Dave is one of the best guitar players I've ever shared a stage with. He has also as of late become quite the songwriter.
Bio
Born in Fort Worth, Texas, April 30th, 1955. Being the son of a preacher exposed Dave to music as a young child. His Grandmother was a piano teacher, and one of Dave's earliest memories was standing next to his Grandfather playing a guitar while playing a mouth harp around his neck. His Mother played the piano, his Dad, two brothers and sister also played the guitar. He would wait until the guitar was left unattended, which usually meant his brother had left the house and Dave would play the guitar until he got caught .
"There was music everywhere. Home , church, car radio. There were always older men and women standing around me in the pews at church singing harmony. Some better than others. You could sing as loud as you wanted to. I was always trying to sing harmony, even if I didn't know the words."
"At home, the music coming out of the record player was Ricky Nelson. Without realizing it I was molding my ears to what a great guitarist should sound like. I was listening to James Burton and didn't even know it. Records back then didn't tell you who was playing, just the singer. I was listening to Marty Robbins, Everly Brothers, and my sister came home with "Meet the Beatles." I knew at that moment that I wanted to be in a band. I think it had something to do with the screaming girls"
But as years went on life as a musician wasn't where Dave was headed. He was one of the top pole vaulters in Texas and his last year of high school he was being offered many chances to attend Universities of his choice on a track scholarship. That summer during a Karate match his knee was torn so bad that it required surgery and years of rehabilitation. It was during that time the focus became guitar and nothing else.
"I had lost my chance to be a great athlete and recovery wasn't as swift as it is today. I was in a cast for almost a year and that's when I played night and day. I wasn't interested in the electric guitar yet. I wanted to follow in James Taylor's footsteps so I was singing in coffee houses in college towns. "
Dave spent the next few years living in East Texas and playing any gig that would pay him a little money to get by day to day. It was in a little club in Nacadogoches that he met Sonny Terry, one of the most famous delta blues singers ever, from the famed Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee.
"I played a few shows as a warm up act for them and Sonny's driver had to leave to go back to Philly to visit his sick mother for a while. So Sonny asked me if I would drive him around in his white Cadillac until his driver got back. We would sit in his hotel room and Sonny would sing, play his harp and stomp his feet while I tried to play like Brownie. I recorded a few of those nights and I was pretty bad. Sonny was great and he would sing all these songs and help me along. He must of thought , this white boy would never be a blues guitar player."
Almost 30 years have passed since Dave sat with Sonny Terry in that small hotel room in East Texas. He has shared the stage with Bobby Whitlock, Steve Cropper, Chuck Berry , Bonnie Raitt, Vince Gill, Jerry Williams, Lee Roy Parnell, Albert Collins, Ray Sharpe, Robert Ealey, Bruce Channell, Sam Meyers, Boz Scaggs, Hubert Sumlin, Stephen Bruton , Kim Wilson, Joe Ely and many others. He spent many years as Delbert McClinton's touring guitarist playing all over the world, which won him a Grammy nomination in 1989 for Best Contemporary Blues Album, "Live In Austin."
His first CD, "Nothing But Troubles," was done with the help of some very notable guitarist themselves , Stephen Bruton and Ray Sharpe.
"Stephen Bruton and Ray Sharpe have been friends of mine for over 20 years. Steve played on a few of my cuts as did Ray Sharpe. Ray played lead on his own 1959 #1 hit Linda Lu that I choose for my CD along with a cast of some of the finest musicians anywhere including Kaz Kazanoff [sax], Nick Connolly [keys], Lewis Stephens [B-3], Gunzy Trevino [drums], Sumpter Bruton [guitar]}, Jim Milan [bass] Richard Millsap {percussion} and Rollo Smith [guitar]."
