Don Hoffman Bluz - Unfinished Business (2015)

Tracklist

01. I Remember the Day
02. Tomboy
03. Jansen's Boogie
04. Howlin' At the Moon
05. If I Were to Lose You
06. Pretty Pretty Pleased
07. Damned If I Do
08. Don't Know Why
09. Time
10. Unfinished Business



The scene was a Fire Hall on a Sunday evening. I was there as a kid, taggin' along to the tavern with my Dad. There was an accordion player hanging around after an afternoon party, and he was having a few beers and playing songs for the folks at the bar. My Dad bought him a beer and struck up a conversation, and before long the two of them were passing the accordion back and forth playing songs for each other. The session lasted a couple of hours over a pitcher or two of beer and it was right then and there, seeing the magic exchanged as those two bonded, that in my heart I became a musician.

The next scene in the journey was finding a Tiesco Del Ray guitar under the Christmas tree while still a boy. I didn't learn much about how to play on that guitar, but did feel the mystique of the instrument in my hands. A few years later at the age of sixteen, my high school sweetheart's big brother (Mike Babyak of Triple Fret) became my first guitar teacher. He was a very gifted and learned player and he asked what I wanted to learn. I told him, "If I only learn one thing, I want to play blues." So, he introduced me to the likes of Duane Allman and Dickie Betts, Eric Clapton, Johnny Winter, and Roy Buchanan. He taught me the fundamentals and from there on it was up to me to apply them. The one other thing he did for me was to tell me as a teacher that, when it comes to being a musician, "students either have 'got it' or they don't... you have definitely 'got it,' but now you've got to do the work."

I joined my first band as a sailor in the Navy around 1985, and cut my teeth learning some chops and learning to sing and perform as a front man. After the Navy, back home around 1991, I formed a nice little Gospel Blues trio that played the Christian coffee house circuit in eastern Pennsylvania. Bassist Jeffrey Forner, drummer Steve "Odie" Owens, I and recorded and released an album called "Standin' at the Door." About that time I shifted my focus to recovering the years lost to a misspent youth, and put music off in a dusty corner for about fifteen years while I raised a family, got a formal education, and pursued a career as a police officer. I'd pick up my guitar every once in a blue moon or listen to "Standin' at the Door," but getting back in a band seemed a far way off. It got to the point that when I would pick up my old Telecaster, I could see signs that the things I'd learned were starting to fade, and acknowledged the fact that there might come a time when I'd have to concede that I was no longer a "musician." And then something happened.

I was working extra duty as a police officer one evening around August of 2008 at the Americaplatz stage at Musikfest in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The theme for that night was dedicated to rockin' blues. When the main act for the evening took the stage, it was a band from Chicago called the West Side Winders, led by a fella named Dan Peters. A couple of minutes into their set I found myself in a state of mind that I hadn't been in for a long time... I was thrilled by what I was hearing coming out of Dan's big orange Gretsch, unleashing licks and riffs that would have turned the heads of a good many of my guitar heroes including Roy Buchanan, Danny Gatton, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. I enjoyed the whole set and afterward, I approached him and thanked him for awakening a desire to play guitar that had laid dormant for a decade and a half. When I got home that night I picked up my (literally) rusty old Telecaster and played it until three o'clock in the morning and I've been hard at it ever since..

From there I hit the open mics, and found some band mates to form a little blues trio and getting the juices flowing again. I started writing and composing new material and took my songs to Cat House Recordings in Easton, Pennsylvania to record them into an album with a few of the best bassists, drummers, and keyboard player in the tri-state area. "Unfinished Business" includes Brad Van Etten, Scott "Bone" Ward, and Brian Bortz on bass, Pat Allen and Brian Berlanda on drums, and Karl Frick on organ, Jenn McCracken on instrumental and back up vocals, and Jansen Kelchner on blues harp.

"I remember the day I promised my guitar I was gonna make it play..... someday." That was around 1976 and the guitar was a walnut bodied '72 Fender Telecaster Thinline, which I "customized" just a bit (apologies to the purists), and have owned ever since. Over the years I've learned to make that old guitar and a few of its more recently acquired friends "say things... my way." I, along with some good friends have captured that spirit, takin' care of a little "Unfinished Business" that I think you'll enjoy!

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