About Me
Rip Masters has recorded 7 albums, was the main house piano player for Rollin Rock Records, wrote the song "Rockabilly Man", played on recordings by Gene Vincent, Ray Campi, Mac Curtis, Jack Cochran, Jimmy Lee Maslon, Chuck Higgins, Tony Conn, Rockin Ryan and the Goners, Pep Torres, Linda and Eitaro, Nikki and the Corvettes, and many others. He sings, writes, plays piano and guitar and has played all over the world including the UK, Singapore, Sweden and Germany. He played the 2006 Americana Festival in Nottinghamshire England and appeared at the Eddie Cochran tribute in Chippenham UK in March 2007. 2008 will feature promotion of the new CD "Back to the Honky Tonk" and a July return performance at the Americana Festival in the UK which will also feature Asleep at the Wheel, Robert Gordon and Ray Campi.
" I always loved music and loved to sing...Rock'n'Roll carried me through good and bad times when I was a kid, so I naturally started singing whenever I could. I started out singing in Church and at school, joining chorus and Glee-club type groups, then eventually singing at various functions, dances, parties etc.. I soon joined a working group, first as a singer and rhythm guitar player, then switched to vocals and keyboards. I made money doing that and when I finished with school, didn't see any reason to do anything different. I never have found anything I'd rather do!
I moved to California shortly after finishing with school, and played in a variety of Rock'n'Roll and Blues bands in San Francisco, Mill Valley and Santa Cruz. After a few years I moved to the South, where I still live to this day. I needed work so I played keys and sang in a mix of groups from Soul to Country to Chicano-rock. I had alot of fun, but something was always missing. I had tried several original groups, some led by me, but I wanted to sing more, to write more and to focus on the music that I grew up with...Rock'n'Roll, Rockabilly, Country and Boogie-Woogie.
Around that time I met a music enthusiast and record collector named Dick Blackburn. He listened to a song I wrote and said he knew a guy that was recording that type of music. I gave him a tape which he took to Ron Weiser. A short time later I got a call from Ron and he said he would like Ray Campi to record my song, and did I have any more??? I had seen Ray's name in the paper...what had struck me in the listing for Ray's show was the word "Rockabilly"...a word that I knew from when I was 11 years old, but had hardly seen since. (Hard to believe today!)
Rollin Rock didn't really have a steady piano player so pretty soon I was trying to get a decent sound out of Ron's decrepit upright and working on albums for old and new heroes, Ray Campi, Gene Vincent, Mac Curtis, Jimmy Lee Maslon, Chuck Higgins, Johhny Legend, Tony Conn, Nikki and the Corvettes and all the Rollin Rock Artists.
After a while Ron asked me if I had more material, and said he would like me to do an LP for him. I had done some recording for other people at that point, but soon I was recording "Rock That Rock", my first record. One of the songs on the album was a song I had written for Ray Campi, "Rockabilly Man", but Ray didn't record it at that time so I included my version. Some of the songs came out great, some not as great, but the album was well-received and got some decent airplay around the world. It was a great learning experience and soon I had alot of new material. Unfortunately Ron Weiser was starting to get burned-out with the record business after hassles with the Blasters, and a guy I knew expressed interest in putting out a new album on his label Commando Records. "The Cool and the Crazy" was the second record for me and featured some originals and a series of cover tunes chosen by me or the producer. This LP got good distribution as well, and airplay on some major stations such as KLAC and KROQ in Los Angeles. There was a follow-up single "I'm Gonna Flip" with "I've Had It" to be part of the next album, but Commando
Records' owner was tiring of the music business and ended up turning over the Master Tapes to me, plus I had additional material I had recorded to suit my own vision. (some of this unreleased material was included in the CD "The Cool and the Crazy" out late in 2006)
The follow-up album to "The Cool and the Crazy", tentatively titled "Tough Sound" was shelved and never was released.(Maybe will be out someday!) Despite interest from different labels and some schemes to put it out myself, this was a period when I didn't have a new record out. I kept writing and recording, but I didn't find the right outlet for what I was doing. I concentrated on my live performances, and kept doing alot of gigs around California, including the Palomino, the Lingerie, and many others, primarily in the Southern California area, but with trips to Singapore, New York, Nashville and Texas to spread the word as far as my music was concerned. I also kept working with my buddy Ray Campi and did many memorable shows with him.
Around 1995 I recorded an album of rockin Country music, with several ballads, entitled "Don't Tread on Me". I have always played and sang Country, though it's not all I've done. This CD opened up some new doors for me and I played in England, Sweden, Nashville, Texas, Alabama, and many other places to promote the record. I love Country and it was very satisfying to focus on that part of my music. I still had alot of interest from Rock'n'Roll fans so the next CD "Big Red '57" was more Rockabilly, Boogie Woogie piano, and Rock'n'Roll. This period also continued the increased visibilty in Europe and I have played festivals and shows from Frankfurt to Manchester, from Furuvik to Falun, from the Americana Festival in England to the Duved Country Music festival in Sweden, etc etc. The next CD was entitiled "The Rock'n'Roll Album" and continued the themes of my musical life. I have been doing alot of writing and I still have many songs that haven't been released yet. The release of "The Cool and the Crazy" in 2007 made available some hard to find and unreleased material which was combined with the best tracks from the original LP. A new Country CD, titled "Back to the Honky-Tonk", was released January 1st, 2008. I have been wanting to do a new Country record and we worked on it from July through the end of '07. I don't hear enough of the kind of music I like, especially on Country radio, so I wanted to do something that was classic Country without trying to be retro or turn back the clock to any particular time period. This record has a mix of Honky Tonk, Texas shuffle, Country Rock, Boogie, and Southern Rock influences....just like me. I play around 200+ dates a year and haven't stopped loving singing, playing piano, playing guitar, digging cars, chicks, and good Rockin music.....not necessarily in that order!!!"
