Once Upon a Time

My mother offered me the choice of tap dancing and ballet or the guitar to learn. I chose the guitar. So at the age of eight I began to learn how to play the guitar. My first performance was with the first band I was in 1964 called, Satan's Kings made up of a few kids from the neighborhood. I made 8 dollars. I was 14.

I was then drafted into the local Latin bands in my neighborhood and learned all the popular Latin rhythms (i.e. cha cha's, boleros, salsas, meringue's), plus swing music for the next 4 years where I actually learned to play the guitar and made some money. The Falcons and the Clefs are some of the names that come to mind. I probably played in about 3 or 4 Latin bands in that 4 or 5 year time frame.

In the mean time I continued to play American music with my friends which, in the mid 60's for us, was PreMotown and Motown in the group Lovin Souls. We did stuff like Archie Bell and the Drells, Shilites, Temptations, The Young Rascals. As time moved on we started playing "hard rock" like Jimi Hendrix, The Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin; that was some great music times. However I wasn't making much money. So in order to keep from getting a real job I learned how to play Country and Western music with groups like Else Shaw and the Rovin Ramblers, Country Side, The Gary Tilton Band and Burlingame Express, making 50 bucks a night on the weekends. That was good money in those days.

The music world was rapidly changing and I was changing with it. I was playing anything and everything to make a living, taking advantage of my diverse experience in music genres.

About 1975 I hooked up with a road band called Rainbow Riders which needed a lead vocalist, I accepted their offer and thus started my lead and solo singing career which up until that time was all back up vocals.

In the late 70's I was being influenced by jazz and funk with groups like the Brothers Johnson, Chick Corea, Lee Ritenour, with groups like Freedom Jazz Band, Black Bone, and Contagious.

In 1979, I teamed up with 4 musicians interested in original music and formed the band Scatband. At that time there wasn't a lot of places to play for a 5 piece band, so to continue playing we divided up into two sub groups. One was with Charlie and Nancy Harrison, two great keyboardists and vocalists along with their drummer, Craig Wright. They were called Scat Trio. They played jazz, swing, and Broadway musical style and were pretty popular. Jaisson Taylor, Danl Blackwood and I formed The Scatcatz playing rock, reggae, and blues. When we came together as the Scatband, needless to say we were a very dynamic band.

In the mid to late 80's after Scatband, I met Marta Senne while performing with groups such as Modern Holiday and Holiday Trio. Eventually we married. We played through the 90's with Randy Wills and the Exceptions. After 11 years with them we resigned to pursue contemporary Christian music as a duet called "1 of 2" through the early millennium. During that time Marta and I took 2nd place at the Estes Park International Duet Competition. After 4 or 5 years of contemporary Christian music we gravitated back to the Exceptions, though we were no longer performing as often. Needing to play, I started hitting the local jam sessions where I ran into Danl Blackwood. We hooked up with Jeff Spaulding on drums along with my wife Marta on vocals and Darren Downs on sax to form a rock, reggae, rhythm and blues band The Catz.