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Brian
has done a few things over the course of his life so far (musically that is)...
In grammar school it was the violin that got him started. Then, at the early age of seven, the big round man in the big red suit gave Brian his first guitar on Christmas morning 1968. At first touch he was fascinated - and he never let it go.
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He has memories of playing "This Land Is Your Land" around the campfire as a kid. And also of attracting all of the young ladies with his sensational rendition of "Puff The Magic Dragon". He also recalls the exciting moment early in grammar school when, together with some neighborhood friends, he formed his first band. The drum kit consisted of some overturned plastic buckets and a few old cymbals. They wrote their first song called "If You're The Person" - and played it about a million times. It sounded bad... but they knew they were definitely in the 'groove'.
In High School during the late '70's, Sue started singing along and they discovered there was 'real' talent in the family. They formed their first bands "The Emerald" and "Sentry-The Guardians Of Rock", learned some Heart tunes and played a few gigs. (After a thousand rehearsals - and yes, Dave was there. He was the 'water boy') Most important, they learned how to make music and perform together.
As life continued after school, they hooked up with local songwriter named Don Krenc
in the early '80's. Don was looking for a band to play his own country songs around
town. He had a single hit the Billboard magazine list as 'Country Pick Of The Week'. It was exciting, but as it ran its course and he moved on, Brian started playing weddings with the band "Smile". Many, Many......Many MANY weddings. Let's say he just grew tired of weddings, so along with some other friends he joined forces with
Wayne DiVarco's top 40 group "Desire" and played clubs every week.
Eventually, and probably when he realized he couldn't live without sleep, Brian founded the group "First Class"
and had both Sue and Dave join
him. This is when they truly realized how well they could get their voices to blend together and how good it was to 'get the groove on'. Together with Dave's technical wizardry and Sue's beautiful voice they were a hit…and they had a ball.
"First comes love, then comes marriage, then come babies in the baby carriage". Notice that the word 'band' is not mentioned in this popular phrase. But no worries…Brian will just take a short break and get right back to it….
Well, ten years later he couldn't resist any longer and finally found the time to get back into it. In the mid '90's he bought his first Fender
Strat, took it to an audition and landed a gig as a hired hand playing lead guitar for Tom Colton's
"Kampfire Kowboys". Brian was once again having fun with music. It was a couple years later at one of these Kowboy gigs where he met Ray Johnson and his band
"Saldo Kreek". And when it was time to move on, Brian jumped at the chance to become Saldo Kreek's lead guitar player.
Since that time Brian has also continued to add many new projects to his list, including the family tradition of an annual Christmas CD, composing and writing his own music and lyrics, playing lead guitar for Zach Phillips in the new band
"Zach and the
Walk-Ins", and finally
performing again with his family in
"Suburban Folk".
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