Biography

Okay, here goes... I've been singing in bands for a pretty long time. I was in a band called "The Hawaiians Band" with Charlie Pastorfield & Corky Schoonover & Brian Smith & Steve Pentecost & Gray Barbee & Steve Gillies & Tim Strang & at least one rhythm guitarist I can't remember. We played Merle Haggard & Buck Owens & Grateful Dead & Waylon Jennings & Dan Hicks. That kind of stuff. Then I took some time off. Then I got in a band that had their singer quit the night before the first gig. The other singer was better than me. That band was called "Captain Tunes & His Fabulous Note Guns". I had nothing to do with naming this band but was henceforth known as Captain Tunes. Captain Tunes had some great guys in it over the years: Gibby Dammann, Ralph Dammann, Charlie Pastorfield, Billy Edmonds, Steve Gillies, Bo Randall, John Bohannes, Tommy Detamore, Ellis Hilton. We were kind of a blues rock band - but good. Anyhow, Captain Tunes broke up & I hung out for a while but I really wanted to play some more. Bryan Yates came to me one day & said let's get a band together & I said I can get a drummer (Gibby Dammann) & a place to practice (Gibby's house) & he said I can get a guitar player (Dennis Guinan) & a bass player (Bob Otte) so we all got together & BOOM! "The Casuals Featuring Johnny Sportcoat" was born. We played more jammy stuff but also a bunch of stuff that we thought was pretty cool but I can't exactly remember the bands or songs right now. But we also wrote & produced 2 albums & a 45 since we felt that a 45 would define us as odd & offbeat. How little we knew. Anyhow, the albums & the 45 were a bunch of fun & we learned a lot but then the band broke up after burning through the original guys as well as Dan Sebring, Sonny Layne, Jep Epstein & Pete Larsen - all great guys by the way.

I kind of stopped doing it for a long time except a couple of times a year when we'd resurrect The Casuals or I'd have a Hurricane Party or something. Then I got hit by a motorcycle & run over by a bus while crossing a street in Rome a couple of years ago & WHAM! the songs all came back & I had a lot of stuff to write & I really had to get it all out. So I arranged for Charlie, Bryan, Sonny & old pal and Indecision drummer Craig Dougald to run through some chestnuts & also try to play some new originals & that's how I made "Decline And Fall Of John Q Sportcoat". With Jeff Romano's invaluable help I might add... Well that was so much fun that I got together again with Jeff & recorded another project called "It Gets Weirder Every Year". That record has Jeff's fingerprints all over it with his great guitar playing, percussion, engineering & production. Plus me singing (mostly) & then help from Craig Dougald, Aaron Evans, Charlie Pastorfield, Bob Otte, Dan Sebring, TA Anderson & Gibby Dammann. People liked that record so I decided to do another one. That one I called "SunGinChocolate" but it kind of looks like "Sung In Chocolate". Whatever. That record is pretty different from the last ones, it being more uptempo and - happy - than the last one. It has 12 songs on it, and features me, Jeff Romano, Jeff Saine, Mark Maynard, Bill Edmonds, Jimmy Carpenter, and Charlie Pastorfield. I bet you'll like it if you hear it... And apart from the rest of my life (family friends work love) that's pretty much my story. Which I am sticking to.