Friday Knights Page 8
One of my goals as a youngster was to be in a band and to try and make it big, hopefully with a hit record. My first band, “‘Friday Knights” was a lot of fun. My friend, Rich Friedland and I formed the band and added couple of our friends, Paul Inserra (lead guitar) and Cory Fernandez (drums). We performed a few shows here and there and I remember during one show at Taylor school how the young fans came up to the stage and just stared at us as if we were the Beatles. For that moment, I felt famous. We had many practices and many times would rehearse at another friend's house. His name was Cavan and we sound proofed the room we were in and he was constantly trying to join our band but we said “no”. Friday Knights was my first serious band which launched my musical career.
A couple of years later, Rich and I formed our second band together, “Zeus” which featured me on lead guitar, Rich on bass, John Hayden on rhythm guitar and Mike Brigham on drums. Two of my fondest memories was John always strumming The Beatles song “All My Loving” during rehearsals and we always warned him that he should not do that because he might accidentally do it during one of our shows and sure enough, the time came when he did it and we all had a great laugh. The second memory for me was doing the Beatles convention in Seattle which was a lot of fun hanging out with other fans.
Zeus was the last band I was in in the 70’s. I put my career on hold in the 80’s due to getting married and helping raise my two children. In 1989 I picked up my career again and the rest is history. I was also one of the band leaders in our Christian church for 9 years and also did some solo shows until my most successful duo to date became a reality.
Chime Travelers formed in 2010 with my friend, Jay Lewallen. Our format was cover songs from the Golden Era of music, the 1960’s and 70’s. We were together a little over 10 years and played more than 1250 shows locally in Marin and Sonoma Counties. Our main venues were restaurants, wineries and special events including many private functions and parties. This was an acoustic duo with both of us on acoustic guitars and we both sang lead and harmony vocals and both played lead and rhythm guitars. Chime Travelers will continue to perform on a small basis due to my relocation to Las Vegas. One of my favorite memories was playing to standing room only crowds at Trek Winery in Novato, CA. At last I feel I have reached my full potential as a performing artist.
I am now living in Las Vegas and starting a new duo with Rich once again. We haven’t played together since the 70’s. Our new name is “R & R Express” and we will be once again covering the great songs from the 60’s & 70’s with me on guitar and vocals and Rich on bass, keyboards and vocals. I am currently 68 years old and don’t feel age will slow me down as I continue my musical career with the hopes of bringing joy, happiness and memories to so many people through my gift of music.
www.chimetravelers.com