I remember when I first decided that music had real value at a time when I was seeking meaning. When I was 17 years old I was driving one day in downtown Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1967 and a song came over the radio. It was Eric Burdon and the Animals singing Monterrey. One of the lines from the song was, "If you want to find the truth in life, don't pass music by." It stuck in my mind, it "resonated." And my life has been enriched a lot by music.

 

I started playing when I was 14 years old. My mother bought me a used guitar. I took lessons for about six months and then I taught myself to play. I started out with a band a year later. We played Friday night high school dances and parties. Part of my motivation was the music itself, and another part was that it gave me an chance to overcome shyness and meet girls. I played in a few more bands when I was in my teens.

 

When I was 22 I played in a serious band called BRODY. We played college mixers and dive bars doing pop standards of the time like Led Zeppelin, the Allman Brothers, etc. The following year, I switched to bass guitar, and got a job in a country-rock band that had a lot of work and interesting times-coming off a record!

 

When I was in my early thirties, I was a street musician in Madrid, Spain. It's a long story how that happened. Let's just say I never planned to do it, but like a lot of things in life, experiences just come upon you. Looking back, it was a very interesting and time of my life. Being an instructor in a community college, I see a lot of students at mid-life learning how to start over and I remember those days.

 

Musically I grew quite a bit during that time.  I learned not just to strum a guitar, but to play with all fingers using picks. I learned that you can get a lot more out of a guitar that way. I had some really memorable times in Spain. A very interesting thing I learned was that Spaniards, and everyone else for that matter, want to feel good. They want songs that uplift them, or inspire them, or make them feel good. They don't want to be brought down. And whenever I was depressed, I learned to kill it, and get on with my music. It was my job. "Before you walk in the sun, you've got to smile in the rain." I love that expression. This is not a prescription for superficiality, but a roadmap for a romantic and spiritual life.

 

Spaniards love live music, and many times I would go out in downtown Madrid, stop for a drink in a tavern , somebody would ask me to play a song,  and they wouldn't let me spend a dime. Just keep playing... sometimes half the night!  It has been many years since and things change, but Spaniards loved to participate in the music making; unlike here, they didn't just see a guitarist/singer as  somebody whose job it is to provide them entertainment while they sit passively. I could play all night because it was energizing.

 

In the eighties I played with BACKSTREET 60s,(see picture on homepage) a retro, R and B group. We had a feel for Motown stuff, and we threw in some do-wop and British invasion stuff. We played some real dive bars in Lawrence, Massachusetts.I started with the band playing lead electric guitar, but I don't consider myself a good guitar soloist- although I am an excellent guitar picker, but this was electric stuff, not acoustic. We later picked up a guy who was much better then I was, and we needed an organ player, so I just up and became the organ player! We had great times toghether. Personally we had absoutely nothing in common with each other. We worked in different occupations. We had radically different world views and politics. But it didn't matter a bit. Because it was the creative force that unified us. Saturday afternoons were our rehearsal days. We would drink a lot of beer and work out our arrangements. Sometimes one of us would remember to turn on a recorder. It was fun, and if music isn't fun- I don't do it.