Well here it is ... As you can see I have hundreds of CDs and tapes. I love all kinds of music and could sit here for hours just listening. Everything from top 40, R&B, some soft jazz and country.
Back home in Canada I was fortunate to have a lot of friends in the Country Music industry, many in some of Canada's then best known bands. It was always great to go out to see them because often times they would invite me up to sing. I miss them all very much and want to take a second to say hi a few of them.
Doug "Brillo" Johnson, out of Brantford, Ontario, is one of the best steel guitar players I've ever known, not to mention one of the nicest men. Always the perfect gentleman, Doug had a smile and a hug for everyone ... well the men only got the smile. I met Doug when he was playing in Terry Carisse's back up band, Tracks, and followed his career when he went to play in Joey Knight's band. Unfortunately it was right at that time that I relocated to sunny Florida and I lost track of him. Doug was offered an opportunity to come to the United States and play in Gene Watson's band, but declined when he couldn't take his girlfriend along. Theresa was a very lucky lady.
Steve Piticco - Steve is an accomplished guitarist (with absolutely no ego ... really!) who has been in The Prescott Brothers Band, Terry Carisse's backup band Tracks, the Family Brown Band and The Bobby Lalonde Band. In 1993 and 1994 he was honored by the D.C.M.A. with the International Instrumentalist Award. And on several occasions the CCMA has honoured him as both the Instrumentalist of the Year and the All-Star Band Guitarist. For the past 10 years he has been a member of and one of the driving forces behind South Mountain. Steve and his former wife, Laurie, taught me my very first song ... The Auctioneer by Leroy VanDyke ... and I would like to thank them for their encouragement back when I first started singing and they used to invite me up to sing with them.
Ralph Carlson, another great friend and talented musician who used to invite me to sing whenever I was in a club where he was playing. Ralph was the co-owner of Snocan Recording Studios and was nice enough to get a group of musicians to donate their time, then brought me into the studio and I recorded two songs. Of course it was just for fun and the recording was never released, but it was a really interesting experience and I still have the tape. Thank you Ralph, you are the best! If you check my workshop page, you'll find the guitar cover that I made for Ralph.
October 10, 2002 - Ralph passed away today after a brief battle with leukemia. He will be deeply missed.
Terry Carisse Canadian country music fans will remember Terry as an incredibly talented singer/songwriter with at least seven albums to his credit! I can honestly say that Love Sweet Love and None of the Feeling Is Gone are my two favorites. He was my introduction to country music and unlike the stars in the United States, the Canadian country music artists play the club circuit. When my room mate, a very big Terry Carisse fan heard that he would be playing in a night club near us, she dragged me kicking and screaming to hear him. I never looked back *smile*
The list goes on! I miss you all!
Here are some of my favorite country music links.
