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Hello - My name is John Seth Sherman and this is a place to find out a little bit about me and my music - very odd to write about oneself although it would probably be stranger to have someone else do this for me... in any event, I shall attempt to tell you a bit of what makes me tick without boring you to tears or being fatuously self serving. I was born in Port Hueneme, CA and raised in Orange County, CA; my dad was a rocket scientist, so I was brought up believing in trips to outer space and the certainty that life existed "out there"- many possibilities and realities removed from life in Southern California.

Fourth generation Californian on my dear mother's side of the family, living in the shadow of Disneyland - I was given a plastic Roy Rogers guitar by grandpa Art Seth when I was six years old and that started the whole guitar thing for me. Mom (Dorothy Jean) and Dad (Milton) both liked music - she, vocalists like Frank and Ella - he loved big band swing and jazz combos, that smooth "west coast" sound.
My first real guitar was a $12 sears silvertone that my dad bought for $10 and gave to my brother. sister and me ( in lieu of the drums, piano and saxophone we really wanted). The thing was damn near unplayable but I remember picking out a single-note version of "Tom Dooley" and feeling quite pleased with the accomplishment. I kept after it, playing that guitar and singing with my sister and brother - I even learned some chords and a few folk songs.
When my parents divorced in the early 60's my life took a decided left turn - beliefs in traditions crumbled and a rebel emerged. I began reading Alan Watts, Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey and Henry Miller - along with Poe, Bradbury, Heinlein and Clarke - this at the tender age of twelve! Coinciding with my estrangement from society's norm was the advent of surf music, then the Beatles, the Stones, the Animals, Them,the Yardbirds, the entire British invasion, which led straight into the psychedelic revolution. Through this all I continued to play guitar and learn these wonderful new songs - I began to write songs myself, trying to find ways to express the turbulence inside of me. Some of my strongest influences at the time were Dylan, Tim Hardin and Tim Buckley - Hardin and Buckley were major influences vocally. The entire music scene exploded at this time - the LA bands, the Byrds, the Buffalo Springfield - and I loved it all.
After graduating high school, I did a semester or two at various colleges before deciding to drop out and devote my life to being a singer/songwriter/guitarist. In my teenage years, the only thing that kept me going, kept me sane, gave me hope was the music I heard - especially on FM radio late at night. To be able to give that feeling to people, to touch them the way I had been touched by the music - that became the goal and the journey. I spent the next decade traveling the country, visiting friends and writing songs about the people I met and the places I had been - with my guitar, duffel bag and my notebooks - performing sporadically from time to time.

After re-connecting with an old family friend, Michael Overman, I became one third of a musical partnership with Mick and a brilliant pianist, Marty Headman - the three of us moved to Ashland, Oregon and formed Caledonia - a second incarnation, Crosscurrent, was formed when we moved to Missoula, Montana. Marty had just graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston with a degree in theory and composition; I received an intense tutorship from him.

What I learned opened my ears and mind to new vistas of music - jazz standards and be-bop, bringing me full circle to the melody rich tunes of Cole Porter, Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington - the jazz that my father loved so dearly. The music of Stevie Wonder, Van Morrison, Steely Dan and Little Feat were my strongest pop/rock influences at that time, along with Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Jim Hall and Pat Metheny/Lyle Mays.

In the years that followed, I continued to write songs, realizing that what fascinates me are relationships - whether between a man and a woman, or between friends, even our relationship with fate and destiny. In the 80's I settled down in the East San Francisco Bay area, and have performed in bars, restaurants and coffehouses all over the Bay Area, from San Luis Obispo to Santa Rosa. Thanks to the urgings of many good friends, I finally made my first album in 1997, "Behind the Mask". Definitely a labor of love, with the help of some great supporting musicians, it's primarily acoustic and showcases eleven of my songs. I'm currently writing tunes for the second record and living on the Monterey Peninsula, still performing from time to time in local venues.After all this time, I still love the guitar, love singing and writing songs - finding ways to encapsulate my experiences in life and give them to people. To me, music is an amazing magical reflection of the breadth and depth of the human experience - and it will guide you through life to your dreams.

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John Seth Sherman

vocals / 6 & 12 string guitars / original compositions classic rock / country / folk / blues / jazz / r&b

Strong solo performance: diverse styles, warm vocals, effortless magic on the guitar, engaging stage manner.

featuring songs by: little feat (lowell george)
steely dan / john hiatt / lyle lovett / the beatles
van morrison / the rolling stones / cole porter
duke ellington / the yardbirds / jimi hendrix
marvin gaye / bob dylan / townes van zandt
gram parsons / willie dixon / the band / tom waits
randy newman / taj mahal / stevie wonder / hank williams, sr ...and many others

John Seth Sherman
707.962.0405

P.O. Box 1743
Fort Bragg CA 95437
nofoozlin@yahoo.com

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