Ricky Fataar
drums

Born in Durban, South Africa 05/09/52

I started playing drums at age nine with my older brothers. We formed a band called "The Flames," made several recordings, toured all over Southern Africa and became quite popular. In 1968, we moved to London; then L.A. in 1970, after signing to the Beach Boys' "Brother" label for whom we made 2 albums. After we disbanded, I joined the Beach Boys, touring extensively and recording Holland and a 2-disc live album. I worked in London and L.A. with many artists. During that time, Eric Idle asked me to appear on the TV show "The Rutles, All You Need is Cash". I played Stig O'Hara (the quiet one). I met Bonnie in 1979, after working with Ian McLagan and co-producing Australian singer Renee Geyer. It was then she asked me to play on her Green Light album as part of The Bump Band. I then emigrated to Australia where I played on and co-produced albums for Tim Finn, Crowded House, Jenny Morris, Wendy Matthews, Renee and others. I produced music for the films The Coca-Cola Kid, High Tide and Barry Humpries' Les Patterson Saves the World. I also composed the score for an Australian film Spotswood.

Touring in 2009 with Bonnie Raitt and John Scofield.

Recent activities:
Played drums on John Scofield's Piety Street
Played drums on The Radio City Rockettes Christmas Album
Played drums on Michelle Schmitt's Home and Another Winter
Produced Joy Askew's The Pirate of Eel Pie
Produced Kermit Lynch's Man's Temptationand Born In Bakersfield
Formed WingDing Records briefly in 2000.

James "Hutch" Hutchinson
bass

James "Hutch" Hutchinson grew up in Somerville, Massachusetts. As a kid, he was hanging around the clubs in Harvard Square in the early and mid 1960's during the folk and blues revival which were (and still are) great places for seeing, hearing and playing music from around the world. As a pre-teen he had sung and played some guitar and mandolin in bluegrass bands but zeroed in on the bass at age 12 after seeing Wilson Pickett and his great touring band. Throughout high school, Hutch played electric and acoustic bass in a variety of bands in the New England Area.

Moving to the San Francisco Bay area after graduating high school, he played in some jam bands in Santa Cruz and Latin bands in the Mission District, eventually meeting John Cipollina of Quicksilver Messenger Service, Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart and Grateful Dead engineer Dan Healy, all of whom, according to Hutch, "sort of adopted me" in a musical sense,.

"I worked on sessions of all types at Mickey's Ranch and played gigs around the Bay Area while living in Mill Valley. In the early 1970s I ended up playing with John Cipollina in a band called Copperhead, touring and recording almost daily (actually nightly) and doing one self-titled Copperhead album for Columbia Records."

"One night I got a call from a friend who was working on some sessions down in Central America. He suggested I come down for a few weeks for some recording dates. I ended up staying for 18 months working in the studio in a number of countries with a number of different Latin artists, absorbing the music and the culture while being able to venture into the mountains and the rainforest on my off days. The Bay area violinist Sid Page came down at my prompting and we put together a Latin jazz fusion group which we named The Point, recorded some in Guatemala and El Salvador with some of the great musicians available there, and eventually brought the band to Austin, Texas, where, after playing many an opening slot at The Armadillo World Headquarters, won top Jazz Group in what I believe were the very first Austin/Texas Music Awards!" The year was 1977.

In Austin, having been introduced to The Meters by a mutual friend, Hutch got a call from Art and Charles Neville. "Art and Charles came to my home in Austin and the next thing I knew I was moving back down to New Orleans (where I had spent some time in my teen years) to play in the Neville Bros. Band. I ended up working with them on and off for the next five or so years while also working with many other New Orleans musicians from Jesse Hill and Huey Smith to Earl King, The Lastie Brothers, James Black, Professor Longhair, The Wild Tchoupitoulas and James Booker, amongst others."

In 1981 on the Rolling Stones Tattoo You tour, on which The Neville Brothers Band were opening a number of shows, Hutch struck up a friendship with the Stones' keyboardist, Ian McLagen, who introduced him to Bonnie Raitt while in the French Quarter in Dec. of 1982. In mid-1983 Hutch moved to Los Angeles at the urging of friends Al Kooper and Mac Rebennack, who were already there. Not long after he arrived, he joined Bonnie's band in a whirlwind when her bass player had left just three days before a tour. He's been recording and touring with her ever since.

