Gary Cardinale

Gary Cardinale is a guitarist and singer-songwriter who began playing in the late ‘60s, and who has been performing in bands and as a solo act since shortly after.  He was a founding member of Slipstream in the ‘70s, Castro and the Convertibles in the ‘80s, and The Acoustic Experience, Ricochet, and High Mileage in the ‘90s.  Following a six year run with High Mileage, he turned his attention to what had been a side project, The Usual Suspects.   Along with former Swingers Bob Levy (currently fronting the Trash Mavericks) and John Ryan, and later joined by Iffy Winger on dobro and harp, Gary formed a writers co-op, which met on Tuesday nights to trade song ideas, jam on evolving originals, and provide an outlet for material which didn’t fit anywhere else.  Though they made only a handful of appearances, the songwriting benefited from trying to please no one but themselves.  Lately, both Levy and Ryan have been busy with other commitments while Winger and Cardinale have performed as Iffy and Rusty, a mostly acoustic duo playing Americana and rock classics along with occasional guest players.  Gary also appears as a solo from time to time, as well as occasionally as a guest with The MarlTones.  The Tuesday night writer’s hang has now moved to Thursdays and is currently known as “Bump’s Basement”.  Videos featuring this group may be viewed on YouTube by searching for “mcbump”.

     Gary plays guitar, bass and mandolin.  He sings, arranges and produces and has been a member of ASCAP since the early ‘80’s.  He owns several copyrights and continues to create new material.