 School
Music: My musical career begins at age eleven.
I was in the sixth grade at the time, and I joined the school orchestra.
I started on the big double-bass, and there was never any question that
I have always been attracted to the bass instruments. I've always
been a fan of subsonics, which probably owes to sleeping on the road in
my father's bass drum case while he rehearsed on the road. During
the sixth grade, we were entertained by the Boise Philharmonic Orchestra.
They performed the "Peter & The Wolf" Suite, where each character in
the play is portrayed by one of the instruments in the orchestra.
I immediately fell in love with the wolf, which was portrayed by the bassoon.
As we were preparing to move on to
junior high, I was lucky enough to get to choose which of the city's two
junior highs I would attend, West or South. South had the better
teachers, facilities, sports teams, neighborhood, students -- it outpaced
West in every category. I was ready to go to South when we went to
a tour of West Jr. High. We were entertained by the West Jr. High
Jazz Band. As soon as the bass player started the opening line to
"Theme From Barney Miller," I knew my choice had been made for me; South
Jr. High didn't have a Jazz Band!
At West I took up the clarinet in
the Beginning Band and joined the Jazz Band on Electric Bass. The
next year, 8th grade, our band director asked for a volunteer to play bassoon.
Recalling the "wolf," I eagerly took up the bassoon, only to discover that
it is the toughest woodwind instrument to play! This wasn't aided
by our band director, whose answer to my question "How do you put this
thing together?" was met with a shrug and a "I don't know, here's a book."
I continued with bassoon and electric
bass through high school. But as my sophomore year began, a new problem
emerged. The band director asked me what instrument I would play
for the marching band. Bassoon? Nope, you can't march with
a bassoon. Electric Bass? Nope, no way to amplify it n a marching
band. Clarinet? Nope, already got too many clarinets.
I was told I would now be a Sousaphonist. A couple of weeks instruction
from one of the seniors, and suddenly I was a Sousaphonist (note for the
musically challeneged: Sousaphone is that big tuba that is molded in a
circle and worn over the shoulder, with a great big bell over the wearer's
head. You've probably called it a tuba when you've seen it, although
technically it's a Sousaphone.) This was a neat instrument to learn,
and it made me proficient at woodwinds (clarinet & bassoon), brass
(Sousaphone), strings (bass), and percussion (rudimentary snare drums).
My senior year I was elected drum
major for the marching band (as shown in the picture above with my Majorette,
Lori Ann Willis. This involved me learning precision marching and
directing at a summer camp -- some skills that would prove handy for my
next musical adventure... (return to band table)
 The
25th Army Band: My
first professional musical experience was more than just a job... it was
an adventure! On Feb. 2, 1985, just two days after I turned seventeen,
I joined the Idaho National Guard (see also US Army)
25th Army Band. The idea was to join the National Guard for the GI
Bill money to go to college. The gig seemed simple enough, get a
haircut, wear a uniform, get paid for gigs, go to college. Unfortunately,
the gig also called for Basic Training, Chemical Suit Training, and a two-mile
run every year. The payoff was that I got to continue playing all
my instruments. I played clarinet, bass clarinet, and bassoon in
the Concert Band, Sousaphone in the Marching Band, and electric bass in
the Swing and Stage Bands.
As time went on, I received
the 1985 Soldier of the Year award, and got promoted from PFC to Specialist,
and then on to Sergeant. At that rank, I was allowed to form my own
squad. I created a rock and roll group called Jamouflage, and that
group went on to play many dances and special events.
While I was with the Army Band,
I got to train at the Presidio in San Francisco, and we toured Idaho every
summer performing marches and concerts. (return
to band table)
Black Powder:
Black Powder was my first professional combo. It was September of
1987, and my father asked me why I hadn't gotten any paying gigs yet.
I replied that I was only nineteen, and that I didn't even have a band.
Nonsense, he answered, when I was nineteen, I was already playing on the
road. Talk about parental pressure!
