In our Own Words

Alex Bullen

"At an early age I decided I wanted to try it all - so I did! From piano lessons to choir, marching band to orchestra, garage bands to songwriting, music production to beatmaking, instrument repair to directing videos, jazz improvisation to teaching technical exercises, there's no greater joy than being creative with and for other people. 

I'm influenced by rock music of all generations, jazz, funk, pop, blues, hip hop, soul, and folk. Let's just say if Pink Floyd and the Red Hot Chili Peppers raised a baby on a diet of Joe Bonamassa and BB King and then sent them out into the world with an acoustic guitar and a drum machine... I might enjoy jamming with them!"

Caitlyn Townsend

"I started playing guitar at age 13, eventually going out on street corners busking. I didn't do my first open mic until age 37, at which time I was invited to be a part of the Denver Rocker's unplugged gig at the Lion's Lair. Since then I've been playing open mics here and there, met Alex at Rockabilly's, and look forward to what comes next!

My influences are primarily the Beatles and Fleetwood Mac, to Weird Al Yankovic and Stevie Ray Vaughan."

Jason Peters

"I was a pretty quiet kid verbally, except when I wasn't, but I was always drawn to other ways of making noise. My first instrument may have been a coffee can, until I upgraded to a full kit of pots and pans. Then came the fascination with guitar. When I saw Back to the Future when I was 11 years old, I went from "I wanna play guitar..." to "I'm GOING to play guitar!"  I don't remember how long it took me to drive everyone crazy begging, pleading, promising lawns would be mowed and offering my little everlasting soul for a guitar, but it seemed like an eternity. Finally, my gramma (who played guitar, piano, and sang lead and harmony in church, with her sisters, and for us kids) bought me my first little Spanish-style steel six string and it was ON. I ditched the Mel Bay chords books pretty quickly for the Compleat Beatles chord books and I had the map.

I found in making music that seemingly hard barriers between us and our shared world, each other, ourselves and our own heart, and any other walls between us and a state of harmony...these seemingly hard barriers dissolve and seemingly discordant vibrations in and between all of us harmonize to head to the same better place. Whoa, run-on sentence alert...gotta go. Time to Rock!"

"Let us all be like drops of water flowing in the same direction" - Hawaiian Proverb

"I'm actually in the transportation business, moving minds, souls, and spirits," - Mickey Hart - the Grateful Dead

Frank Herman

"I started playing in 1963. Thanks to a really wonderful friend, I got my hands on a real guitar, and then the Beatles happened - words fail! Hello Rock!  My Mom got me a guitar lesson with a teacher named Mr. Blaha (aptly named), but he hadn't heard of the Beatles (!) and only wanted to show me one note at a time. KILL ME! But shortly after, I found a song book with pictures of the chords - eureka!

It was all about being able to get up on the bandstand back then, but everyone played guitar (and better than me at the time). So, I learned the Cowboy Chords (but no virtuosity 😔) on a bunch of other instruments  (Washburn mandolin, anonymous high school band beginner violin, Recording King banjo, Martin D-18 acoustic, Yamaha Yari 12-string, Nuvo Recorder, Casio midi keyboard) that few musicians played in a typical rock jam. Omigod, the schlepping though 🙄! 

But that got me right up on the stage. I soon caught up with the other rhythm guitarists (now working on my Gilmore-ish leads) with my Fender American Telecaster, and my rock goal was complete! Since then, I've met so many incredible musicians and folks in the audience (yes!) who taught me so much - and now I get to share it with people just like you!"

"If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music" - Albert Einstein

"Most people die with their music still locked up inside them" - Benjamin Disraeli