About PapaGreyBeard's Shop
Vermont
Do you remember that great music that we listened to in the '60s & '70s? Or maybe you remember your parents playing it. That's the music that I play...One-Man-Band, solo, duets or band.
About PapaGreyBeard
I've been making music of one sort or another most of my life. If you include my crying and screaming as an infant then I've been making music from the minute I was born. Formal music began in fourth grade when I started taking saxophone lessons. Right up into high school I played alto & tenor saxophone, clarinet and some flute in the school jazz & marching bands.
Sometime in 1967 I got my first guitar. It must have been given to me but I can't really remember. I do remember that it was an old (even then) Silvertone acoustic...an inexpensive guitar at the time that had been played hard. The pick guard was missing and it had a very interesting variety of tuning pegs. The neck was somewhat bowed making it difficult to play.
However, the '60s were a time for the guitar and I set about teaching myself to play. It wasn't long before I was playing and my younger sister Lynn and I were singing the folk standards of the day: "Blowing in the Wind"; "The Cruel War is Raging"; "Puff the Magic Dragon" and others.
Those were the historic days of Rock & Roll and my interest gradually turned in that direction. In 1968 I got my hands on an old Kay bass guitar and started playing bass in some local rock & roll bands. That continued on through high school.
I got very interested in groups like The Rolling Stones, The Allman Brothers, Blind Faith, Alvin Lee and others. Through their music I was introduced to blues legends like Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Blind Willy McTell, Elmore James, Rev. Robert Wilkins, Blind Gary Davis and others. That is where my love of the blues began.
Eventually I got married and kids came along and the guitar was semi-banished to a place under the bed since I didn't have much time to play. I would play occasionally but really didn't see any improvement in my playing. Sometime in the early '90s I purchased an inexpensive resonator guitar and began to teach myself the slide guitar of the delta blues.
I have been playing here in Vermont for quite a few years. You'll find me often on busking on Church Street in Burlington or playing solo shows around the state. I also play with Spider Roulette and Stefani Capizzi.