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BIO
(cont'd.)
So I bought my first harmonica. A Marine Band
like the ones I still play.
I was real shy 'bout anyone hearin' my first
efforts so I went out to my parent's car to
practice and I learned my first tune, "Mary Had a
Little Lamb". I think it took me about four hours
to get it right.
The first harmonica player I really listened to
and tried to imitate was Paul Butterfeild. I owe a
lot of my sound to Paul (May he Rest In Peace).
The first harmonica album I ever bought was
Little Walter's "Boss Blues Harmonica" double Album
which contains about half of the tracks he ever
recorded under his own name.
The first time I ever played through an
amplifier was when I stopped by my uncle's church
one time (he was the minister) and checked out this
funky old amp I found sittin' there. I asked him if
he had a mike and he found me one. It was one of
those gigantic Shure Bros. models, all chrome and
grill. The sound that came out of the thing was
ENOURMOUS and it totally blew my mind!
I was hooked on amplified harmonica from that
point on. I later bought that amp, a 1953 Gibson
Les Paul and I still have it. I got my first chance
to actually play amplified with a band about a year
later. It was a dance at theis funky little hall in
Burnaby BC. By then I was ready to jam. I remember
the exhilaration of knowing the harmonica well
enough to make up all kindsa stuff as I went
along.
Soon I formed my first band "The Union Street
AllStars" in 1979. We mainly played at a local
strip club, behind the dancers. The totally nude
exotic dancers could be a little distracting at
times to say the least. We played mainly "White Boy
Blues", The Rolling Stones, John Mayall, Paul
Butterfield Blues Band etc.
During this time I also played a lot on "Skid
Row" the term for the 100 block of Hastings Street
in Vancouver. In fact, this is where I really
developed the foundation for my improvisational
style, playing with the Blues, Rock and Country
bands in places like "Fort Boogie", "The Kit Kat
Club", "The Smilin' Buddah", "Frank's Caberet" and
other dark and seamy places. The bands who played
these places were always glad to let me sit in.
I was also beginning to play occaisionally with
one of the "name acts" that was big in Vancouver at
that time, "The Seeds of Time".
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