HIP PRAISER

About the Book

Skip Ladd was born in St. Louis, Missouri November 8th 1948. His legal name is Paul Alan Ladd, but has gone by Skip Ladd since before he could even walk. His parents moved to Phoenix, Arizona in September of 1952. He use to take two saw horses and put an old barn door across them to make a stage, then take his sister’s eyebrow pencil to make stove pipe sideburns to pantomime Elvis Presley with his older brother’s guitar. His older brother Bill had a Country & Western band that used to practice at his house. Wee Willie and the Coachmen thought he was too wild on guitar, so they gave him a washboard and a thimble to strum along. His mother, Ethyl Ladd, taught him his first song on a 4 string tenor guitar playing Little Brown Jug. His brother showed him 3 chords, then he taught himself the rest listening to Duane Eddy records. In grade school at William T. Machan he played the Coronet for flag raising ceremonies every morning. At Camelback High School he played Coronet for 4 years in band. He also played guitar in several high school bands. At Phoenix College he was a voice major on scholarship with classical training as a music educational major. Studied Advanced Integrated Music Theory under Doctor Albert Oliver Davis and Doctor Warren Wesler. The college purchased a bass guitar and appointed him to play it since he already knew how to read music and played guitar. At the time he was recording for Vault records with a group called 20th Century Zoo. Vietnam war came along and Skip got drafted into the U.S. Army. While in the army he toured with CMTS70 (Command Military Touring Show) playing guitar for Uncle Sam. He was stationed in Germany and was asked to join a German rock band called Hommunculus. While in Germany he went to Koln, Germany to try to study under Karlheinz Stockhousen for electronic music, but he only taught in German. At Arizona State University he studied an Electronic Music seminar under Doctor David Cohen. At Eastside Baptist Church Skip started applying his knowledge to traditional hymns and use his own cheat sheets for the guitar to play along. Subject came up about autoharps because the pastor’s wife Gail got a new one, and the rest is history.

About the Author