Sonoma musician spotlight: Jeffro Hunter

We first got wind of Jeffro Hunter when we were doing the former radio show on community radio KSVY where we focused strictly on local musicians. We received a CD called “Jeffrology III” which immediately beckoned the question; was there a “Jeffrology” I and a II? Indeed there was. The album was metal heavy with sweeping arpeggios that rivaled Yngwie J. Malmsteen. But, we were soon to learn, there’s no genre of music that Hunter can’t master.

Born in Las Cruses, New Mexico to an aerospace family, his father worked on the Apollo missions in Whitesands, before the family moved to Seattle, where his father worked for Boeing. In an ironic turn of events, his father ended up being the building inspector in Sonoma Valley in the ’70s. Hunter grew up in Napa and made his way to Sonoma in 1994. Hunter can play any genre and is currently working on jazz while he plays in three acts. This Saturday, Jan. 28, you’ll have a chance to see two of them when Wildflower Weed lays down its own original “Hippie Mountain Music,” and then the Tilted Halos play hard rock covers at the El Verano Inn at 9 p.m.

Hunter told us about his first guitar and the influence of Jimi Hendrix.

When did you realize you wanted to be a musician?

It’s kind of funny, when I was young there was a Salvation Army donation box near where I lived and we would dig through it now and then – and I grabbed albums. I think hearing “Get off of my Cloud” by the Rolling Stones did it. I listened to that song over and over.

That first instrument you owned. What was it and do you still have it?

My parents bought me a really crappy acoustic guitar when I was really young, but the first real guitar I had my mom got me, it was a ’64 Gibson Melody Maker and, yes, I still have it and play it.

Who are your influences?

Jimi Hendrix. But many of the British guitar gods helped as well – Jimmy Page, Ritchie Blackmore. My mom had a boyfriend that was a jazz bass player and he introduced me to Curtis Mayfield. Then, once he found out who I liked, he introduced me to who influenced those artists, like Muddy Waters and Miles Davis.

What CD is in your car?

Believe it or not, lately I’ve been only listening to the local radio station KSVY. I like the late night jazz shows that play the likes of Charlie Parker and Oscar Peterson.

If you could have written one song, what would it be?

“Little Wing” by Jimi Hendrix. That is the kind of thing Hendrix could just play off the top of his head. To be able to just come up with songs like that, man, I wish I had that.