You may have seen Josh Dion play drums and sing with the Josh Dion Band, or with Chuck Loeb, or Ahab Seamus, or Ulu, or Pat Martino, or Joe Bonamassa, or... well, you get the picture. More recenelty Josh Dion played on the new Spyro Gyra album "Wrapped In A Dream", and on Jason Miles' new "What's Going On?", a tribute to Marvin Gaye.



Biography:

Josh Dion was born at the tail end of the disco funk era, when popular radio bore the sounds of Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, and four on the floor! He grew up playing drums to the simple and beat driven sounds of Nick Mason and Ringo Starr. He also lived across the hall from his older brother, who not only followed the Grateful Dead, but introduced him to Cream at the tender age of seven. Rightfully so, Cream, Zeppelin and the Stones led Dion to Willie Dixon, Robert Johnson and beyond.



At nine, he witnessed the Gene Krupa Story (1959) and began an obsession with old jazz and Dixieland music. At twelve he stopped playing music altogether to become a gospel preaching, piano playing, want-to-be world-saving Bible thumper...you know, the people you can't stand to talk to now. Well, there was something good in all of that, and that was....soul. Soul!



At 17, he was led to the Funk and to jazz post- 1955! The funk led him to women, and women led him to…madness! He moved to New Jersey to attend jazz school, trying to be a "jazz drummer", but that didn't work either. But there he met the beautiful members of the Josh Dion Band, except for Justin, whom Josh has known since he (Wade) played first trumpet in the 5th grade jazz band, who happens to sing his ass off, and is able to back a large vehicle out of any small alleyway.



Good, Sarah Versprille, the only girl that could possibly handle these mutts on a regular basis, and happens to sing her ass off in a Billie Holidayish kind of manner, sings and happens to be an Allstate trumpeter in her past, (hmmm this band doesn't have any ass left because they're so bad), there's Brian Killeen, the solid and outspoken bassist coming from a U2 meets Red Hot Chili Peppers meets Louis Johnson approach, with some Will Lee jumping ability; he's also a really good driver; there is Pat Firth, the classically trained, former Keith Jarrett obsessing Firthy extremely thin longtime roommate with Dion, now living in Harlem, eating fried chicken at midnight, playing keys in hiphop and rock groups, and dealing with the fact that he knows way too many standards, and of course, Dan "McFaul" Hindman, the Delaware boy who can't really tell you what a certain chord might be, but has found a sound unique and somewhere between Robbie Robertson, Eric Clapton, Wayne Krantz and Charlie Christian, fully speaking the language of dreams. Back to JD - who used to imitate Richard Marx instead of doing homework in middle School -



Somewhere along the way, it was a girl that got Josh to join the Chorus in high school. Yes he was that guy singing in the Chorus. After many years of gigging in every style imaginable, and playing the wedding band circuit until he wanted to shoot himself, Josh stayed up one night and finished his first song with chords and lyrics. Wow. Could this be what he really wanted to do? Yes, it was what he had wanted to do all along, be a singer, and drummer, a songwriter, dammit, and real composer. Like, The Beatles, The Band or Earth Wind and Fire or something. And it was said. And it was so. He who greets his or her friends with a smile and hug will bear the fruit of his or her soul like a tree. And he who climbs to the highest mountain will see that world really is flat. Thank God this is only the beginning.