Allen James

Guitar

Allen James was born in WhitePlains, NY but grew up in nearby Tarrytown. He was inspired to start playing guitar after seeing The Beatles play on the Ed Sullivan Show and listening to the Led Zepelin I album. He began teaching himself to play and has never looked back. He played in his first band as a teen in his hometown but moved to Philadelphia shortly after and quickly established himself on the Philly music scene. Allen has played with many bands in the Philadelphia area including Robert Hazard, Kenn Kweeder, Essra Mohawk, Bo Didley, June Rich, Len Barry, The Flamingos. In 1990, he won Philadelphia’s Street Beat WMMR award for best guitarist while playing with the band Junior League. Though Allen is a versatile player and can emulate many styles effectively, he has been most influenced by rock music coming out of the late 60’s and the early 70’s British rock/blues players. Some of his biggest influences as a guitar player include Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Peter Green, Peter Frampton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Mick Taylor, Jon Scofield, Wes Montgomery, Kim Simmonds, and Jon Mclauglin. Allen currently plays a stratocaster guitar and spends much of his free time in pursuit of the “perfect tone”.