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I grew up in a house
where there was music playing all the time my mom was really into the old
blues players
you know going way back to you know country blues
musicians - she plays guitar in that style
you know so and then I grew up in Berkeley California where there are guitar players
everywhere
so that's you know it's kinda like couldn't avoid it really.
You know I mean I went through all the same stuff everybody does as a kid you
know I've
listened to my mom's music which is all the old blues Robert Johnson and
you know Skip James and Lightnin Hopkins
et cetera et cetera and then the music it was on the radio
at the time - a the soul station in the Bay Area - KDIA
my sister I listened to a lot and then of course you know the Beatles and
Jimi Hendrix and all that stuff very little jazz almost no jazz at all.
Well, Charlie Christian and
the Berkeley Public Library where I grew up I went to the library to check records out
because you know my only real connection with jazz was through the Berkeley
schools and that was a real kinda stage band music that you know when you play
guitar
it's kind it is really no place for you in it and it's also
to someone who's like learning how to play rockabilly and blues and Hendrix it
it's kinda corny
you know so it took me a while to learn the
to hear the real stuff you know. I've been evolving it over the years so
the first one I had
Ralph Novak in the Bay Area helped me
with it cuz he has the frets that are fanned which is a big part of the
thing and I've been evolving it since then
trying to... and I think I've pretty much got it where I want it to be
you know. If you imagine a regular guitar
and a bass. Lower three strings from a bass, and middle four of a guitar on the 3rd fret
of both - then you have it but it's not the best
reading instrument in the universe that's for sure. Some of them can get
around it. It would take a little while generally because it's
definitely very different it's like what happens when a race car driver
starts driving a Mack truck
you can still drive it but you gotta be careful
I mean I just play with those guys a lot and always
you know it be nice to do something, because we hadn't played
together
you know with Steven Bernstein or Skerik, or Bobby Previte and
I just came up with that idea and it's going to be fun we're going to
make the record in a couple weeks actually
yeah it's going to be a trip. I mean, that's just the way things are done these days
you know and it's great i like it it's...
it's fun, you know, I mean a lot of people see it like it's putting their hand out
but I don't I see it is like interacting with the audience and
and creating community...
I like it it's fun it's really fun and also eliminating a lot of middlemen
that used to make things harder
ultimately rather than any easier you know so
I mean it's just the way things are done these days you know. Well just trying to
survive
play music you know. I've been doing it for
twenty-some-odd years and you know I love what I do just
keepin on keepin on really.