Rocky Howard

Rocky Howard (Born March 11, 1954, Santa Barbara, California) Howard grew up in Livermore, California where his father was photographer and his mother was a homemaker. He began taking accordion lessons at the age of 8 from local musician Larry Riera. Riera's combo, The Royals played locally in the Bay Area and were an opening act for The Beatles and comedian Bob Hope among others. Howard made his first appearance on local radio station KTUX-AM at the age of 11 playing two songs, the Russian classic "Dark Eyes," and his own arrangement of "Accordion Boogie."

Rocky Howard set the Guinness world record for accordion marathon (72 hours continuous playing on an accordion) at Touch of Italy restaurant in West Covina, California December 9-11, 1979 and held it until 1983. He has recorded three solo albums as well as appeared as a guest soloist on recordings by Zoogz Rift, Ike Willis (formerly of Frank Zappa's band), The Point, Endless Sun, and The Zero Squad. Howard's musical style was described by the Los Angeles Times as a "sing-along, polka parade, square dance and Gypsy festival with a touch of hard rock. The audience loved it."