"Billy Banjo"

John David's

Fan Page

John David is one of the newest members of the Billy Hill and the Hillbillies Green Team. Born and raised in Norman, Oklahoma, John David is a superb instrumentalist, songwriter and singer. As well as playing the banjo in the show, John also plays the guitar, mandolin, dobro and harmonica.

 He performed and toured with the famous folk band, The Limeliters from September 1981 until the end of 1994, overlapping the tenures of tenors Red Grammer and Rick Dougherty.

John appeared on all the show, recording, and videos during that time period, including of course, "Global Carnival," on which he did some producing as well. He also played on solo recordings by Lou, "Lucky Lou" and Red's "Teaching Peace."

While John was primarily an instrumentalist with The Limeliters, he also sang parts of many songs with them as well.

John shares with us two interesting experiences he had with The Limeliters:

"There were countless highlights during our travels including visits to many spectacular places and venues. If I had to pick a couple that stand out off the top of my head to tell you about, I'd say playing at Wolftrap was one. My banjo was broken by the airlines and moments before showtime, Paul Prestopino, the Chad Mitchell trio's multi-instrumentalist lent me his. It was a handmade hybrid from the early sixties, with a long neck, but the fifth string peg and dot markers were placed as if it weren't a long-neck. In other words all the visual cues were wrong, nothing was where you would expect it to be! As we strode to the front of the stage for the opening number, I just told myself "don't look down." Fortunately I didn't and everything went fine. Whew!"

"Another was the time Lou, Alex, Red, and I sang Lou's sensational four-part a cappella arrangements of "The Star Spangled Banner," and "Southbound Passenger Train" on the 50 yard line in front of 90,000 at Denver's Mile High Stadium (home of the Broncos), before the last football game of the season. The "delay" on the vocals was unbelievable. We were hearing ourselves sing the previous phrase while delivering the next one. Talk about concentration! Well, I guess I'd better stop here, before I fill up all the bandwidth available.:-)"

Since his time with the Limeliters, John David has been staying off the road working as a studio musician in the Los Angeles area, doing recordings, movies, TV shows, and commercials (including ones for Toyota, Honda, Carnation, and Michelob).

He occasionally "plays out" with a group, The Rhinestone Homeboys, which includes in addition to John , David Jackson and Mel Harker. The material of the group may best be described as eclectic, including originals as well as humorous and/or amusing songs from a variety of sources. [Music Connection magazine called The Rhinestone Homeboys "one of the best bands anywhere!"] But John laments, " We all have so many other commitments that our performances have lately been few and far between."

John also tells us, "Late last year, in 1997, I did get out to one of the Limeliter shows in Sierra Madre and played a set with them. I had a good time, and enjoyed seeing the new lineup. Rick, Alex, and Bill sounded great." "

John David has a website for his first solo album, The Christmas Guitar, featuring instrumental acoustic guitar and mandolin.

Producer, arranger, virtuoso multi-instrumentalist John David received rave reviews for his musicianship when he toured the country with the internationally famous Limeliters, whom he also produced. John has appeared on the "Tonight Show" as featured instrumentalist (with Leon Redbone).

His playing can be heard on the Peter Jennings Special "In Search of America." In addition to his highly acclaimed solo acoustic project The Christmas Guitar, his work graces numerous recordings, television shows, commercials, and movie soundtracks.

John currently resides in Southern California and subs with both the Billy Hill Show and The Barncats [currently The Miner 49'ers] over at Disney's California Adventure..

[John David with the Limeliters,

John is on the end playing guitar.]

To Return to Jan's Main Billy Hill Page

To Return to Jan's Billy Hill Sub Page

To Return to Jan's Main Index Page

To Go to John David's The Christmas Guitar Website