About Me
Just keep it real is all I ask. I'll take one good Johnny Guitar Watson 45 over a hundred cheap SRV or H. Fats imitators. At age nine I started playing trumpet in my school band. Didn't appreciate for quite a few years why my dad wasn't so gung-ho about a nine year old kid practicing trumpet in the house - sort of like living next door to a busy railway yard. My uncle played guitar on my dad's ancient Regal during family visits, and used to play harp in a rack, too. A few years later I dragged the Regal out of the closet and started picking out some songs by ear. I learned a few by The Beatles, The Stones, and the Animals.........even taped the cartridge from my phonograph to the top to create the world's crudest electric gee-tar. By 14 I graduated to a cheap Japanese 330 copy and started playing for school dances and parties, and by 17 I had my first Gibson SG and started playing professionally at the college taverns, parties, and dances around my home turf of Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington. Early influences were varied and included artists from Albert King, Steve Cropper, Jimi Hendrix, and Stevie Winwood to The Beatles, Bob Wills, The Rascals, and Charlie Christian. Live Wire Blues Power by A. King was a revelation. So was King of The Delta Blues by Robert Johnson. Always loved Otis Rush's version of Everything's Gonna Turn Out Fine. One of my earliest blues gigs was backing up the late west coast piano icon Floyd Dixon during his trips from L.A. to the Pacific Northwest. RIP, Floyd.Between 1982 and 1995 I scrambled all over North America and Europe and worked with a wild mix of West Coast artists including Curtis Salgado, William Clarke, Lowell Fulson, Cash McCall, James Harman, Johnny Dyer, Janiva Magness, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Al Blake, James Intveld, Lynwood Slim, Billy Sheets, Mark Hummell, Mitch Woods, Smokey Wilson, and Duke Jethro-a mainstay of B.B. King's touring band during the 60's. Some recording projects included critically acclaimed CD's by Harman (Do Not Disturb), Clarke (Tip of the Top), and Lynwood Slim (Lost in America), two of which were nominated for WC Handy awards in 1991 and 2002. A bunch of hasty demos I did with Billy Sheets even got released a few years later on CD, and got some good reviews.From 1996 until 2004, I divided time between musical tours and trips to the U.S. Antarctic Program's McMurdo Station where I supported program logistics, communications, and station services, and woodshedded when my 6-day work week allowed. I hosted a weekly 2-hour radio show "American Classics" that featured iconic figures in American music from Gene Vincent and Hank Williams to Muddy Waters and Aretha Franklin. Ice Radio 104.5 FM is the most southerly live broadcasting radio station in the world.Since exiting the Antarctic Program in 2004, I've relocated to Dallas, Texas dividing time between teaching, performing, and songwriting. My main occupation now seems to be home improvement around my property. I teach and do solo shows featuring a mix of acoustic post-war and pre-war figerstyle blues and rags, including Lightnin' Hopkins, Li'l Son Jackson, Lemon Jefferson, Blind Blake, Snooks Eaglin, and Slim Harpo, and some more modern N'Awlins Rock'n'Roll, Chicago Blues and R&B, and bluesy Honky Tonk-the cowboy side of blues. Sometimes I do casual electric gigs with different bands around town. This year I plan on getting into the studio to start developing a solo CD.I'm currently featured on Barrelhouse Chuck's latest CD, "Got My Eyes on You," released August 1 on "The Sirens" SR-5014. See details at www.thesirensrecords.comSign on to be my friend if you like any kind of real music...........the more down home, the better.
