More About Me

David Guarente hails from Syracuse NY. and was raised in a large dynamic family
who loved musicals, TV variety shows and the excitement TV brought what is now being called " Americas Greatest" generation". I was also a part of, (Not exactly how) his Aunt June’s community
theater productions, she being the director,casting me in several child part roles. later, caught up in Beatlemania, he got a guitar and played in the
acoustic fingerstyle fashion of the day, à la Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Ry Cooder and
many others, but soon fell in love with the banjo after hearing Earl Scruggs, from his friends Robert Leviton and Dan Doran. They had great records, and Dan actually has his own radio show,turning me on to Beethovens 9th, and Django Reinhardt. Dave
found banjo teacher Dave Dolbear, and really never turned back. For over 25 years,
he has been teaching professionally and has fronted his own band, Mr. Banjo and the
Lonesome Wailers,with many performances in the greater San Francisco Bay area, Northern California and Neveda. His premise has always been to show the banjo in another light,
using familiar pop, jazz, blues ,and bluegrass, as well. Dave performes locally in the
Santa Cruz and San Jose area,and occasionally at California festivals. He continues to teach in Santa
Cruz at Sylvan Music. besides his own band,Dave plays in the classic rock band "The Jedd Brothers", the 1930’s
style string band "Earthquake Country", as well as the traditional bluegrass band
"Carolina Special" with longtime California Bluegrass icon Ed Neff.
Dave has played with Frank Wakefield, the late Jake Quesenberry, Jerry Truppa, and many
other local folks such as Grover Coe, Paul Jacobs, John Fuller, Jim Lewin, Mike McKinley and as of late,
producer/performer and multi-instrumentalist Dayan Kai. Dave has played on
several recordings and performed in many theater productions.He has also hosted several banjo workshops, with Tony Trischka, Bill Evans, and will soon be hosting Bill keith and Alan Munde to Santa Cruz. He is presently working on his second
CD.