I began my musical journey by singing in the Euclid Noble Elementary School Choir. My mom has always sung in the church choirs and even today in her mid-80's is the vocalist for the Lake County, OH based "Remember When" band.  She offered to buy me a guitar and pay for lessons. So, at age 12 I began my guitar experience by taking lessons at Petromelli's on E. 185th St. in Cleveland, OH.

I played guitar in several basement rock bands while attending Euclid Shore Junior High. It wasn't until high school that I picked up the bass guitar (borrowed) for a 1940's big band and learned to sight read the bass clef. I further refined my bass skills in the Euclid HS Talent Show where I backed up vocalists and instrumentalists and played in the house band. We finished the show with the classic Stones tune, "Sympathy for the Devil." It was this stage experience that hooked me.

My next musical experience happened quite accidentally. One day as a senior in HS I was practicing the borrowed bass through my Traynor YBA-3A head and eight 10's bottom in my dad's basement when a neighbor two doors down, John Abjanic, who had heard me playing, knocked on the door. John (guitar) and his buddies from St. Joe's HS, Dave Urick (keys) and John Franks (drums) with Eastlake's Gary Schultz (vocals) and I formed a band and played the club scene for almost a year. I finally bought my first bass at Sodja's Music located on 185th St. at the time.

With this live band experience and some original tunes Dave, Gary, and two other St. Joe's friends Ken Consolo (guitar) and Gus Oswald (drums) (I'm not sure of Gus' last name but he went on to become the house percussionist for the Front Row), and I headed for the studio. We recorded several tunes at Agency Recording above the old Agora in downtown Cleveland with producer, Arnie Rosenberg and sent them to NY for a possible recording contract. Well, nothing happened, so off to college I went. I learned to run a sound board and did FOH work for the band "Jasmine" (Dave Urick, Ken Consolo, Gary Schultz, Gus and a bass player) in the mid-70's.

After college I spent all my time with family and day job career building until 1981. I co-founded the band "Those Guys" with a co-worker Dave Morgan (keys), Jeff Hartzel (guitar), Dick Kandalec (drums) and high schooler Mike Winfield (sax), future member of the Michael Stanley tribute band "Stage Pass" and dance band "The Vibe". We started out as a 50's club band and over the course of five years moved into 60's - 80's music and also played at many weddings.

The day job took me on the road from 1986 thru 1999. Magically, at the same time I was winding down the traveling, Dick Kandalec called me out of the blue and asked me to join his new project "Club Sandwich" with Dave Mansour (guitar) and Dan Karl (keys/guitar). This band gave me the opportunity to return to playing acoustic and electric six guitars in addition to the bass, and run the sound system. We played classic rock-n-roll tunes all over Lake County for years.

In 2005, Dick and I started a new electracoustic project with Abby Road on the River Beatles contest winner Colette Gschwind called "Stowaway". We played many of Collette's original tunes in addition to many female vocalist tunes which were a new genre for me. As Colette headed back into the studio for CD No. 4 in late 2006, Stowaway was stowed away indefinitely.

I got a call in March, 2007 from Dick Kandalac. He told me about a very entertaining band he had just seen at Cabana's in Mentor called "The Girls." In the very same conversation Dick told me about an ad on the backpage.com website where an unnamed band was looking for a bass player. I responded, as it turned out, to Dan Rose, set up an audition, and was offered the bass player position in "The Girls" which I gladly accepted. "The Girls" is a unique opportunity to not only play with very seasoned musicians but also back up some of the most talented young vocalists in the Cleveland area.

My bass guitar influences are as follows: Paul McCartney, Mel Schacher, John Paul Jones, James Jamerson, Pete Cetera, Hugh McDonald, Tom Scholz, and Stanley Clarke.

