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Hailing from the great state of Alabama ... he has been in Washington for more than half his life. JB has been in and around the music biz for a very long time. As the family story goes his uncle played guitar with Hank Williams in Hank's early bar days and Hank was a frequent visitor at grandma Bentley's place for some good ole' home cooking. Although lead guitarist for the Attitude and the Blues Torpedoes he was a late bloomer to playing the guitar. JB started out as a drummer in 1970 for a number of local Olympia bands. Playing with cats like Kevin Wire, Tim Hogan, Bob Hoskins and just jamming with a lot of other musicians in and around Olympia. In the late 70's JB dropped out of the music scene for about six years. When he emerged again in 1982 with the cover band Out of Hand. It featured Mel Buechel on vocals with Rick Wickman on keys, Tim Hogan on bass and Gary Gilbert on guitar. This band played a lot of party and special event gigs in the Olympia area. Then 1985 JB moved to California and Wisconsin for about 5 years. It was at this time he began playing more guitar and attending blues jams. Always a fan of the blues favored rock ... Clapton, Zeppelin, ZZ Top and Hendrix. JB began to look further into the blues ... and that was all she wrote ... he totally found what he was feeling when playing his guitar. SRV, Albert King, Freddie King, Otis Rush, John Lee Hooker just to name a few of his influences. |
| When JB returned to the Northwest in 1990 he hooked up with his old playing mates from the Out of Hand band ... this time with JB on rhythm guitar and added members Chris Miller on drums and Rob Petrozzi on guitar. But after about 6 months it was apparent that half the band wanted to go in a different direction. So JB and Mel split off in 1991 and there was a break of about two years while JB worked on his chops and dealt with some health issues. In early 1993 JB and Mel began holding jams to find players and in the summer of 93' the Blues Torpedoes played their first club gig with Gary Broers on rhythm guitar and vocals, Thurman Smith on bass, Vince Puntinay on drums. In late 94 JB met and ask T.Bone to join the Torpedoes. The Torps played for about 11 years all over the Northwest and recorded two CDs. In 1995 the Torps started promoting national blues acts to the Olympia area with the help of Sonny Julian. The band brought in Tab Beniot, Debbie Davies, Studebaker John, James Harman, Mark Hummel, Duffy Bishop, Too Slim and the Trialdraggers, Little Charlie and the Nightcats, John Hammonnd and Meria Muldra. JB was getting heavy into the Northwest blues scene traveling to jams, meeting Northwest players and working on the Blues-To-Do monthly with Marlee Walker. In 2000 JB and T.Bone were approached by Smoke and Perry Sanders, both from the Steamers Blues Band at the time, to start a blues jam in Olympia at the 4th Ave Alehouse. The foursome billed their jam band as "Blues Attitude" ... JB on guitar, T.Bone on bass, Smoke on the drums and front man Perry Sanders. About a year later Perry left the band and JB moved out front ... whoa. JB wants to continue to improve his playing, song writing and forward the progress of the blues in the Northwest. As he always sayz "we paint the blues with a big brush" |
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