I was born and raised in the L.A./Orange County area, and never really left it for any reason for about twenty years. Except for a couple weeks in Oklahoma and Yosemite, and maybe a day or two in Mexico or something. Beyond that not much else probably.
So… I know I was in band at school for a time, and had a bass guitar (maybe two, can’t remember) and quite possibly, if my memory serves me correctly, surpassed the beginning stages on the clarinet. The only thing I know stuck with me, however, after junior high, was that the note with a hole in it last for four toe taps. If I had retained that knowledge and kept going with it, maybe I wouldn’t have to be learning about music now and could spend my time just taking tea and making pancakes.
From a narrator’s perspective, it would be quickly ascertained that for the greater part of my first twenty or so years on earth I was very much a detractor to the qualities of my own existence and to that of those around me. Of course, like most, I have quite the collection of people who marred my experience of childhood. Oh and forsooth, woe is me. I firmly, nevertheless, assert that for every person who was against me, and for every element of society which proved torturous or humiliating to my pre, junior, and high school-aged person, there were a score or more hapless individuals who suffered at my hands or through my vengeful scheming.
Let us spare the personal details for a moment, if only to encourage the reader who does not give a speck about me personally, but at least (hopefully) has some interest in my music. Surprisingly (again, hopefully), my career in music began fairly recently, say around two-thousand and three or four. I found, or was found, sovereigndipitously by an Appalachian fretted lap dulcimer which had been made more than a decade previous for my mother-in-law, who despite the stereotype attached to that relationship I love and like dearly. She, bless her heart, can’t play anything but a kazoo (and that with some coaching), and so I was blessed with the impressive tones of a Blue Lion Series II ultra-pro dulcimer and became in love overnight with my new acquisition.
Luckily for me, a pickup had been installed when it was made, and as soon as I returned to San Diego I plugged-in to an amplifier directly. Behold, it began. I was noticed by a friend, Ricky “Cool Jelly” Andrade, who ended up becoming my producer and was extremely instrumental in my songs being produced legitimately.
A few years later, and here we are, plucking happily away on a couple guitars and the same lovely dulcimer making up little songs and playing around town. The record was released on March 10th of ’07, and is getting around. We’ll see what happens with the whole thing.
Just to close with a few tidbits concerning my biography, as I promised beforehand, I must give some publicity to the only reason I do anything at all at any time. Although I am well aware that is not technically necessary, and furthermore that it is potentially extremely detrimental to the reputation of my art in certain circles, I have to say that any good fruit of my life is a direct result of my Christianity. If that offends you I can’t help that. I met God around the millennium-time, and that encounter both temporally and eternally saved me. Take it or leave it, that’s the whole deal. If you disagree maybe we could take tea sometime and have it out together.
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