiter, Tony Williams, Redd Volkaert, Steve Palousek, Steve Storey, Maxwell Schauf, and John Hall.
Time moves on though, and I went back to playing solo gigs, as the money just isn't there for bands anymore, sadly. So I've been running my studio, trying to find and develop young talent, and I did about 3 albums worth of material with Chief of Savannah, (released 1 album) co-wrote and recorded probably about 45 songs with Michelle Aspinwall, (released a Christmas album of originals when she was 16) and some other projects as well.
Now I'm taking some time to get back on track with my own writing and I'm working on a new CD of original music, this time a rock album. I have an instrumental album in the works, and a new country one too, probably. I will take on new projects when I find someone I think is great and whom I can work with.
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