Hi fellow music lover!

Here's a little bit about me... actually, a little more than you probably wanted to know. ;-)

First things first... My name is Joe and I love playing music.

My friend Mini gave me the nickname "Jambo." I later found out that Jambo means "Hello!" in Swahili (for real). That wasn't my friend's intention, but it made me like the name even more. So... Hello!

I've been playing guitar and singing since I was a kid. My Dad is a musician and he put a guitar in my hands as soon as I could hold one. For this I am forever grateful. My Mom is a musician, too. I remember hearing her play songs from the Sound of Music on the piano when I was just a wee parakeet. My younger brother followed suit and soon we were both playing guitar, piano and drums. Music was all over the house.

My earliest recollection of listening to music (besides hearing my parents), was from their album collection, which included such greats as James Taylor, Neil Diamond, the Carpenters, the Everly Brothers, Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Cat Stevens, America, Gordon Lightfoot, Jim Croce, Jerry Jeff Walker, the Eagles, Neil Young and many other wonderful musicians from the 50s through the 70s. Again, I am grateful that this was my musical base.

Obviously, music became a huge part of my life at a very early age, and soon I was collecting my own albums... including my first Kiss album. ;-) Other albums I bought and loved included Charlie Daniels, Queen, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Boston, Billy Joel, Hank Williams Jr, AC/DC, Van Halen and so on.

Then in the mid-80s, a friend of mine said "I think you'd really like this guy named Jimmy Buffett." Of course I'd heard the song Margaritaville, but wasn't really familiar with his other songs. So I bought my first Buffett album, and I was hooked. Jimmy's music brought back the familiar style of music I heard coming from my parents' record player in the 70s. Acoustic-based, lyrical music. Plus his songs had a touch of fun, irony and humor I hadn't heard before in music. I said "Take me to the boat!"

So now, many years and guitar strings later, I have this urge to play fun and familiar music for everyone. Come out and see me sometime. I think you'll find a song or two you can sing along with.

Your friend through music,
Jambo