BBW Biographies

Pre-BBW, Ray started playing tenor sax and singing for bands in Hastings in his 10th grade year.  By graduation he had played in numerous bands, then after graduating, Yanda Booking Agent, Rick Vanvleet, combined horn players from two bands into the Elastic Band.  E.B. played primarily in the Dakotas, Kansas, Colorado and Nebraska, playing 80 out of 90 nights in the summer, and on weekends,  as the members were attending college at the time.  BBW years;  Ray joined in 1974 as sax man and band leader, playing tenor, bari, and flute on the Nov. 1974 album recording . Ray and the brass section retired from BBW on July 4, 1977.

Bob Westbrook was Blackberry Winter's longest tenured Sound technician. Hailing from Northplatte he also made the jump to the west coast when the band made the transition to California in 1981. We called Bob the hardest working man in show business.Owner and CEO of Westbrook sound...one of Nebraska's longest and most enduring sound companies ever too plug in a cable. Hear Bob's work on the mixes in the Blackberry Winter live page.

The band called him "Louis" and we were always corrected...a million times,"it's Louise"! Spain guy as we often referred to him was more fun than a "barrel of minkeys" to be in a band with, especially when he got American idioms mixed up.  Luis came from Barcelona Spain to the USA on a cruise ship where he played in one of the bands. His group eventually played in Hastings, Nebraska where Randy Sharp heard him and recruited him for Blackberry Winter as keyboardist.  Luis was an incredible musician, classically trained, as his father played bass clarinet in the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra.  Luis also was responsible for writing the charts of many of the original tunes  of BBW. The testament to his playing genius can be found in the recordings of BBW. Eventually Luis moved back to Barcelona and became an A list studio musician with many studio production credits on his resume.  Unfortunately, Luis passed away from brain cancer, but his memory lives on in everyone's hearts & minds, and in the music he made.

Small town Minnesota guy, who for some reason, imagined he could be a singer in a rock 'n roll band.  Joined BBW in fall of 1977 as vocalist after working with Richie Lane and Fred Bettge in the Chancellors in the early '70s. In BBW, sang, wrote lyrics for the originals, and tried to keep up musically with the talent in the group. (Song list included everything from "Birdland" by Weather Report, to the full 14 1/2 minute Rundgren's "Utopia Theme." ) The main goal of time in BBW, for me, at least, was to record a respectable album's worth of original songs and get the tunes in front of a few major labels.  After the band spent part of a summer recording at state-of-the-art studios in L.A., we began hitting up labels and submitting material...so that mission was accomplished-even though, inexplicably enough, no one wanted to sign us.  So, after graduating from UN-L, I split and moved to L.A. in 1980.  I worked as a copywriter, first at Altec-Lansing in Anaheim, then at Disney Studios in Burbank; went free-lance, sold some TV scripts.  Our Malibu house burned down in the '93 wildfires and we rebuilt and sold the new house and moved to a farm in Iowa!  Sold some sci-fi novels;  still live on our farm, now overrun with rescue horses and way too many cats.  So for all those gigs at the Royal Grove and the Rusty Bucket, for weeks at a time spent in a converted Bluebird bus touring from Idaho to Missouri, for that one thing with Santana, for the entire f**k load of fun, and a truly amazing, musical odyssey; a big thanks to you 'Berries!  Well played.

Chris Schoon-Fall 2021

Richard B Lane was a longtime Lincoln musician who played with several area bands before making his way to Blackberry. Rich grew up in Valisca Iowa and came to Lincoln to go to UNL. He joined a fraternity where he met some other aspiring musicians and they eventually formed a band. This is where Mr. Lane decided music would be his permanent career pursuit. Joining Blackberry after graduating from Utah St music school, Rich made the move to California with the band in 1981. An excellent keyboardist and songwriter, Rich continued to write, record and produce once the band went on hiatus. Still makes Southern California his home base.

Barry Bettge

Looking a lot like his brother Fred. Hi! My name is Barry Bettge and I was the "lighting director" (lightman, roadie ) in BBW from around 1979 till 1982 sometime. I had actually quit a working band to run lights for the band. I ran the lights for many midwest gigs including the Royal Grove and Yellowstone park among many others. I was with the band when they made the move to LA in 1981. I worked with them for a bit but returned to Lincoln because of a woman. I am a multi-intsrumentalist, therefore I was one helluva a good lightman. I knew all the cues, breaks, vocalist and solos and had excellent timing. I consider Blackberry Winter the best band I was never actually in. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Barry Bettge-Fall 2021.