J.K. Rost

I was born in a rustic log cabin in the Mississippi delta region of Dayton, Ohio sometime in 1958 (when TV was black and white and had 3 stations). First musical influence was grandfather (see pics) who sat me down when I was 5 with a guitar and a slide (mainly to keep me occupied and out of his hair). I was into the standard fare of the time, Elvis, Beatles...until the blues caught me around '71 or so. Did the nightly club thing throughout the 70's (first club gig at 14 which shows you how laxed Dayton was) and got to open for some blues legends like Albert King and Muddy Waters. Did session work, various 3 piece bands and also worked with a 7 piece soul/R&B band made up of relatives of the Commadores and Slave (if anyone remembers them). Relocated to Miami in '81 to record LP with soul/R&B band that was already falling apart. Did various session work in Miami until I started to miss English speaking people and moved up to Sarasota Florida. Spent 15 years in Sarasota where my biggest accomplishments were getting a divorce, getting remarried, having a great kid, building a recording studio and starting Red Tide Records to record the local blues scene. Red Tide washed ashore in '95 after realizing there was no local blues scene. However, the first single did get a lot of airplay in Italy, Juno Alaska, and I think I sold 400 copies in Myrtle Beach, SC (I never figured that one out). I thought about moving there, but picked Memphis instead. Great town. I haven't recorded anything new in about 12 years. Mainly because my recording gear's been out of commision for 10 years and it's taken me 9 years to care. I still love the music but don't have much faith in the industry. It's difficult to sell anything when when 9 out of 10 people download it for free (hence the abbriviated songs posted). By the way, if anyone cares about hearing the entire songs, there's still some copies of that shiny red 45 available (for 3.50 shipping included). I've been mostly playing and writing this last decade and hope to put a CD together in the not so distant future. Mostly acoustic blues since I haven't had a steady band in 25 years. I miss the band thing, but they're a lot of work with constant problems that have little or nothing to do with the music (mosty things like the bass players excessive drinking or the drummer's slut girlfriend).