Dick Siegel

[3][4][5][6][7] Siegel was born in Newark, N.J. and began his musical activities in a British Invasion band as a drummer, inspired by the 1959 album Drums of Passion by Michael Babatunde Olatunji.

[9] In 1988, Siegel appeared in Jay Stielstra's musical Tittabawassee Jane as Reg Washington, a "Vietnam vet whose mind has been unhinged by Agent Orange," which ran for two weeks at the Performance Network Theatre in Ann Arbor.

His protest song "My Sweet America" from the album speaks to Siegel's disillusionment with the heroic nation of World War II corrupted by greed and was published in the folk songwriting magazine Sing Out in 2004.

and other primary influences include country star Hank Williams, bandleader and songwriter Louis Jordan, Van Morrison, and Spike Jones.

While the author of words and melody of his songs, Siegel foregrounds the skill and stylistic strengths of the musical collaborators in his bands, a feature particularly evident in his recordings.