Nicholas Maris

Influences: John McLaughlin, Roy Buchanan, Duane Allman and Dicky Betts, Pete Townsend, Steve Howe, Jeff Beck, Toy Caldwell, Charlie Daniels, Steve Morse, Rory Gallagher, Albert Lee, Will Ray, Jerry Donahue, John Jorgenson, and a lot more!.

Born in Philly PA when it was a different world. Played cello as a preteen. Started on a $15 Lafayette Radio Electronics (do you remember LRE? That will tell you how long ago...) acoustic guitar in my early teens learning bass, quickly learned the error of my ways and started to learn guitar. Worked as a busboy for 5 months to earn the money ($200) to buy my first good guitar, a Gibson SG200 (long gone, sold it to finance an illicit purchase in my misspent youth, but I recently bought a duplicate from eBay for a LOT more!!). Bought my ES325 ("Essie") in 1976, my only guitar until 2001. Been in more bands than I can easily count. Most notable were: "Thrust", out of Bridgeport, Pennsylvania in 1976 (they ended up as a a Jersey shore hard rock covers band, that was after I left I was one of the founding members, left to go to college); and "Don's Neighbors", out of Hayward, CA from 2001 until 2005, classic and original rock, the leader (Kevin Held) has since moved himself and the band name to Eureka, CA, I wish him and his family well!

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