I was thinking this week about the local groups who inspired me as an upstart musician.
And I wonder If youngsters today have the same type of inspiration.

We are of different ages and places so who do you remember being in awe of as a kid????

If you grew up in Connecticut in the 70s it was "Jasper Wrath" what a great band to have playing all over your county. And this tune was on local radio daily.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K591BqoqhmI

So who were your heroes?

We have a music shop up in the Pacific Palisades called Amazing Music run by a guy named Pat Hildebrand. He's been teaching kids to play music all his life. The band that I will be playing with this coming weekend up in Sades will be a quartet, crazy to see his influence on our lineup:

Daryle Goldfarb: Guitar, vocals - took lessons from Amazing Music
Gene Perry: Stick, bass, guitar, vocals - took lessons from Amazing Music
Steve Smart: Drums - took lessons from Amazing Music
Pat Hildebrand Jr: Guitar, bass, vocals - the son of Pat, now teaching lessons at Amazing music.

Kittyhawk played at his music store, two time actually, and Emmett actually made it out a couple of times to perform live there. If ever I, or the Palisades as a city, had a musical hero, it would be Pat Hildebrand.

I took a guitar course in group for a local guy in the early seventies (1972..?). That teaching saved me approximately a year of self studies, but since this was in a small town in north Sweden there is no way to track the guy. When moving to a bigger city in my late teens I hooked up with a loose bunch of musicians, Swedish and American immigrants, that were like thirty years older than me. I did not dig all of their influences but learned a lot and respected their styles. Quite recently I played many gigs with duo partners about thirty years younger than me, so the pattern seems to repeat.

When I started playing bass in my early teens, Audley Freed worked at Harry's Guitar Shop, which I frequented. Cry of Love was the band of the day.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INxliT-NrxA[/youtube]

Of course he went on to play with the greats
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audley_Freed

Another great local band of the day was The Connells
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Connells

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-ITv4OBV9c[/youtube]

I started listening to Pink Floyd when I was 9, then Led Zeppelin, then Rush... Geddy Lee was one of my earliest influences as a bass player (although I didn't start playing bass until I was 21).

When I was growing up n Lewiston, Maine, in the 70's and early 80's, the city still had a thriving live music scene. (It's funny now to think that in the 19th century and very early 20th century, Lewiston was often spoken of in he same breath as Boston, as far as a destination for entertainment, shopping, etc.)
There were bands like Katahdin (named after Maine's largest mountain, at the end of the Appalachian Trail), Catfish, Tank ... I was born just a little too late ('67) to have taken part in it all.
My first drum teacher was the excellent Dick Demers who for decades taught drums at Carroll's music. When I got to college (UMA Jazz program) I was taught by the outstanding Steve Grover (a protege of Dick's, and an accomplished and lauded jazz pianist and drummer). I think Steve's teaching was exactly what I needed at the time, and often lessons would consist of him and I playing free-form; him on piano and myself on drums. .
I miss those days sometimes.