JACK    Remarkably, being involved in the Student Work Program, particularly in the janitorial department,  proved very valuable in meeting other aspiring rockers. In 1971 DC & Bryan started jamming with other musician/janitors for the first time and this produced the band Jack. Pictured left to right: Jim Ward - Ld gtr, DC - gtr/vocals/songwriter, Bryan - drums and Phil Welker - bass (Danny Lloyd, in the doorway was Jim's roomate and a great friend).  Enduring constant visits from the police dept. over noise levels, the band practiced in a tiny rental house on their all original songlist and eventually played out a little, most notably at the Old Boise Saloon. Like most rock bands, JACK kind of fizzled out after a while. After JACK, DC and Phil put decided to put together another kind of group, more acoustic (thus avoiding more police visits)

JUDAS   Joined by Mike Lyons on congas and percussion, they formed a trio called JUDAS. Not being particularly religious, DC just thought the name was cool with special significance. In hindsight, a more neutral name might have been in order.  Once again DC wrote most of the music and two milestones came about during this time:  a public television special ( this picture is of the set for the TV show), and DC's first experience in a real recording studio, Custom Recording of Boise, ID. For the next few years DC played in this band or duos with either Mike or Phil.

1979 DC relocated to Portland with his buddy Dave Humphreys where he got a quick education in big city life. Lots of fodder for songs but alas, no gigging. He did, however, get to see a level of musicianship that he had never experienced before, bands and songwriters that were as good if not better than anyone on the charts. It was both encouraging and discouraging at the same time. I years to come, DC would return to Portland for occasional shows.

In 1980 DC returned to Boise and was fortunate enough to join up with some pretty talented and adventurous musicians to form CAMERA.

 CAMERA   Pictured left to right: DC, Charley Mixon: vocals / harmonica (he started out as soundman but wormed his way up to the front of the stage); Richard Irwin: lead gtr, vocals, songwriter; Homer Wise: bass, vocals, keys, songwriter; and Steve Darrough: drums.   CAMERA wasn't shy about attempting any style of music. DC got the opportunity to play acoustic & electric gtrs (5 strings by this point), electric violin, keys and bass. With 3 songwriters, there was no shortage of original material. Besides being one of Boise's best known and highly regarded bass players, Homer also had multitrack recording equipment. DC learned a great deal about recording while working with Homer and for a while they even opened a small recording studio, Waveform Studio. CAMERA also performed quite a diverse list of cover tunes. It was the first time DC played just for 'fun' and not just for 'art', a concept that allowed him to stay in the music field longer than most pop musicians.



A California transplant, Greg Martinez, had caught a few CAMERA shows and eventually approached DC about playing music together, a relationship that spawned 3 groups. In 1983 they formed CUANDO CUANDO, an acoustic duo that performed both original and cover tunes.

 CUANDO CUANDO The name CUANDO CUANDO was derived from a latin music hit (Cuando, Cuando, Cuando) by Xavier Cugat with no particular significance other than it sounded more interesting than Cunningham & Martinez. Once again, the music was pretty diverse and atypical for the Boise area which was more folk and country oriented. Still, they mangaged to make an OK living for around 3 years and released two albums.

THE SCOOTERS   In the late 80's, local pop star CURTIS STIGERS was making plans to move to NYC and needed some dinero. Curtis joined DC, Martinez and drummer Bob Clifford (who had replaced Bryan Moore in DC's first rock band JACK) to form THE SCOOTERS. For one hot summer, they tore up Boise with some of the most high energy shows that had been presented for a long while. Of course, Curtis did alright after moving to NYC, becoming a short-lived pop star and then a long-lived jazz singer. He still visits DC's studio from time to time for small projects. After he left town,  The Scooters continued as a 3 piece combo for a while.



After the Scooters, DC joined forces with local bass player Robb Campbell, late of the local hard-core new wave band The Detours (which had featured Bob Clifford on drums).

FRANKS & AUTREY          They were both out of work and formed a new acoustic duo called FRANKS & AUTREY, another peculiar name (when DC was a kid he mistook the name 'Frank Sinatra' for two guys). The songlist was designed to be more mainstream and they used....gulp!.....a drum machine. Just a sign of the times, the Alesis SR-!6 was sometimes described as 'short, dark, and handsome' when the band was introduced. FRANKS & AUTREY had a run of 3 years or so and released an album featuring DC's songs. Once in a while they had the opportunity to play as an electric trio and when they did they added drummer Brian Patterson and called themselves THE TUMBLERS.

Around 1990 DC was approached by three of the most successful and talented local rockers; Bill Liles - bass, Lawson Hill - drums and Sandon Mayhew - sax & keys. They were under the mistaken impression that DC was a hot lead guitarist (as well as a competant singer) and, thus, would be a good addition to the new cover band they had in mind. DC was no fool and jumped aboard!! The result was:

THECORVAIRS!!    With their powder blue jackets the boys were quite striking and partied hard for several years. Since they were a cover band, no record of their sound survives (except for a highly coveted video of a New Year's performance late in the band's career which may, someday, appear on youtube].

DC had felt unbearable pressure (lol) as lead guitarist for The Corvairs so he was open to new opportunites, Somehow, in 1993 he worked his way (on bass) into an embryonic band effort with former bandmate Bob Clifford who was jamming with keyboardist Phil Carroll and legendary Northwest guitarist Tom McMeekan. Much beer was consumed!  What resulted was a band specializing in vintage R&B and Soul music of a Stax/Volt and Motown nature as well as a lot of original tunes. Voila!: SOULDIER

 Left to right: Bob Clfford, Tom McMeekan, Phil Carroll, Don CunninghamNew Paragraph

Left to right: Jim Fisher, Ron (Elwood) Minegar, Robert Sutherland, Bob (Jake) Kohnke, DC & Tom McMeekan                                                                                                                                                         

In 1996 the band released a self-titled CD of all original tunes with songs written by various members of the band. With the addition of Rico Weisman on guitar and Lawson Hill on drums the band is still going strong today!

RED & GRAY   After having a couple of tunes selected for inclusion on a 1995 Boise Blues Society compilation CD, Tom & DC had to come up with a name for their acoustic blues duo. DC was still a red head and Tom was a Silver Fox so they used RED & GRAY as their band name.  With Tom doing the main songwriting, R&G started recording tunes and doing a few live performance here & there. DC had heard a gal named LeAnne Town singing for a local band and fell in love with her voice. He invited her to sing on a Red & Gray tune or two and eventually she joined the band. Even though there was now a third color of hair in the band, they couldn't find a better name for the group........Red & Gray went on to record three CDs (with Lawson Hill on drums) of mostly original blues-tinged music.

In 2005 DC joined longtime Classic Rock band THE MYSTICS. Formed in 1964, The Mystics are Boise's longest running rock band.  Led since 1964 by author and columnist Tim Woodward The Mystics show no sign of quitting!!

CUNNINGHAM & MOSS    In late 2018 DC was approached by David Moss to put together a duo for brunches at The Riverside Hotel in Boise.  Dave had been working w DC as an assistant sound tech for live shows for a couple of years and playing music together was a natural evolution.  The brunch gig didn't last long but the duo is thriving.  They released an album in 2019 and perform as much as possible.