Holly Stephey and Lewis Ray Cammarata

Cammarata grew up playing in club bands (started on the Stax/Volt catalog) in Baltimore, MD. At 17 he was afforded the privelege of recording 2 singles on the local Bay Sound label with the semi-legendary George Massenberg producing. In 1974 he relocated to Los Angeles for the express purpose of becoming a rock star.The Zippers (1976 to 1981). This was anti-disco/corporate hair band time in LA. The best description of The Zips is they were kinda the unholy offspring of The Kinks and Cheap Trick . The band released a single on Backdoor Man Records in 78, and a subsequent Ray Manzarek produced 6 song EP on Rhino in 81 just before they imploded.Cammarata used the next 5 years establishing a new career in production and musical prostitution. This afforded him the opportunity to work with new and established artists; playing guitar, doing background vocals, arranging... whatever. From this grew a nice referral list of pro players hired for one-shot parts. The result was a succession of reciprical session work with guys like sax man Cornelius Bumphus, violinist David Green, pianist Mike Garson, and a whole boatload of interesting and art-for-arts-sake musicians.After a self-imposed 20 year hiatus Cammarata found himself in Phoenix.These days Cammarata performs with partners The New Brothers; a stripped-down, 3 man, guitar/vocal trio. The songs have taken on a new interprative persona live; mostly because, as Cammarata puts it... "The songs are what they are; naked. I expect my bandmates to dress them as the situation demands. Obviously, playing with guys like Charlie (Dickens) and Reggie (Chavez) makes this intuitive.... its intentional."His music has been described as "An amalgam of gutter-blues, spaghetti-western mastication, and late night innuendo".

Blues