The New Trace

The New Trace
1978-80
The New Trace @ The South Pacific

After Eclypse struggled for a year in the shadow of TRACE and finally called it quits, I realized that if I was going to stay in Phoenix and work, the easiest way to do that would be to re-create TRACE. Rick and Sandy had formed an excellent band called E-Z, and were working in Scottsdale with an old friend of Sandy's from Tucson, Steve Falb on bass. The New Trace happened in spurts, first with Sandy on guitar and me on bass with electronic drums, then with Steve on bass and Sandy and me on guitar with electronic drums, then finally the three of us, me moving from guitar to acoustic drums.

@ South Pacific

The New Trace worked around Phoenix until I made the decision to move to Prescott. Over the course of time, Rick Grammatico returned, and for jobs requiring a larger unit, E-Z's keyboard player Mark joined us making TRACE a 5 piece band on ocassion. The demand for TRACE never seemed to end. There was even an instance when I took a version of TRACE out to play (I fronted former band mate Rick Aguilar's band for that) and Rick and Sandy took another version of TRACE out to play at a different location on the same night. Our agent, Les Boros, LOVED us. For me it was easy money and fun because I was able to switch back and forth from bass to drums depending on whether or not Rick was available to work. Eventually we ended up a trio with the original lineup and dropped the word "New" from our name. After moving from Phoenix to Prescott, I still made the drive back to the valley on a regular basis the first year until I was able to establish myself in Prescott's music scene. Once that happened, with the exception of rare special ocassions, TRACE finally ended.