• 1956 - Mommy, can I have piano lessons?
• 1964-1966 - High School Stage Band - Student Director of Euclid High Talent Show
• 1966 - Joined my first dance band (The Bershires) and got my first portable keyboard. A Farfisa Duo from Sodja Music on 185th street. It was my high school graduation present from my parents. They had no clue how that would change my life.
• 1967-1971 - Worked as the piano teacher at Master Music on West 25th street.
• 1967-1969 - Joined a very active band called the Popcorn Patch that was headed by the former lead singer from Larry and the Avengers. This got me hooked in the band business.
• 1970-1974 - Started a four year run with The Guy George Jazz Quartet. A great musical experience in creativity. I bought my Hammond B3, Fender Rhodes and first synthesizer with this group. And small world that it is, Bob Chiancone, drummer for Abbey Rodeo, was our drummer, and Walt Viewig, player of every musical instrument known to man from The Girls was adding is musical genius also. During this time I also spent five years with the music department of the Cleveland Supplementary Education Center of the Cleveland Public Schools. I specialized in the 4th grade electronic music department building synthesizers and teaching music composition.
• 1974-1986 - I formed the group Take Five. This was a long run. We worked 13 years together and 10 of those years "on the road". We worked the hotel and nightclub circuit from Maine to Texas playing six nights a week.
• 1988-2001 - I joined the band Masterpiece. This was a heavy funk/Motown dance band. We spent 12 years together rockin' the house. We worked often in Madison at The Wagon Wheel. Benny Jackson from The Jackson Brothers lead that band and we worked with some great musicians including singer songwriter B. Lloyd Taylor, from Earth Wind and Fire.
• 2001-2004 - Formed the Magic trio. Magic is a nice presentation for small venues and parties. Lead singers, Benny Jackson from Masterpiece and Mary Ann Luster from Take Five, are out front and me doing the musical backup. Heavily sequenced keyboards for our arrangements and to great lead singers carried me through the next couple of years until I was lucky enough to be invited to perform with The Girls.

The Girls I have found to be a lot of fun and I am meeting some great musicians along the way. The bonus is the three talented girls.

My journey into music started in third grade when I decided I wanted to learn the piano. This was a time when people were starting to sell their black and white TVs for color sets and there was no such thing as a synthesizer. I kept practicing and playing until I got into the school jazz band in Junior High and was hooked from there. I played in the school bands and talent shows all through high school and started playing a small clubs in 1966. I played with rock & rolls bands until spending about four years with the Guy George Jazz quartet in the early 70s. During that time I was also teaching at Master Music on Cleveland's West side, working as an instructional aide in the music department of the Cleveland Supplementary Education Center and a music major at Cuyahoga Community College. It was at the Supplementary Center that I built my first synthesizer (which looked like an operators switchboard from the 20s) and received my inauguration

I left college early to find my fortune on the road and traveled around the country with the band "Take Five" for about 12 years. We were playing the lounge circuit back when every place you went had live bands and you pretty much worked six nights a week. We played from Maine to Texas and all points in between. Then somewhere in the 80s I came back and started playing mostly in the Cleveland area. I eventually joined the band Masterpiece with Benny Jackson and stayed with them playing Motown and funk. Masterpiece was together for 13 years and played all through the Cleveland area and often at the Wagon Wheel in Madison.

The last few years I have been working with a great oldies trio called Magic. This was a unique arrangement of two vocalists and me on keyboards. It gave me time to work on full midi arrangements that were all keyboard based. I keep some of my music history on my website, www.danwatkins.ws.

I was introduced recently to "The Girls" by my great friend and musician Dr. Walt Viewig. When you talk about things going full circle, Walt and I played together in the Guy George Jazz quartet about three paragraphs and 30 years ago. The music just never stops.

Tom is an "original" member who unfortunately left our band in early 2006, then rejoined in late 2007. The energy and excitement that Tom brings along with his pedal steel and guitar playing talents are a huge compliment to The Girls sound.

As a person, Tom is so modest. He says you can't live in the past. We certainly agree. However, it's worthy to mention some of Tom's "history"!

Tom is a seasoned professional player having been a member of The Eli Radish Band along with Danny Sheridan and some other fine musicians.

Tom appeared on an Eli Radish record published by Capitol Records in 1969.

In 1978 Tom moved to Austin, Texas and played in numerous bands throughout that area. When we asked him where all he had played, he said he played every "Honky Tonk" in the state.

He also has played with David Allan Coe, who by-the-way, also played in Eli Radish -- interesting.

Tom also plays with the Ted Riser Band.

He is a modest and highly talented musician and adds a spice to The Girls sound -- very nice.