First name: Art
Middle name: The
Last name: Dude
Art "the dude" comes from a family of musicians.
Being the youngest of 7 siblings, this musical family has had
a profound affect on him. His father. "Woody" played
boogie-woogie and honky tonk piano as a young man, catching the
ear and eye of the great Boots Randolph, who hired him into his
band. His mother, Joyce, "Jo" a wonderful poet, songwriter
and lyricist has also inspired Art. Both of his brothers, Lenn
and Mike, are working musicians, singers and songwriters and awesome
guitarists.
His line about musical influences outside of his family is: "I
was weaned on country, and raised on rock and roll." He acknowledges
many artists who have influenced, shaped or otherwise touched
him, some are: Bob Dylan, The Doobie Brothers, Johnny Cash, SRV,
Howlin' Wolf ... the list would take many pages to cover.
At the tender age of 5, Art's daddy placed a harmonica in his
mouth and said: "breathe son." He did. From then on
he was hooked. On his following birthday, his Aunt Dorothy have
him a plastic guitar. Art wasn't very impressed with the "toy"
guitar seeing the "real" electric and acoustic guitars
laying around the house; but when his older brother, Lenn showed
him an "actual" song on it, it made an impact. Art still
plucks the two-string ditty
today.
Fast forward a couple decades. After realizing that the unbelievable
talent of his family wasn't really getting them anywhere in the
music industry, Art decided to try another path. He joined the
military, went to college, started his career. Of course he's
always had a harmonica or four laying around and a guitar or two,
but he didn't really pursue music. During college Art did play
a couple of small gigs and a fellow student dubbed him: Art "the
dude." It stuck.
Fast forward s'more. In the summer of 1998 someone went down the
street snapping off the antennas on parked cars. Art's car was
one of them. He had grown up listening to rock; country wasn't
his style. So he thought. After its antenna got broken, Art's
car could only pick up one local station - and it played country.
He listened ... told himself he was going to get it fixed ...
then listened some more. He sold the car two years later, and
it only got the one station. Today his car's radio stations are
evenly split: 1/2 country & 1/2 rock and roll.
Comfortable in his career, and now with a wife and two kids of
his own, Art began writing again. In the late 90s he started showing
up at a weekly event called "The Guitar and Pen," put
on by his friend and fellow songwriter, Robert York. Not counting
those couple of very impromptu gigs in a college dorm room, the
G&P stage was really where Art first played to a live crowd.
It was nerving, but it helped him grow as a performer. Robert
moved away a few years later, but by this time Art "the dude"
was already playing local coffeehouses.
In 2002, he met Tim Ash who asked him to be part of his: "Too
Good Band." Art supplied harmonica, backup vocals and vibes
to Tim's live events. He joined him at the Country Music Festival
"Fan Fair" in 2004, and later as the opening act for
Travis Tritt at Mesker Ampitheatre.
Still working on his own material, Art "the dude" continues
to play as much as he can afford to. WKTG FM in Owensboro, KY,
featured Art "the dude" on their live Studio Jams show
also in 2004.
He always welcomes the chance to get his music out to a wider
audience, referring to a line in a Hank Jr. song: it's in him
and it's gotta come out. Let the boy boogie-woogie.