Most of the gigs around Florida in the mid-to-late sixties were teen dances or frat parties. My band, The Enemies, was still a little too young for the clubs but we were able to stay busy thanks to some local T.V. appearances.

At 17, I went to Nashville to attend college at David Lipscomb, but dropped out after about a year to play music full-time and at 19, I got married.

After returning to Florida, I met Bob Greenlee and Foster McKenzie III (AKA: "Root Boy Slim"). Bob and I started a band called The Lake Joanna Band with Tommy Ruger, Winston Kelly and Walt Andrews.

We played in Daytona Beach quite a bit and "Slim" would sit in with us when he was in town. Out of this was born Root Boy Slim and The Sex Change Band with The Rootettes. We cut a 16 track demo in Silver Spring, MD, that got a great deal of play on WHFS in Bethesda, MD which served the DC metro area.

Well, the demo was voted, by listeners, the #3 Album of the Year. One of the DJs, Josh Brooks, took a copy to his college pals Donald Fagen and Walter Becker and they dug it and took it to Steely Dan producer Gary Katz. It took him "two listens" to dig it, but he was helpless to resist, so he got us a deal with Warner Bros. Records and produced our first album.

We went from there to I.R.S./Illegal Records (Distributed by A&M), had a "PICK HIT OF THE WEEK" in the U.K., with the tune "DARE TO BE FAT", a 40 date tour of England, Scotland and Wales with lan Dury & The Blockheads, & Saturday Night Live Movie "Mr. Mike's Mondo Video", and two of our six "Root Boy" albums were "RECORDINGS OF SPECIAL MERIT" in STEREO REVIEW magazine. Even as all this stuff was going on we wanted to get back to our roots.

Fortunately, Bob Greenlee was able to build a studio in Sanford, FL (Kingsnake) where we could cut all kinds of stuff with some of the great blues and jazz artists whose names you'll find in my discography.

I also cut my first "solo" album, Ernestly, (featuring Lucky Peterson). It's an instrumental blues and jazz album that continues to receive airplay world-wide.

I served as Lucky 's bandleader for about a year and toured all over the U.S. and Europe again, but now I'm back in Florida with my own brand-new band, "The Atomic Blues Quartet".

Ernie Lancaster

"When it comes to scorching blues Lancaster can ignite a six string with the best of them"

- Miami Rag

"Ernie Lancaster is a shit hot guitarist who could give any currently rated fretboard artist a run for his money."

- MARK WILLIAMS, Melody Maker, London, England

"On "Bad Feeling" (LUCKY PETERSON, Lucky Strikes, Alligator Records) Lancaster proves he truly has twenty-five fingers."

- Miami Herald

"Do you like rockin' blues ? Do you like funky jazz? Well throw them together and you're sure to love the new Ernie Lancaster album featuring Lucky Peterson.

Ernie Lancaster is on albums by Kenny Neal, Lucky Peterson, Alex Taylor, Rufus Thomas, Razzy Bailey, Noble 'ThinMan' Walls, and many, many more. Now It's his turn to pour on the blues power.

Joining Ernie is keyboard sensation Lucky Peterson. Lucky is a fellow Kingsnake session player, as well as solo artist on Alligator Records. His mastery of the Hammond B-3 is a perfect counterpoint to Ernie Lancaster's steaming guitar.

From ballads like 'Ernestly' to the uptown jazz funk of Ivory Towers', these songs take you all over the musical map. Ernie gets down in all styles, pulling that extra feeling into every bend."

- BOB GREENLEE on 'Ernestly', Kingsnake Records of Sanford, Florida

"Lancaster shows off formidable chops across a variety of genres..."
"Steve Vai and Joe Satriani may have put out flashier guitar albums, but when it comes to funkiness and feeling, they can't match 'Ernestly'."

- PARRY GETTLEMAN, Orlando Sentinel