BROOKS REID

Singer/Songwriter

Instruments-Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards, Bass

Taylor CE-414 with Fishman Blender pickup system

TaTacoma DM-18 with K&K Trinity pickup system

Larrivee D-03 Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar

K&K Trinity Stereo Pickup System

LR Baggs Para Acoustic D.I.

DAddario Light Gauge Strings

EV and JBL Speaker Systems

Brooks followed his love of music and art through grade school and played trumpet in band in Middle school. Inspired by his older brother Rocky˜s early rock 45˜s collection of Elvis and Bill Haley records Brooks asked his Mom for a guitar. On his 15th Christmas morning Brooks found a J-45 sunburst Gibson acoustic guitar under the tree. With the help of his friend and neighbor Dave Rivenbark Brooks learned his first chords and songs from "The Ventures" and "The Beach Boys". Brooks had an insatiable thirst for music and was never without his guitar.

During the first days of 10th grade he sought out other musicians and started forming his first band. Soon Brooks had formed "The Victims" composed of Brooks on lead guitar, John Munro on drums, Chris Martin keyboards, Kel Kristensen on bass and Greg "Big" Foot on rhythm guitar. The Victims played R&B covers from The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, and other British rock bands. The band acquired a manager (Bob Altimas and began playing parties and dances and later changed the name to " Nowhere".

1966 was a pivotal year for Brooks and his music. Two distinctly different events shaped Brooks s musical career. The first was an R&B group called "The Seven Of Us" from New York City that appeared for a small but privileged audience at the Miami opening of "The Cheetah" nightclub. The bass player Jodie St Nicholas (who later joined with the opening band 's keyboardist to form NRBQ) had such a powerful impact that Brooks decided to switch to bass guitar. The second event was a rare and chance opportunity to see Jimi Hendrix in his first American tour opening for "The Monkeys" stunned juvenile audience. Brooks set out to form a new group that would be a total departure. "The New York Square Library" was a 3-piece power trio that would usher in the psychedelic 60's sound, loud, intense and experimental. "The Library" consisted of ballsey outrageous guitarist Kenny Wynn, lanky lunatic drummer Gary Walker and Brooks now sporting a Hofner Beatle bass guitar. Winning the Palmetto High School "Battle of the Bands" and opening for "The Who" and "Wayne Cochran", appearing on the Rick Shaw Show and playing South Florida bandstands like "The Stage", "The Ale House" and "The World" was the next step for Brooks and the band. Recently surfacing is an appearance of "The New York Square Library" in a movie produced by cult legend Hershall Gordon Lewis in 1968 called "Just For The Hell Of It". "The Library" continued with Kenny leaving the group and long time friend Bobby Caldwell joining with Brooks to collaborate on a new concept. Brooks and Bobby spent endless nights planning a band that would combine the African and Latin rhythm influences with large-scale production numbers.

1967 in 12th grade Brooks once again formed a new band to explore this idea and his own song writings. Joining with Frank Quinn on B-3 Hammond Organ Brooks began writing and recording a new sound which Brooks he had envisioned one year prior. Brooks sought out two drummers to form a rhythm section that would drive the intense beat of his music. Recruited from other bands, Bob Quirk and Deny Alonso would turn out to be the perfect combination of drummers. Bob a blazing fast aggressive player and Deny provided the Latin style and attitude. Joined by Jim Hilley a fiery inventive virtuoso guitarist, the band "Cottonwood" was complete. "Cottonwood" played concerts and opened for "Chicago", "The Blues Image", and performed their original music at hotels, High School and college parties and events.After high school Brooks continued to work with Jim on another band, "Wyndfall" where Brooks and Jim further flexed their writing chops with rather "outside" complex original compositions. Joined by former "Library" member Chris Martin, cerebral drummer John Moet and comic/guitarist Rick Rasmussen "Wyndfal" ended up spending more time debating music direction than actually playing music. The radically divergent individual directions eventually pulled the band apart. Brooks˜s true influences were always the Motown and R&B music he grew up listening to and his next venture would take him "back to his roots" The new band was called "Wildlife" and in 1972 began playing local clubs professionally. Brooks now joined by his brother Craig Reid on drums, John Paulus (now with John Mayal) on guitar and Leon Palmer on Hammond and ARP synthesizer formed a new band and played at "The Castaways" nightclub on Miami Beach. Later replacing Craig was drummer Harold Saey. Harold was an incredible intense driving funk drummer and supplied the explosive punch "Wildlife" needed to realize it˜s Funk sound. Influenced by James Brown, Tower Of Power, Earth Wind And Fire, The Spinners and the Philly sound, Wildlife continued to play "Big Daddy˜s" and other local clubs and hammer out some of the hottest funk South Florida has ever bumped to.

