Many, many many. Short list: Buddy Holly, Lightning Hopkins, The Beatles, The Who, The Kinks, Randy Newman, Jackson Browne, Ry Cooder, David Lindley, Wilco, The High Llamas, Trip Shakespeare, John Hiatt, Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty...
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Rochester Slim, true to his name, was born (as Alan Donovan) and raised outside of Rochester, New York, in the then-small town of Ontario - in the heart of apple and cherry country on the shores of the Lake Ontario. After nearly losing an eye in a tragic farm implement accident (or maybe it was when he was learning to walk - the history is unclear), he took up with the blues, and never looked back.
Determined to follow the lead of his idols (among them, Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, John Lee Hooker, Lightning Hopkins, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Pete Townsend, Rick Nelson, Jimi Hendrix, and the 1910 Fruitgum Company), he hit the road in search of inspiration. After four grueling hours, Slim ended up in Potsdam, NY, where he was a founding member of The Green Bay Pickers and The Curbside Mutterers, two bands that despite really cool names floundered due to numerous personnel changes and the ravages of fame. Sadly, no recordings exist of these essential bands. Those few who saw these bands live remember those performances as "cosmic."
From the mid 90s to the early 2000s, despite his aversion to "groups", Slim was an integral member of The David Theis Band. This band, which specialized in sporadic practice over a long period of time and consisted of an ever-changing number of members, finally made their one and only performance at Politiki, on Capitol Hill, in February, 2000. The Line-up was: David Theis (vocals and percussion), Bruce Waters mandolin) and Slim on guitar. Now living in sunny Palm Springs, Slim continues walking down a lonely road on his long search to explore and inhabit an eclectic variety of musical interests and styles.
