Bucks Owin
Well-known member
I'm called Dennis and I've hailed from all over the west, B.C. to Kalifornia.
I started messing around with an old beater of a Silvertone acoustic at the age of seven and when Mom saw that I was serious about learning to play it she helped me buy a used Danelectro for $45 in the early 60's. Dad owned a 2 pup Harmony "Rocket" that was mine to use too. Back then Chet Atkins was my hero and I used to string up with the heaviest Gretsch flat wounds I could find. Callouses? Oh yeah! lol
To my extreme embarassment, mom got me my first "gig" in grade 5 when I played "Wheels" at a school assembly. Talk about nervous! Soon after she had me on a local TV talent show where I appeared a half dozen times and attracted the interest of a guitar teacher who promised to teach me to learn to read music. However, he mostly just came over to the house to drink Dad's beer and jam in the frequent "hootenanys" we used to have. I still can't read very well but can stumble through slowly....
Took a few years "off" after that to play baseball and other "normal" kid activities but was into my first band (The Shocks! lol) when I was 12 or 13. We did some sock hops and discovered that girls kinda liked musicians it seemed. I was usually in some kind of band for the next 20+ yrs and lived the "highs" (!) and lows of that lifestyle. I found myself playing for the "partying" and not the music. Became an alcoholic drug abuser and quit my first wife and daughter after 13 yrs.....
Met my current wife in 1988 and decided to quit the "music biz" and get a REAL job. Learned to drive truck, bought a house, had two great kids and generally led a "normal" life. My wife managed bar in a veteran's club and our two incomes seemed like Easy Street for awhile. In 1998 she injured her back in a fall and became permanently disabled. In 2001, I suffered a back injury too with the same end result. We hit the slippery slope of overwhelming debt after that and lost the house last year.
These days I can't drive truck or lift more than 20 lbs. I can't sit, stand or lie down for longer than about an hour each. I have a lot of time on my hands and find myself "rediscovering" my guitars. I'm gung ho to play professionally again, this time drug and alcohol free. (For the past 6 years!) Music sounds sweeter than ever and the recent purchase of a Nashville Power Tele has me working out a couple hours a day once more, reclaiming a lot of my old licks and plenty of new ones. Musical life is good again!
Hope to make some new friends, learn some new stuff and swap some "war stories of the road" with you folks. Besides guitar, I play bass, 5 string banjo, mandolin and a little bit of pedal steel and fiddle......
That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
FWIW,
Dennis
I started messing around with an old beater of a Silvertone acoustic at the age of seven and when Mom saw that I was serious about learning to play it she helped me buy a used Danelectro for $45 in the early 60's. Dad owned a 2 pup Harmony "Rocket" that was mine to use too. Back then Chet Atkins was my hero and I used to string up with the heaviest Gretsch flat wounds I could find. Callouses? Oh yeah! lol
To my extreme embarassment, mom got me my first "gig" in grade 5 when I played "Wheels" at a school assembly. Talk about nervous! Soon after she had me on a local TV talent show where I appeared a half dozen times and attracted the interest of a guitar teacher who promised to teach me to learn to read music. However, he mostly just came over to the house to drink Dad's beer and jam in the frequent "hootenanys" we used to have. I still can't read very well but can stumble through slowly....
Took a few years "off" after that to play baseball and other "normal" kid activities but was into my first band (The Shocks! lol) when I was 12 or 13. We did some sock hops and discovered that girls kinda liked musicians it seemed. I was usually in some kind of band for the next 20+ yrs and lived the "highs" (!) and lows of that lifestyle. I found myself playing for the "partying" and not the music. Became an alcoholic drug abuser and quit my first wife and daughter after 13 yrs.....
Met my current wife in 1988 and decided to quit the "music biz" and get a REAL job. Learned to drive truck, bought a house, had two great kids and generally led a "normal" life. My wife managed bar in a veteran's club and our two incomes seemed like Easy Street for awhile. In 1998 she injured her back in a fall and became permanently disabled. In 2001, I suffered a back injury too with the same end result. We hit the slippery slope of overwhelming debt after that and lost the house last year.
These days I can't drive truck or lift more than 20 lbs. I can't sit, stand or lie down for longer than about an hour each. I have a lot of time on my hands and find myself "rediscovering" my guitars. I'm gung ho to play professionally again, this time drug and alcohol free. (For the past 6 years!) Music sounds sweeter than ever and the recent purchase of a Nashville Power Tele has me working out a couple hours a day once more, reclaiming a lot of my old licks and plenty of new ones. Musical life is good again!
Hope to make some new friends, learn some new stuff and swap some "war stories of the road" with you folks. Besides guitar, I play bass, 5 string banjo, mandolin and a little bit of pedal steel and fiddle......
That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
FWIW,
Dennis
ancake: 
:beer:
