Steve Dore Boogie Woogie History Biography
Hello Boogie Lovers. I am your host and webmaster. Boogiewoogie.com has been one of the greatest things to happen to me. I have met the most fantastic people and players from all over the world. Boogie woogie has become a huge part of my playing life. There is nothing that feels as good. It is a delightful obsession. Update… see “Songs for the rest of us” for my newest passion that has combined with boogie to produce some cool mp3 files.
My music life started 50+ years ago with piano lessons at the age of 6. Then one day back then, I heard the greatest piano I’d ever heard. I think it was on the Liberace show on TV. He was playing boogie woogie! From then on, I searched for the stuff but never really did find what I was looking for until I turned 50 years old when I finally heard Ammons, Lewis & Johnson, Seeley, Zwingenberger. Rio, Leyland for the first time…
In the meantime, rock ‘n’ roll took over my life as a teen and I got a guitar and copied my first idol, Chuck Berry (but who was that absolutely fantastic piano player in the background of Chuck’s tunes… of course, I know now it was Johnnie Johnson). I wanted desperately to play both instruments. Since piano in a band was nearlyl impossible for me in those days, I stuck to guitar and moved on to idolizing the Clapton and Bloomfield styles. I ate slept and drank blues guitar leads and guitar consciousness and then began to write some tunes, played my way through the University of Maine to the point where electronic keyboards could now be part of a band. So I sang, played a little keyboard, a lot of bass guitar and with my electric guitar was able to keep myself fed pretty much. I have even owned a couple sets of beautiful old ludwig drums. (there’s not enough time in life!) Later I joined up with my buddy Albert L. Smith from U. of ME and bunch of guys already in a great band, The Blend, which helped make me into an MCA recording artist giving me some unbelievable experience touring and opening huge shows for a long list of bands like The Who, ZZ Top, Hall and Oates. This band allowed me to play my piano or guitar and sing- whichever I thought complimented the tune best. We had two albums and did well, but never got that magic hit single. We lived the rock ‘n’ roll life to the hilt playing more than 250 dates a year for 7 years commuting often more than 3 hours to gigs in nearby states of New England.
As life unfolded, I got married to Mary and she had my two wonderful and most creative additions to the universe, Molly and Addie. Then I got married again, then I found someone I could live with for longer than a few years and got married again to Cynthia who I am still married to and happy together with after 15 years now.
I now in 2005, play sometimes seven days or nights a week which is fine by me. I’ve gotten to play and record with the greatest players around. I get to try out my new music which is coming in abundance these days. I must have 3 CDs of new material going at this point. Had the great experience of playing the Silver Summit this year with Richard Daughty on fiddle. Such a thrill to be around others that are ranting and raving about the stuff I love to think and talk about!
What’s next? I guess, logically, music for the financial community seems to be in my future. I am upset with the fact that our paper money is backed by only debt and that any paper assets can and do literally disappear overnight. We need some sort of protection. We have insurance for everything else, why not our money? Buy some gold and silver and own some some pure wealth. You might really need it someday sooner than you think!
I’m also pretty upset about our government spending and policies and most of all, our DEBT problems. I had no “financial education” in my life up until now. I’ve learned we are going to need as much education as we can get in the coming days of ‘facing the music” that our outrageous policies have created. Click here to go over to a page of my list of growing songs about these most interesting and pertinent subjects.
