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Name: Jeff DeFord
City: Globe
Region: Arizona
Country: USA
Email: jeff@worldwidebluegrass.com
Website: www.bluegrassrootsandbranches.com
Show: Bluegrass Roots and Branches
Wednesday 8pm-10pm EDT
Description:
I was born and raised in rural Indiana and exposed to music at an early age via my parents' record collection and singing in church. Many of my Saturday evenings were spent listening to the Grand Ole Opry and watching Hee Haw as well.
At age 13 I was fortunate to have an English teacher, Mr. Jim Johnson, who also moonlighted at WSMJ-FM in Greenfield on Saturday afternoons doing a '50's "oldies" show. He invited me along one day to answer telephone requests. It was at that point I realized I was hooked on broadcasting and the music business. Mr. Johnson also put together a radio club at the local high school and the student members produced a weekly 15-minute program on the same station. When I was a freshman I was involved with that as well. The following year I worked at the radio station at our newly-built high school, WFTR-FM in Wanamaker.
During my sophomore year my parents moved to Arizona with my two younger brothers and myself. It was there I attended college majoring in English and Broadcast Journalism. I worked at KMCR-FM (a PBS affiliate) in Mesa as a volunteer and was involved with several other projects including Mesa Community College basketball play-by-by announcer, advertising voice-overs and narrating video guides for new students.
I made extra money on the side dee-jaying for a company named Maestro Entertainment that put together corporate and private parties and started to expand my musical tastes. I had always collected my fair share of music, especially from the '50's, but I was becoming increasingly attracted to older material and early radio shows. I had also been exposed to the Grateful Dead's music and was intrigued with the origins of some of the tunes they played. While researching their music I found out that many of their tunes actually had their roots in bluegrass and old-time string bands and I was starting to rediscover my fascination with acoustic music.
After college I moved to San Diego, California and started attending bluegrass festivals around the state and was able to meet some very fine musicians and friends along the way. I picked up a banjo one day after sitting around wondering why I had never learned to play an instrument in all the years of my music enjoyment.
I started showing up at jam sessions around town and finally put together a loosely-assembled bluegrass band, calling ourselves "Sunset Cliffs" (named after an area in Ocean Beach overlooking the Pacific Ocean). We still get together and unwind when we can.
I still play banjo in solo gigs as "Uncle Jeff" and attempt to play guitar and autoharp as well.
I enjoy sharing my collection of music with the listeners of WWB and look forward to each week's show. |
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