Taken off a TV screen ... impressionism by guitarist producer Rick Francis.

Imagination abuzz.

16 years old with drummer Bill Doidge and now Nashville songwriter Ron Demmans ... Ancaster, Ontario ... Daniel Lanois and Bob Doidge may have been in the audience.

Alley cat In the alley.

Inset from The Roots of All Evil: Me at 16. Judging by the position of my right and left hands, I think I am playing "Bo Diddley" in the nasty key of "E" ... a favourtie key for guitar players because it seriously rocks!

Roots of All Evil: Can you figure out who we are from the photo of us sittin on our touring van?

I've got my foot hanging over the "O". My first real professional band. They lent me a Gibson Les Paul Junior guitar to play on that is now probably worth $20,000 ... Where is that guitar now? Left to right: Barry Stoltz. Ron Demmans, Bill Doidge, me, Edd Taylor. A serious rock and R&B band.

This is The Incredible Sons of Doctor Funk. Left to right: me, Ron Knappett, Pat Sullivan and now music journalist Doug Carter.

Inset from the Incredible Sons of Doctor Funk, seriously thinking about something ...

This is the fabulous Fraser Loveman Group. Fraser is still a master of the musical archives going back to the beginning of recorded music. He once did an amazing dance called the "Vibration" that nobody else in the world has been able to do, as far as I know. We are due for a reunion. Left to right, back to front: Jonn Ord, me, Pat Sullivan, Doug Carter, Fraser Loveman, Ron Knappett.

From left to right: Neil Merryweather - vocals and bass, Ed Roth - Hammond organ and flute, me, Jimmy Livingston - vocals and other instruments, Coffi Hall - drums. This is our fantastic 1968 wonder band called Merryweather, once known as Heather Merryweather named after June Nelson's epic poem. Neil and I will be back in the studio together after a slightly long hiatus. Neil is a superlative artist creating wonderful paintings, photos, music, lyrics. His work continues to inspire me in the visual arts as well as the musical arts ~ a perfect example of inspired craftsmanship! Ed Roth's unique musical inventions make me crazy to play better than I thought I could yesterday. He brings out the cinema in the sound-scape and so much more. Coffi was the supreme drummer and Jimmy added the psychedelic element to the music. We all fought like family sometimes, but I loved this band and still do.

From left to right: Coffi Hall - drums, Ron Johnson - bass, me, Ed Roth - Hammond organ and flute, Rick Matthews on vocals and percussion. Chris Sarns was the first bass player (not in this photo) and he is on a great recording with us at Fillmore West. This was a super funky band in Rick's pre Super Freak years. We did Swahili chants and superlative arrangements on tunes like Blackbird. When Ron hit the bass, my playing would warp into funk. Rick was notorious for raising the roof and creating the unexpected just when everyone thought we could relax for a few minutes. This band scared me many times because of the unpredictable consequences of freedom on stage. Although I needed antacids on many occassions, Rick was a solid mentor to me in many ways. We shared a band house for a year in Encino and Rick would often bring out the conga and create magic with the African drum and the chant of the storytelling Griot. I have the archives -- It would be nice to share this with everyone someday.

The multi-talented Christopher Sarns, the first bass player with Salt 'n Pepper: Prior to Salt'nPepper, Chris had appeared in a duo with Steven Stills at the Bayou Room on Bourbon St. in New Orleans and the Four Winds Cafe in Greenwich Village. He was also road manager for the Buffalo Springfield, Crosby Stills and Nash, Boyce and Heart (wrote and recorded all the Monkey's songs), and the Turtles - in that order. At present, Chiris lives near Sacramento, California, and he is still rocking on!

This is CANO: Left to right: Marcel Aymar, Mike Dasti, Dave Burt, André Paiement, Rachel Paiement (front) Wasyl Kohut (front), Mike Kendel (back), John Doerr. We emerged from a Francophone Canadian theatre company ~ The band is now referred to as being mystical. Yes, indeed!

With the proper attitude ...

This was recorded by CBC at Kew Beach, Toronto, after I got back from an appearance in Japan.

With my late beloved dog, Katie ... Whenever I need to wet my eyes, I think about this amazing puppy!

Sound check for CANO in Aylmer, summer concert, July / 2010. John Doerr on bass trains his ear on Mike Dasti's drum sounds. I am enjoying my new Celestian Gold speaker in the Deluxe amp. The actual show was a blast and we had an encore of amazing fireworks. That's what summer is all about methinks!

Playing at the farm of my dear friends the Ferrettis and Steedmans ... A few years back. This is with my jam band, Billy's Hat, which includes members of CANO, Merryweather and one of my favourite guitar players, Russ Carter, from the famous historical R&B band, The Bishops, from Hamilton Ontario.

A television appearance with an excellent version of my old band CANO paying tribute to our former great francophone and sometimes anglophone musical phenomenon, CANO. We recorded several albums with A&M Canada. Please see my story on CANO at this website. I recently did an interview at CBC about my musical life and my experience with this fine group of players in January of 2012.

Proposed postage stamp for Canada Post?

2013: I was a guest player for three tunes with this energetic rock band called M.I.C. (Made in China). Front man and lead guitarist, Yvon Serre lived in Chengdu and played all over China reaching celebrity status there. Go to my site's "Adventures and Links" to see the video for "Rockin' Rollin" from M.I.C.'s fifth album called "Fifth Avenue". Guess where Yvon shot the video -- Toronto's Chinatown.