After singing in an all-women's acapella group in the northeast for 5 years, I heard B.B. King's "Lucille" in 1994 and I was hooked. Finished school, packed myself and my cat into my car and drove down to Austin, Texas where I heard there was a great live blues scene. Started my first band in 1998 at Austin's infamous 6th Street blues dive, Joe's Generic Bar. The band was "the Dupes," initially formed with 2 mentors of mine, drummer Jeff Hodges and guitarist George Rarey. The following year came the "Cooltones" - a brief line-up including another long-time friend and mentor, "Uncle" John Turner and (then teenage) young gun guitarists Gary Clark, Jr. and Eve Monsees. For the next several years I played and travelled regionally and internationally with various lineups. Of course this is the extremely abbreviated version. It's been an amazing 9 years! These days my band is called "Erin Jaimes (& Her Bad Habits)". It includes "the Italian Tornado" Salvatore "Banzai" LA Rocca on harmonica, Guitar George Rarey (amazing how things come full circle!) and Matt Farrell on keys.