I forgot about the conversation,
and then one day my father informed me that he had gotten me a gig playing
country music in Grangeville, a town about five hours north of Boise.
But Dad, I don't even have a band! Well, he replied, you've got three
weeks to get one. This is the "throw the kid in the water and he'll
learn how to swim" approach.
I contacted a drummer I knew
from the Army Band, a seventeen-year-old named Steve Drake, and a thirty-seven-year-old
jazz guitar player named Lonnie Mardis, and we formed the country trio
Black
Powder, named after a muzzle-loading rifle. Hey, it sounded country
to me at the time. My first question to the guys was what songs they
would sing. I was shocked to find out that neither of them sang at
all, and all the singing would be up to me! I had never sung onstage
in my life, and I didn't know a single country song.
Three weeks of rehearsal later
we were on our way to Grangeville. Things turned out pretty good,
as the bartender turned out to be my mother's cousin Joyce. We played
all right, and even if we didn't, it was Grangeville, so no one was the
wiser... (return to band table)
 Class-X
(aka Thoroughbred): With some experience
under my belt, my father recommended me to one of his old playing buddies,
a former bass player named Ross Miller. Ross was putting together
a country-rock band and needed a singing bass player. I got the gig
with the band, then called Thoroughbred. This band was very instrumental
(pardon the pun) in developing my singing and stage skills. Ross
was very good at talking to the crowds and fronting the show. Our
guitarist, Dave (who's last name escapes me) was a fine musician and singer
and taught me a lot about how to play with a group. Our drummer,
Grant (another escaping last name) was also a solid player, and taught
me a lot about showmanship. Especially when he'd play the Surfaris
"Wipe Out," -- he'd leave his drum set and play on my bass, the mic stands,
the speakers, the tables, the bar, smashing glasses as he went... it was
a very entertaining solo!
Thoroughbred slowly metamorphosed
into Class-X, as we all started putting more emphasis on our Fifties and
Sixties Rock covers. This was perfect for me; I'd grown up with all
of those songs listening to my dad rehearse. It was also a shock
for Ross, he remarked that I was the only nineteen-year-old in the state
who knew the words to obscure Roy Orbison tunes.
This band eventually broke up
as Dave and Grant both took other jobs out of state. Ross went on
to revive the Fabulous Chancellors, a band that had regional hits in the
Pacific Northwest in the early Sixties. (return
to band table)
 Crossfire:I
was working at a music store / pawn shop when my next musical opportunity
came walking in. It was Matt Greenway and Rich Benedict, who were
both members of a local hard rock band called Crossfire. Their bass
player, Richard Eagans, was getting married and having a child and had
to leave the band. The guys asked me if I had any leads on a good
bass player who could sing. I replied, you're looking at him!
We arranged for an audition at their house ("Targa Mansion", which was
moved from its Broadway & Warm Springs location and is now a Bed &
Breakfast on Boise Avenue) where I met the other two members, Brad Nelson
and Jeff Livengood. I auditioned with Ozzy Osborne's Crazy Train,
and it was an instant match!
Our first gig was a 4th of July
performance up in McCall at the Yacht Club. The guys were a little
surprised when their new blond bass player showed up with a black crew-cut
with Vanilla-Ice-inspired shaved cuts in the sides. (Looking back
at the picture, I'm a little surprised!) We rocked the gig though,
and returned to play McCall many times after that. In the picture,
you can see us receiving an etched-glass mirror of our band's logo from
some of the adoring fans.
In one of my favorite memories,
I have the honor of saying we played the BSU Pavilion right before Motley
Crue came onstage! OK, so it was twenty-four hours before Motley
Crue came onstage... Anyway, we were playing for a end-of-activity party
for The Special Olympics. It sounds strange, but there we were, on
a concert-sized stage and sound and light show, playing for five hundred
retarded athletes. They loved us, and the best part was they really
didn't know who we were -- for all they knew, we were Motley Crue!
As we left the stage, we were mobbed by crowds of kids, all clamoring for
an autograph, asking if they could have an album or a poster. For
a brief moment in time, I felt like a rock star!
No discussion of Crossfire would be complete without mentioning our reliable
transport, the Mighty Blue Veiner. This was a blue 1963 GMC Viking
School Bus that we bought from a church in Ontarion, OR. We tore
out all of the bus seats, carpeted the floor, and put in a couch and a
chair. We wallpapered the ceiling with Playboy Centerfolds, and partitioned
off the back end for all of our stage equipment. That bus was the
source of many fun times for Crossfire, and the next couple of bands on
the list, until we sold it just a few years ago. (return
to band table)
 Dionysus:
Soon the hair-metal phase of music faded and the grunge scene was coming
into its own. At that time, we were also experiencing some personality
and musical difference among the band. Wanting to go off in a new
direction, Brad, Jeff, & I left Crossfire, and hired on former Pygmy's
vocalist Mark Boyle. Our newly-formed band was christened Dionysus
(named after the Greek God of Wine & Fertility, whose worshippers appeased
him with orgiastic drunken festivals in his honor.) We moved away
from the pop-metal genre and more into Classic Rock. We also pared
down our huge sound and light show, as there were fewer and fewer clubs
in the Treasure Valley area that could support such large production.
It was also a pain in the ass to keep hauling around! Dionysus generated
a respectable following, and we even played at the Boise River Festival
a couple of times. (return
to band table)
 The
Neighbors: After a couple of years, the
band evolved again. This time, Mark Boyle left the band, and Brad
and I faced the prospect of being in a band without a lead singer.
To bolster our music while we were singing, we hired Jim Leal to play guitar
and sing. It was our first foray into a two-guitar lineup.
We changed the name of the band to The Neighbors, since we felt that without
Mark, it wouldn't be the same Dionysus. We continued in the Classic
Rock style, but now focused more of our attention on Blues Rock.
There was also a fortuitous
turn of events for us during Christmas Week of 1993. At the time,
there was a big rock club in Caldwell called the Ritz. They needed
a band for Christmas Week. The band they had the week before was
a local group called The Powercats. Unfortunately for them, their
bass player and 2nd guitarist were going to be gone that week, so they
couldn't play the gig. As luck would have it, our drummer and 2nd
guitarist were also going to be gone for that week. I don't recall
how it happened, but somehow we joined the two remaining halves of our
bands, called it The Neighbor's Cats, and played that Christmas Week.
It was Brad and I playing along with Wayne Coil on guitar and Kenny Davis
on drums... the same Kenny who is now my drummer in The Hoodoo Snake Doctors!
(return to band table)
King Friday:
As time went on, our drummer, Jeff Livengood, decided that he wanted to
join the real world and quit playing drums. It was also about this
time when Jim Leal left the band, so we were once again facing the prospect
of reforming a band. We hired Troy Sirkel, a singer and trumpet player
I knew from the Army Band. Brad brought in Andy Nevala, a keyboard
player he knew from his studies at Boise State. Troy brough with
him a drummer named Rick, and we were back in the band business!
We named our band King Friday, after a puppet in the Mr. Roger's Neighborhood
of Make-Believe. We were moving our sound out of the Classic Rock
area and focusing more on writing our own original music, which had a progressive/fusion
rock sound.
Our defining moment (unfortunately)
was a Battle of the Bands competition at the newly-opened Bogie's club.
We were up against mostly-teenaged oriented bands playing metal and punk,
so we knew we were up against a tough challenge selling our Pink Floyd
/ Styx / Alan Parsons-sounding originals. But as if that weren't
enough, two songs into our set, the drummer broke his bass drum pedal,
and for reasons unknown could not fix it. We were forced to do two
of our songs sans drums, which sounded awful, and we never recovered.
It is the single most embarrasing gig I've ever had, and I've got the videotape
to prove it! (return to band
table)
 Wayward
Three: After our disastrous Bogie's gig,
we knew we couldn't continue as King Friday. Brad & I went on
and decided that we had enough experience musically and vocally that we
should try to be a classic power trio -- bass, drums, and guitar.
We found a drummer named Dan Vaughan who could sing and play, and we formed
Wayward Three. Not only did we all play together, but we rented a
house and all lived together, too. In the end, though, that proved
to be a bad idea, and I eventually left the group for health reasons.
(return to band table)
Up Close (aka In The Mixx):
I stayed out of the music scene for a few months, recovering from an emergency
surgery. When summertime came around, I got a call from a new band
that was forming. Brad had recommended me as a bass player, and I
soon met my new bandmates in a R&B/Funk/Hip-Hop band called Up Close.
This band consisted of Dave John on drums, Wayne Levy on keyboards, Tracy
Howard on keyboards and vocals, and Stephanie Smith on lead vocals.
This was a very accomplished band! We debuted in May, and by June
we were signed to be the house band at one of Boise's successful downtown
clubs. We performed at the Boise River Festival, and we were on target
for securing an opening spot on national tour. Unfortunately, Tracy
found himself being transferred to a new job in Portland, OR, and with
a new wife and child, he could not pass up the opportunity.
Later that autumn, we attempted
to reform the group, this time with Kenny Davis' mom, Asha, on keyboards
and vocals. The new group was called In The Mixx, but we were forced
to disband soon after. The club we contracted to be the house band
for closed down, and our lead vocalist Stephanie wnated out of the smoky
bars so she wouldn't endanger her classical singing voice (which was putting
her through school as an opera major). (return
to band table)
 Big
Dogs: While I had been working with Up Close,
Brad had gone on to reunite with Troy Sirkel and founded the group Big
Dogs. He enlisted Dave Hungate on drums and Sandon Mayhew on saxophone.
When his friend Tom, the bassist, left town for Philadelphia, Brad called
on me to rejoin him in this band. We had a successful run for a few
months, but then I got the opportunity to become a highly-paid systems
integration consultant for a firm in Massachusetts, flying all around the
country fixing computer systems. I sadly left the band and the state.
Big Dogs went on, changing their name to EZ Loader, and they are still
playing around the Boise scene today. (return
to band table)
Asha & Boi Izzy
Blu: When I returned from seven months on
the road fixing computers, I was eager to get back into the music scene.
I was contacted by Asha, whom I played with in In The Mixx. She needed
a bass player for her combo, Boi Izzy Blu ("Boise Blue," get it?).
I was glad to play with Asha again (a more loving honest soul you couldn't
find), and it was my first chance to play music with Allen Wentz, who I'm
still performing with today. Joined by Larry Williams on drums, we
played blues, soul, light jazz, and soft rock for a summer.
(return to band table)
Mr. Happy:
Around the fall, I was eager to get a chance to play music with Asha's
son, Kenny. Kenny, Allen, and I met up with Sean Statham and Mike
Ridgeway, the keyboardist and percussionist formerly with one of Boise's
most successful bands, The Tourists. The five of us formed the band
Mr. Happy. We were a Classic/Hippie Rock band, what some people now
call a "jam" band, and we were really good! We had locked up the
bookings in downtown Boise for the rest of the year, and things were looking
great. Then, five weeks into the endevor, Sean decided he didn't
want to play music anymore, and he sort of took Mike with him, and poof,
Mr. Happy was dead. (return
to band table)
The Hoodoo
Snake Doctors: So, the remaining three members
of Mr. Happy, Kenny, Allen, and I, formed the blues-rock power trio now
called The Hoodoo Snake Doctors. If you'd like more info on my current
band, including a calendar of upcoming performances, click here.
(return to band table) |
Web Page
Music
is a very important part of my life. My father, John, and brother,
Matt, are both musicians, also, so you could say that it runs in the family.
I picked up my first musical instrument, the double-bass, when I was eleven-years
old, and I have been playing ever since. Here I am with my fabulous
emerald-green six-string bass, a Carvin LB-70 model I have christened "Tamara."
(hey, B.B. King has his "Lucille," I can have my "Tamara.")