Deral Fenderson

At a very early age, Deral Fenderson took a liking to his parents Beatles and Beach Boys records. He'd sing along and have a great time. But one night, everything changed. At 4:30am that morning, the Edgar Winter group's "Frankenstein" blared forth from the console stereo's speakers, waking Deral's parents and half of the neighborhood. From then on, rock and roll and pressing people's buttons became an endless fascination.

Flash forward thirty some years later and Deral's still pressing buttons and he's still singing.

Starting in 1994, a long series of albums and random tracks came from the mountains of Virginia and filtered out to curiosity seekers around the globe. A four track and the internet made it all possible. Buttons were pressed (oh the E6 list didn't know what to do with the 'arrival' of Jeff Magnum). An entire album and promotional campaign was put out as an April Fool's Day joke on one of his bosses at his crap job one year. Gigs were played here and there, from a field in West Virginia to a rundown theater in New York.

Deral and his various bands have shared the stage with: Joe Jack Talcum, Jucifer, The Bastards of Fate, Trans Am, Weird Paul Petroskey, Fablefactory, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Ahleuchatistas, The Plastic Mastery, Pelt and The Visitations, amongst many others.

In 2006, Deral had an accident on a timber-frame jobsite. Fell about 15-20 feet onto a concrete slab... burst fracture at T-12, cracked scapula, fractured skull. Should've been dead. They told him he might walk again.

Less than four months later, he played a solo gig on a bill with two other bands that he was a member of. Nothing is going to keep him down.

From a promotional flyer: "I hesitate to place myself in a specific genre. That's really only a way to begin limiting yourself. I play music. Sometimes it's pretty, sometimes it's not. I pick up instruments (even if I don't know how to play them, and I make them do what I want them to do. I have had a lot of musical training, but sometimes I don't even have a clue what I'm playing. Music just happens sometimes."

Just as he defied death, he continues to defy genres and convention. Playing warped songs about love, death, rubber ducks and the boy on the milk carton, every gig is a battle between Deral and a myriad of machines and gizmoboxes. Guitars, keyboards and a theremin are his choice implements of destruction. The term singer/songwriter would do no justice to the onslaught that Deral Fenderson presents in the live arena. Like a train always threatening to derail itself from the tracks as its whistle screams loudly, there is never a boring Deral Fenderson gig. As one person noted: "Nobody has more fun at a Deral Fenderson gig than Deral Fenderson."

That fun sure is contagious.

Best kept secret of southwest Virginia.

Deral Fenderson is a musician, artist and filmmaker in beautiful Pearisburg, VA. He writes, records and hangs out with animals. Plus he helms The Big Waste of Time, one of the longest running programs on Virginia Tech's radio station, WUVT FM 90.7!! Every Wednesday night from 9 to midnight at http://www.wuvt.vt.edu/listenlive