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When I was eleven, I was laid up with an illness and my Uncle Lennox
Garrett presented me with a Serenader guitar (Stella's budget line, I
think). He had it tuned to an open "E" tuning and I went to work
learning some chords and a few simple songs. It wasn't until several
months later when I picked up a Nick Manaloff guitar instruction manual
that I learned that the instrument was tuned in a completely different
way, and this guitar playing was going to be just a little harder than I
had first thought.
By the time I was twelve, I was
heavily into Duane Eddy and the Ventures and convinced my father that with
his help and my accrued allowance I should buy a Harmony electric guitar.
This led to a band called "Les Dominos" and several school gigs
in the area. We played Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Everly Brothers and, of
course, a couple of Duane Eddy tunes. The sax player's father was the high
school principal and our agent - an unbeatable combination.
I discovered folk music about the same time Bob Dylan arrived in New York.
A friend turned me on to the Weavers and Pete Seeger and I was completely
hooked. Through high school I dug deeper into the roots music of this
continent through Ian and Sylvia, John Hurt and Doc Watson. I was
particularly smitten with Doc's guitar playing and went to work learning
to play the songs and instrumentals on his records. Years later I had the
privilege of opening for him on a club gig - a major thrill!
After college I started playing music full time. Through the seventies
this took several forms from living and playing backup guitar in New York
to touring the continent and Japan with Sharon Ryan as a duo. In the
latter part of the decade I started playing solo gigs which I continue to
do today. Many of these have been with guitarist Curly Boy Stubbs, a
finger-picking whiz well known on the Canadian Folk scene.
From 1980 to 1995 I worked as a music and program producer for CBC Radio.
Working with CBC gave me the production skills to get involved in record
production and to date this has resulted in over twenty albums as
producer. At this point I am working full time as an independent producer
and performer.
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