The Dale Clark Band 

I was born in Bakersfield, California and moved to Bonham, Texas when I was seven years old. I was raised in a home filled with music. The local Bluegrass players were a constant presence in my home. I'll never forget the day when I told my friend, a Bluegrass banjo player, that I was going to play "Country Music". His words were; "That's a big loss for Bluegrass". Of course I didn't feel that way because I never thought I'd ever become good enough to play Bluegrass. People like Tony Rice could make a living at it, but I knew then as I know now, I'm no Tony Rice. I loved country music and would stay up late nights to listen to the Bill Mack show. Believe me I had a very hard time waking up for school the next day. When I was twelve, my Dad presented me with my first guitar and informed me firmly that I had to practice thirty minutes a day for two weeks, afterwhich I could make the decision to either continue or stop. Needless to say I never put the guitar down. At age seventeen I was working at my first job as a dishwasher at the local "Country Golf Club". I knew right away this kind of work wasn't for me. One Friday night, a local band, The Shades Of Country came in to play. They seemed to be having much more fun than I was, so I decided to approach the singer, R.J. Vandygriff. Those guys seemed so old to me. They were between ages 29 and 32. I told R.J. that I played the guitar and gave him my phone number. A few weeks later he called me to do an audition. I passed that audition and started playing with the band. I eagerly struggled during that first year to become worthy of playing with these gentlemen. I would personally like to thank Robert Joe Vandygriff, Gary Bear Manning, and Gary Ballard for taking that chance with me back then. Being seventeen and still in High School, playing in the bars was definitely a shocker. I sometimes miss being that young, but not being so naive. I wasn't a model student but realize now that I definitely should've kept up in my typing class if I had known about computers back then.