Album Notes

Dennis Herrera

It all began in a little European village outside of the Vatican City, which by the way, is the smallest country in the world, now dig this, I was born with a very tiny guitar in my hands straight out the womb! It was amazing......just kidding,.... born and raised in San Jose, love that bay area, I suppose the music thing hit me pretty hard, I remember being home with mom one day, my usual way over-hyperactive mischievous self gettin' on her last nerve when she flicks the kitchen transistor radio on, I guess to keep from stringing me up, this was around 1961-62 she dials in her favorite top 40 AM station ,KLIV, I think that was it, they played top 40 hits like Elvis, Bobby Darin, the Four Seasons, Coasters, Ronnie & the Ronettes etc., well that did it, I soon begged & pleaded and got a tube radio for the "boys" room,(4 boys and 3 sisters, your typical no-nonsense, no safe-sex family, but that's another story), I systematically got real deep into music, the hits as well as the misses, music was now my favorite pastime, I'm talking the Animals, Rolling Stones, Temptations, Wilson Picket, Jr. Walker, Ray Charles, Otis Redding on & on. My first live show, I was around 15, David the "older" neighbor-hood kid, the very hip, low-riding crazy cool friend & mentor took me to see James Brown! Needless to say I was blown away and entranced from that point on. I suspect I’ve attended count-less out-door, in-door, in the club, at the fairgrounds in the parks, blues influenced rock & roll, r&b, blues, soul live show/concerts worth going to see, places like the San Francisco Fillmore venue, Winterland, Avalon Ballroom, Berkley Community Theater, college student unions were pure inspiration, to say the least. My Grandfather, on my mothers side played guitar, the family would sit around drinkin’ and singing Mexican folklore, always very festive and lively Sunday’s, he'd see me eyeballin' his axe and eventually got me one, I was maybe 12 or so and it was a nylon string beauty with cowboys on it, I think Roy Rodgers, anyway gramps taught me to play Cielito Lindo and some mariachi rhythms, my father eventually caught on and sent me to this music store for guitar lessons, which, given my inherent defiant nature worked against me, I wanted to rock n roll and they wanted me to learn to read charts and play Oh Susanna, pops was bent on teaching me and hired a finger-picking old dude to come to the house since the music store didn't pan out and teach me finger picking, that was cool but there was still a kind of difference in material preference, a creative dispute if you will, meaning this "teacher" insisted on having me play the way lame standards, I soon became a rather rebellious student, which at the time was more or less the "in" thing to do......hard pressed to rock I bought this Ventures “Learn how to play Walk Don't Run and Pipe-Line” record, the instructions were easy and together with a few school chums who liked to play and be rock stars I put my first band together, loads of fun and the girls dug it.....first performance was at high school, I was literally flunking my first period music class? probably because I seemingly had better things to do , like run up to haight ashbury and golden gate park in S.F., the hippie scene, music, free love-sex and rock & roll was jumping at that time, anyway....to pass my much needed music class for the credits to graduate, my teacher suggested I play for the big student talent show, kinda scary, I recall being very nervous and smoked a huge joint then my buddy & I went on stage and covered the Richie Havens tune, Freedom from Woodstock, I’ll never forget what a major rush that was and we killed em, well I passed with an A, the first A grade I ever got in high school.............I kept playing rock n roll till one time looking into a Savoy Brown song or Rolling Stone cover I really can't recall but I noticed all the selections I dug and wanted to learn & play were songs written by Willie Dixon, Sonny Boy Williamson, B.B. King, Freddie King, Howlin’ Wolf, Bo Didley, John Lee Hooker or one of the many other blues legends I’ve come to realize, it's been blues ever since......For the past,we won’t say, many years I’ve struggled in so far as being consistent to my calling and love for playing blues,..... my brother Hook, on the other hand did a tremendous job with being true to his career. As a teen he'd come around hang out watch and listen to the endless jams I'd have going on here and there, picked up a harmonica at one point and learned to play it along with the guitar, bro Hook has been in these many years no less than an awesome and fearless inspiration . I found myself re-directed a number of times for different reasons on my path but always came back to playing blues, I play nothing else I'm afraid, being the self-absorbed egotistical narcissist pin-head that I am I did not join any other established blues or rock bands to my chagrin, though I've had opportunity, I've instead always chose to spearhead and lead the various blues projects to date.....over the years I tried a few band names but the ones we’d come up with thinking they were original would be taken, so I settled with... Dennis Herrera