Silver Bay, Minnesota  USA Joined Dec 12, 2008

Enjoying retirement. Now devoting more time to writing and doing some recording. Love it!

I've been playing guitar and singing since the early 1950's. Started my first band in 1959, "Johnny and the J's". Heavily influenced by Elvis, classic rock and roll, folk and country. Joined a 4-piece folk group while in college and we played gigs all over St Cloud, MN area and Northern Minnesota. While in the service I was briefly in a country band in Spokane but had to give it up when I was sent to Viet Nam. I gave up playing and singing regularly for many years. Got married and raised a family. Marriage ended. What inspired me to begin playing seriously again was the death of a close friend and one of the members of my first band. So now I'm actively playing in a local band and trying to get my voice back into shape for serious work. I am starting to put a solo act together, acoustic guitar and me. I'm also attempting to write some music for the first time and finding it frustrating. I've got thousands of old songs constantly going through my mind, but they are the ones I know, love and have performed over the years. Seems like whenever I get an idea for something original, something old comes creeping in. But I'll keep at it and when I get some new material completed I'll record it and post it for some feedback. I really love this site and am inspired by the tremendous pool of talent here. You folks are awesome.