The Woodshed Podcast 56 featuring John Ferullo

JOHN FERULLOI have been playing my own songs and other's folk and acoustic music in coffee houses, restaurants, festivals, bars and anywhere else for about ten years. I also run an open stages in the area where I get to meet many wonderful musicians. My music is influenced by Woody Guthrie, Bill Morrissey, Steve Goodman, Greg Brown, John Hurt and others. I play solo and sometimes in a duo called "Two Cat Folk" with the talented Betsi Mandrioli. I have a solo CD and one in process and also a CD with my duo Two Cat Folk. I started playing guitar when I was about 14 years old. My neighborhood friends were mostly into rock and roll and heavy metal so I thought I wanted to play that. That was until I heard Steve Goodman's first album. I knew then that I wanted to learn songs that had content and melody like the songs Steve played. From Steve Goodman I found John Prine and Tom Rush. Then life took over. I finished college, started a family and a career. Sometime in the early 80's I went to a Tom Rush showcase at a local theater. Part way through the show this guy gets up there who looked like a kid in his father's oversized coat. He sang a song about a hobo camp in Barstow. He was a fairly young guy with the voice of a much older, more grizzled, man. Bill Morrissey deserves to be counted amongst the best of American literature. The stories and characters in his songs made me want to write songs so I started learning how. I started attending open mikes in the 90's and started one of my own in 2001. Since I have done several open mike features and shows as a solo and in my duo. My music has been described as “about important things with his stories about seemingly small things”. I like to write stories about regular people.