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Bill Sweeney
Bill is the director of the Olympia Conservatory of Music. Here, he is photographed backstage at the Seattle Coliseum with KZOK's Jim Robinson (left) and Sammy Hagar (right) after winning a custom Les Paul from American Music in the KZOK Red Rocker contest.
Bill Sweeney aka "Metaldude" has performed for the public in the cover bands Tommy Denton and the Kentuckians, Anita Rae and the Country Gentlemen, Sweeney and the All-Beef Weenies, early Spoonfed, Banzai Dogs, Dark Angel, No Amnesty, Pump House Blues Band, Black Label, and Don Barton Sr. His original artist bands include Abaddon, Jusdefy, the Dudes, and Union with Cindy Garay. He has performed in nylon string fingerstyle/classical guitar duets at many student recitals, and professionally at the Capitol Rotunda, Schmidt Mansion, Carriage House, Woodland Park, Sitka Convention Center, and Washington Performing Arts Center to name a few. Bill has taught guitar, sight-reading, and theory at Westside Music, Yenney's Music, Tumwater Music and most recently Music and Arts in Lacey (pre-covid). He was an adjunct faculty for South Puget Sound Community College (1 credit) and Evergreen State College (4 credits) Independent Studies. He has taught ComEd at SPSCC, Pierce College, and Lacey Parks. He is currently teaching for Olympia and Tumwater ComEd departments and building a base of private students at the Olympia Conservatory of Music which he co-founded, owns and directs. You can find additional contributions of Bill at his Metaldude's Garage portion of this site. |
Blaise Ashton
Blaise Ashton has been making sounds out of various things since he could walk reliably without incident. His parents started him on piano lessons around the age of five and it was on.
His main instrument is the bass which he started learning after listening to The Beatles in the early 80's and played in several jazz bands at Interlake Highschool in Bellevue, WA under the direction of Leo Dodd. He continued playing bass and was part of Washington State's Award winning vocal jazz ensemble in 1989 and 1990. While there he studied music theory. He has been known to tickle the ivories in a pinch. He has played in several cover bands over the last 30 years, most notably Singles and is familiar with most styles of music. He loves all things music and still tries to make intentional noises with other noisemakers; Particularly helping Frank stay focused or clipping extra notes out Frank's compositions. He has had the great fortune to learn from some amazing educators. Bruce Phares and Brian Kennedy were his earliest teachers. He has attended several jazz clinics and fondly remembers meeting Ray Brown, John Clayton, Jeff Haamilton and Chuck Dierdorf. Seen here he is playing his Steinberger Spirit XT-5 which is the second one he has owned. He can be found most Saturday afternoons helping Frank write and record at Rusty Rabbit, or teaching bass. |
Elektrik Dave
I first met Elektrik Dave as we were about to host the first Coronapalooza Party. He stopped by at the shop and began to amaze me with his stories, knowledge and talent. He not only offered advice and to bring his band to play, but he also brought in the equipment and ran sound for the entire event.
A genuine nice guy, you can often find him playing at open mics when he isn't rehearsing his band or home working on projects. He is a well known and respected sound man around the Puget Sound area. He does much of his own repair work as well, soldering in compnents or making an old amp look new again. Did I mention that he remains the youngest guy ever to work on the Miss Budweiser hydroplane crew? Oh, and he also plays trumpet! Elektrik Dave is sort of a volunteer at present here at Rusty Rabbit Music, providing informative content. You can find contributions of Dave's at his Elektrik Dave portion of this site. |
F. Davies
Frank has been playing guitar since first watching the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show while in the 5th grade. He studied classical guitar performance for four years at Virtuoso Studios in Olympia Washington USA under the direction of the late Rick Riley and attended a master class presented by Patricio Contreras the Chilean virtuoso guitarist teaching in Seattle.
Frank's debut performance was playing classical guitar for a performance of Don Juan at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts. He also performed as guitarist in the late Rick Riley's "Vivaldi Trio" and has also performed locally as a classical guitar soloist. Frank is also an avid bass player having performed in the Cory Buckner Trio and as bassist for DFC, the house band for Walt's Place in McKenna WA for about a decade. Frank has taught group classes in classical guitar performance at The Evergreen State College, and Music 6000, in addition to private studies in several other music stores. He initially co-founded the Olympia Conservatory of Music, and the USA portion of the Karaoke World Championships, KWCUSA. He manufactures a solid body classical guitar along with several other musical items. Each summer Frank hosts the private Caronapalooza Party, a weekend camping and music festival for local musicians, their friends and families. Frank also composes and arranges music and is currently working on producing an album in our studio here. |