Bios | Northwest Playboys

Home

Al Callan

Bothell, WA | Fiddle, Guitar, Banjo, Vocals

"There’s no “Star Vocal” in this band, we all enjoy sharing the stage. We’re a bunch of old coots that have always enjoyed playing together.

We’re ready for the next chapter in our music story We just like having a band, this band... having and sharing fun.”

A roving fiddler raised in central Missouri, Al Callan hit the country scene hard in hard-rocking L.A. in his 20s and early 30s, then planted roots in Bothell, Washington for the last couple of decades. Equally at ease behind a guitar, banjo, mandolin or microphone, Al is still happiest, as are Northwest crowds, when he tucks his fiddle under his chin.

Al landed his first professional fiddling gig at age 14, aboard a Missouri river boat called the “Tom Sawyer.” Even then, his bow strings could tease up heart-pounding crowd pleasers like The Devil Went Down to Georgia and the Orange Blossom Special.

With a band Al formed in the early 1990s, TruWest, he brought the Bakersfield sound to bucolic Seattle-area bars from Bothell to North Bend. That led to occasional bookings down at the old Safari Club in Estacada, Oregon, where he first met younger versions of the Northwest Playboys.

Monty Moss

Castle Rock, WA | Lead Guitar, Vocals

“We’re just a good old bunch of buddies. We’ve all played in some of the same bands over the years. You know you can trust certain players to know what your sound is, and these guys are pros.”

Monty was born in Bothell Washington, and raised in Umapine, a watering hole on the old Walla Walla Valley Railway. With a population of 315, it was worthy of a Hee Haw “Salute.”

Monty’s musical journey started well before kindergarten. His dad Jerry, a country bass player, had a little bluegrass band with a couple neighbors from Kentucky. “They all played steel and mandolin and fiddle Every Saturday," Monty recalls. "We’d have big parties out on the deck, and the Sheriff would show up, along with all the neighbors.”

Monty has been playing guitar since age 5, and performing professionally in Northwest bands for more than 30 years, often crossing paths at gigs and fairs with his new musical crew.

As the lead guitarist for the Northwest Playboys, Monty’s a Fender fan, tickling two Telecasters ( a B-Bender he built from parts, and a reissued 1952 Butterscotch “Tele”). Both feed his Fender Deluxe amp, also a favorite of Buck Owens’ side man Don Rich. Musical influences in Monty’s repertoire stretch from early Bob Wills through 1960s storytellers like Tom T. Hall, Hoyt Axton and Haggard, to newer classics from Vince Gill and Keith Whitley.

Bob Ferrante

Sandy, OR | Percussion, Vocals

"This band is different. I’ve worked with all these guys for years. We’re all brothers in arms. Going on stage is like putting on a comfortable old shoe. We’re just enjoying each other’s talents.”

Bob Ferrante grew up in Portland in a musical family. One of his earliest memories is of tapping drum solos on coffee tables with his mother’s knitting needles. After drumming away his teen years in local clubs, he joined his older brother’s band for a year-long gig in Waikiki.

Bob went on from there to play drums for many years while touring with Hee Haw veterans The Hager Twins. Deepening his connection to Kornfield Kounty, one of Bob’s closest friends in his 20s was the son of Jerry Wiggins, the founding drummer in Buck Owens’ Buckaroos.

When not working his day job out of Estacada as an electrician and cable guy, Bob carted his old Peace drum set to most of the bars and gambling joints in the Northwest.

He recalls that he met Al decades ago following a bar fight, which a mouthy guitarist started but Bob finished.

These days, Bob bashes a finely tuned Sawtooth Satin Dark Chocolate kit, with no more electronics than a Roland mike.

Robert Ellison

Milwaukie, OR | Bass Guitar

For more than four decades, Robert Ellison has been laying down the groove as a bassist and vocalist, performing with country and blues artists across the country. His musical journey began in the late 1970s in a small church in Fort Smith, Arkansas, where he learned from local musicians and entertainers.

After high school and several years of college, Robert took his talents on the road, establishing himself as a touring bassist with country and blues acts and performing coast to coast. His recording credits include studio bass and vocal performances on two full-length albums, along with numerous other recording projects.

Throughout his career, Robert and his bands have shared the stage with an impressive lineup of artists, serving as opening acts for legendary performers including George Jones, Delbert McClinton, Alabama, and Tim McGraw.

Robert's playing is shaped by a wide range of influences, including Donald “Duck” Dunn, Mike Porcaro of Toto, and Anthony Sallee of White Heart. Blending decades of experience with a deep appreciation for the groove, Robert brings a seasoned touch and a solid foundation to every performance.

Aaron Judah | Rhythm Guitar, Vocals

“I honestly did not think I would get another shot to play with musicians of this caliber. It’s a dream come true. I have done it a couple times in my life, and a third time is ridiculous.”

Lead guitarist Aaron Judah traces his country roots back to the summer of 1984. His mom and grandma packed Aaron and his two brothers in a minivan with a popup trailer for most summers, and headed down the nations’ backroads. On the long lonely highways of the Lone Star state, the car radio that year fed the Judah boys in the back seat a steady diet of George Strait for days on end. It was the summer of “Right or Wrong,” and “Let’s Fall to Pieces Together.” The fiddles and steel guitar of “Amarillo by Morning”, and Merle Haggard’s “That’s the Way Love Goes," written by Lefty Frizzell, were in constant rotation. By the time they got back home to The Dalles, Aaron had developed a natural ear for neo-traditional country, but confesses he still can’t read music at all. “Like, Not A Note,” he jokes.

Performing live on stage for the first time when he was just 16, only a few days after he learned his first chords on a guitar his uncle gave him, Aaron left home at 18 on his first tour. After U.S. Army service in the Airborne Infantry stationed in Alaska, he returned to the Portland music scene with fresh confidence and an EN-10 Takamine guitar as his deadly weapon. He moved in with future Northwest Playboy Monty Moss for a year and a half, but life on a tour bus beckoned Aaron elsewhere. A decade or two of his furiously fast finger-boarding at fairs and casinos, including 300 gigs a year when touring with country star Amy Clawson, and Lefty Frizzell’s younger brother David Frizzell, took its toll on the Takamine. Aaron eventually scratched a hole right through the pick guard. “I used to laugh because at the end of the gig, I would look down and there would be sawdust on the floor,” he says.