| George Ellsworth hails from the factory town of Leominster, Massachusetts where he spent
most of his early years "wandering around empty lots & collecting stuff
no one else wanted". It was the same thing with music. Late nights in bed
with a transistor radio to his ear, picking up the distant sounds of blues
& country along with the not so distant AM radio sounds of the sixties.
The Beatles, Stones, Bob Dylan, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, John Hartford,
The Supremes. The list goes on & on. Later on came Robert Johnson,
Mississippi John Hurt, Lightnin' Hopkins, Louis Jordan, Doc Watson, Hank
Williams & Uncle Dave Macon. "There isn't enough paper here to name
the people that have influenced me over the years & I'm still listening
and learning from the old masters and the young kids alike." Of his
first meeting with Phil Hicks he says "We became buddies right away. It
was like meeting someone that you used to know. And when the music came
together so well, you wondered how you had ever gotten along without it. |
Phil Hicks was born & raised in Cincinnati, Ohio where "the style of
music you heard depended on which part of town you happened to be in".
Cincinnati's location on the Mason-Dixon line earned it the name "Gateway
to the South" & it was here that the young Phil Hicks soaked up Traditional
Blues, Country, Bluegrass, Gospel, Pop and Rhythm & Blues. Early influences
include Fats Waller, Cab Calloway & Louis Jordan. Then came George
Clinton, Joni Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix, James Taylor, Steely Dan & too
many others to mention here. His musical training came from a father who
played clarinet in show & marching bands & a mother who taught
classical piano. As a teen he was a Drum Major in his high school band's
"Marching Cowboys" and at Amherst College a vocalist in the distinguished
A Capella band, the "Zumbyes". Of his first meeting with Ellsworth, he
recalls "We were at a party where everyone was drinking tea & talking
about art. I went outside for a little, you know, fresh air & there
was Ellsworth, sitting in his car, listening to the radio. We started talking
music & he invited me to sit in at a couple of his gigs. Before you
knew it we were a team. |
