Denny Betz alias "Guru" has been playing guitar ever since the age of 10. His very first band named the CL'S was formed right around the time of the Beatles invaded the U.S.A. Henry
Hallman a local disk jockey from WLBR radio station took an interest in the CL'S and got them a lot of jobs playing at playground and various other local dances.
The next step we see Denny taking in his musical evolution was playing guitar for a group named The Dramistics. The Soul music was a very popular style of music at this time and if you remember the Dramistics you heard soul music. The Dramistics featured the superb vocals of Sally and Yyonne Murphy. This band became a very well known in the Lebanon, Lancaster, and Berks Counties. The Dramistics played in concert with the 1910 Fruitgum company and The Elephants Memory which is the group that did the music for a Dustin Hoffman movie The Midnight Cowboy. An interesting note is that The Dramistics were the last musical group to ever perform in the Hershey Ballroom. In fact Denny even put his autograph right underneath Glen Millers on the wall of the dressing room of the ballroom.
Denny's next musical adventure led him to a group called The Humble Gathering. In this group he did a lot of traveling song writing and studio recording work. The name of the recording studio he recorded in was All Platinum Studios which is located 10 minutes from New York City. As a matter of fact Jimi Hendrix also did some recording work in this very same studio. Denny recalls seeing the many photos and hearing some very interesting stories about Jimi from the owners of the studio. This band became very well known in the Tristate area and even performed in concert with The Jefferson Airplane.
Denny was involved in a lot of other groups and musical related projects and we will cover some of these for you. He played in a group Called Gallagher and Betz and I might add that his brother Ray played bass in all four of the groups that were covered so far. With the memories and experience these two brothers shared together one could write a book. Some other bands Denny worked with in his long career include Midnite Express, Pearl, Third Shift and of course we can't forget American Madness. Denny was also involved in performing as an acoustical soloist and was involved with a host of other acoustical performers. He has a wide circle of friends and fellow musicians and has jammed with the best.
For the last 12 years Denny has been studying midi technology which stands for (Musical Instrument Digital Interface). Midi is an asynchronous serial interface which enables synthesizers, computers, sequencers, rhythm machines etc. to communicate between each other. All the major recording studios are using this technology today. You may not be aware of it but todays music that you hear or buy these days utilizes midi in some way. Denny has masterfully incorporated this amazing technology into Back2Backs sound and the results are simply amazing. The background midi tracking gives Back2Back a very unique and full sound that most people find truly amazing. The edited and final sound that is produced sounds incredible considering that Back2Back only has three musician.
We will let all this technological jumble stuff up to Denny, but if you every get the opportunity to hear Back2back perform you will see the results of many years of guitar playing and hard work . Back2Back is a musical experience which is a thrilling tightrope walk of technical precision.
