Jim and his late mother Vivian circa: 1950.

Jim attending grade school.

When and where were you born?

I was born in Ft. Scott, KS, April 6, 1948 where my Dad had taken a job with Southwestern Bell/AT&T after his release from the Army. He was from Joplin, MO, and my Mom, from Muskogee, OK. Her family was all from Texas, around Mineral Wells. When I was about 2 years old, my Dad was transferred to Kansas City, MO, but they bought a house in the developing suburbs on the Kansas side. KC is strange in that there's not really a differentiation between KS and MO... You drive west along 75th street for a few miles, cross State Line Road, and -- POOF -- you're in Missouri, but nothing really changes. I went to High School at Shawnee Mission West, same school where Paul Rudd, Jason Sudekis, and several other celebs went. Also, University of Kansas -- same for those guys. I'm a LOT older, though. I started playing guitar when I was 8 years old. There are some pictures of my "musical" history on the web site, https://www.jimstringer.us on the "history" tab, including pictures of various guitars and bands. As near as I can determine, my first gig was at a Kentucky Derby Day party in 1960, which puts it at Saturday, May 7, 1960. I had been practicing with some other kids -- Mike Forcade, who had a great set of Ludwig drums / Zildjan cymbals, and whose parents were socialites with ties to various well known Kansas City luminaries. Danny NuDelman was the other guitarist.

“The Bitter Ends serenade Scott's neighborhood. What you can't see is the PA, which was a couple of Atlas "Police Siren" Horns! I imagine our vocals could be heard for MILES. In fact, the day this was shot, a fellow came down from the apartments that were on a bluff behind Scott's house. He liked our band and asked us to write and record a couple of jingles for his ad agency. The man's name was Marvin Fremerman... His daughter, Elana, is the fiddle player for Hot Club of Cowtown. You'll notice I'm adjusting the controls on a guitar amp... what's significant is that it's Larry's amp, not mine!”

"The Bitter Ends" -- from left to right: Larry Franklin, rhythm guitar, Silvertone (Danelectro) guitar, Silvertone twin twelve piggy back amp; Jim Stringer, lead guitar, vocal, Silvertone (Kay #1993) three pickup guitar, Silvertone twin twelve combo amp; Scott Barnes, drums (Ludwig, I think); Bill Russell, bass, Harmony H22 hollow body, homemade bass cab, unknown amp; Mics are EV664s, PA was Bogen Challenger. Circa: May of 1966.

The last I knew of him, he played with a group in the Bay Area, called "Morning Dew" and they did an LP for the Fontana label. Danny was replaced by Mike McDaniels who I totally lost track of. He played bass -- or, actually, a Sears Danelectro tuned down a few steps. This band was called "The Coachmen" -- not very original. There's a business card from this band on jimstringer.us, as well as a picture of this band performing at Milburn Country Club in Mission, KS. (If you look at that picture, you’ll note that we have just one amplifier, and that there is a “raw” speaker sitting on the floor in front of the amp.) I had other Jr. High and High School bands -- there are stories and pictures on jimstringer.us. There were numerous "lifers" in these bands: Stephen Barncard, producer and engineer; Steve "Duck" McClain, drummer for Blue Riddem; Rick Moors, bassist for The Bone Daddys. I started college at KU in Lawrence in 1966 and joined an existing band, that soon dissolved and then reformed as "The Upside Dawne". This band eventually included Steve Hall, drums, and Paul Miller, bass. We split in early 1968 to form Tide. More on this later.

Stringer’s firstband, The Coachmen, with Mike MacDaniel and Michael Forcade, although the original band included Danny NuDelmann and later, JD Willhite.Michael, Danny and Jim played their first paying gig circa: May 7 of 1960. This picture was taken most likely fall of 1960, or maybe early 1961.

“This is the "final" version of The Upside Dawne. Upper row, left to right: Garth Fundis, Jim Stringer; Bottom row: Scott Korchak, Paul Miller, Steve Hall, Jack Manahan. Note the suits -- Steve, Jack Scott and myself all match. Paul and Garth were the newcomers and had to improvise.”

What was growing up like for you? When did you first become interested in playing music? Do you have any siblings? Was music something common around your household growing up?

