Chester “Chet” “CT” Hogoboom

It’s been a long and musical road since my first music lessons and band practices as a teenager in Fresno, California. I had always loved listening to music and was especially taken back as we all were by the early 60’s British Invasion. In 1965 I took in my first rock concert, the Rolling Stones and the Byrds at Ratcliffe Stadium in Fresno. The girls eventually stormed the stage and the Stones were taken off in an armored truck. I ended up (long story) with the Stones snare drum. Now having a professional drum I talked my parents into letting me take drum lessons. This went well and I soon hooked up with other local teens in bands playing sorority/ fraternity parties, school dances and business grand openings. I always sang and in high school I sang in chorus and performed with Harley Ogata, friend and fellow basketball player in a harmonious Simon and Garfunkel type duo, playing hootenannies and rallies. Upon graduating high school and heading off to college in San Luis Obispo, I sold my drum kit and eventually traded a sleeping bag for a banged up acoustic guitar and started learning to play.

In the early 70’s I met up with an old friend of mine from Fresno, Jon Eben, when he moved to the Central Coast. Jon was an accomplished singer/ guitarist and already writing his own songs. We formed an acoustic group called Cooncreek along with Greg Lowry and Stephen Hall and played the local SLO circuit for acoustic music; The Dark Room, The Network, Sebastian’s, The Outside Inn etc.

Jon and I then met up with a group of excellent musicians from the coast looking for singers for their band. We were soon enlisted and the Fat and Sassy Band was born. This SLO Town favorite was a 7-9-piece horn band that toured the West for 6 Years and became a cult favorite on the California Coast and the Central Valley. It featured my Fresno sports buddy/ singer/ guitarist Jon Eben, monster bass man Leo “the glove” White, Mick “the stick” Stratton on keyboards, Smokin’ Joe Juarez on guitar, Mark Nielsen and later Michael J. Cullen on drums and myself. Our mainstays on the horns were Theotis “Ted” Martin on Saxophone, Franz Blusk on trumpet; other horn players were Greg Preckle and the late John “JT” Tinsley on trumpets. This was my first experience as a front man and I did a lot of singing, along with playing some guitar, steel drums, and other percussion instruments. During the course of our travels we rocked it up all over the Pacific Northwest, Pacific Southwest and extensively throughout California. Some of our high points were recording at Wally Heider’s and A&M Studios in L.A. This was a great group of young players with a lot of smoking original material.

With the eventual demise of Fat and Sassy, I formed my own band aptly called CHESTER. We released our first record, a 45 of original tunes Rock and Roll Heart backed with the Kiss that Kills. This was a hot live band and during the short duration we were together we played the Central Coast area as well as the San Joaquin Valley. CHESTER featured Duane “Daddy D”Ransom on bass, Alex Kizanis on keyboards, and Fat and Sassy alumni Michael J. Cullen on drums with Smokin Joe Juarez on guitar.

This was the early eighties and having started a family with my wife Linda, I was feeling like I needed to stick close to home. It was during this time that Tommy Lee Nunes and I started performing as an acoustic duo at DW Grover’s in Grover Beach and the Hungry Tiger in Morro Bay. This soon morphed into and electric band we called Fast Mickey. Fast Mickey was a hard working, talented and in demand cover band that would keep you dancing all night long. The band featured Tommy Lee and myself on guitars and vocals along with Evan Hiney on bass, John Holt on guitar and keyboards and Michael J. Cullen, Steve Hilstein and eventually Ian Green on drums. In the late eighties I moved along to join an established local band called FATZ. FATZ had more of a soul, rock, and jazz-fusion feel and was featured often at the Spirit nightclub on the hill in San Luis Obispo. Here we headlined and also opened for touring bands like; the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Greg Kihn, Eddie and the Tide along with Junior Walker and the All Stars. This group featured Robert Olivera on Saxophone, Keyboards and percussion, Guitarists Mark Mckenna, Ray Panell and Marty Henry at different times, Mickey Sarver on drums, Duane Ransom and Michael Lomas on bass and Richard Everett on keyboards.

In the early nineties I turned my energy towards songwriting and recording at my home studio with Theotis Martin, Michael J. Cullen and Duane Ransom. This combination worked well creatively and we soon decided to get out and have fun playing some of our all time favorite Motown to Memphis songs with a group we assembled called CT and the Detroit Power. This high powered group also featured Marty Henry on guitar, Franz Blusk on trumpet, Vaughn Martin on keyboards and Doug Tomooka replacing Duane on bass. This soul band was a real crowd pleaser with its infectious choice of R&B. The Detroit Power got the chance to play live all around the Central California Coast capped by some epic New Years Eve parties at the Hilton in Santa Maria and in Winery Concerts in Paso Robles, most notably with Sha Na Na and the Mamas and Papas.

When Theo Martin and Duane Ransom moved to Portland Oregon (they are now playing in a country band called the Cowboy Heroes), Doug Tomooka and I started a recording project that became the HeartThieves. The self-titled CD release on TomoBoom Audiophiles featured songwriting by Doug Tomooka and myself along with an alternating cast of local musicians. It was well accepted and received good reviews. Doug and I formed the HeartThieves band to go out and promote the CD. The band had Michael J. Cullen on drums, Doug Tomooka on bass, John Holt on guitar, Katye Good on vocals, Scott Radosovich on keyboards and myself on guitar and vocals.

In 1998 Tommy Lee and I got together again and started playing acoustics together and soon landed a Friday night gig at the popular San Luis Obispo Restaurant 1865. Little did we know that the gig would last for11years and how tight the partnership of CT and Tommy Lee would become. Over those years we shared the music performance weekly at 1865 and performed up and down the California Coast from Malibu to Santa Cruz on acoustics and in the rock band Typecast. In 2002 we traveled to Arizona to watch spring training baseball and starting writing our first CD, which was released in 2005. We have had the pleasure of sharing the stage as CT and Tommy Lee with Johnny Barbata of Jefferson Starship fame, Wally Barnick of the Cache Valley Drifters, Louie Ortega, Mandolin player Steve Gillett, Multi instrumentalist Gary Etheredge, Keyboard-saxophonist Robert Olivera, Guitarist John Holt along with many others.

I’m currently working with Tommy on our next CD release with the working title of Pieces. It’s a more of an electric rock live in the studio sound that has so far been a lot of fun recording and writing. This new CD will also feature Bruce Sorensen on bass and Michael J. Cullen on drums along with several guest artists. Once again we are being guided by Mr. fixit Steve Crimmel at his Painted Sky Studios in Cambria. We’ll let you know when the new CD comes out. Take a look at our live schedule to see where we are currently performing.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

I sing and play rhythm Electric (Fender Telecaster) and Acoustic (Martin D18, Epiphone PR 17 by Gibson) guitars and an assortment of percussion instruments.

Influences:

Musical; Beatles, Stones, San Francisco Sound, Cat Stevens, Al Green, Motown, Little Feat, Steely Dan, Bob Dylan, Allman Brothers, Memphis, Tim Buckley, CSN&Y, Bob Marley, Taj Mahal

Sports: Sports have played a major role in influencing my development as a person. I was a schoolboy athlete and grew up around college athletics with my Dad. He was Manager of Athletics at Fresno State. I played Baseball and Basketball in high school and had an injury shortened college basketball career. Practice habits, discipline, organization, technique and team-awareness, rising to the moment under pressure … all learned from playing on and watching teams during my youth.

Sidenote: CT stands for Chester the Third