"In a big glass house, still dripping, children in mourning looked at the marvelous pictures."
-Arthur Rimbaud from "Illuminations".
"If you want to find the truth in life, don't pass music by."
-Eric Burdon from "Monterey".
My first instrument was the accordian. I started playing it at the tender age of 8, in Bellflower, California. I began taking pictures at 14 and used to lock myself in the film loading room with my 16 year old girlfriend. In high school I sold original pictures of Peter, Paul & Mary, Cream, Joan Baez, and Jimi Hendrix. Only one photo each of Clapton and Hendrix remain. That same year I started playing drums and played in a couple of garage bands and a jug band called Walden West, also the name of the commune I lived in, in Bakersfield, California.
At 15 I learned guitar, then harmonica at 20 while driving with my knees at night through Wyoming. Still playing drums, I formed a band called Rock Island, in Minneapolis, and kidnapped our lead singer from Fort Ord. I bought a lap steel guitar and autoharp from a Bakersfield pawn shop at 20, and a year later I was playing at a party, where someone gave me an accordian. I promptly traded in for a banjo. At 24 I bought a mandolin and built a dulcimer from a kit, then at 25 I bought a few recorders, and a bass was given to me, and played lead in a country band. I've also played in folk, ragtime, blues duo, played in a dixieland band in Minneapolis, and a Contra Dance band in Charlottesville, Virginia.
From 22 to 24 I was a photo journalism major at Metro Community College, and the University of Minnesota. I quit being in bands and taking non creative photography when I was 26. Mark Twain wrote a short story about a boy who loved the Mississippi so much he wanted to be a riverboat pilot. While learning to navigate a riverboat, all the professional captains aboard one trip told him everything about every square inch of the river. The mystery of the river was gone, and he realized making living off something he loved spoiled the magic. I became an English Teacher, and now record music in my home digital studio in Santa Cruz, California. I take the camera to concerts, and where ever I feel like it.
I have been on KUSP Fm in Santa Cruz since late 1987. I've had an African American gospel show for 7 years and have interviewed such guests as the Dixie Hummingbirds, Sista Monica, and The Soul Stirrerers. I've also had and African music and jazz programs. Currently you can hear me live on the web the first and third Saturdays from 1-5 PM playing Americana music, and the second and fourth Sundays from 5-7 AM playing a mix of music, comedy and spoken word. Thanks for reading all of this, I sure wouldn't have bothered.
- Michael Tanner
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