Hi. My name's Ernie. I'm from the far west Texas town of El Paso. I was born in the 70's and grew up listening to not much other than The Stones, thanks to my fanatical uncles. I thought Keith Richards was the coolest guy ever. That may have had something to do with the fact that my best friend growing up had a long neck, a hollow body, one nut and six strings. I played in several garage bands in high school; either drums, guitar, or bass. There's not a whole lot else to do in El Paso. Seriously...

In 1993, I moved to Austin, Tx. It was there that I discovered two things that changed my life. The first was that I really wasn't cut out for Criminal Justice. Secondly, and more importantly, was something I had never seen before...a thriving music scene. I dove in head first and co-founded a band called Sour Mash Jack. I played bass, sang back-ups, and helped write the songs. We put out a self-released record, toured a bit(opening for the likes of David Garza, Ian Moore, Chris Duarte, Paul Rogers, Edgar Winter,