Jim Diamond - Guitar / Vocal Beth Diamond - Drums Jess Hendricks - Bass Ray Warfield - Tenor Sax Special Guests Winfield Cheek - Keys Devon James - Trumpet Recorded at Stevie Ray’s Blues Bar (Louisville, Kentucky) New Year’s Eve (12.31.02) Recorded by: Bill Fuss & Eric Hamm Mixed by: Jim Diamond Re-Mastered by: DD Studios (Chalybeate, Kentucky) All songs written by Jim Diamond except where noted. Special Thanks to: Eminence Speakers for providing the best speaker on the planet! I still use in ALL my amps! With Jackie and Joe gone, we were left with just me and Beth this time! But, that old Groove Syndicate magic was close . . . We happened to know a bass player that was a friend of Jon’s (old roommate in college) Jess Hendricks who was interested in playing with us. He and Jon came out one day and we jammed together. Jess was a schooled musician and not accustomed to all this free form jamming (improv). In fact he marveled at how difficult the blues really were! At least, our interpretation of the blues! He found it quite challenging. He was in! He knew an old buddy that knew this sax player (also schooled musician) Ray Warfield. So we auditioned Ray, and he fit perfectly! So begins the seventh and possibly most successful lineup to date (2001-2005)!? Jess and Ray helped me understand and utilize musical theory to a level not realized before. We pushed each other to new levels of playing! It was great! We were really, really enjoying musical growth! We played really well together. People couldn’t believe the sound we had, and how big it was for a four piece band! We had enjoyed regular rotation at Stevie Ray’s Blues Bar and had developed quite a reputation as a top act to see. Consequently, we were offered the 2002 New Year’s Eve gig which we jumped at. And, I thought why not record this show? Again, more Groove Syndicate magic . . . A fan of the band (Bill Fuss Sr.) had a son (Bill Jr.) who had a mobile recording unit and agreed to record the New Year's Eve show, for cheap! Wow! This was our first of two consecutive New Year’s Eve gigs at Stevie Ray’s. It was Winfield Cheek’s first and last appearance with the band. Jon Pleasant was unavailable, so we hired Winfield. He rehearsed once with the band, the week of New Year's Eve, wrote some charts and away we went! He did an outstanding job! This was recorded on two ADAT machines, then mixed in our Franklin, KY kitchen on a sixteen channel Mackie board, with one EQ, and one FX unit, with pretty darned good results! It was recently Re-mastered by Darren Doyle (Studio DD –Chalybeate, Kentucky). The NYE eve show was awesome! Perhaps, just one of those magical nights, where everything was great! We killed the show! We were on fire. It was electric and not soon forgotten. This lineup; Beth, Jess, Ray and I would really take off. We played many blues festivals and great clubs, but the two biggest highlights were headlining the Best Buy Stage at the Chicago Blues Festival 2003, and headlining the main stage at the Blues To Bop Festival (Lugano Switzerland) 2004, including the gigs in the hills of Morcote, Italy. We got to play Blues to Bop because Norman Hewitt saw us at the Chicago Blues Fest. Special thanks to Norman Hewitt for bringing us to Lugano! It was fantastic! While playing Blues to Bop Festival in 2004, we had the good fortune of having our great friend and keyboard player extraordinaire – Bob Ramsey join us! Every show we played was better than the last! And we made festival folklore history by playing an impromptu gig in a tunnel near our main stage that got rained out! We were the headline act and we weren’t about to let the audience down! They dragged all the gear down to this tunnel that went along the boardwalk . . . . we had one amp for vocals and guitar, one for keys, one for bass . . .While I was talking with Norman, Bob had the presence of mind to begin the show! I heard him playing Some Kind of Wonderful! . . . and I realized the show must go on! So, I made my way through the crowd to the band, and we rocked to a crowd as far as the eye could see in both directions (in front of us and behind us)! Many, many magical moments. Jess and Ray would play their last gig in 2005. Thanks for all the great times boys! We talk about you often . . . A very special, thanks to Beth for not giving up on me; even when I gave her every reason to . . . I owe you my life. Like all of our recordings; best experienced played LOUDLY! BIOGRAPHY Born James Oren Boyington at Toronto General Hospital February 19, 1958 (two months premature); Canada native Jim Diamond - Boyington grew up in a musical family. There was always music being played in the house; live or on a record player. He was greatly influenced by his uncle Ken; who was steeped in the musical culture of the day, playing in bands and working as a session player in Toronto. He was larger than life! Jim's own personal musical god! As a very young boy (3-5 years old) his mother remembered him always sitting in front of the TV on Saturday and Sunday watching and listening to the cartoons. She soon realized it wasn't the cartoons he was most interested in, it was the music! He loved the classical music played during the cartoons of the day. That's where is love for music began. He could be found banging away on his Dad's guitar, backward and upside down to the to the music of the day . . . But it wasn't until the summer of 1970 (at 12) when he saw B.B. King and Jimi Hendrix on T.V. (seperate shows) that he new that