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John Rybak
John is an established professional musical performer and plays solo acoustic shows around the San Francisco area. He has been featured at Cafe Du Nord, Red Devil Lounge, Starry Plough, Hotel Utah, Devil's Canyon Brewery, Connecticut Yankee, Brainwash, The Makeout Room, Sweetwater Saloon, Nomad Cafe, Grant + Green, The Rockit Room, The Catalyst and other prolific music venues and cafes. Hailing from the deeply blues + jazz saturated upstate NY city, Rochester, New York. Roots running deep, he was captivated by the intensity and emotion of monumental east and west coast blues, rock and jazz improvisors of the 30's, 60's, 70's and more recent modern Jam Band, Groove and Indie Rock acts like Robert Johnson, BB King, The Band, The Allman Brothers, Miles Davis, Marshall Tucker, Grateful Dead, Phish, Moe., Neil Young, Steely Dan, Wilco, Superfurry Animals, My Morning Jacket, Gov't Mule, Black Crowes, Ben Harper, Medeski, Martin and Wood, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix and Santana. Surrounded by a musical family of harmonicists, guitar players, singers and pianists, John first picked up the harmonica (or more hiply "blues harp") at the young age of 14. Heavily influenced by harmonica playing Grandfather + Uncle and by Harmonica greats Charlie Musselwhite, John Popper, Kim Wilson, James Cotton and Junior Wells he spent hours on end emulating and playing along with friends and recordings. He soon received the best gift of all when he was 16, an electric guitar. after years of guitar lessons at Rochester's family owned "largest music store in the world" House Of Guitars and more lessons and theory classes at Finger Lakes Community College John teamed up with long time friend, drummer and mandolin player Mark Stewart and formed what would become a 7 year saga, the improvisational jam band/roots rock/groove rock supergroup South Central. During this time the two and various musicians/instrumentation toured Northeast upstate New York playing major music festivals like Scottypaluza, Park Ave Festival, Soul Flow, Open Air Music Festival + opened for such prolific acts as Schleigho and Gordon Stone. The two parted in 2003 when during a major lifechanging summer John decided to pack his entire life into his jeep and trek cross-country and relocated here in San Francisco. He now resides in Hayward, California where he gives guitar lessons out of his home. John now plays solo acoustic shows around The San Francisco Bay Area and plays lead electric guitar in the indie rock/improvisational jam band, The American Economy (www.reverbnation.com/theamericaneconomy + https://www.facebook.com/aeshenanigans) .
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