| Doug Stafford – Guitar, Lead Vocals Doug grew up playing guitar at bluegrass festivals around northern Virginia before to Oklahoma as a teenager. His musical attention skewed to the left and he received his music degree in Opera Performance from the University of Oklahoma. He put down his old guitar for 25 years, worked and raised kids, until he answered an ad on Craigslist and joined the bluegrass band Southbound Mule in 2005. He formed Dustbowl Gypsies in 2010 with fiddler Verlon Stidham and Dale White to play western swing at the State Fair of Oklahoma. In 2018, with children grown and the house paid for, he joined with Gary Gerhart to create the newest incarnation of Dustbowl Gypsies. A Norman, OK resident for 40 years, he is still active in Southbound Mule, church choir, OKC Community Orchestra, and is painfully learning the violin. | Gary Gerhart – Mandolin, Harmony Vocals A Los Angeles native, Gary began playing guitar in church at the age of eight. He studied classical music in school, playing woodwinds and brass while focusing on music theory. Playing guitar in various rock bands in his twenties, he realized that the bass player was always having more fun than he was, so he made the switch to electric bass, and played in nearly every club in L.A. over the years. In his late thirties, he revisited his early jazz guitar roots playing guitar in a swing / rockabilly band, which included a full horn section. Gary “discovered” bluegrass after moving to Oklahoma, and has played upright bass in several traditional bluegrass bands in Oklahoma. He is still the bass player in Southbound Mule, where he met Doug. Because he has always loved the sound of the mandolin, he picked one up and sorted out how to play it (plus, it’s a lot easier to haul around than an upright..). Dustbowl Gypsies is Gary’s latest musical adventure… |
| Rick Morton – Fiddle Just about the greatest fiddler who ever fiddled a fiddle. Rick Morton has played fiddle with the Tulsa Playboys, and dozens of other bands both known and unknown. He has recorded with The Tractors, winning a Grammy Award and a Gold record. Morton has been involved with fiddle education for years and serves on the board of directors for the National Fiddler Hall of Fame. Repeat: he won a Grammy for his work on The Tractors album. Have YOU won a Grammy? Oh yeah? Show me. | Jon Parris – Bass In his early twenties, Jon Parris became a member of RCA recording artist Gus Hardin’s band, highlighted by an appearance on the Nashville Network’s program Crook & Chase. He later performed with Okie Soul, which featured both Gus and Don White. From there, he performed and recorded with TJ “Tennessee Jet” McFarland and was the bassis for the world premier of Honky Tonk Angels at the Tulsa PAC. Joining the Stonehorse Band in 1998, then fronted by Alan Jackson fiddle Mark McClurg, Jon performed regularly for the National Finals Rodeo Buckle Ceremonies in Las Vegas, where he backed up guest artists such as Billy Parker, Red Steagall, Daryle Singletary and Wade Hayes. In support of his recordings with the Scott Ellison Band, most notably… |
