Southern Comfort

"When I was three, I picked up the baritone ukulele.  My mother played guitar and took me to jam sessions with Joan Baez at the Haight Ashbury Folk Music Society until the day her guitar was stolen.  

I was inspired by Neil Schon of Journey.  I ended up getting lessons from him as a young girl.  I bought my first Les Paul Custom to look like his and worked to learn his solos, note for note.  

Throughout childhood I was classically trained on cello, violin and piano; but as a teenager, gravitated towards hardrock guitar.  At the suggestion of Whitney Houston's producer, Narada Michael Walden, I attended Dick Grove School of Music in Los Angeles for rigorous jazz training.

At one point in my career I had 9 call-backs with Michael Jackson for the BEAT IT Tour, before it was decided that I was too tall for the part.  

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I have played with many influential producers such as: Narada Michael Walden (Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin), Bob Rock (Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Metallica), Scott Matthews (Beach Boys), and Andy Newell, a National TV Producer who hired me to to play lead-guitar on the most notable SEGA, Got Milk, Porsche, Nintendo Campaigns, and many more.  I was featured in Guitar Player Magazine and some fun music videos.  All the while playing in numerous bands ranging from Hard Rock to Folk.  I have recorded and released some fun solo work with some notoriety.  

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Other creative work, aside from music, is my specialty in Video and Marketing.

Southern Comfort is FUN!  I love each member like they are my own brothers and sisters.  We put the fans first!  This band is so musically talented, we can actually play any style.  The genre of this project is great to play live with the freedom to improv.  Thanks for reading"

"My name is Dave Cary.

My drumming is a style of rock music drum kit playing that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and the United States.  With roots in blues rock and psychedelic/acid rock drum playing, Hard Rock drummers play with emphatic beats, and overall loudness using an aggressive performing style.[3] Heavy metal (or "metal") drumming is traditionally characterized by emphatic rhythms and dense bass guitar-and-drum sound. The essence of this drumming is creating a loud, constant beat for the band using the "trifecta of speed, power, and precision".

Hard Rock drumming "requires an exceptional amount of endurance", and drummers have to develop "considerable speed, coordination, and dexterity ... to play the intricate patterns" used in metal.[5] A characteristic metal drumming technique is the cymbal choke, which consists of striking a cymbal and then immediately silencing it by grabbing it with the other hand (or, in some cases, the same striking hand), producing a burst of sound. The metal drum setup is generally much larger than those employed in other forms of rock music.[6] Black metal, death metal and some "mainstream metal" bands "all depend upon double-kicks and blast beats".[7]

Jimmi Ward has been rockin' in the music scene of the SF Bay Area for decades, playing with such well known acts as Meantime, Hell `n' Back, Lust, Agony Sweet, Pigs, Dammit Jim, RaiderHed, The Particles, Gator Alley Band, Hot For Teacher, Mutual Of Alameda’s Wild Kingdom, The Terry Lauderdale Band, Ozzy Alive, Southern Comfort SF, Richie Barron & The Mission Mob, Alameda All Stars. 

 

Jimmi's musical roots run long and deep. His grandfather helped form and played the guitar for The Sons of the Pioneers, and his mother is a fantastic singer. Jimmi realized his musical talent at the very early age of 5 while playing trumpet and piano, which he continued playing music until he picked up a guitar at the age of 10 then bass at the age of 12 ; the rest is history.

His musical influences and tastes span far and wide, across many musical oceans…

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Loving the likes of KISS, Rush, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Deep Purple, Steve Vai, Y&T, Miles Davis, Yngwie Malmsteen, Michael Jackson, and Van Halen, just to name a few. 

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He's played on many albums as a studio musician, but also as a writer and a producer.

He has produced numerous other recording sessions for many local, San Francisco Bay Area artists.

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He's been in many music projects and is a highly sought after bassist on the West Coast.

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Jimmi proudly uses the following gear:

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Ernie Ball Music Man basses and strings

Gibson Basses

Ampeg SVT amplification

Nady Wireless systems, cables, microphones

Julie Mellon is a professional violinist and Suzuki teacher in Marin. She has a studio in Sausalito and at Dominican University. She started playing violin in the Suzuki Method when she was 4 years old and continued on to receive her Bachelors of Music in Violin Performance at the University of Colorado and her Masters of Music in Violin Performance with an emphasis in Suzuki Pedagogy at the Hartt School of Music. Her long term teacher trainers include William Starr, Linda Fiore and Teri Einfeldt. She has continued to keep up her education by attending many institutes and workshops in the area.

Julie plays classical, rock, jazz and fiddle in many musical groups in the bay area. She plays electric fiddle in a southern rock band called Southern Comfort, often sharing guitar leads on fiddle. She is Concert Master of her orchestra, the Lucas Valley Chamber Orchestra. You can find her on several albums on Itunes including Lyra Stars new album, A thousand Dreams. She leads the string section of an 18 piece jazz band that performs in San Francisco. 

She has been very involved with the Suzuki Music Association of Northern California in her time here since 2004 and has served many years on the board.

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"I was fortunate to grow up with the radio always on.  I would hear my mom singing along, which prompted me to do the same.  Rides in the car were like harmonizing sessions.  When I was little, we didn't have any musical instruments in the house, but any chance I could get on a piano out in public or at a friend's house, I would spend hours figuring out songs.  

Around 11 years old, I finally took a few piano lessons.  I got bored very quickly.  I was more interested in learning guitar.  My mom bought me a nylon-stringed, Spanish-style guitar at The Salvation Army.  The action was was about an inch and a half of the frets.  I saw a flyer for guitar lessons around town and give the guy a call.  He was a metal-head.  Instead of starting with fundamentals, I just asked him to teach me songs.  Blackbird, Stairway to Heaven... the basics were what I cut my teeth on.  

When I turned 21, I up and moved to San Francisco.  I didn't know a soul.  My roommate ended up being a drummer in several local bands.  I got introduced to an all-girl group looking for a singer and bassist.  I had never really done either, but told them I could do it.  We were a power-trio that played around SF for a couple of years.  

After honing my song-writing and vocal skills I decided to start my own band and to solely commit to singing.  We put out a few albums, toured around the states, including the VANS Warped Tour.  After that I engineered/wrote/recorded all instruments (except drums) on a few solo albums.  Many songs and sound bites have been featured in movies.  I got back into the groove of playing live music and dabbled in cover bands.  I found it to be a lot of fun and loved the joy it brings to people.  

Southern Comfort has been a staple in my life for the past 3 years.  Although we are technically a Tribute Band, we are starting to write originals.  Onward and upwards!"

"I played in both my high school and college bands; which were very popular, I even majored in music in College, but honestly I liked 80’s hard rock, metal and classic rock and wanted to impress girls.  

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When I was 12, my best friend Jeff taught me the first licks to One by Metallica on his Gibson Les Paul.  That kicked things off in the direction I was most interested in.  

 

I took a few lessons from a local guitar teacher for a little over a year.  Then my ear trained more as I took a music class my senior year of High School which also helped my vocal training.

 

Southern Comfort has given me the chance to play with seasoned musicians and make great friends.   I am enjoying recording and making videos as well as playing all the live shows."

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-Cheers