BackAlleyBlues

PAPA JOE GRAPPA’S MIDLIFE CRISIS BAND

Papa Joe Grappa – Guitars, Vocals

Gerald Johnson - Bass. Definitely one of the funkiest bass players around. Gerald’s recorded with Dave Mason, Steve Miller and Steven Stills.

Gary Mallaber – Drums. Gary’s the drummer on Van Morrison’s “Moondance.” He’s also recorded with Steve Miller and Bruce Springsteen.

Marty Grebb – Electric Piano, Organ, Baritone and Tenor Sax. The multi-talented Marty has recorded with Bonnie Raitt, Joe Walsh and The Band. He was also the keyboard player in the hit band The Buckinghams.

The Sweet Inspirations – Portia Griffin, Estelle Brown and Myrna Smith, Elvis Presley’s backup singers from 1968-1977

Other Friends
Michael Fell – Harmonica, Dave McKelvey – Harmonica, Tom Petersen – Tenor Sax, Lee Thornburg – Trumpet, James Intveld – Acoustic Bass

BB Chung King (Alan Mirikitani) – Producer, Recording Engineer, Guitar

Biography
Papa Joe Grappa (Joe Medeiros) is the head writer of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Having started playing guitar at the age of 13 when The Beatles came out, Joe continued playing professionally into his 20s. Then he got married, settled down and gave up music to begin a career as a writer in advertising. He took a correspondence course in joke writing and got good enough to get a job with Jay Leno in 1988. Moving to LA in 1992, Joe rediscovered music through the LA blues scene. He put his comedy writing skills plus his love of blues and rock to good use in making his debut CD "Too White to Sing the Blues," which features some of the best session players in LA.

PapaJoe