For about 40 years now my cousin Tim and I have been playing music together in one form or another. We were heavily influenced by music at a very early age. Tim's Dad, our Grandpa, and our Uncle all played several instruments between them including, of course, guitar. Grandpa gave Tim and I our first instruments, although Tim was always sneaking into his Dad's Fender case for that old acoustic by the age of five. Tim's interest in music started when he was very young listening to his Dad play and sing, as did I. So, we always wanted to play guitar. His biggest influence came when he was 15 years old and saw Roy Buchanan on the local PBS channel. He had never heard a guitar player get the sounds out of a guitar or play like Roy did. Well, Tim was hooked on the blues from then on. In the late 70's and early 80's we were playing a lot of Southern Rock and blues covers around the area when we aquired good friend and long time drummer Milton Lewis. The three of us played together in several different configurations until, in the early 90's we got bassist Lindsey Purcell, formed SMALL TRAIN and started gravitating more towards blues inspired originals. Then in early '91, after writing several more original tunes, we hooked up with Max Jefferson to handle the lead throat and frontman duties. After one rehearsal we knew we had something bordering on magical. We went into the studio to cut a demo with four originals and two covers and started gigging extensively in Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky, with several performances at the W.C. Handy Blues Festival in Henderson, KY., and at blues contests and festivals in Memphis, Tennessee and Helena, Arkansas, playing our own brand of Blues/Rock/Fusion. So, later in '91 we went back into the studio armed with several more original tunes and cut our first album, "SMALL TRAIN ARRIVES" which has songs that have received more than favorable reviews in several places including "garageband.com", where one of the cuts, "A Year Ago Today", went to number two in the blues category. After being apart for several years, we played a huge party with former Blues Train bassist Charlie Crowe, from Evansville, Indiana, and lead throat, front man, guitarist, Jesse Sellers from Montgomery, Alabama. Jesse has played with: Sonny Boy Williamson II, Little Johnny Taylor, Clarence Carter, ZZ Hill, and Wilson Pickett. We realized the magic and the energy are still there. We are currently working on material for a new studio album, and we are putting the finishing touches on a live CD, "On Time". We will be gigging in the tri-state area again starting in February. We will be posting the gigs on this site as they come in.
Please leave a comment if you have listened to any of the songs on this page. If you would like info as to where to purchase a CD please use one of the email addresses in contacts .
Thanks, Jim
