Tommy Lee

I was born and raised in San Luis Obispo, Ca. A town located not far from the coast in central California. For as long as I can remember, I’ve had an affinity for music. My mother’s father came from the Azores; he played Viola at Fiestas there. I remember listening to him play and sing to me in Portuguese, and my Mom and I singing duets together while she washed dishes, when I was a small child. I started playing music in Elementary & Jr. High School bands (violin, clarinet and drums) and dabbling on the ukulele and a very old hand me down Dobro. I remember going over to my cousin in laws house, he was playing an electric guitar through an amplifier, To this day, I still remember how magical that sound was for me. A high school friend of mine named Gary Winburne and I both bought AirLine guitars from Montgomery Wards and started learning how to play them. We were introduced to a fellow guitarist, Peter Graham who in turn introduced me to the music of bluesman Freddy King , I started learning most of his instrumentals ,”Hideaway” San Jose” etc.. and I was ‘ hooked for life ‘… Gary switched to Bass guitar, we found a drummer, Doug Scott, and “The Sentinals” were formed. My Mom and Dad took me to San Francisco and found me a beautiful cherry-sunburst Fender Stratocaster guitar in a pawn shop. I’d like to put in a special note of love and appreciation here to my Mother and Father whose love, encouragement and endearing patience allowed me to grow up to be the person I was born to be, an artist, an entertainer, and a musician.

The Sentinals, who by now had found a gifted singer by the name of Kenny Hinkle and saxophonist Bobby Holmquist, started off by playing local sock hops and dances for car clubs. Before long we met up with a high school transfer student from Nutley, New Jersey, a fantastic drummer named Johnny Barbata. Years later, Barbata would go on to play with The Turtles, Crosby Stills and Nash, and The Jefferson Starship. Soon after we were ‘discovered’ by Norman Knowles , a saxophonist from “The Revels” , the very first Rock and Roll band ever to come out of the San Luis Obispo county with a hit instrumental record “Six Pack”. Norman took us under his wing and soon had us recording our first LP for DEL-FI records. The album was called “Big Surf “.One of the songs from the album became an instant hit and surf ‘classic.” LATINIA “was the ‘ Pick to Click’ on KFWB, the biggest radio station in Los Angeles at the time, the song was played every hour for a week in the greater Los Angeles area. Heady stuff for high schoolers from the small town of San Luis Obispo .The Sentinals would travel every weekend to play shows at the hot beach spots in Los Angeles and concerts put on by KAFY in Bakersfield. Backing up or playing with just about every major act at the time including : The Righteous Brothers, Beach Boys, Dick and Deedee ,The Coasters, Bobby Vinton , Bobby Vee, The Kingsmen, The Olympics ,The Chantays and many many more, The Sentinals toured across the country , coast to coast and border to border promoting our record. Among the members of the group along the way were, Harry Sackrider, Ben Trout, and Lee Michaels who also had a stellar performing and recording career in later years.

After a one year hiatus from playing music (the only one I’ve ever taken) living and going to school at The Academy of Fine Arts in San Francisco, I moved back to San Luis Obispo and started playing music again in local bars and clubs. Wanting to do more on a bigger stage, myself and five other Central Coasters, packed up and moved to Hollywood .There we started writing and playing nothing but our own original music. The group was called “Sarah”. It was composed of three guitarists, Bill House, Willie Klearman and I, bassist Kenny Hinkle, and drummer Stan House .We all sang, played, and composed our own music. After playing all over the Los Angeles area including stints at The Whiskey, The Palomino Club, Topanga Corral and many other clubs in Hollywood, San Fernando Valley, and Orange County, we eventually landed a recording contract with Liberty records, recording our LP “Sarah is no Lady”. I stayed another five years in Los Angeles after Sarah disbanded, playing clubs and touring with different groups, among them, Matthews Southern Comfort, The Hager Twins and opening for or playing with such acts as Linda Ronstadt , America , Jackson Brown, Leon Russell, ‘Skunk’ Baxter ,and others. After ten years of living in Hollywood, San Fernando, and Woodland Hills, plying my trade, writing and playing my music throughout Southern California, (what a great teacher it was) I moved back to the Central Coast.

I ended up in the little town of Shell Beach, just a couple of miles north Of Pismo Beach, where I immediately started playing gigs as a single at the Cigar Factory in San Luis and Mclintocks in Pismo Beach. After a short time I landed a gig with a band called the “Country Knights” at a bar In Pismo called Harry’s. We ‘rocked that place for three and a half years, playing ‘Country Rock’ music, five nights a week, to a jam packed house, and a line of people waiting to get in that sometimes stretched around the corner . The members of the band were Bill Rowland, (a great country bass player and singer), Gary Hodges on guitar and vocals, and Tim Kelly on drums and vocals, and me. What a blast!

After leaving “the Knights” I played with a group called “The Sneakers”. A Little rock group that was composed of Frankie Paredes on bass and vocals, Steve Hilstein on drums, Kevin McCracken on harmonica and vocals and Len Fennel on pedal steel. This was also a fun, rocking little combo that played up and down San Luis Obispo County in what was then a thriving ‘live’ music scene. I went on to play about a year or so with “Kalapana”, A popular band from Hawaii, touring and playing places such as the ‘Golden Bear’ in Huntington Beach, and festivals through out the state and into Oregon, playing with or opening for ‘Queen Ida Zydeco Band’ and Robert Cray.

It was about this time CT and I started a duet. Playing at the ‘Hungry Tiger’ in Morro Bay. An immediate and lasting friendship and musical bond was formed. We decided to get “Fast Mickey” together to accompany us and again became a band that was a big part of the music scene in the Central Coast area. CT and I, Evan Hiney on bass, Ian Green on drums and John Holt on guitar and keys formed the group. After Fast Mickey I went on to form “Tommy Lee and the Portigees” This group, which still performs through out the summer months at Harry’s in Pismo Beach , has consisted of many different players thru-out the years, among them are : Michael J Cullen , Jim Stromberg, Dean Giles,( drummers ) Evan Hiney, Bruce Sorenson, Johnny Punches (Bassists) Bill Searby Thomas, Ryan Johnson, John Holt, John Lockhart, (guitarists) and Robert Olivera (sax and keyboards) all brothers in arms, all “Honorary Portigees.”

CT and I went onto play for 11 years at the 1865 restaurant in San Luis Obispo, every Friday for ‘Happy Hour’ where we met and entertained many friends. We’ve collaborated for years now, Chet and I, writing and recording our first CD, “CT and Tommy Lee’” a few years back. We are currently in the studio recording our second CD,” Pieces and having a creative ‘ball’ doing it. Were shooting for a fall release date and CD party….We’ll let you know when.