As mentioned, I was an early adopter. But, yes, music was common around the house. My mother taught piano and her family of origin was filled with music. My dad, not so much, although it was he that bought me my first guitar -- rather, he brought it home -- I had to buy it myself! I listened to 50s music from the time I could tune the radio. We didn't have anything for playing records, so I generally learned songs by trying to play them as soon as they were on the radio. My brother, Tom, was 5 years older and, although he didn’t start playing guitar until after I had been playing for about 4 years, he was very into music, as well. In particular, he became a fan of Blues… I’m not talking what passes for Blues now, but rather John Lee Hooker, Howling Wolf, B.B. King, Lightning Hopkins. He and I were in the car on the day we both heard Freddie King’s “Hideway” and when it hit the breakdown part, we both yelled, he slammed on the brakes and we rolled out of the car and onto the ground – I’m not making that up! Tom was a lifetime serious guitarist, concentrating on classical repertoire and, of course, Blues. He died in 2019 and I miss him like crazy.

The Upside Dawne. “This poster was designed by Tom Korchak, Scott's father. He was an ad-man in Kansas City. The "Love and Happiness Kalaidoscope" was our light show with overhead , film and slide projectors manned by "The Wiz", Bob Szchousky (I'm sure I've not even come close to spelling his name right.)”

“The Red Dog Inn was the place to play. These days, it's still open as Liberty Hall. I don't remember Bob Marriotte and the Continentals, but The Jerms were a fine band from Topeka and of course Wilson Pickett needs no introduction. This ad is from the University Daily Kansan in, spring 1967”

“Another club where the band played locally was The Village Green which was on the corner of 23rd and Naismith in Lawrence -- it's been a Payless Shoe Store for years now. My first night in Lawrence as a KU student, I saw Mike Finnigan & the Serfs at this club and my musical expectations have never been the same.”

My sister has her college degree in Piano Performance and has always been very talented. She’s not as deranged as I, and has stayed home, teaching piano and being a mom. Besides sharing my affection for blues, Tom would also take me to some of the local venues to hear bands. I was generally too young to get in, but it was magical hearing the loud music, thumping bass and screaming guitars from the parking lot. Some of the bars in KC that featured blues were The Coke Bar, Barry’s Barn, and, most importantly, The Sock Hop where a band called the Fabulous Silvertones, featuring KC’s “IT” guitarist, Frank Plas, played four nights a week. I have stayed in relatively close communication with Frank and he has sat in with my band a few times when he has visited Austin (his son lives in Round Rock, a suburb of Austin.) Frank was truly a great player and was a great mentor. Kansas City had many great blues players, including Little Hatch (harmonica), Larry Emmett, Jay McShann. In addition, touring “territory” bands frequently played at Kansas City clubs.

What was the first concert you ever attended and what group left a heavy impression on you in those early days?

Concerts weren’t really a thing in my early days in KC, though there were some great bands that played at various events. My neighboring high school, Shawnee Mission North, hired The Kingsmen, of “Louie Louie” fame, for their senior assembly open to all Shawnee Mission students. That band was the ultimate garage band and impressed me with their intensity. Also, Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels played at the club that The Sock Hop had morphed into. The band included guitarist, Jim McCarty. He was an inventive player and was using feedback before I heard it from Hendrix, Jeff Beck, etc.

How did you meet your bandmates Paul Miller, Sara Sacra, Steve Hall, Steve Rice and Tim Smith? What were your early impressions of everyone? What initially led to the decision to form Tide and how did the name come about? When and where did you guys first get together to jam/rehearse? What was the chemistry like right off the bat?

As I mentioned above, Steve, Paul and I were playing in a band prior to Tide. We played a few originals, but mostly it was a cover band. We had been following forays into improvisation, and original music… I knew I could write and the band was incredibly on the spot as far as arranging. Paul and Steve were both from the top of the pile, musically. There were always a handful of young drummers, and bassist, and, I think, guitarists in our audiences to see what it was we were doing. We played our first gig at a tiny subterranean club on 7th Street in Lawrence – I can’t recall what they used for a name, at that time. It was very bohemian… We would sometimes stretch out our improvisations to 20-30 minutes, trying to be as original as possible. The repertoire grew to be primarily original, though we did some original arrangements of tunes such as “Lucille”, “Shake and Finger Pop”. Some of these tunes are archived at: http://audiohouse.cscnt.net/tide.htm.

