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This is an
album inspired by Amsterdam's quaint bohemian
atmosphere, its picturesque canals, rickety-shack
houses, mellow coffeeshops, narrow alleyways,
houseboats, cannabis culture and the Red-light
district.
I'm an American guitarist and songwriter now
residing in Europe. I write music when inspited
and make recordings when I have what it takes to
do that for a selective coffee house rendezvous
type audience. The environment I grew up in had a
great influence on my creativity. It was Chicago's South East Side, in the
area that comprised the former Hyde
Park Township where many Americans such as
President Barak
Obama came
from. To be exect, I grew up in that part of the
Township that was near Calumet
City where
during the Prohibition night clubs featured Las
Vegas-style showgirl revues and artists such as Sun Ra, Frank
Sinatra, Sophie
Tucker, Keith
Speaks or Gypsy
Rose Lee
used to play. Calumet City was also featured or
mentioned in many major
movies and
went by many different names such as The Strip or
Sin City. Calumet in North American
Indian language means "Peace Pipe" so
some of us also used to call it "Peace Pipe
City". I believe that Calumet City was the
prototype for Las
Vegas, and
in many ways was an oasis of freedom like Amsterdam in the Netherlands (Holland)
still is today. The only things remaining after
those heydays of Cal City are American music and
culture and the many happy memories from a
different era. Later, I moved to the heart of
Chicago's Gold
Coast near
Rush
Street and
Old
Town,
where an illegal backhouse tavern operated on
Wells Street through the 1970-80s called The
Blues Brothers Bar that was started by John Belushi
and Dan Aykroyd who later became better known
from their 1980 Blues
Brothers
movie.
Chicago is the home of Sunset
Cafe, Blues
Brothers and many types of American
music such as the Big
Bands, Jazz, Gospel
music, Rhytm
& Blues, Soul
music, Country music Barn
Dance later called Grand
Ole Opre, Chicago
Blues, House
Music, Acid
House music, Hip-Hop called Chi-town
and much
more... It was also a great American
folk music revival center for an
elite group of the bohemian scene in the 1950s
and early 1960s. Like many Chicago
musicians, I didn't take guitar lessons
but learned music from friends and on the
street because in those days music was
everywhere in my town. So, I developed my
own style and method that I call "Street
Style" that is different from what
one would learn in a music school in
those days. But basically speaking, what
I really learned was to play music from
the heart and the soul and not to pay
much attention on being technically
correct. Perhaps that's why many Chicago
songwriters and artists are not
necessarily the most gifted singers or
musicians. But they certainly are the
leading artists of the world that have
inspired many generations of younger
artists from around the world.
