Biography
Paul Cummins and the Lion Dogs is a Los Angeles, California based Blues and Blues/Rock trio. Formed in 1999, guitarist Paul Cummins enlisted two of his oldest friends: Doug Dalley bass , and Bob Buchler drums to be the rhythm section.
All three bring resumes going back over 20 years. Paul started his musical journey by way of formal training at age 9 learning saxophone. By 12, he had reached a level of proficiency that would find him earning first chair in the All Valley Honor Band while learning brass instruments well enough to be first chair Baritone Horn in the District Orchestra. At age 13, Paul was in his first performing blues/rock band: The West Coast Blues Company. This was not your typical teenage garage band. Managed by Dale Smallin (previously the manager for The Surfaris), the band rehearsed twice a week, was gigging every weekend, appeared in a movie ("The Day that Sang and Cried" 1968), and recorded in Capitol Records' Studio B. One year after being enlisted as the Sax player, Paul was tapped to play Bass after the parents of the original Bass player pulled him from the band due to poor grades in school. However promising things seemed to appear though, the band became a casualty of the times, disbanding after 3 years in 1970.
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From that point onward, Paul continued his formal music education by day (adding keyboard and percussion in college), while immersing himself during the evenings studying the techniques of many of the legends of Blues (the 3 Kings- Albert, Freddie, and B.B., Muddy Waters, Lowell Fulson, ) and the contemporary masters of the times, like Peter Green, Jimi Hendrix, Rory Gallagher, Johnny Winter, Ry Cooder, John Fahey, and others; while also teaching himself how to play guitar.
1997, at the behest of a friend, Paul entered the Fender Blues Guitar Competition- and even though he did not win, he did reach the Finals; and was one of four invited to the 1st Annual Fender Blues Festival on Catalina Island. Besides reveling in a weekend of jamming with Jimmie Vaughn , Spencer Davis , Carmine Appice , and others, Paul also came away with a gig leading the house band for a local TV talk/variety show- which lead to an offer to join a national rock and roll oldies tour as the backing guitar for Chuck Berry .
Paul Cummins and the Lion Dogs' first and only release "Bluteus Maximus" has enjoyed a moderate amount of success since its release in1999- selling over 4,000 copies; and is still being played on radio stations on every continent.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.