over to Merle Haggard ’ s bus and Dale and I played for him . After the first tune Ray looked over at Merle and said , “ See , I told you so .” Merle agreed and got out his fiddle and joined in .
Another fun memory is my chance encounter with actor Woody Harrelson . We were staying in Manhattan when a black V12 Mercedes SL65 pulled up in front of our bus . This guy in a baseball cap and sunglasses peaked his head out and asked me where Willie ' s bus was because he was supposed to meet him . Although I was headed to the same bus with my banjo ( I ’ d been invited to jam ), I was conflicted because one of the number one rules of the road is to never give out information like that if you don ' t know the person . So I ended up ignoring the “ guy .” After about the third time of him asking me he pulled down his sunglasses and I recognized that it was Woody Harrelson . I apologized and took him over to the bus with my banjo in hand . He asked me to play him some tunes so for the next 30 minutes I entertained Woody Harrelson with my tenor banjo until the other guys arrived .
Being part of Ray Price ’ s band was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that taught me countless things about what it means and takes to be a professional musician . After eight years , thousands of shows , and too many great memories to mention it all came to an end when Ray passed away in 2013 . As a final farewell , I was honored to be a pallbearer at his funeral .
During the last couple years of Ray ’ s life , touring had slowed down to the point that I needed to consider my next move . Coincidentally a guy in San Antonio named Brent Watkins reached out to me about being the bassist in his jazz band . Although I was living in Dallas at the time , we worked out a contract and I moved to San Antonio . It was great … I was playing four to five nights a week with him in all kinds of different settings . It was shortly thereafter that Jim Cullum also asked me to be his bassist for his nationally recognized jazz band . I worked for Jim for a little over a year and really loved it . Between Brent and Jim I was working seven days a week , sometimes up to twenty gigs a week !
Although much of my work was on bass , I never let my passion for the tenor banjo diminish . In addition to playing them , I ’ ve had an interest in learning about , repairing , setting up , buying and selling vintage banjos as well as other fretted instruments and basses since I got my first eBay account in 1997 . This is where my good friend Vinnie Mondello has to be mentioned as , without him , I wouldn ' t know nearly what I do today regarding vintage banjos …
Although we were introduced via email in 1998 , I met Vinnie for the first time at the New Orleans Banjo Rendezvous in 2000 . I was walking around the vendor room and saw this
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