Jeff Rendinaro is Zip CIty's lead singer and harmonica player.  He started the band after moving to this area from New York City in 1992 when he met Eric O'Hara.  They knew a lot of the same material and both played guitar.  "It was easy to do a little harmony, so we wanted to get a bit bigger.  Then Skip Smithson signed on to play guitar and mandolin.  Bill Blough joined us six years ago.  He is a world-renowned bass player with George Thorogood and the Destroyers.  He is one of the guys that defines blues rock playing.  When Bill is on tour Tim Hartnett plays bass.  He is a great all around musician.  They each have very different styles.  It's really cool that they play in their own distinct way.  Brian Osborne is the most recent member.  He went to Berkeley School of Music.  He is a drummer and also an acupuncturist.  He is very interesting too.

"We thought it would be more fun with more people, and it is!  It's a whole different thing.  When we did the duet it was a little bit softer, more delicate, but it's fun to crank it up too."  Jeff and Eric continue to sing duets in Zip City, their voices and timing blending smoothly and seemingly effortlessly.  Jeff continues, "Plattsburgh has always had a large number of good musicians.  There aren't a lot of places to play, but this whole area has always been great for music.  Maybe it's a rural thing.  There is less to go out to than in a city, so some people learn to play an instrument for their own enjoyment."

When asked if it is true that the band does not rehearse he replies, "Yes. We live far apart and it's not easy to get together.  The music is like tennis.  I hit the ball and he hits it back.  Not everybody can do that.  You have to have a good ear and once you have enough experience then you can do it.  We play in a certain groove.  If you are a blues player you know the style.  We're doing it because it's fun.  We play what we feel like playing.  We play all kinds of blues and we play it like who we are, with all the influences we've had on us, from Muddy Waters and Hank Williams to Duke Ellington and Dion.  We do sort of lean toward that '50s Chicago sound.  But everything that you hear becomes 'your' music.  When you hear something you like it has meaning for you.  We draw on a lot of different styles of American music.

"To me all American music comes from blues one way or another.  Hank Williams and Jimmie Rodgers were blues players.  Playing rock and roll, Chuck Berry and Johnny Johnson are coming from the same place as T Bone Walker and Elmore James.  Jazz started out as blues taken to a different place  It's the mixture of African beats and rhythms and European music, whether they were English folk ballads or Mediterranean minor pentatonic melodies; you throw it all together, and that is what came out."

Zip City has not made a CD yet because all the members have very busy lives.  Jeff is a stockbroker, Eric is a chemist, Skip is an electrician, Bill is a rock star, Tim is a librarian, and Brian has an acupuncture practice in Plattsburgh.  It would be hard to get together for the amount of time that a CD would require.  When it comes to the blues, live and spontaneous is probably the best way to experience it.  Zip City does have a website with downloadable live recordings,
zipcityblues.com