It started with the piano, age five. I’d heard it played in our Vancouver Washington home for all of those 5 years, and had decided that I wanted to play it, too. Thankfully, my older brother Scott, already a musician, taught me how, and perhaps with equal importance also initiated me into the world of The Beatles, an absolute treasure trove of musical creativity that kick started my own musical journey.
As I became more skilled at the piano, you could frequently catch me performing at public school music programs, talent shows, and the occasional Mother Daughter Tea. In high school, I used to eat my lunch at the piano in the band room, which could be opened up to an adjacent cafeteria for concerts. Eventually, the director just started pulling the curtains back, and I gave lunchtime “concerts” to my fellow students. Usually, the material would be something by jazz pianist/composer Vince Guaraldi, and I became known in school as the guy who could play “Linus and Lucy.”
The end of high school meant the beginning of playing in bands (which I’ve done now for 40-plus years!). Armed with a heavy dose of prog-rock influence, as well as a stack of vintage keyboards (including a Prophet 5 synth, a Fender Rhodes electric piano, and a C-3 Hammond Organ!), I was the Rick Wakeman of Top-40.
However, from behind that keyboard stack, I could clearly see all the fun the frontline singers were having playing their guitars and shaking their back pockets, and so eventually decided to buy a bass, a Rickenbacher 4001, the kind that Chris Squire played in Yes.
However, from behind that keyboard stack, I could clearly see all the fun the frontline singers were having playing their guitars and shaking their back pockets, and so eventually decided to buy a bass, a Rickenbacher 4001, the kind that Chris Squire played in Yes.
Bass and keys pretty much got me through most of the 80s, playing in a handful of cover bands, including my first “cool” band, The Illustrations. I’d lost some of the desire to play keyboards, and this band just wanted me to rock the bass and sing hits from the sixties. Heaven exists.
In ’91, I made the frightening move away from my hometown of Vancouver Washington, and moved to Austin TX, where I lived for 18 years. This is where I got bit by the guitar bug, got married, and had a son. Country and Western music was the new influence, and with Fender in hand, the retro-flavored trio Long Tall Eddy was born.
In 2006, the family and I moved to Central Oregon and onto 10 acres of raw, off-grid land. After a stint on drums with the long-running cover band, The Substitutes, Long Tall Eddy was resurrected with a new rhythm section, and also much solo work commenced. As fortune would have it, my initial love affair with The Beatles came full circle in 2016 by forming the Beatles cover band Juju Eyeball, a real crowd-pleaser that rocked audiences for three years.
