Of Irish-Candian, Afro-American and Native North American Indian descent and born in the early sixties into a house full of music, it was Bryan's earliest dream to become a musician. That was solidified into a goal when he heard Jimi Hendrix's version of "Hey Joe", must have been 1967. The sound of his guitar spoke to him more clearly than any words had before or since. The guitar had to wait though...having small hands and a jazz singer for a mother...Bryan's musical journey was to begin with alto sax. When he was 14 when he started playing sax... and played into his late teens until he sold it for cash, so he could go on a motorbike trip with his buddy. Something Bryan's mother still brings up as she would've loved for him to stick with the sax.
Being Canadian and living in Vancouver in the 70's, the FM radio at that time was awesome for the Rock & Roll of that era...Led Zep, Hendrix, Santana, ELP, Bob Dylan, The Who, CSN&Y, Deep Purple, Bad Company, Pink Floyd, the Doobie Brothers etc, etc...He was very influenced and inspired by guitar oriented improvisation-friendly rock, folk and jazz. Bryan picked up the guitar and mucked around with friends...it was as natural as breathing and it quickly became his best friend. In Theatre Arts School, he was cast as a guitar playing Hillbilly and from having to learn more chords and notes that he had learned before, he was now playing for real.
From the mid-eighties to the late nineties Bryan played professionally in various rock, blues, jazz and folk bands. Playing live, touring, recording, doing music videos and producing albums was his life for about 15 years.
A spiritual awakening and then Australia bound finds Bryan playing with Fir Croi since Janurary of 2003. After connecting with Mike at the Men's Group the rest as they say is history or in their case future, for there is plenty more to come from this unique combination of personalities and styles
|