JJ Schultz
 Email JJ Schultz www.JJSchultz.com |
I grew up in Northern Wisconsin - a little town named Rhinelander (home of the Hodag). My dad is a big fan of Harry Chapin and Cat Stevens, and so I grew up listening those guys as well as all of the Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash I could find in my parents record collection. My mom had 1963 Gibson LG-1 in her closet - I don't know when I first started plucking it, but that guitar was my guitar from then until I got my new Taylor a couple of years back. I gave the Gibson back to my mom when I got the new guitar, but I think of it often... sigh. There's no love like a first love. Anyways, I started writing songs seriously when I was at college MSOE in Milwaukee. I was at Engineering school, and I guess I needed to balance out my brain from all of the math and physics. I had some minor success writing songs about girls, but I had a couple of hits when I wrote "Popsicles and Cheese" and "Me and Elvis". I played shows at local dive bars in Milwaukee. I had a friend who's sister knew Brian Ritchie from the Violent Femmes. I moved out to San Francisco in 1996 and after a few years of song writing cooped up in confines of my apartment, I got involved in the San Francisco music scene centered at the Hotel Utah. I play or have played shows at The Red Devil Lounge, The Voodoo Lounge, the Brainwash cafe, and a bunch of other places in San Francisco. I am huge (like I can't walk down the street huge) in Laramie Wyoming. I kid you not. My music is very much influenced by Townes Van Zandt, Willie and Johnny with a bit of Harry Chapin thrown in for the stories. Its good road trip music. Its good beer drinkin' music (don't drink and drive). My songs tell a story - I hope you like them. |