| "Slip and slide along the wild and wily blues highway with talented guitarist Lewis Ray Cammarata. Fun, fast, and at times furious, his playing's up and down the blues-music map, nodding in the direction of Ry Cooder as well as surf maestro Dick Dale, Tom Waits, and even moody soundtrack man Ennio Morricone." Courtesy of the editors at Download.com |
| I grew up playing in club bands (started on the Stax/Volt catalog) in Baltimore. In 1974 I relocated to Los Angeles because I wanted to be a rock star. Never got to be a rock star, but I did meet the most important person in my life; my wife Kathleen. She tried very hard to help me become a rock star... I didn't quite make it, but all in all I was pretty successful (kind of a medium fish in a big pond sorta thing). Best thing I ever did musically were the years I spent with The Zippers (1976 to 1981). This was anti-disco/corporate hair band time in LA. Only apt description I can think of about The Zips is that we were kinda the unholy offspring of The Kinks and Cheap Trick (before there was a Cheap Trick that we knew of). We released a single on Backdoor Man Records in '78, and a subsequent Ray Manzarek produced 6 song EP on Rhino in '81 just before the band blew apart. So I moved onto a few other good, but not quite the same, bands; After 2 years I had my fill of playing live and started doing production work. This gave me the chance to work with all kinds of new and established artists, playing guitar, doing background vocals, arranging... whatever. From this grew a nice referral list of pro players I hired for 'one-shot' parts. So it kinda led to me getting session work with guys like Cornelius Bumphus, violinist David Green, pianist Mike Garson, and a whole shitload of people I got a chance to learn from. In 1991 I gave it up and moved to Virginia Beach. I didn't play again for about 14 years. We moved to Phoenix in 2002, I did one jam session, and swore I'd never do it again. So I put together a small home studio and started writing and recording. To date I've released 2 albums, Monster in Disguise, on Statue Records in 2006, and Lemme Outa Here on Funzalo Records in 2009. A new album was quashed by Funzalo.... history repeats itself as nauseum. These days I'm a full time local musician. I play in several quite different bands, do solo shows (only gigs I can get away with doing my own stuff), and do the occasional sit-in when the resident guitarist can't be there. I also teach guitar and, with my partner Buzz Fowler at First String Promotions, conduct slide guitar workshops around town. So welcome to my little slice-o-life here. It's good to play - L- |
| Who me ??? |
... BUY 'EM HERE
... BOOK 'EM HERE