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BIRTHDAY: May 1954
ORIGINALLY FROM: Casper, Wyoming, but formative years were spent in L.A.. One can hardly recognize my Wyoming accent anymore.
INSTRUMENT: Guitar
ADDITIONAL INSTRUMENTS: Tried the banjo off and on since high school. It's in the off position at the moment.
PERSON WHO MOST INFLUENCED YOUR MUSIC CAREER: Stephen Stills, Leo Kottke, Mark Knopfler. John Fahey. The Oregon Valley Boys were big motivators, too.
FAVORITE SONG "A River of Tears" by Eric Clapton is a nice one. "I'll See You In My Dreams" by Merle Travis. Beautiful.
FAVORITE ARTIST: Mark Knopfler is Mr. Versatile. He can deftly pick a ragtime tune or rock out with lots of distortion and it always sounds great. He does it all by fingerpicking. Writes great melodies and lyrics.
FIRST ALBUM PURCHASED: Not sure, but one of these three: "Buffalo Springfield Again" by Buffalo Springfield; "Doc Watson" by D.W.; or "Rubber Soul" by the Beatles.
WEBSITE: www.pazdesigngroup.com (my day job)
When approaching catering & asking yourself "What am I going to have for dinner" what do you always hope won't be the answer? Cold lima beans: the uneatable vegetable. (Little known fact: cold lima beans are one of the universal antidotes; helps to empty the stomach quickly.)
What have you lost on the road that you would most like to retrieve? A 35mm Nikormat camera with 24mm Nikkor lens, which slid off of the top of my car (Who put THAT there?) somewhere near Santa Cruz, CA in 1975. If you have any information, please leave your name and number.
Your name spelled backwards? Zap Snagnier. (Hint: hold your computer screen up to a mirror, and the name appears almost readable again!)
Were you ever in a school play? No. How about you?
What type of music do you dislike the most? Opera. I like everything about it except the singing.
Favorite pizza topping? Feta cheese, greek olives, sun-dried tomatoes... very perky.
All time favorite Saturday Night Live character? THE LOUD FAMILY!
File your taxes at the beginning of the year or wait until April 15th? "I'm sorry, senator, but I don't recall..."
Do you have a pre-show ritual and if so what is it? Make sure my shoes are tied and that my clothes are not on backwards.
Favorite song to karaoke to? "Faded Love" by Shawn Colvin and Lyle Lovett (I do the Lyle Lovett part)
Dance halls or County Fairs/Festival? Is this a rhetorical question?
If you were to rename the band, what would you name them? The Pneumatics, masters of air guitar!
If you were to choose another profession what would it be? Paper clip designer. I like doing variations on a theme.
Jessica Simpson or Britney Spears? Wouldn't you like to know...
Who makes the best hamburger in the Willamette Valley? My lovely wife, Suzanne.
If you could choose the TV channel on the bus, what channel would everyone else be watching? So, another trick question! If everyone else is watching, then who is driving? (Is this the correct answer?)
If you could star in a movie who would your female (or male if you're a girl ;) co-star be? One of these two: Marjorie Main (aka, Ma Kettle) or Maria del Rosario Pilar Martinez Molina Gutierrez de los Perales Santa Ana Romanguera y de la Hinojosa Rasten (born January 15, 1951), better known as Charo.
If they were to make a movie about your life who would wish they would cast as you? Wally Cox.
Biography
I started playing my sister's guitar when I was 12. She had a $25 nylon-stringed guitar that she purchased in Tijuana. Five years later, I saved up my money from flippin' burgers at Frank's Charbroiler, and I bought a used Martin D28S from McCabe's in Santa Monica. What a big, beautiful sound that guitar made!
In high school, a couple of friends and I tried to start a jug band but we had no idea what we were doing (and more important, nobody wanted to listen to us).
In 1976, I was auditioning for a guitar seminar at McCabe's that was taught by John Fahey, the guitarist and music producer for Leo Kottke and George Winston. I played a couple of my own melodies for the audition, and Fahey asked me if I had considered making a demo. Well, no, I hadn't, I said. The seminar was later cancelled, but I carried the compliment with me for about 20 years until I ran into him at the Guitar Castle guitar shop in Salem, Oregon. I approached him like a groupie, thanked him for the compliment from 20 years before and told him I would get that demo together real soon.
Like a lot of guitar players, I pine over the "lost love", those guitars that we wish we still had. Just before I moved to Oregon in 1979, I had a Gibson E334 hollow-body electric and a Fender Deluxe Reverb tube amp. I decided to sell it all and made a killing: I got $600 for both, about twice what I paid for them used. I saw recently the same guitar selling for $3,500. (Oh, the humanity!)
I moved to Oregon in 1979. Two years I later married Suzanne and we have raised four beautiful children. Two are excellent musicians: Colin (bass and keyboards) and Sophia (keyboards, drums, guitar). It's a joy to play music with my kids!
My first experience with a band started 11 years ago playing in my church on Sundays. I enjoyed having structure and purpose to playing, but I wanted more play time.
Enter the Oregon Valley Boys, kings of western swing.
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