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I would love to put my complete bio here, but I'm so old there's not enough bandwidth to fit it all in one website! <GRIN>

I started playing at age ten, when my brother Don gave up on trying to learn to to play guitar. I commandeered the unused instrument and, after that, it was all guitar, all the time, for me. I dug in and practiced for hours a day, all the way through college.

In my sophomore year of high school, I met Jim Robbins, now my oldest friend. When we started, we were, as was the rage in our high school, a "copy band," that is, we did mostly material by one particular group, and ours was Seals and Crofts. This complex and exotic mandolin and guitar interplay was not the easiest thing we could have chosen, but we got very good at it. Check out our recording of Irish Linen. Through this, I was compelled to start playing other instruments, and is mainly why I now play bouzouki, mandolin, bass, Dobro and other stuff. Jim is amazingly talented, and one of the best humans I've ever come in contact with. He and I played off and on for about 23 years, and I'm sure we'd still be doing so today if we weren't 1000 miles apart. If there are musical soulmates, he is mine.

As the 70s kicked off, I was very interested in the prospect of home recording, and got into that in a big way. This also kicked me in the butt to work harder on learning the other non-guitar instruments, as I was now able to record myself playing an array of different instruments, harmonize with myself, and produce. This is also when I started blossoming as a songwriter, and penned some great, if sappy, tunes. During this period, I was doing some co-writing with my friend and roommate Craig Fleming. Here's one of our tunes: Closest Thing to Beautiful. Craig and I both attended Goldenwest College in Huntington Beach, and this is where I first met John Jorgenson. John was fascinated with and very excited about home recording, too, so this created a bond that has lasted for years. John is a phenomenal musician and anyone lucky enough to have played with him knows why it was a good thing to have him play on your tracks. I hope this isn't embarrassing to you, John, but here's the very first home studio recording John played on for me: If You've Got the Blues. There were no drums in my studio back then, so it lacks for rhythm, but listen to his tone. John and I once even auditioned for the Gong Show!

In the late 1970s, based on an offer for work (that did not materialize), I decided to try my luck out in Tucson, Arizona. There, I played in country and country-rock bands, and made a decent living of it. I also met and teamed up with singer/songwriter/bassist Gerry Ptak, and together we penned a serious batch of great songs, one winning us a semi-finalist award in the American Song Festival. Check out one of our best, Taking Chances. Tucson was tough on me, and after 3 years there, I felt I needed to return to my home base of Orange County. IN MEMORIAM: Gerry Ptak recently passed away, and will be sorely missed. He was a straight-ahead guy and a pleasure to work with.

In the 80s, I was involved in 2 major musical projects; one was as arranger, programmer and player in GTE's musical group, a large showband with singers, dancers, lights, roadies, etc. This was the phone company's way of giving something back to those from whom they'd taken so much. We'd play big community festivals, fairs, concerts, etc., all over California, as well as Hawaii, Washinton and Texas. We got to play in venues I could have only dreamed a few years earlier; the Universal Amphitheatre, the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, and others. Okay, I'm really making myself vulnerable now. Here's me live onstage at the Civic: Get Outta My Dreams.

At around this same time, John J came to me with this idea about a country-rock (actually, our category back then was "Cowpunk") Fleetwood-Mac concept - 3 lead singer/songwriters and a rockin' band. So it was John, Kittra Strejan (now Moore) and I doing mostly original tunes, either from our past individual musical incarnations, or the new stuff we were writing for the band. I remember our first gig we were actually billed as "Kittra and Bonanza," but we thereafter used the moniker "The Cheatin' Hearts."

The Hearts were a gas to play with - working with Kittra, Sneaky Pete, Bill Bryson, Steve Duncan, and of course my "star-brother" John (we were born one day apart) was an honor, and an occasion for me to rise to. Our gigs at places like the Palomino, Club Lingerie and Madam Wong's make some of my best musical memories. Oh, and practicing at Pete's animation studio amidst miniature models of dinosaurs and spaceships. Here's a C.H. tune John J and I penned together: Take Me To Your Heart. EMBARRASSMENT ALERT: I just found a video of the Cheatin' Hearts on YouTube. It may be the very worst music video ever made, but, for your amusement, here it is: I Feel a Whole Lot Better.

It was at "the Pal" that we opened up for many medium-to-big-name acts, and once, while opening for Jerry Lee Lewis, we met "The Killer's" bass player, Bob Moore, who was soon to "steal" Kittra away from us! We then had the unenviable task of replacing her, and recruited excellent Orange County talent Hap Brandon, who John knew from his "day job" at Disneyland. We went on for a few more months, but then started to fizzle out, as we were all planning the next stages of our prospective careers. I'm sure there's plenty written out there already about the transmogrification of the Hearts to the backing band for Dan Fogelberg and then to the Desert Rose Band. By then, I had buried myself back into the phone company band thing.

As the GTE band began to ratchet down and I was promoted into management at the phone company, I worked on a lengthy album project with John J. that didn't come to fruition, and produced an album for my friend Marie Espinosa (then Hubbard). Not long after, I moved to Minnesota (for true love!) and wrote a serious flurry of Christian pop music in the late 90s (here's my "anthem": Tribute to the Self-Made Man). I continue to write and record original material.

Since arriving here in the frozen North, I have led worship at several different churches, and am part of the worship family at Woodland Hills Church, where I participate on a couple of different teams. I now have a few new originals in the works in my home studio, have done a bit of recording for others, and recently recorded a tune by old songwriting and playing buddy, Pastor David Brisbin. Listen to "Falling."

I'm also very pleased to be a member of Christian eclectic-folk trio New Command (newcommandband.com) alongside very talented songwriter Greg Wollan and bass and cello wizard Bruce Bailey.

To those of you (maybe both of you?) who read this, I'd love to hear from you. If I need "straightened out" on any inaccuracies contained herein, I am more than willing to take correction.

You can write me at bob@bobknight.info

God bless ya!