About

Boise Blues Society Board of Directors:

David Light | President/Treasurer

E: dlight0245@gmail.com

Although Dave Light started playing harmonica at the age of four, it wasn’t until living in Louisiana that he became immersed in the blues. Dave spent his spare time in the French Quarter of New Orleans listening to street bands play the highly emotional sound of the music called “blues.” Hooked on the blues, Dave went back to California where he befriended David Barrett of the School of Blues. Barrett is a great harp teacher and player as well as the most prolific writer of harmonica teaching books in the world today. It was then Dave started learning how to play blues on the harp. In 1991 Dave and fellow musicians formed the blues band Trials and Tribulations. They played most of the major blues venues in the bay area for more than five years. In 1994 David Barrett started the Harmonica Masterclass and Dave Light helped teach enthusiastic harmonica players all over the US including New York, Austin, Chicago, Long Beach and San Jose. “I believe over the five year span we must have taught over 1500 professional, intermediate and beginning harp players.” Dave was raised in Idaho and after being gone for 25 years is living back in Boise helping promote the appreciation of the “Blues.”

Bill Arnold | Executive Vice President/Events

Two of Bill’s life passions have been his profession and his music.  His interest in music fully erupted when the Beatles began their tour on the Ed Sullivan Show in the early 1960’s.  He mowed lawns to earn enough money to purchase a Gibson SG, and has been in love with guitars ever since.  He played in an ill-fated garage band in high school that went nowhere…but it was fun, and then devoted his time to earning a PhD, becoming a board certified licensed psychologist, tenured full professor of psychology with the University of Texas System, and running a successful private practice for 40 years–most recently in criminal forensic psychology in the Boise area where he retired.  His career included an appointment by the governor and 8 years of service on the Idaho Board of Psychologist Examiners and has been President of the Idaho Psychological Association.  In the area of music, in 1978, he met his musical soulmate, and played a number of clubs over the next 12 years, ending with two bands in South Texas on the US-Mexico Border, with the most successful being “Los Blues Guys.”  Over the past 10 years he has played guitar on 3 church worship teams in the Boise area.  Most recently, he has served on the City of Eagle’s Arts Commission. He established his local band in 2016, the Billy Blues Band featuring Michele Eastland and Becky Blake.  His band has been successfully playing various venues in the Treasure Valley and McCall focusing on upscale clubs, festivals, private parties and weddings.

John Rumel | Vice President Grants/Contributions

John Rumel is a professor at the University of Idaho College of Law and a long-time fan of blues music. He moved to Boise from the Bay Area over twenty-five years ago and remembers being delighted to hear Norman Davis’s voice on the radio (Norman had been a deejay in San Francisco when John lived there), attend shows at the old Blues Bouquet, and join the BBS. John was a frequent volunteer at BBS events prior to joining the Board, but will not be a member of the Board’s Blues Directors band since the only instrument he professes to play is the stereo. His work on the Board has focused on event production – primarily at the Riverside Hotel’s Sapphire Room and Sandbar – and fundraising. Prior to joining the Board, John was extensively involved in the production of a 4-CD tribute album to legendary Idaho folksinger Rosalie Sorrels. He also recently was honored as one of several Volunteers of the Decade, based on his work with the Extreme Team, a group that has worked together for many years producing the Extreme Extravaganza, a holiday benefit show for Boise’s Interfaith Sanctuary.

Tim Childs | Board Member

Raised in the Boston area, Tim’s path to the Blues began after learning how to play BlueGrass & Folk guitar behind friends & family members. As a 17 year old, he went to a Duke Robillard & Roomful of Blues show and witnessed Eric Clapton sitting in with Buddy Guy with Duke joining in and he never looked back.

While attending Ripon college to be near the Chicago Blues scene, he began playing in Blues bands and began his professional playing career. After graduating, this led to him migrating out to the Pacific Northwest, stopping along the way in Nashville, Austin, LA then San Francisco to check the Blues scenes out. Once meeting and witnessing the Portland Blues scene in 1989 – sitting in and meeting the best of the PNW blues bands – he formed the Live Wires in 1993. In this period he realized that being a pro blues musician was difficult to make a living and started working in the construction industry to support the Blues “habit”. Portland was the base, and the Lives Wires started to get a decent PNW following. Things were looking up at that juncture, but Tim’s playing career was sidelined in 2001 with a fret hand injury. It took a very long time to relearn how to play at a high level, and as other BBS board members have also done, the Music career was put in the back ground for a long while, but the love for the blues and the music never was far away. He focused on his General Contracting & Consulting business and retired from that life in 2017.

Then the move to Boise in the summer of 2018 changed everything. By “accident” or perhaps “divine intervention”, Tim ran across an old old playing buddy, and the The Blues Saviors were formed and at the same time – via a BBS Jam – Tim met Dave Light, and most of the current BBS Board members. After playing at several of the BBS sponsored jams, Tim & Dave discussed forming a “West Coast Jump Blues Band”, and the Trials & Tribulations Blues band was formed. Two and a half years later, things are rolling right along and here we are. Way fun being involved with the BBS and playing at a high level once again. Looking forward very much to getting back to a regular playing schedule once “we” get past the pandemic.