he wanted to play guitar! His first two records that year where: B.B. King - Paying the Cost to be Boss, and Jimi Hendrix - Are you Experienced. Other guitar heroes soon emerged: Terry Kath, Johnny Winter, Peter Green, T-Bone Walker, Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, Howlin' Wolf, Freddie King. Later influences were Canadians like Dutch Mason and Randy Bachman along with blues bands; Downchild Blues Band and The Powder Blues band, who had a huge effect on his writing and playing. Soon he was spending the allowance he earned on records, all types of music . . . blues, jazz, country and rock and roll! Although left handed, his father put a right handed guitar in his hands and said, "Son, if you want to play . . . you need to play right handed because there will always be right handed guitars around. So you might as well learn right handed, it's easier than playing upside down and backwards!" Little did the young Jim Diamond know that one of his guitar heroes, Albert King played that exact way! He began playing his fathers guitar, a mid 60's Harmony acoustic. But he yearned for that wild new sound that Jimi Hendrix had! He wanted to go electric! . . . and he was soon borrowing friends guitars and amps to jam with. He bought his first electric guitar from a pawnshop in Toronto on Queens Street at fifteen (1973), a 1959 Les Paul Jr. for $150. One afternoon while jamming, he set his guitar in a chair to take a call from a girl, and his guitar slid of the chair and broke! This was a guitar turning point for him . . . and his first taste of the blues. And he only bought one other Gibson a 1954 ES 225- TDN over the next 30 years. In fact, still today Stratocasters are his guitar of choice. His first band was The Lavender Blue Band. They played their high school, community centers and parties. Two years later he severed a tendon of his left ring finger causing him to put down his guitar. Also, during this time of his life he was a highly touted amatuer hockey player and was drafted in the Major Jr. A Ontario draft 0f 1976 35th out of 264. in a draft that had 3 - 4 thousand other eligible players pursuing a professional hockey career. In the end didn't quite pan out the way everyone thought. So began his dream of music . . Then at age twenty-five, Diamond left Canada with the clothes on his back and moved to Michigan to attend University. While attending school, he began to seek out the passion of his life. He began to attend open jams at local clubs, relearning to play, and to play with just three fingers (THREE FINGER SHUFFFLE - ANGEL CHILD - 1997) In 1989 Diamond moved to Cincinnati, OH where his lifelong love of the blues began to flower. Although handicapped by the use of his third finger, he found his muse and began to really play and begin to write. “The passion of the blues overwhelmed me”, he recalled. The first year he wrote thirty songs, including a rousing tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan, “The King of the Blues.” (ANGEL CHILD - 1997). By 1990, Diamond had formed The Groove Syndicate and was playing full-time, logging 190 shows his first year. By February 1999, he had played 1,000 shows. Then in 1995, Diamond met his last drummer and his life-long soul mate, his wife Beth. Together, they are the foundation of a formidable team. In 1996, Diamond moved to Franklin, KY., just north of “Music City” (Nashville, TN.), where he recorded his first album “ANGEL CHILD”. The record was recorded after the band had only been together for four months. His sophomore record, “SOMEWHERE SOMEHOW” was released in August 1999 and features Stevie Ray Vaughan standout on keys, Reese Wynans. They (Jim and Beth) went on to play all over the world from Franklin, KY with three different versions of The Groove Syndicate. There have been 12 different versions of the Groove Syndicate since 1989. Together with his band; The Groove Syndicate they are an International blues recording, award winning (Kentuckianna Blues Society champ), top regional act based out of Bowling Green, KY (south central KY). They have been a featured act on KET's Jubilee. Additionally, we have played over 2,000 shows. They have played in Canada, Switzerland, Italy, England, Wales, and the United States. We are an original act performing 85% original material. Their motto is; "Where blues is Swingin', Rockin', Jazzy, and always original!" The key to our success is our diversity in the blues. You never know what's next. Our current lineup (# 12) is: Beth Diamond, Mark Wegener, Mark Wagner, Chris Herndon, and Joe DiGiuseppe. Norman Hewitt; Blues To Bop Switzerland Festival organizer said, "When I saw them at the Chicago Blues Fest I asked them to play at our festival . . on the spot. They were so good, and very well received, we invited them back for a second year! The following year. Only a handful of acts have been invited back two years in a row." Mike Kenney (former owner of Stevie Ray's Blues Bar in Louisville, KY says, "One of THE BEST acts we've had through our doors. Definitely one of Kentucky's top Blues acts!" Very professional, great show! KP of Rock N Read Magazine (Nashville, TN) writes, " They are not your typical blues band . . . like, where you see three or four tunes and you've seen their entire show. With these cats at every turn there is a different theme or style, or a different featured player, that keeps the audience wanting more. They are one of the most engaging, entertaining blues acts on the planet!"