The wilderness town which is mentioned in Jack Kerouac's 1958 novel The Dharma Bums was built by Seattle City Light as part of the Skagit River Hydroelectric Project for their employees.

Qualified engineers were needed so as an enticement, free rent and utilities were offered in addition to the opportunity to raise a family in a pristine natural setting.

Jeff began his formal musical training in Diablo in the early ‘60s, taking accordion lessons from a family friend at age eight.

When the Sherman family moved to Port Townsend (on the Olympic Peninsula) in 1964, Jeff taught himself to play the electric guitar and in the spirit of the times, soon formed the first of many bands.

As a senior he wrote “Euphoria 17,” an experimental avant-garde classical piece premiered by the school orchestra along with his keyboardist brother Greg, and their childhood friend drummer Jerry Cook.

Despite their well-honed musicianship, strong local reputation and enormous efforts to secure a record deal, Glass remained unsigned.

Their popularity at the peak of their career can be exemplified by a story related by Sherman on their MySpace fan page: "I remember one of the most incredible things happened to me and the guitar player, Jack Scott.

When he was offered the opportunity to come to Los Angeles and sleep on the couch of legendary songwriter Ron Davies a friend who had mentored him as a teenager, he jumped at the chance.

Soon thereafter he was pounding the pavements of that city taking demo tapes around to record companies by day and writing songs with Ron late into the early morning hours.

Southern California afforded Sherman not only closer proximity to the music industry, but also a view of poverty and homelessness he had not previously experienced.

He soon formed another band, called Alan Rench & The ViceGrips,[9] and began playing venues up and down The Valley including The FM Station, The Palomino, The Roxy, The Whisky, The Troubadour and others.

Eventually he was lobbied by his brother Greg who had moved to Southern California in part to play with him to forgo the pay-to-play schemes offered by these promoters.

[10] