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I began playing music at age 14 in a rock band with three other musicians in Lubbock, TX. The band was called the Novells, and it was comprised of Keith Ellis (since deceased from drug overdose), Johnny Grisham (ibid), Mike Patty (still alive, I guess) and myself. Our specialty was the Beatles, but we covered the best stuff off the radio during an era of extraordinary radio programming the world hasn't seen since, plus a little bit of original stuff. We played mostly dances, although we did some club work in high school and traveled a little to outlying small towns in the Panhandle of Texas. Got more serious about playing guitar and took some lessons from Don Livingston (older brother to Bob Livingston) at Harrod Music Co, an old Lubbock establishment where Buddy Holly bought instruments. Bought a classical guitar and began to develop a right-handed picking style that I still use today. Started playing solo gigs in the then-popular folk style and honed my performing skills. First year of college I got a gig at a folk scene called Oz and performed after a far out skinny fellow by the name of Jimmie Dale Gilmore who played Carter Family tunes. We later became friends and later played music together. By the next year, I had been asked by Livingston to take his place as primary guitar instructor at Harrod Music. The years that followed marked a tremendous leap in my playing prowess through teaching others to play guitar. I attended college part-time while I taught guitar over the next 8 years until I graduated from Texas Tech University when I hung up my teaching hat. It was during this time when lots of music happened at Paul Milosevich's house in Lubbock, a visual artist (painter) whom I met through guitar teaching. It was then off to Austin where I did limited performing and commenced a friendship with Butch Hancock. Moved back to Lubbock and became a professional artist, all the while keeping my hand in music, performing rarely except during campout gatherings with my tribe in remote, beautiful parts of Texas. I got re-acquainted with David Halley when he returned to Lubbock after living in Colorado and we started playing some music together, along with Jim Eppler, a long-time pal. We organized the loose band known as Guy Harmonica and the Pirhanas (based on an eponymous song Halley wrote) and played here and there in Lubbock, with guest appearances by Jimmie Dale and Joe Ely from time to time. I was also in a band with Eddie Beethoven called the Dust Bowl Boys. It was this period when I took up the musical saw and began performing (using a mallet, not a bow) and developed a blues and rock n' roll style with it, unlike any other saw player I've heard. Works great for solo breaks with the band... Moved back to Austin in 1981 and began to perform a great deal at venues such as the Continental Club, EmmaJoe's, Alamo Hotel, and other smoky clubs I'm trying to forget. Some gigs that stand out are Austin City Limits, Kerrville Folk Festival, National Acoustic Festival in Boston, and always, Gruene Hall in New Braunfels. I pretty much quit playing when I moved to Mason, TX, in 1986, except for a few random gigs here and there, mostly around the campfire. In 1998 I started playing with Doc Mason, a physician singer-songwriter out of Fredericksburg, along with guitarist Paul Tennison, mostly doing Doc's Texas country ballad-style music--sort of a "country-fied Uncle Walt's Band"-sound. I still occasionally play with Doc, either bass or guitar, but mostly I'm doing solo gigs again with original music, first time in about 20 years. Feels great. |
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