This was our first recording, all done live, vocals included. By the time of this recording, we had added a classmate of Paul’s, Tim Smith, on sax, flute and guitar. Tim was a very talented musician – still is! He’s been in New York for years after attending New England Conservatory (I think). He’s well known as the go-to bass sax player for avant-garde music scene. Tide became an area favorite and we traveled constantly – as I mentioned below, north to Canada, south to Louisiana and Texas, east to the Mississippi, and west to the Rocky Mountains. I think we played every town with a population of more than 1,000 in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, Minnesota, Oklahoma. The dips into Louisiana, Arkansas, Colorado, Texas, and North Dakota were less frequent – we played only college towns there. In late 1970, Richard Petrovits, who owned Richardson Music (the local musician hangout in Lawrence), wanted to finance an LP for Tide.

We recorded “Almost Live” at The Cavern in Kansas City, MO. This studio is a bit of a legend, on it’s own. The Chicago label, Numero Group, issued a compilation of bands recorded there on “Local Legends: Cavern Sound”. Our track, “I Wish It Hadn’t Ended That Way” was included on that record. In addition, Numero got that track placed on the TV series, “People of Earth”. We actually managed to interest a national distributor into carrying “Almost Live”. This got the record into K-Mart, other rack jobbers, and mom-pop shops nationwide. Also, we were playing bigger shows, both on our own, and as an opening act. In some college towns, we drew well enough to be the main act. Cities that I recall being good draws included Omaha, Joplin, Pittsburg (KS), Dodge City… I can’t remember – it pretty much runs together after the first 10,000 or so gigs (yes – at this point in my life, it’s actually been that many.) More often, we opened for some of the groups you mention in your questions. Still, mostly, we were playing bars in towns that I remember the names of, but I can’t even begin to recall the name of the club, or anything about the gig. We traveled in a converted International Harvester Diesel school bus, outfitted with a cargo hold, and surplus airline seat, and a couple of bunks.

At that time, it seems like we’d play a gig, get on the bus, travel all night, get off the bus, play another gig and repeat. We were fortunate to have a driver who was and experienced diesel mechanic, and a road crew of two. Otherwise, I would have been exhausted and fed-up long before I was. This was a difficult and low-paying life. But Steve and Paul and I stay in touch and, if we can find a time to be in the same place long enough, we’d like to do a bit more recording We rented a building and set up a studio with a TEAC 4-track system and a bunch of odds and ends for gear. We rehearsed almost every day that we were in town, and this was a creative time. I have tracks that we thought would be a second record. The sonic quality of the tracks is not great, but, in my opinion, the sound is much more representative of the “Tide Sound” than the somewhat tame “Almost Live”. In time, Tim left to go to New England Conservatory, and after some searching, we hired Greg Mackender (piano and vibraphone), and Bill Lynch (golden throated vocalist, and second guitarist.)

This is the band that was probably the “ultimate” Tide and was what represented the band when we were inducted into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame in 2007. I also stay in touch with Bill, and we talk frequently. He’s still performing and owns a club in Los Angeles. He plays weekly with some great musicians such as James Gadson, Abe Laboriel, Mike Finnigan (until his death last year), and others. Greg still lives in KC and is a full time musician on saxophone, piano, organ and, of course, vibraphone. By late 1973, I was fatigued of the debt, the constant travel, and our seeming inability to get past the “almost-almost-famous” stage of our career. Bill quit after having continual vocal issues, and Greg simply needed a better income. After a search, we hired a young keyboardist, Steve Rice. He was a talented player and had been following Tide in preceding years. Soon after Steve Rice joined the band, we were paid, what was then, a considerable sum of money to write and appear in a film for General Motors, called “Fences and Gates”, after a song I had written for Tide. This film is available in its entirety on YouTube: https://youtu.be/3K7t8O595gk. We were able to pay off debts and, in addition, I was offered a job by the film production company. Steve Hall, Steve Rice, and Paul Miller hired John Vigran (not sure of spelling) on guitar, and Sarah Sacra.

I engineered/produced a single for this configuration, “Farmer John” and “Dancin’ Mood”, though we agreed, in the interest of breaking the image of the band’s connection with my performance, that I would not be credited. During this time, I appeared with Tide off and on. The last show that I recall doing with Tide in this capacity with an opener for Muddy Waters, on what was billed as his 60th birthday, but was more likely his 61st, at least according to current information. I stayed with the motion picture company for 11 years. I continued to perform with different groups. The film company required a lot of travel – in 11 years, I visited all 50 US States, five Canadian Provinces, Mexico, and South Korea. In addition to location sound, I did sound effecting, dialog replacement, narration recording, and final mixing. I scored films, both with original music and with library music. In all, I wrote and recorded around 400 pieces for various movies. Some of these films are noted on the Wikipedia page for Centron Films, the production company, though it was company policy that no credits were listed for production personnel. In retrospect, this seems like a pretty awful policy as there were many talented people – directors, writers, editors, cinematographers, sound technicians, gaffers, grips, etc. -- who contributed to these films.

