About Ed

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Ed was born in St Louis, MO on Jan 16th 1946, displaying his musical ability from an early age, Ed began playing piano around age 7. Forming his first band in the 8th grade Ed played piano in the Rocketeers. Ed and his family moved to California in the early 1960's. It was while living in Lake Elsinore and his involvement with the Folk scare, Ed first heard Bluegrass music, and was hooked immediately. After that fateful day Ed pursued his music with a single-mindedness bordering on obsession. Ed has played Bluegrass music in the traditional style for over 40 years.

Ed's Discography: High Country, Warner Bros/Raccoon Records #7, February 1971 High Country, Dreams, Warner Bros/Raccoon Records, 1972 Done Gone, The Done Gone Band, Police Records, 1979 Rose Maddox & the Vern Williams Band, Beautiful Bouquet, Arhoolie 1983 Kazuhiro Inaba, Shore to Shore, Hay Holler Records, 1986 Kazuhiro Inaba, Hard Times, Red Clay, 1988 High Country, Blue Highway, Turquoise Records, 1987 Roanoke, Thoughts of Home, Iris Cool Records, 1996 Vern Williams Band, Bluegrass from the Gold Country, Rounder, 1996 Butch Waller, Golden Gate Promenade, Rebel, 1999 Chris Brashear, Wanderlust, Copper Creek, 1999 Lone Prairie, Desert Flower, self-produced, 1996 True Blue, Years Gone By, Blue West Records, 2003 The Vern Williams Band - Live 1982-1988, Arhoolie Productions, Inc, 2004 The David Thom Band - Live at the Majestic, Swollen Records, 2006 Lone Prairie, Back on the Dusty Trail, self-produced, 2007

Although Ed can play all of the traditional stringed instruments at a professional level, for most of his career, he has been known to bluegrass fans as the premier fiddler and mandolin stylist in the traditional vein. He has been a fixture in the Bay Area bluegrass scene for over 40 years, playing with High Country and the Vern Williams Band with whom he spent 15 years - and many others. (He is referred to as the utility infielder for bluegrass music.) Ed has been primarily acknowledged as a fiddler, but his many band allegiances and appearances have provided a vehicle for his stellar mandolin work and authoritative lead and tenor singing.

Currently Ed is the leader of Ed Neff & Friends which has the longest running weekly gig in Northern California (10 years and still going). They play every Thursday night at the Willowbrook Ale House in Petaluma, CA.

Ed is well known in the worldwide music community for preserving and interpreting the style of music created by Bill Monroe. Although heavily guided by this impressionistic style of mandolin playing, Ed has taken this influence to interpret and create his version of this tradition.

Ed's other lifelong interests are gardening, cooking and collecting Asian art. And of course his family and friends.