3 Shades of Green Classic Rock Band

John Ciardi

Most important in my life are my wife, 2 daughters and grandchildren

58 years old - going on 18

First record purchased: The Beatles on 45rpm - I Want to Hold Your Hand when I was 12 years old

Decided to play guitar after seeing the Beatles, specifically John Lennon, perform
on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964

Influences
(Early years) Beatles, Monkees, Dave Clark Five, Bee Gees, Kinks, Yard Birds, Steppenwolf
(Later) The Who, The Doors, Cream, Zeppelin, Hendrix, Jeff Beck
(still Later) ZZ Top, Aerosmith, Kiss, Wishbone Ash, Skynyrd, Blackfoot
(still Later)  BB King,  Albert King, Freddy King, Buddy Guy, Sonny Landreth, Gatemouth Brown

Last major influences - Stevie Ray Vaughan, Joe Satriani

Favorite Guitar Player - Jimi Hendrix
Favorite Band - The Beatles
Favorite Song - 2 of them - A Day in the Life (Beatles) Won't Get Fooled Again (The Who)

Favorite guitars - Gibson ES295, Gibson Firebird, Gibson Les Paul,  Fender Telecaster
Current Favorite amps - '58 Fender Bassman, Mesa Boogie Lonestar Special, Vox AC15
Back in the 70's - 50 and 100 watt Marshalls

Favorite thing to do - Play guitar (wife knows it and is ok with it.  That's why I love her)

Previous Bands

Mid 60's - 70
Assortment of bands with high school buddies - Loren Weinrich - deceased (encouraged me to learn how to play Foxey Lady by Jimi Hendrix as soon as it was released.  (Thanks Loren, that changed my life and you will never know it) Freddy Moore, Frank Timinski, Ed Bowmen, Gary Stork, John Groves - I will never forget him saying to me one day in a kidding way, well maybe not, I sucked) "Hey John when are you really going to learn how to play that thing?" meaning the guitar.   I never forgot that and to this day anytime I struggle with learning something new I refer back to him saying that to me and it keeps me going.  So thank you John Groves.

Early 70's (Fragile Glass) with Russ Kaniper on Drums, Bob Ackerman on bass and Mark LaDoux on light show.  Great Band.  Won every Battle of the Bands we entered

72-73  Dave Hedden, Tommy Stark years.  This is this time period where I came into my own style of playing that continues today.  Dave Hedden as a drummer taught me about timing, showmanship, nuances and detail.  It was during this time that we played a show with several other bands.  In one of those bands was drummer Gary Worrall.  When I saw him play I was blown away.  I knew I had to be in a band with him and very soon we were playing together.

Mid 70's to early 80's  (Jinn) with Brian Ciardi on bass, Gary Worrall -deceased on drums, (miss you Gary, passed away way to early) Favorite times were opening for Blackfoot at the Showplace in Dover NJ

80'-90's (Legacy) with Frank DeLuca on guitar, Chuck Levy on vocals, Ray Sommo on bass and Danny Mey on drums.  Fireside in Denville Thursday house Band for 5 years.  Great fun playing Frank DeLuca

Late 90's - early 2000's  Sitting in with the McCardle Brothers, Kevin and Barry at Poor Henry's in Montville.  My brother Brian and son-in-law Chris would stop in once and a while and sit in on a few songs

That lead to forming an acoustic band, 3 Shades of Green, with my brother Brian on bass, my son-in-law Chris on vocals.
We decided to kick it up a notch, add a drummer and go fully electric.  Larry Carey was one of our biggest fans at the acoustic shows so he was the obvious choice. 
Chris and I occasionally perform acoustic shows as a duo.