Can you tell me about some of those gigs and what those experiences were like?

Our first gig as Tide, as I mentioned, was at a little beatnik-like bar what was underneath one of Lawrence’s most venerable venues, which is today called “Liberty Hall”, but, was, at the time called “The Red Dog Inn”. I don’t recall how long we played there – how many gigs – but I think it got us a reputation as an underground – literally – band, and kind of a hip reputation. I don’t really know – I was just interested in making unique music and, naively, I thought that would automatically bring us fame a fortune. I had no idea of how it really worked. I’m pretty sure – though I don’t really know – that the band was pretty popular. It was fun when the audience knew us, knew our songs, and responded well. People didn’t dance at that time… They would just sit on the floor many times. I’m certain, to a large extent, our audience was under the influence of marijuana, at a minimum, and copious doses of LSD at a maximum. It was pretty much a great time for a band such as Tide because this tripping audience would follow wherever we would take them! Truly… there was no bullshit – just music. I did my share of certain substances, but I always played “straight” – it was way too important for me to be 100% every time we played. There was plenty of time after gigs.

I understand you guys were pals with Kansas?

I was friends with Robby Steinhardt and though we didn’t communicate for a long time, we had reconnected in mid 2020 and we talked on the phone for hours about once a week. I played a small guitar part on the record he was recording in Florida with producer, Michael T. Franklin, “Not in Kansas Anymore”. We were collaborating on a couple of songs for subsequent projects and he and his wife were planning to visit me in Austin in June of 2021. The week before they were to arrive, Robby was planning to do a listen to the finished album. Next week, I was expecting to hear from him, but when I didn’t, I feared the worst. And that’s what it was – the worst. Robby was in the hospital and was very ill. After a relatively short time, during which he seemed to be recovering, he suddenly died.

His CD was released posthumously in October of 2021. Since Kansas and Tide played pretty much the same clubs, colleges, and other venues, we would often meet up with them at all night road stops. David Hope, who is now an Episcopal minister (!), was quite a wild card at the time, and sometimes it felt like, between Hope’s somewhat confrontational style of humor, and Robby’s giant billowing hair, not to mention our own hippy-like appearance, that we were lucky to escape with our lives from some of these places. I guess we lived through it, though. I feel like we could easily fill a book with anecdotes from that era but I think that’s a little beyond the scope of this “interview”. Maybe I can get together with the guys on Zoom and record some recollections.

Can you tell me about writing as well as recording the tunes that are featured on this record? What was the band’s process and approach to creating music?

I wrote most of the songs, and created the basic arrangements. But Paul, Steve, and Tim were all very creative and the final results were really a group effort. I’m going to tell you a little about what went into each original song, just so that I have this written for myself, if nothing else. I’ll just tell you about the “Almost Live” tunes, although by the time we finally dissolved, we had about four times as many original songs. You're Not The Only One – the late 60s, when I wrote this tune, was not too dissimilar from today’s divisiveness and unrest. We were just beginning to be aware of thing like over-population, pollution, ever present racism, exploitation… and, of course, war. I have re-written the lyrics several times over the years to reflect current issues, but at the time, it was speaking truth to power – Moses faces the Pharaoh demanding freedom. But the Pharaoh, who, of course has every thing a person could possibly desire, dismisses Moses, comparing his concern for his enslaved people to the Pharaoh’s afternoon manicure appointment. Musically, it was minimalist – the piano riff (I doubled on piano in those days, and played the tambourine with my foot), and then a contrapuntal piano/flute lick at the end.

