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 as 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.