Musician, Songwriter, Vocalist

Brooklyn born, raised in New York, Denis fell under the harmonica's spell at the age of nine. "A school mate of my older sister's would play Stephen Foster tunes on harmonica while we walked to school. I really loved that sound but I didn't get my own harp until age twelve. At seven, I took singing lessons. Later, after we moved from Long Island to Beacon, an upstate ‘city' along the Hudson River, Pete Seeger gave a little concert in our grammar school classroom. I wasn't much larger than his twelve string guitar and practically sitting under it in the first row, as he played and sang. Naturally we sang along! By high school I would catch his local shows whenever I could, and listen to AM radio all night. With those ‘clear through' stations you could pick up shows as far away as Louisiana and Chicago at night. Living close to a media center like New York also exposed me to all kinds of music. I guess it just took root and eventually grew to be the better part of me."

At Fort Benning, Georgia in 1967 he formed his first band, a vocal trio. "I sometimes believe that little experience saved my life. It was an escape, just a diversion from the madness, but on a certain level it worked as an avenue of pure expression, especially in the original stuff. My assignment took me to Friedberg, Germany, Elvis Presley's military home." Returning to the states in 1969, he took up residence in New York City, studying film, music and communications at Fordham College, graduating in 1972.

"In the summer of ‘76 I enrolled in a South Florida Music school and by the fall I was jamming with Jazz legend Ira Sullivan at the Unitarian Church in South Miami, joining his ‘Friends' band by ‘78, primarily as a percussionist. We played all over South Florida: clubs, festivals, benefits and before large crowds ‘cause jazz was crossing over in the late seventies and the biz was at a zenith. It was a great experience and opened doors for me as a solo artist. I used to front my own instrumental thing around then, playing alto and tenor sax, percussion, flute and chromatic harmonica, slowly returning to the diatonic harmonica (my first instrument other than voice). I learned from Ira first hand, on the job, and anybody was likely to show up and jam at an Ira gig. . .from Lee Konitz and Horace Silver to Jaco Pastorius or J. Johnson of the Allman Brothers!"

While performing at The Coconut Grove Music & Art Fair, he met Calvin ‘Fuzz' Samuel of the platinum selling recording groups Manassas and CSN&Y (among others). "I was thinking more about ‘songs' then, esthetically and spiritually but also as commodities. Fuzz taught me how to take a song from an ethereal idea to an actual performance on tape or otherwise. It was a valuable apprenticeship. We'd go over to Fred Neil's house (writer of ‘Everybody's Talkin') to hear him working on a new song or just jamming. In England (with Fuzz in 1981) I found a manager who took me to Nashville by way of Texas, visiting songwriter Jug Brown, writer of the top 40 country hit, ‘Dreams of a Dreamer.' Later when he went back to Nashville, I tagged along. There I began tracking my songs."

"At the end of ‘82, I ran into Pete Seeger in Rhinebeck, NY during one of his ‘Clearwater' festivals on the Hudson River. I stayed for over a year, sometimes bunking at Pete's barn, writing songs, some of which appears on ‘Moodswing Woogie'. He would back me on either twelve string guitar or banjo and I would play harp and sing backup in turn at various sloop singer gigs, Woody Guthrie or Clearwater festivals and events. For his annual Carnegie Hall gig he invited us sloop singers to back him on stage. Again by chance, I got to do two numbers with him up front! I will never forget the sight of Pete hunched over his guitar (and one of the few times I saw him play six string!) - looking ageless!"

In 1984 Denis released his own single and then an album on his label, Flat Baroque Records. The 1988 LP ‘Pryvit Blewz,' features veteran session men, Harvey Mandel, Paul Harris, Scott Petito, Mark 'Slick' Aguilar, and Fuzzy, as well as, Albert Williams, Victor Schwarz, Dave Remelis, Harry Morgan and the amazing ‘Smokin' Ed Hubel. Ed appeared on the Memphis influenced track Hustler's Lament licensed to Mobile Records' ‘Compilation' which remained in the top ten ‘Street Beat' sales charts from 1992 until 1999. Many of this crew appears again on ‘Moodswing Woogie' along with Pete Seeger, Brantley Kearns, Brad Hauser, James Cruce, Gregg Gerson, Randy Ciarlante, Jimmy Eppard, Kevin Hurley, Howie Brown, Mike Dunn, and a new generation of notable players like Todd Giudice, Jeff Smith, and Chris Pritchard. "I try to mix it up like the old minstrel shows or revues." This release is the latest chapter in the unique farrago that is the music of Denis Farley.