Biography
Larry Pless is a singer/song writer who records his own material.
Website-"larryplessmusic.com".
Born 4-29-1955 Flint, Michigan
I became interested in music by watching my sisters play guitar and listening to their records. Two of the most played records in our house were Rubber Soul/Beatles and Are You Experienced/Jimi Hendrex, along with records by Peter, Paul and Mary,Vanilla Fudge among others. Sundays were devoted to classical music. My parents made sure that our musical intake was "balanced". I started off playing harmonica and tambourine. I remember the bruises on my right leg from jamming with the song My Generation by the Who. I would sit for hours with a small record player learnng to play harmonica parts from Beatle songs, ("I Should Have Known Better", "Love Me Do"), Yardbird songs ("Smokestack Lightning" , "I'm a Man") and "Train time", a great harp solo done by Jack Bruce/Cream. I ordered my first harmonica through a Sears catologe. I loved looking at all the musical instrumentrs in the catologe. I would hang out with my friends down the street who would get together and jam. I wanted to be their singer, but almost never knew the words to the songs. One of my friends, Jerry, played drums. His brother, T.J.Cronley, was the drummer for Brownsville Station. Later I slowly started learning guitar, buying my first brand new electric guitar for $29 at "Alls Guitar Shop" in Burton, Mi. I think I was about 12 years old. I tried to "refinish" that guitar, but ended up ruining it. Thus, I made a new body for it out of two peices of plywood glued together. After that I became interested in guitar building and made several guitars though out my grade school years and eventually earning a modest living as a guitar tech working at Gus Zuppi Music in Warren, Michigan.It was there that I met Bootsy Collins and ended up making his well known Space Bass's...but thats a whole other story.
One of my main jammers was Larry Rathburn (now Joe Rathburn). Joe is now a very talented singer/songwriter now based in San Diego,Calf. ( check out Joe Rathburn at www.cdbaby.com)We started jamming together in Jr. high school. His Dad would drop him off on Saturday mornings so we could practice in my parents basement. He would throw small stones at my window to wake me up. The hard part was being quiet while my Dad slept. Dad worked second shift and was none too pleased to be awoken by the endless droning of "Hey Jude" coming up through the air vents at 8:00 in the morning. Rathburn and I later formed a trio with drummer Brain Smid of Grand Blanc, Mi called "Ruffus and the Tunes". I was/am "Lay-Tune". Aw, those were good times. I think we were in 10th grade at the time. I remember doing Alice Cooper songs. I also played with a group in Goodrich, Mi called "The Amazing Pelicans"...more good times. By 11th grade I was playing with a group called "Chain reaction". We played almost every weekend doing weddings and golf course clubs. While I was working at Gus Zuppi Music I played with a trio called "Traction". It was in that band that I started to come up with my own songs. In 1977 I hired in to General Motors and my music went to the back burner eccept for playing in my brother-in-laws quartet. I was always interested in multitrack recording, but I became involved in it in 1992 after reading a book about the Beatles recording sessions.I was hooked. I bought a used Tascam 388 reel to reel( 1/4 "tape with a built-in mixer) and started pounding out my song ideas. It wasn't until 2003 that I put 17 of my songs on a CD called "Lucinda". The next CD was "When I Come Home", with 10 more songs. Most of these songs are on my CD,"Cowgirl Love". "It's Never Easy","Regular Joe" and "My Sweet Nemesis" followed. These CDs were mixed genre. I have decided to narrow my music focus to the "country" genre. It's fun music to play,and I think I will be a good student of modern country music recording techniques.I am still refining my style, improving my voice and musicianship on guitar and piano. (I do play other instruments,but just enough to add a little flavor to the mix) I plan to play a solo/acoustic show for a while to refine my songs and showmanship. My next CD, Touch of Heart, will be my best CD to date. Best wishes,Larry Pless. |
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