Jim got his first real inspiration to play at the age of 15 when he met a guy who made an acoustic sound better than he ever heard before and when he got closer noticed the guitarist was missing the second finger of his fretting hand. He played the necessary chords in other forms and improvised a lot but Jim knew he could learn a lot from him and they jammed together for about a year. (Thank you Bruce-RIP). He played on and off over the years as life was busy but picked it up again about 12 years ago when agreeing to do one or two songs with an acoustic player he had hired to play for his work holiday party. The 1 song turned into a reigniting of the passion and he started playing regularly with his new guitar mentor at work holiday parties and charity events. Shortly afterwards, Jim and John Q, who worked together for years, decided to give it a go together for some of the future work events. Jim eventually changed jobs where he met Pete and they teamed up to also play work events including a charity event for Veterans called Wall Street rocks at the Cutting Room in NYC. Later, Pete introduced Jim to Bobby during the Covid break, Bobby and Barry connected and Jim introduced John who also brought in Jackie. The rest is history!