Dennis Herrera Blues Band

Dennis Herrera was born and raised in San Jose, California just a heartbeat away from the home of the hippie generation and Golden Gate Bridge. When asked about his music history Dennis shared, "as a kid my mom one day in the mid 60's flicked her transistor radio on to a pop AM station, KLIV and I was mesmerized, soon I somehow got my own tube radio and it became my favorite pastime listening to The Yardbirds, Animals, Rolling Stones, Wilson Picket etc. twenty four hours a day. At age 15 I saw James Brown LIVE! I was blown away!". Dennis went to count-less rock & roll, R&B, blues and soul concerts/shows at SF Fillmore, Winterland, Avalon Ballroom, and juke-joint blues clubs. He fondly recounts, "My grandfather played guitar and he saw me eyeballing' his axe one afternoon at a family gathering, for my birthday he bought me a nylon string acoustic guitar with cowboys on it, my dad paid 4 lessons but I wanted to rock&roll and they wanted me to play Oh Susanna, that didn't work out". Dennis proceeded to teach himself buying a Ventures record album “Learn how to play Walk Don't Run and Pipe-Line” and practicing with friends, "My friends also wanted to be rock stars & we put our first band together loads of fun and the girls dug it". Dennis fondly recalls, "My first performance was at my high school, I was flunking music class & in order to pass my teacher suggested I play for the student talent show, I was really nervous went on stage with my friend, covered the Richie Havens song Freedom from the film Woodstock and I’ll never forget what a major rush that was I passed with an A first grade A ever!". Early on Dennis learned his favorite rock groups he listened to covered songs penned by Willie Dixon, Sonny Boy Williamson, B.B. King, Howling Wolf, John Lee Hooker etc. "It's been blues ever since struggling to consistently play music as a profession, I found myself re-directed a number of times but have always come back to playing the blues, I did not join any established blues bands to my chagrin, I have had opportunity but instead chosen to spearhead and lead various blues projects to date, I've tried a variety of catchy band names thinking they were original but soon found out they were taken, so I simply settled with my birth name for the band". Dennis Herrera

Prescott, AZ