I was born and raised in Vallejo, CA in 1950. At the early age of 8 years old my Aunt gave me her old HI-FI record player along with records like Elvis's HOUND DOG and DON'T BE CRUEL, Bill Haley's ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK, Little Richard's LONG TALL SALLY, RIP IT UP, READY TEDDY, and SLIPPIN' N' SLIDDIN'. I would play these records over and over till I could sing them on my own.

Around 1963-64, during the "British invasion", I joined my first band. We played local sock hops and school dances. We, of course, played our share of the Beatles and other top 40 songs at that time or what ever we could learn to play. Around 1965-66 we started gravitating towards early Stones and Animals blues covers. This led us to eventually wonder who HOOKER, KING, MORGANFIELD, and BURNETT were. That was the beginnings of my "blues discovery" and interest. We began playing different cuts from PAUL BUTTERFIELD, JOHN MAYALL LPS among other blues masters.

The Bill Graham era that I grew up in introduced white audiences to the classic blues players. I got a chance to see a lot of my hero's: Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Walters, Chuck Berry, B. B. King, Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker, Albert King, Earl Hooker, Freddie King, James Cotton, Bobby Blue Bland, Eric Clapton, Paul Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield, John Mayall. They're all amazing and larger than life figures in blues music! The first show I went to was at the Fillmore West to see Janis Joplin with Howlin' Wolf on the bill, that was big eye-opener.

In my earlier years the venues for blues musicians were plentiful. That's not always the case nowadays, however a new legion of blues players are reviving and pushing the music. I like to count myself in those numbers of players trying to save and continue this American music. I try to mix West Coast and Jump Blues with Chicago and Texas Blues. I love them all and the sounds do overlap. Although I mostly consider myself an "unknown", I'm building a good reputation with club owners for keeping customers till the last of the show!

Big Jim Sprankle