Dave Zirbel

After hearing the Beatles for the first time at age ten, Dave started losing interest in the tuba and decided to play guitar. He spent the next ten years trying to copy licks from Hendrix, Santana, Clapton, David Gilmore, Jerry Garcia, and James Burton. Through Garcia and The New Riders of the Purple Sage, he discovered the pedal steel guitar. Soon he was hacking away on his own pedal steel, and has never looked back. Dave has played and recorded with various bands in the Bay Area such as The Trailer Park Rangers, Buckeye, Wilson Gil & the Wilful Sinners, Gary Claxton & the Hellbound Honky-Tonk Band, The Real Sippin' Whiskeys, Nearly Beloved, and I See Hawks in LA. He's been a member of the Mother Truckers for three years and has shared the bill with many alt-country greats such as Merle Haggard, Junior Brown, Dwight Yoakum, The Supersuckers, BR549, The Derailers, Robert Earl Keen, Michelle Shocked, Carlene Carter, Reba McEntire, Charlie Daniels, John Popper of Blues Traveler, Link Wray, Asleep at the Wheel, Tracy Byrd, Dave Alvin, and Don Williams. These days Dave enjoys trading licks with Michael and Todd in The Cowlicks.