Jim Furnas' bits
Guitar and Vocals

I started taking classical piano lessons at age 7 and picked up the guitar for the first time around 9. I plinked on the guitar for a few years until I eventually found out I couldn’t live without it. I jammed with garage bands during my teens but never really had a working band other than a backyard party here and there. During college, I sold my guitars and didn’t play at all for about five years. When I finally figured out what was missing in my life, I bought an old Gibson guitar and amp and started playing again.

I heard a tune on the radio one night and it hit me so deeply I had to pull my truck over and call the radio station to find out who it was. It was Tab Benoit’s first CD title cut, “Nice and Warm.” After that, I got deep into the blues and started listening to everything I could get my hands on. All the old timers like Robert Johnson, Willie Dixon, Bukka White, Son House and Muddy Waters and a lot of the new blues too. After a few years, I started up a blues band. Eventually, that evolved into Déjà Blues were I get to play the music I love with these really great musicians anytime I want. It really doesn’t get any better than this for me.

Don Heflin
Bass Guitar and Vocals (Harmonica and Guitar when I can get away with it)

My bio of the blues

I started playing guitar when I was eleven years old (that was 1964). My older brother played also and when he got a new guitar I bought his old one for seven dollars, I still have it. I started a band when I was in Jr. High and we played for school dances and sock-hops. My brother had a band also. They were called the Antiques. One weekend they had to play out of town and their bass player could not make it so they taught me their songs on the bass and I’ve been a bass player ever since.

In high school, we played a lot of top 40 stuff, but with the start of album rock we got into the blues before we knew it was the blues. With bands like Cream and Led Zeppelin we were jamming songs for 30 minutes and it was basically blues-based stuff.

I started really getting into blues later on with albums by Lightin’ Hopkins, James Cotton, Charley Musselwhite, Pacific Gas and Electric, Albert King; the most influential were Super Sessions with Mike Bloomfield and Al Cooper. The album they did with Moby Grape called Grape Jam I must have worn a hole in it because I played it so many times.

I played with a lot of different local groups along the way. The longest running band was The Roids. We not only played original songs but top 40 (‘70s and ‘80s) stuff just to get the club owners to let us in. After that, I hooked up with Jackie Turner and that is when I really got into playing what I will call the real stuff. I later played with Chris Millar (Blues West Orchestra) and Jackie Turner. Besides playing on our own, we would back up some great legends like Guitar Shorty, Harmonica Fats, Larry Davis (he wrote Texas Flood which was recorded by Stevie Ray Vaughn), Harmonica Slim, Hosey Levy, Louisiana Guitar Red, Smokey Wilson, and Home Sick James. I was in hog heaven playing with these guys. We would also open for groups like Charlie Musselwhite, William Clark, and Debbie Davies. With the latest band, Deja Blues, we opened for greats like Tab Benoit and Carl Weathersby.

My day time jobs which let me travel around the USA gave me the chance to jam all over the country. I’ve played in Chicago, Houston, Kansas City, and Memphis. Meeting and jamming with people like Eddie Shaw, Gloria Hardiman, Carlos Johnson, The Chicago Rhythm and Blues Kings, The Beale Street Cadillac Blues Band, and last year in Chicago, I played with Carl Weathersby.

My latest venture with Deja Blues has got to be the most fun of all. We play all the songs we really like and the grooves never end.

Dan Bates
Hammond B3, Lap Steel, Vocals

I have been playing guitar since age 10, piano since age 16. I have played in Canada, Japan and many of the Western United States. I have lived in L.A., the Bay Area and in the San Joaquin Valley here for most of my life.

For the most part, I cut my musical teeth on the blues artists of England. They were basically selling the American Black Blues artists back to us Americans. The bands I mostly listened to were Cream, Ten Years After, John Mayall, early Fleetwood Mac. American Blues artists were Jimi Hendrix, Albert Collins, Freddy King and Albert King and B.B. King… is that enough "Kings" for ya?

In my life, I have had the pleasure of meeting many famous people around the world. I have performed for Ronald Reagan's birthday party with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. I have met Carlos Santana, Billy Joel, Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, David Bowie, Steve Perry, and while playing in Japan, I spent 2 ½ hours with John Lennon.

Locally, I have played 4 different 3 ½ year stints on "sit-down" gigs. In other words, steady 5 night a week gigs where dust would collect on my equipment and smoke would collect in my lungs. Those gigs were: Knock Three Times (now called Pardini's), The Armona Club, The Travelodge Inn, and The Club Armona. I have been performing at Table Mountain for the last 7 years.

Now I’m doing the fun stuff—playing the blues.

Rod Fowler
Drums and whatever

I’ve been playing drums and guitar for 35 years. I could pretty much play the drums as soon as I sat down on them. I’m a blues based drummer and when I play the guitar, the only thing that comes out is blues licks, Over the years I've played in all kind of bands including blues, rock, country, swing and jazz. I toured with some of these bands throughout California, Canada, Arizona, Nevada and Oregon. I also played around L.A. in original bands, and did some recording and showcasing in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

My early influences were the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Hendrix, Cream, Motown, Muddy Waters and B.B. King. I started playing in Stockton, California in the late ‘60s. My dad played guitar mostly and sang in country music in bands in and around the Sacramento and Stockton area. I inherited my music tastes and talent from him.

These days I prefer my Gretsch drums with Zildjin cymbals. I'm now blessed to be playing with a bunch of great guys and we call ourselves Déjà Blues. I’m having a blast. Keep on groovin'.