Hutch has enjoyed a very rewarding and interesting career as a studio musician working with The Neville Brothers, Brian Wilson, Ringo Starr, Al Green, B.B. King, Crosby Stills and Nash and Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young, The Chieftains, Boz Scaggs, Joe Cocker, Elton John, Jackson Browne, Taj Mahal, Keb Mo, David Crosby, Ziggy Marley, Hank Williams Jr., Alejandro Escovedo, Pops Staples, Merle Haggard, Toots Hibbert, Delbert Mclinton, Bob Seger, Kathy Mattea, Garth Brooks, Lyle Lovett, Tanya Tucker, The B 52s, Etta James, Maria Muldaur, Ivan Neville, Willie Nelson, Pattie La Belle, Vince Gill, Bryan Adams, Ryan Adams, Randy Newman,The B-52's, Anne Murray, Colin James, Jann Arden, The Proclaimers, Stevie Nicks, Ritchie Sambora, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis and many other artists as well as on numerous film and television projects.

Main Influences:Charles Mingus, Richard Davis, Cachao, James Jamerson and Bob Babbitt, Aston "Familyman" Barrett, Fully Fullwood, Jack Cassidy, Larry Graham, John Entwistle, John Paul Jones, Ron Carter, Ray Brown, Carl Radle, George Porter Jr., Willie Dixon, Paul Chambers, Eddie Gomez and Chuck Rainey.

Glenn Patscha
keyboards/vocals

Growing up in Winnipeg, Canada, Glenn Patscha embraced music from Neil Young to Thelonious Monk, James Booker to Bêla Bartok, he has drawn from many disparate inspirations to arrive at his unique way of creating music.

In 1989 at 18, he received a scholarship to to study with Ellis Marsalis and became an integral part of the New Orleans music scene, recording and touring with many New Orleans greats such as Harold Battiste, Brian Blade, Leroy Jones, Jeremy Davenport, John Boutte, Nicholas Payton, Donald Harrison and many others.

In 1998, while touring with Marianne Faithfull, Patscha moved to New York. Soon after, he started Ollabelle, his band that would go on to be signed by T Bone Burnett to his Columbia Records imprint, DMZ records. Ollabelle was one of the seminal bands that gave rise to what is now dubbed Americana music.

Since then, Patscha has recorded and toured with many other artists such as Ry Cooder, Bonnie Raitt, Marc Cohn, Ryan Adams, Sheryl Crow, Willie Nelson, Bettye Lavette, Rosanne Cash, Levon Helm, Lizz Wright, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, Cubanismo and many others. Patscha is also an active film composer and producer.

Glenn currently tours with Bonnie Raitt, Ry Cooder, Rosanne Cash and Marc Cohn and resides on the south shore of Nova Scotia.

Duke Levine
guitar/vocals

Boston based guitarist Duke Levine started playing at age 8 in his hometown of Worcester, MA. He later graduated from New England Conservatory and now splits his time between the studio and the road.

In addition to releasing six of his own rootsy Instrumental records, he has recorded and/or performed with Peter Wolf, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Lee Ann Womack, The Masters Of The Telecaster, Rosanne Cash, Solas, Aimee Mann, Otis Rush, The Del Fuegos, and many others.

His playing can also be heard on the film scores for Lone Star, Passion Fish, The Opposite Of Sex, Limbo, City Of Hope, Music Of The Heart and more.

Duke is featured in the books, The Fender Telecaster: The Life And Times Of The Electric Guitar That Changed The World by Dave Hunter and The Pinecaster Book by Nacho Baños.

George Marinelli
guitar/vocals (joining the band on select dates)

Born- Staten Island, NY.

Lived in Los Angeles 1963-1991.

Played clubs, recording sessions, wrote, and toured.

Guitarist for Billy and the Beaters 1978-1982

Guitarist for Jimmie Wood and The Immortals 1980-1984.

Founding member of Bruce Hornsby and The Range 1982-1991

Moved to Nashville 1991.

Currently- session work in Nashville, writing, and producing.

Performing and recording solo and with Air Parma.

Member of Bonnie Raitt's band, 1993 to present.

Recording and producing indie projects in WingDing Studios.

Formed WingDing Records briefly in 2000.