Steve came up with the “tribal” drum beat. It was one of our most requested songs. The Cowboy Song – I wrote the interlocking guitar licks, and the basic song. Tim Smith thought is sounded country and just called it “that cowboy song”. Tide did have a considerable country element, hear on this song and “I Wish It Hadn’t Ended”, but I wasn’t listening to any country music at the time and, in fact, I had a considerable antipathy toward country because it represent the same dumb-ass attitudes that it often represents now. I have been very involved in country music since I moved to Texas, but I call my genre, “BLUE Country” to distinguish it from the bro-country nonsense manufactured by the establishment. I Wasn't Born Yesterday – This one seems prescient to me now that I’m 50 years older than I was at the time I wrote it. Even as a young person, I recognized that at one time, I would be looking back on my live, rather than forward to my future. The last line really says it all, “I’m glad I did, I’d like to add, but like us all, I’ll say I wish I had”… that is, do it NOW… And live in the moment. Time passes VERY quickly when you look at it from my current end of the telescope. The Lunatic(s) – I thought this was going to be a humorous song, but as it unfurled, I realized it was a tragic story of how we judge those that are different.

In this case, the Lunatic, could be someone with different culture, color, philosophy, etc. While most of us are tolerant and forgiving as individuals, in a crowd, we become The Lunatic. Mike Murphin, one of the owners of the agency that represented us, listened to this and commented about the last lines: “he knows the things a mob can do to folks they can’t abide”… he said, “I know you couldn’t resist making a judgment.” He was right, and in later days, I changed the lyric so that it was inconclusive. Much better to let people make the connection themselves. Later versions of this song had a “gospel” shout chorus inspired instrumental– very celebratory. Then it ended in a sudden reverberating, dissonant vibraphone chord – like the realization of what really happened. I wish we’d had a chance to record that version. Peddlin' Love – Just a blues rocker. I wrote two verses; Paul and Tim helped write the last verse. Tim’s harmonica is featured, and Steve’s inventive drums are indispensable in the groove. I always enjoyed playing this tune because I got to spit out some blues licks, and it was a MUCH easier song to play than most of our repertoire! Tasmanian Pig Fever – Once again, though I wrote the music, Tim Smith suggested the name. It doesn’t mean anything at all – probably marijuana fueled brainstorming!

This was one of our first instrumentals that was definitely on the jazz side. I wrote this before “fusion” was a thing – but I had been listening to a lot of pure jazz – Eric Dolphy, Miles Davis, Roland Kirk, Herbie Mann. The melody and interlocking parts were the point. And, of course, Tim’s virtuosity on flute is front and center, as is Paul and Steve’s groove. We usually kicked off a concert with this… I always wanted to be sure that the audience knew we could play our instruments! I'm A Poor Man – The Band released “Music From Big Pink” in 1968 and we all became fans for – well, for all the things people love about that group. My song, “I’m a Poor Man”, show the influence of listening to The Band. It has a common lyrical theme for me – the little guy, who has nothing, is bragging about how little he has, but he’s happy! I Wish It Hadn't Ended That Way – Again, early environmental awareness. My idea was to construct the lyrics from cliches to invoke all the natural beauty, and resources that we take for granted… Until it’s gone, and then, “the clear blue sky” would no longer be a cliche. The atonal-ish instrumental ending is, well, the end – do you wish it hadn’t ended that way?

Tell me about some of the bigger bills you guys played with bands such as Guess Who, Chicago, Eric Clapton, It's a Beautiful Day, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Brewer & Shipley and Edgar Winter.

The highlight of the Guess Who/Chicago gig was hanging out with the two guitarists from these bands, Terry Kath, and Randy Bachman. Both were nice guys and pretty much like the musicians we were accustomed to hanging out with. Neither bands was famous at the time, though both were further up on the totem pole that we were. Our set was between the two and it was rainy and chilly. By the time Guess Who played, it was just downright nasty. Eric Clapton was touring as a sideman with Delaney & Bonnie. He was really strung out on something and was not at all friendly. He remarked to someone backstage that I was a better guitarist than he and I got quite a bit of mileage out of that. In reality, I think he was just trying to deflect attention since he was trying to be just a sideman – not the star. Brewer & Shipley had deep Kansas City connections. I had seen them play when I was a just 14 or 15 at KC’s respected folk club, “The Vanguard”. Their harmonies were really amazing and, other than maybe The Beatles or The Everly Brothers, there’s none that surpass them that I’ve heard. They were just homeboys. We had some good socialization in the Cowtown Ballroom dressing room.

