Jed A Ward was born in Washington state in 1978, the baby of the family. He was lucky enough to grow up in Hawaii, Japan and various places within mainland U.S.
Jed first discovered the didgeridoo in 2001 - while watching a movie, he was struck by the ethereal tones of the strange instrument playing in the background music. Always eager to understand new things, he immediately set out to discover the source of this music. A thorough search of the Internet helped Jed to learn that the instrument he had heard was called a didgeridoo - a pipe played by native Australians. More research uncovered the high cost of purchasing an authentic wooden didgeridoo, so Jed decided to try and find a cheaper version on which he could learn. Finally, he found a bamboo didgeridoo for a reasonable amount and began the task of learning to play. Using websites as his guide, Jed taught himself how to make several different sounds out of his didgeridoo, and then went on to learn the art of circular breathing - playing without pausing to take a breath. He listened to as much didgeridoo music as he could find, and learned to mimic the sounds he heard. In a never-ending hunger for more knowledge of the didgeridoo, Jed came across many different types of the instrument, from wooden didges, to agave ones, and even plastic didgeridoos. The plastic didgeridoos he found seemed very unappealing, both in appearance and in sound quality. Thus began the quest to create a more 'natural' looking plastic didgeridoo. Through special treatment of the PVC pipe, Jed is now able to make didgeridoos that both look and sound more like wooden ones, for a fraction of the cost. In the course of his research on didgeridoos, Jed came across a band called "The Wicked Tinkers" who featured a didgeridoo player in their Celtic band. They agreed to purchase some of Jed's didgeridoos, and sell them from their booth as they travel the US to play at Scottish Highland Games. Creating his own business, "The Didgeridoo Shack", Jed decided to market his product and now has a small handful of customers - "The Wicked Tinkers" still remain his best customer to date. In 2005, Jed was asked to play with "The Wicked Tinkers" for a few performances, so he proudly donned his kilt, tailor-made by "Neo Kilts", and gladly accepted the challenge. Jed married the love of his life in 2005 also - ironically enough, she comes from Australia!
