Doctor X and I have
been playing music together since we were in high school in our native Connecticut. We formed our first rock & roll band
(Jumpin' Jiminy Blues Band) in the Waterbury area, where there was a small, but thriving music scene in the old "Brass City"
(as it was known in its heyday). Anyone with any musical ambitions eventually had to move to greener pastures. Most gravitated
towards New York. I headed for Boston after graduating from college, initially to look for a promising band that needed a
bass player. Somehow I got sidetracked, and started doing a solo acoustic thing, performing in local clubs and coffeehouses,
and doing the college circuit. It gave me a chance to more fully explore songwriting, and to develop my skills as a singer
and guitarist. Doctor X followed a couple of years later after an extended cross-country adventure, and we resumed our musical
career together as Willie T & Doctor X, performing mostly as an acoustic duo, and sometimes with a full band known first
as Willie T & the Red Line Cruisers, and later as Hogs on Ice.
We made a couple of records (yes, real vinyl!) in the 80's that had very limited exposure on college radio stations,
and limited distribution to local record stores. Of course, once everyone in town who knew us bought their copies sales plummeted
drastically. Alas, this was the typical experience of most Boston bands before the Internet was invented. Now we sell CDs
and digital downloads in far away places like Belgium, Australia, and the Philippines, and are being played on Internet Radio
stations in such exotic locales as Bosnia-Herzegovina! We're not getting rich anytime soon, mind you, but it is very gratifying
to see people from half way around the world buying our music, and it is especially nice to hear from them! I am experimenting
with the blog (see our MySpace page) as a means of communicating both musical news about Willie T & Doctor X as well as
my passion for political pontificating. You'll find that I am keenly interested in protecting our first amendment rights
(vis a vis media reform, net neutrality) in addition to sounding the alarm on other violations of our Constitutional rights,
which have been seriously eroded in recent years. Music and politics seem to intersect frequently these days, and as these
two worlds collide it makes for interesting times for independent musicians and free speech advocates alike.
We hope you’ll check in often, and we hope that you will enjoy our
music as well as my political rants. We hope you will drop us a line, give us your feedback, or just say hello! Please also
check out the links to our online retailers (CD Baby, iTunes, and many more) where you can hear samples and purchase our music!
Best regards,
Willie T
