Ben Yokel:  

Life I was born "Ben James" Yokel on the island of Guam, February 24th, 1956 to Bernie and Fran who were civil service school teachers for the USA. Due to my lack of orbital accumulation I don't remember much from that time period. Mostly I think I was busy filling diapers, uprooting local flora and chasing bugs. Later we moved to south Florida where my grandfather introduced me to the harmonica at age 8. He was a guitar, mandolin and harmonica player intent on passing on some of his musical talent to his grandson. Granddad played gigs with a band out of St. Petersburg, Florida called "The Rhythm Ramblers." They actually made the big time on the TV's "The Ted Mack Show." It was cool time seeing grandpa on the old 19 inch black and white Zenith TV with The Ramblers cranking out their central Florida bluegrass. After being given several harmonicas through childhood the music took a strong hold on me. I picked up an old Kalamazoo 6 string guitar at age 15, started learning Bob Dylan tunes and blues and playing every chance I could get. At 19 I hooked into gigs playing harmonica with several blues projects like "Blue Midnight" and "The John North Blues Band." I worked the circuit in south Florida town of Naples playing gigs at places like "The Captain's Cabin", "The Oyster Shanty" and "The Open Hearth." It was an education in Chicago and delta blues styles and in the lessons of musical poverty! Deca...Expand for more