MARK SALES
Guitar & Vocals
I have always loved music, particularly rock and roll. From the time I first saw the Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan show, I was hooked. I started buying albums by all the greats--- from the Beatles to the Stones, Dylan, the Grateful Dead and the Airplane, to Pink Floyd and Yes. All available funds were spent building my dream record collection. In high school, I bought my first guitar, an Alvarez acoustic, and began learning the basics. I never took formal lessons, instead picking it up from fakebooks and from other guitar players. That continued though undergrad. After graduation, I was torn between buying a stratocaster (a white one like Hendrix played at Woodstock) and joining a rock band or going on to law school. My wife put her foot down on that decision so rock stardom had to wait.
After law school, I joined the Hughes and Luce law firm, where I ran into a bunch of other guys who had similar suppressed rock and roll urges. We started playing together and formed a somewhat free flowing garage band called Big Limo. I bought my first electric--a cherry red (always the best color to start with) American made Fender Stratacaster and I acquired a hand-me-down Peavey tube amp. I was set to go. We began playing at private party events, known as keg jams, where everybody would get up and do a song or two or just join in. What the music lacked in quality, we made up for in beer infused enthusiasm and rock and roll spirit. Pretty soon, each of us ran into other thirty-, or, in some cases forty-, something rock and roll wannabes outside the firm, which resulted in the formation of several different bands. That in turn led to the first of the Hughes and Luce Battle of the Bands events, which continue (7 and counting) to this day.
In my case, I ran into some other dads of my vintage (although I clearly was the youngest) in Lake Highlands who played instruments. We had been asked to do something for our kids' talent show. We chose to participate by playing a couple of songs--Chuck Berry's Johnny B. Goode was the consensus favorite. Because we enjoyed perfoming together so much and we all had the same love of classic rock and roll, we decided to form our own band and keep playing. The Catdaddies were born. Since then, I've discovered "the" rock and roll rule of physics--that music gear will expand into all available space. I now have a Fender Telecaster, Gibson SG, Gibson Les Paul, a new amp, and an ownership interest in enough music equipment, monitors, sound boards, wires, mics, etc. to make even The Who envious. My wife wonders when it will all stop. My answer is never--because you're never too old to rock and roll. Just look at Mick Jagger. I'm a kid in comparison and if he can still do it, so can I!
-- Mark Sales
Guitar & Vocals
I have always loved music, particularly rock and roll. From the time I first saw the Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan show, I was hooked. I started buying albums by all the greats--- from the Beatles to the Stones, Dylan, the Grateful Dead and the Airplane, to Pink Floyd and Yes. All available funds were spent building my dream record collection. In high school, I bought my first guitar, an Alvarez acoustic, and began learning the basics. I never took formal lessons, instead picking it up from fakebooks and from other guitar players. That continued though undergrad. After graduation, I was torn between buying a stratocaster (a white one like Hendrix played at Woodstock) and joining a rock band or going on to law school. My wife put her foot down on that decision so rock stardom had to wait.
After law school, I joined the Hughes and Luce law firm, where I ran into a bunch of other guys who had similar suppressed rock and roll urges. We started playing together and formed a somewhat free flowing garage band called Big Limo. I bought my first electric--a cherry red (always the best color to start with) American made Fender Stratacaster and I acquired a hand-me-down Peavey tube amp. I was set to go. We began playing at private party events, known as keg jams, where everybody would get up and do a song or two or just join in. What the music lacked in quality, we made up for in beer infused enthusiasm and rock and roll spirit. Pretty soon, each of us ran into other thirty-, or, in some cases forty-, something rock and roll wannabes outside the firm, which resulted in the formation of several different bands. That in turn led to the first of the Hughes and Luce Battle of the Bands events, which continue (7 and counting) to this day.
In my case, I ran into some other dads of my vintage (although I clearly was the youngest) in Lake Highlands who played instruments. We had been asked to do something for our kids' talent show. We chose to participate by playing a couple of songs--Chuck Berry's Johnny B. Goode was the consensus favorite. Because we enjoyed perfoming together so much and we all had the same love of classic rock and roll, we decided to form our own band and keep playing. The Catdaddies were born. Since then, I've discovered "the" rock and roll rule of physics--that music gear will expand into all available space. I now have a Fender Telecaster, Gibson SG, Gibson Les Paul, a new amp, and an ownership interest in enough music equipment, monitors, sound boards, wires, mics, etc. to make even The Who envious. My wife wonders when it will all stop. My answer is never--because you're never too old to rock and roll. Just look at Mick Jagger. I'm a kid in comparison and if he can still do it, so can I!
-- Mark Sales