The Bluesion Band Line Up:
Toney is one of Northern California's premeir blues guitar players. His gut wrenching, soul pounding lead guitar riffs will have you on your feet and cheering for more.Mark's groove oriented, bass pounding style will have you out of your seat and dancing before the first song is done.
Soulful, crying organ sounds and ripping piano licks are only half of his contribution. You can also hear him on rhythm guitar, backing up T adding those extra fat blues chords and riffs that add to the Bluesion experience which by-the-way is one of a kind.
Syncopated rhythms, pounding fills, groove oriented back beats. All this and much more describes what you hear when Leo takes the stage. Leo keeps Bluesion in the pocket with his consistent toe tapping rhythyms and funky beats. Oh did we mention that he can sing too? Come check out what everyone is talking about. We dare you not to have a good time.
Toney "Tonemeister" Perez – Guitars and Vocals
Toney was born in Roseville CA. in 1958. He started appreciating music at a very young age because his whole family loved music. His mother used to play harmonica and tap dance as early as he could remember. "I used to look up at her and see how much she enjoyed playing that harmonica and the rhythm she had was amazing."
His brothers were huge music fans too, they listened to a lot of R&B and blues. Toney's first blues concert was BB.King. "It changed my life forever. What a performer! I had goose bumps for 2 hours! I decided right then and there I was going to play guitar." It wouldn't be long until Toney would be mastering some of the great blues songs that he had been listening to. Toney's influences include Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robin Trower, Pat Travers, Danny Gatton, Wes Montgomery and Jimi Hendrix just to name a few.
His first guitar was purchased at a now defunked store called Grants for about 30.00 dollars. Now, hundreds of guitars later, "I have found my sound." Toney says. He started going to a lot of blues festivals with his brother when he was about 15 years old and soon he started practicing very hard to understand the note bending aspects of the blues guitar style. After ruining hundreds of good blues albums and many sets of strings he started building his own uniquely wonderful blues style
"My first band was named Stiff!!! :0 with an amazing drummer named Bill Roy." Since then some of Toney's previous projects included: The Bottom Line and Marshall Wilkerson and Brown Sugar. Along his musical journey he has shared the stage with the likes of: Jerry Martini from Sly and the family Stone and Dave Chennell and The Fryed Brothers.
Toney has played practically his whole life, and now? Well, now as Toney says "I'm ready to share my enjoyment of MY music with everyone else. I hope you come along for the ride!"
D.Micheals – Guitars, Keyboards and VocalsD.Michaels was born David Michael Fermer in Santa Rosa California to parents Ron and Barbara Fermer. As goes the tradition in the Fermer family he was called by his middle name.
He picked up his first guitar at the age of 7 years and never stopped playing. He wrote his first song at the age of 8 and hasn’t stopped writing since.
Because of his very religious parents he did not get exposed to a lot of secular music until he was a young teenager. It wouldn’t be long before he would discover great bands like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Who, Eric Clapton and of course, Jimi Hendricks. (All this was in secret at first for fear that his parents would never allow it). Once the Rock and Roll bug had bitten him there would be no turning back. Blues influenced rock music would be the mainstay and soon, it was obvious that his destiny would lie in heavy blues rock music forever. His parents, while concerned realized that there would be no stopping him and lovingly supported his passion.
D was very quickly absorbed into the bay area blues band music scene and by the age of 17 was already cutting demos in local recording studios of his own blues compositions.
It was at the tender age of 19 that D moved to Sacramento after his father encouraged him to take the family business to the valley. Here, he would meet some of the greatest blues musicians of his career. In 1982 he formed the band Lady Killer with childhood friend and drummer Tom King. This band, like so many others, got it's influence from the blues rock sound so prevalent in the late 70s. The band project was short lived and D was soon looking for another gig.
That gig would come in 1984 when he married Lana Bower. The two would stay together for seven years and produce three children; Geoff, Ashley and Jean-Luc.
In 1988 D met Toney Perez, a local Sacramento blues musician, through a mutual friend and the two immediately started jamming together. Toney was a powerhouse of blues riffs and was full of energy, but it wouldn’t be until 2009 that they would actually work together.
In 1991 D started the Wild Eyed Boyz project with singer Neil Patrick and the two immediately started writing an album. Again heavily influenced in the blues sound. When ready to go into the studio and start cutting some of the tracks for their first album they knew that they would need someone to help produce the album. D found long-time New York Favorite Keyboardist/Producer Rob Sabino (Madonna, Bowie). He was brought in and the sessions began. During those sessions great local musicians were brought in including Larry Tag (Bourgeois Tagg). The project attracted the attention of long time music executive Russ Miller and the negotiations began. A deal was offered, but never taken. D could not ask his children of the tender ages of 2, 3, and 6 to “wait for daddy” while he left on tour for a year. The Wild Eyed Boyz gig ended when song writing partner Neil Patrick moved to Hawaii.
In 1997 D married the love of his life Georgene Schafer and they are still going strong today. He gained two step sons; Micah and Jacob. “Georgene is the light in my life; I can’t imagine living without her.” Together, they live happily in a beautiful fabulous 40s neighborhood in Roseville California.
In 1998 D went to work for Wayside Studios in Sacramento California as an in house producer and jingle writer.
Around the summer of 2006 D hooked up with long time musical friend Robert Darryl Wallace (Cold Blood, The O-Jays) and he assisted Robert in creating TOBFAM an independent music label that would feature great music and give artists the chance to be recorded and given a presence on the internet. It was during this time that Robert very generously provided D with the opportunity to hone his skills as an audio engineer and producer. Unfortunately, D had to leave that project in 2008 due to health reasons and to help with his aging parents not to mention get back to spending time with his family of five children and 7 grandchildren.
NOW: Jump forward to Spring of 2009. D joins Bluesion and finds his musical niche. D is enjoying the ability to be involved in a musical project that does not dominate his entire life, but affords him the freedom to get his 47 year old yayas out and still be home for dinner. “The Bluesion Band offers me a way to be involved in the music I love: Blues, while being available and respectful to the needs of my parents, wife, children and grandchildren… I love this band; I have finally found my musical home”.
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