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long afterwards, he moved and grew up in Sonoma County, CA, an
area that has deeply influenced his musical style since. In 1988, a
young Jason Beard teamed with now long time collaborator Ed Flores
to form his first band, “The Socks”, a hot young white rap band of
middle class youth. Later the emergence of Vanilla Ice stole The
Socks’ thunder and sent the young visionaries into an early rap
retirement.
the melodic styles of Pink Floyd, Jason came home to find a “long-
haired hippie rifling through his music books.” The “hippie”
introduced himself as Simon Kurth, and the two sat down and played
guitar through the night. They knew right away that the melodic and
grounded center of Jason's style worked perfectly with the more
dissonant and spontaneous style of Simon, and the two have been
playing music together ever since.
formed along with Ed Flores and Joe Barbarie. They would later rename the group as
“Freewheelin Franklin”, heavily influenced by the twin guitar attack of the Allman Brothers
Band.
Barbara band, the “Cache Valley Drifters.” Jason then took up guitar studies with ex
“Cache Valley Drifter” and “Kate Wolf” guitarist, Cyrus Clarke, learning the more acoustic
styles of folk and bluegrass.
moved back to Sonoma County. In 1999 he began jamming with bassist Tony Robinson
and drummer Noah Logan, whom he'd known in high school. They would gather for
informal sessions in Noah's shed and soon would form the power trio, funk rock band,
“Shed.” At the same time Jason was asked by “The Jenkins”, a talented family band in
Sebastopol, CA to help with a demo.
Jenkins landed a major record contract with Capitol Records. Meanwhile Josh Brough
and Ed Flores joined Shed, renaming the group with names such as “Independent Honey
Company” and “Pura Vida.” With Gary Neargarder (a neighbor of the Jenkins whom
Jason met at a practice) on guitar, Josh Brough on banjo, and Jason on mandolin, the
boys sought out to learn some bluegrass. Tony and Noah got in on the mix and they
formed the band "Poor Man's Whiskey", an acoustic off-shoot of Pura Vida.
Simon Kurth on Dobro, the success of Poor Man's Whiskey overshadowed Pura Vida's,
and the guys decided to focus full time to Poor Man's Whiskey.
Jason continues to play solo acoustically, releasing his first solo album Leaving Home in
2005. He also continues to work with lyricist Ed Flores to form songs for the Jason Beard
Band.
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