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During Christmas vacation that year a friend and I went to Tijuana, Mexico and I bought a guitar for $10. It was a piece of junk but I loved it. For reasons I don't recall, I packaged it, insured it for $50 and mailed it to myself at college. When it arrived a week or so later, the neck was broken and separated from the guitar body. I ultimately collected the insurance money, bought a better guitar, a chord book and was on my way. Folk music was booming at the time. I loved the music and its simplicity was perfect for a guy who only knew a handful of chords. After college, I sang and played mostly for my own enjoyment. Occasionally I'd get together with other musicians with the idea of forming a group but nothing ever seemed to last very long. In the mid-70's, I performed publicly for the first time at a church festival. At that time, I was doing a lot of John Prine material (I consider him to be one of the best singer-song writers of this era). People liked the songs and since no one had ever heard of John Prine I couldn't be compared to anyone. The best of all worlds! I continued to perform publicly doing eclectic material and some of my own songs. In the early 80's I took a few guitar lessons from Adam Speth, a studio musician and former big time band member. Adam suggested I get together with Tom Steele, one of his former students. Tom was playing the church festival circuit doing a lot of John Stewart material. We didn't know each other very well and didn't get together until August 1986. That first night, we sat around my dining room table and awkwardly tried to figure out what songs we had in common. It finally dawned on us that the common thread was The Kingston Trio. We played for awhile and I asked Tom if it was OK with him if I invited over a banjo-playing friend who was a huge Kingston Trio fan. Tom said sure and I called Rich Debevec. Rich was there in no time. The addition of the banjo seemed to make it all work and we decided to get together again. We did that for awhile and in October 1986 played publicly for the first time at a church festival. We called ourselves "The California Trio". After a couple of years of playing festivals and private parties, I asked Jim Miles, a bass player & friend, if he'd be interested in playing with The Trio. Jim's musical roots are in jazz but he said he'd give it a try. We got together sometime in 1989 and it clicked immediately. Jim fit right in with the group and learned the music quickly. What a difference the bass made to The Trio's sound! Not only was the music better but, as far as we know, we then became the world's largest trio. It's hard to believe that The California Trio has been together for over 20 years! We've played everything from church festivals to The House of Blues and are still having a great time doing something we all love. It's one of the joys of my life! EQUIPMENT: Guitar: 1995 Larrivee LO9 six-string guitar with Fishman Acoustic Matrix pickup Guitar: 1972 Martin D28S six-string guitar with Fishman Acoustic Matrix pickup Strings: D'Addario medium gauge phosphor bronze strings And on occasion... Accordion: The Rivoli "Little Maestro" accordion (circa late 1940's - early 1950's) Click here for Larry's E-MAIL |
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