hey now! bienvenido. that first page is pretty wild and i would like to thank my friends at www.TuPaginaWeb.com for helping me make this as tacky and cheezy as i could. this is a web page i made for myself and my friends out there in the world of musica and appreciation. you'll find many pictures because i love to take pictures of me and my friends. i consider myself very lucky because normally the guys i play with are my best buddies and some are also my heroes. the denny freeman's and the tony gilkyson's and the gov't mule people and pals like richie and taj......well the list goes on and so does life in the blues. everything comes back to the blues for me. i'll give a brief bio and if their is anything you would like to bug me about you can find my email under 'buzz me, baby'. like my pal tommy castro, i'm from east san jose, california. that's just under oakland and san pancho. in the early sixties my older brother dennis became afflicted with the blues fever. bad. i was dragging an accordian, that was bigger than me, to the house up the street for lessons. i had a damm wagon cuz the accordian was huge. after the umteenth polka something happened. my brother started teaching me very simple 1 4 5 jimmy reed rhythms. i was his practice partner. i dug it and began to like the guitar. with the bay area we had many fusions goin' on. santana, cold blood, tower of power, sons of champlin, funky funky funky. and the ever powerful "war" and slippin' into darkness. these in the barrios were heavy and everywhere along with the blues. donny hathaway followed by bb king was and is pretty normal back to back. the music is a truth you cannot escape if it has to find you. it found me. basically, i went with dennis, my brother, to many concerts and clubs. using his i.d. when needed i saw a lot of blues in the bay area. charlie musselwhite was in el cerrito, hooker was always around. jr. watson, gary smith, rick estrin, were a few of the locals gettin' it right. paul durkett, guys like that. the fillmore was full of great blues shows as was the san francisco club scene. the keystone, the stone, winterland. very accesible if you're lookin', as usual. the harmonica came after the guitar. mowing yards to get $2.50 for a marine band 'c' harp is how i got the first one. the first bands were garage 'ccr' 'fleetwood mac with peter green' 'stones' 'santana' song murdering sessions. brutal and very fun. i have been very very fortunate and lucky in my blues life. in california i made great friends with many who are gone now. bill, lester, fats, unfortunately the list is long but we carry on in the blues. our blues. living in texas in the late 80's and 90's gave me a chance to see some real real damm music. the south is just the south and that's all. i wish i could take you into a saturday nite and walk you all into a smokey, packed club. the sweat runnin' offa ya and you see albert collins leaning on the bar so you wave. you go over and the sound of lou ann barton's amazing voice is driving derek o'brien and the band in to a texas frenzy. it's experiences like that, that make you wanna always be a part of it. being with bill clarke on a saturday nite in watts was another animal altogether. going to smokey wilson's 'pioneer 88' club and gettin' a set up there from linda and watchin' smokey call bill up for some serious blues biz. then off to the 'safari room' to see cardell aka louisiana red. then off to 'ricky and laura's' or 'babes and rick's', depends who ya are. hang with curtis tillman(freddie king) and big terry and laura. the great sax man 'bill clarke(another)and the balls of fire' are playin' all nite. then off to 'j.d. nicholson(t-bone) after hours'. then to 'state st. barbeque' or 'popeyes'(when it was really greasy). breaktime. then as the sun comes up it's off to get in line at the 'pure pleasure' lounge to sign up for the sunday jam. phillip 'neckbones' walker would come in and sit cross legged and 'phrase' the 'okie dokie stomp' to my slack jawed amazement. it's stories like this that i hope to tell you instead of who's and where's i been's. later i'll scan some interviews and press stuff. for now, just go look around and feel free to tell me how to improve this thing. remember, i'm just a jimmy reed fan, so take it easy on me. te watcho Website: Hook Herrera .