By the spring of 1975 Brooks was ready for another change. Impressed by the driving funk sounds of "Wildlife", Ronnie Tailor, drummer for the band "Wolfgang" asked Brooks to join. For the first time Brooks was a member and not the leader of a band. For Brooks this was a welcomed relief to focus on sharpening his Funk chops rather than devoting all his efforts into organizing it˜s members. Brooks and talented Wolfgang leader, guitarist, and singer Wayne Hood, found they shared a passion for perfection in music and developed Wolfgang's polished sound. Wolfgang became the house band at the famous "Brassiere" nightclub. For over two years "Wolfgang" built a loyal following and packed the club night after night. Saxophonist Charlie Dechant left the band to join Hall and Oats and slowly, without realizing the transition, Wolfgang's hot funk sound was influenced more and more by the New York Disco impact. Wolfgang became more like a Vegas act with matching suits, choreography and eventually lost it˜s rock funk edge. Temporarily recharged and joined by former "Library" member Bobby Caldwell "Wolfgang" continued on to play more disco clubs in South Florida but slowly ran out of inspiration.

In 1980 Brooks joined with former members of Wolfgang to form the short lived band "Splash" Working disco clubs unfortunately was the only way to make a living and by now Brooks was married and his beautiful wife Brenda was expecting their first child.

In 1981 Brooks was again approached by former Wolfgang drummer Ron Tailor to form a new "Wolfgang". The idea was to get back to a straight-ahead rock band that would kick ass! Influenced by metal bands like ACDC, Judas Priest and Van Halen Wolfgang gained momentum. The original members changed and new to the band was the multi-talented Terry Weiss on keyboards and vocals and Steve Gordon with his distinctive talking guitar style. Wolfgang again rose to the top of the South Florida nightclub scene as the quintessential heavy metal band. There was no shortage of playing and writing talent and Wolfgang began work on recording their "Balls To The Walls" sound. They continued to fill rooms like Crown Lounge and Big Daddy's for over 3 years. Wolfgang's recordings had some local airplay and success winning a spot on the prestigious compilation K102 FM radio album. Due to the lack of rock clubs and the shortage of gigs Wolfgang finally ended in the spring of 1985. That would mark the last time Brooks would play in a band for almost 10 years.

With the advent of drum machines and MIDI sequencers Brooks saw the capability to produce a band sound as a solo performer. He immersed into the technology and began working on his keyboard chops and a variety of the tunes that would span all the years he had played. Switching to keyboards would allow Brooks to play the bass guitar parts with his left hand and fill in other parts with the right hand. The amount of work was staggering to program every nuance of his own drum performances and additional string and horn parts but it finally paid off. After several short engagements Brooks finally found a home and an audience that loved him at Tony Romas in South Miami. He performed solo for the late night dinner and college crowds 6 nights a week for 7 years and produced a CD of original songs called "Connect The Dots".

August of 1992 changed everything in South Florida and Tony Romas was no exception. Missing the magic of interactivity and spontaneity of playing live with other musicians Brooks formed a new band. A band with all the energy and attitude of his early years without the pressures and allure of making it in the rock n roll business. The idea was to have fun playing with the raw energy and enthusiasm that drove him to start playing music in the first place. The band was called "The Backbeats" and echoed the R&B and rock styles that Brooks drew upon "The Backbeats" called upon his long time friend Tom Hall on guitar. Tom's intuitive well-rounded musicianship and vocal harmonies charged with and positive outlook was just what was needed. After going through a number of drummers, another long time friend Dave Webster was called out of retirement to complete the band. The combination proved to be perfect. Dave's aggressive drum style and subtle humor galvanized the Backbeats sound. Brooks recorded and produce a Backbeats CD called "One Too Many" with tracks written by Brooks, Tom and Dave.

In 2002 Brooks rejoined with some of his oldest and closest friends, Kenny Wynn, Dan Oelker and Gerry Gomez Brooks formed an acoustic-electric band. "The Sonickats" features an amped-up "unplugged" sound and performs original music and an unusual selection cover tunes. Check the Band link to find out more about "The Sonickats".

You can visit Brooks' website by clicking on the following link:

http://www.brooksreid.com/