copyright infringement by Jimmy W

Well, I was wondering what to write for a bio, and then remembered I had written a long, rambling e-mail to an old friend in San Diego that pretty much encapsulates my adult life from 1972 to early 2006. Being old and wise enough to grasp the concept of  conservation of energy, I decided to use it here. Oh... yeah, about my self portraits. Can't seem to figure out the camera's timer thing...

I lived in Ocean Beach CA, near San Diego in the early 70's. It was a small surfer town that had a cool, laid-back hippy/ natural foods vibe. Strangely, it had no music scene to speak of, but the weather was great. I hung around Fred Longworths' "Mad Electronic Man"  repair shop asking questions, when to my surprise, he hired me.  He is a very patient man, and taught me to be fearless when confronted with contrary electronic devices. This has stood me in good stead throughout my career.
	...I left California and went back to Washington, PA. Worked for RCA for awhile (just an assembly job, but I knew which side of the soldering iron to hold, dammit), and saved up some bucks to buy some musical gear and electronic tools. Did some gigging (guitar), odd jobs, built the worlds strangest guitar amp, went through welding school on the CETA program (thanks, Jimmy Carter!), and hooked up with some friends and fellow hippies and bought an immense old General Store in a small town in PA. Spent a terrible, freezing winter in it while working as a machinist/ welder for 3 bucks an hour (the great 70's depression was in full force in PA). That really sucked, so I went in on 150 acres in West Virginia in 1977 intending to do the Foxfire Mother Nature News settler thing. Here's where the story takes a right turn... instead of moving to WVa with my friends, another pal offered to put me up for awhile in Key West. I hitchhiked on down in the fall of '78 with 50 bucks and have been here ever since, though theloveofmylife Melody (20 years now!} and I are finally getting around to putting up a house on the property in WVa.
Key West in the late 70's was a lot like OB... lotsa hippies and cool natural stuff stores and small oddball businesses, but windsurfers instead of boards. A real sense of community, and so far laid back that OB seemed like Pittsburgh. The whole town was sort of moldering genteelly into the rich tropical loam. I died and went to heaven as Island Boy.  And it was blessedly WARM. It turned out that there was a vibrant and original music scene going on, and I, frankly, wasn't up to snuff as a guitarist. I mean, these players were GOOD.
	I found my niche as the village Electron Smith, and have only recently stopped repairing gear. What I found was a real passion for recording, and I actually built my own gear in the time honored tradition of engineers of that era, though I wasn't that good at it, just poor.  I've done many sound installs, recordings, and concerts, some with famous and/ or talented people. It's hard to believe that our business Private Ear Recording Studio is 20 years old this Feb. During the 80s and 90's, I also picked up bass and had a blast doing the Duval St. club thing. Strangely, they're still doing the same songs for about the same pay down there...
The funny thing is, I'm at a whole 'nother crossroads. Maybe it was being smacked around by hurricanes all summer, but something inside busted loose in November (2005). I started working with 6 years of digital photography using a technique I call digital Origami. Melody was in Canada, the studio had no work, so I spent 4 days hardly sleeping or eating and produced almost a hundred images. As a local paper quoted me "I wasn't visited by the Muse, I was mugged!"  I had a well received show in December at a local gallery in December, and another one on March 1st. This is a rush. I've never been prolific in any of my artistic endeavors, or nearly this confident. Good thing there's some compensation for getting older..

This last Spring (2006), I started traveling with Scott Kirby to play bass for festival and corporate gigs...