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Coming from a musical family - a grandfather
who played and built violins, a grandmother who played piano,
and a father and several uncles who played sax in jazz bands
during the depression - Bruce couldn't help but begin life
with an affinity to music. His first memories include hearing
Gene Krupa drum solos on his dad's phono and imitating them
on his mom's pots and pans. By junior high, after a stint
at playing the sax in the school band, he was playing "Ringo"
at parties on borrowed drum sets.
In the Summer of '65, he finally talked
his parents into letting him have a drum set and began playing
in local bands in North Little Rock, Arkansas. His new heroes
were Ginger Baker, Keith Moon, Mitch Mitchell, Corky Laing,
and Carmen Appice. His groups were the first to play Jimi
Hendrix and Cream and the Yardbirds in the area and were well
known for playing the newest music. But, being from Arkansas,
he couldn't escape the influence of the blues, being the home
of James Cotton and other blues artists, or the influence
of soul men like James Brown.
Vietnam threw a wrench into everyone's lives,
and Bruce landed in Texas as an Air Force Instructor, playing
Waylon and Willie, Hank Williams, and others at the local
bars and Officer's clubs.
Since those early days, Bruce has played
consistently in bands running the gamut from rock to reggae
and from country to jazz-fusion. He's played with Faron Young,
the Urban Cowboy Band, and at Mickey Gilley's Fourth of July
Picnic in Houston. During the '80's, Bruce played with the
rockabilly group Ebo and the Tomcats, who worked as the backup
band for Rockabilly star Dale Hawkins, and he's played opening
act for Delbert McClinton, Berlin, and Sleepy LaBeef. His
latest venture was as a member of the OC jazz-fusion group
Rough Mix, nominated as Best Jam Band in the 2004 OC Music
Awards.
Bruce is happy to be the newest member of
DMR and loves the variety and quality of music the group plays.
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