Brian Courtright

Brian was that kid who started out on mom's pots and pans in the kitchen while listening to the radio. "Hearing music as a child excited me to no end. I felt I was already a part of the music and knew it was going to be my life." Born and raised in Sacramento, California Brian got his musical experience from playing drums with every kind of band possible. School marching band, jazz band, swing choir, his buddy's house playing Chuck Berry & Yardbirds songs, at that house where the hippies jam, in the garage around the corner playing Led Zeppelin & The Who. At 18 he joined the U.S. Air Force and became a special vehicle mechanic working on flight line firetrucks & crash equipment. While stationed at Kedena AFB in Okinawa, Japan, Brian suffered a traumatic amputation to his right hand while working on emergency equipment. He was medicaly discharged with full honors and a 60% disability. Brian went back to playing drums, having to learn a new approach now missing all the fingers on his right hand. "It made me really focus on my left hand and opened up the door to many unique percussion ideas." Brian began writing songs when a buddy who had brought this monstrous all-in-one recording device called the Tascam SX1 to his home because his friend could not figure out how to use it. "The instruction book looked like a fat dictionary!" After figuring out how to lay some basic tracks, Brian started flirting around with recording drum beats and ideas he had created over the years. "I had this one drum pattern that just made me want to get up and dance. So I plunked out a simple bass line on my keyboard and strumed an old acoustic nylon string guitar. The words seemed to write themselves as I listened to the music and, man, I was hooked! Writing songs opened up a new creative outlet. My goal is to get my music noticed by a label, artist or publisher looking for material."