I didn’t meet the players in It’s a Beautiful Day. They were pretty aloof, as I recall, and I don’t know why. The Edgar Winter Band was AMAZING. They weren’t well known, but from their first notes, they brought people to their feet and had them in their hands the entire set. I had a bit of a skirmish with their road manager (or road toady, more appropriately) before our set. Edgar’s piano was set up in the dressing area and I was using it to tune my guitar. The road guy came storming in basically yelling, “How dare I touch Edgar’s piano.” It very much rubbed me the wrong way! Tide was really well received, too, and got a couple of encores, which were much less commonplace in those years… you pretty much had to earn the ovation. The Nitty Gritty Dirt band was one of my favorites, as far as the band members go. John McEuen, the banjo/guitarist for the band was amazing. He’s a true virtuoso, but he was hang out backstage and was always asking, “How do you do that?” It’s called the “Zen Beginner’s Mind” and it’s what separates the dilettantes from the real deal.

I got to play with him in other configurations and he was always fun to talk with. Jeff Hanna really liked Tide and had solicited a tape to pass along to the record company. For some reason, this didn’t happen – stupid youths that we were. Years later, I ran into Jeff at a club in KC. He not only remembered me but asked why I never sent a tape! Well… My life has been good to me, so I don’t like dwelling on past mistakes. Who knows where that road would have led. I’ve had the opportunity to play with a lot more great musicians in many genres. Jazzers such as Joe Williams, Eddie Harris, Claude Williams, Jay McShann, and others -- Rock & Roll icon, producer and Springsteen bassist, Gary Tallent; rockabilly great, Mac Curtis; country legends Floyd Tilman, and Johnny Gimble (Bob Wills’ fiddle great), Jim Ed Brown (Grand Ol’ Opry host)… I really can’t remember because, not meaning to brag, but there have been a lot of folks I’ve worked with – and that’s not including the great Austin musicians that I’ve worked with during my last 28 years here in Texas. I’ve played in at least 25 of the 50 states, in Germany, Austria, France, England, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Mexico, Brazil… for as many as 25,000 people… and as few as 3, two of which were club employees. One guy that I really enjoyed getting to know was the great steel guitarist, Speedy West. I was able to visit with Speedy on several occasions. He played on over 6,000 records before he had a stroke in 1981, though he had actually pretty much retired from the business by 1970.

Speedy worked with people from Tennessee Ernie Ford, to Bing Crosby, to basically every west-coast country singer from that time. He was a great story teller, though you might hear the same story a few times, with slight changes! I’m still a working musician/composer/songwriter. I’ve recorded fifteen (I think) full length records of my own, including eight here in Austin. All are still available on various internet outlets, including Spotify and iTunes, etc. Right now, I’m playing a regular Tuesday night gig with rockabilly legend, Rosie Flores – though it’s a jazz gig. Go figure. Also, bi-weekly gig with singer/songwriter, Roger Wallace. That band includes Brad Fordham and Lisa Pankratz, regular performers with guitarist and founder of The Blasters, Dave Alvin. Collectively, we’ve recorded five CDs with Roger. Austin has been a great place for me… it’s less “youth” oriented, and more accepting of, let’s say, “experienced” artists, such as myself. There are hundreds of world class musicians here and you never know who you’ll be playing with on any given night.

What did you want to express, or explore with this group? What was the overall vision for the band?

With Tide, I and the other guys, just wanted to explore music beyond the cover tunes that all the other bands were playing. We wanted room to stretch out as improvisers, to carve out a niche different than other bands. Of course, we wanted the brass ring: popularity, a record deal, fame and fortune. But since we didn’t know quite how to do that, we settled for what we DID know how to do, and that was to play music. Overall, we were together from mid-1968 until late 1974. And despite all the great musicians I’ve worked with since, I still regard Steve, Paul, Tim, Bill, Greg, and Steve Rice to be among the best!

Did you continue to write and record music after Tide? What have you been up to in more recent years?

I’m still writing and recording. I’d like to do another CD of just original guitar instrumentals, and I have about another 40 lyric songs that I haven’t recorded. I haven’t been booking gigs under my own name – I’m not in great health, battling cancer for the last five years. But, I’ve been feeling pretty good, so I might start grabbing some gigs, locally. I don’t think more international travel is in my future, though I wish it were.

Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers?

YES… Support LIVE MUSIC, particularly those bands that are seriously trying to give you the best they’ve got. Every city in the US has some great players, old and young. Your next door neighbor might to a living legend – if you read about someone who played in a band long ago, look them up! Music is one of the good things – it expresses what we are, at our best.

Dakota Brown

Jim Stringer - Tide

Lance Fogg - Complex (Part 1)

The Matt Wilkins Interview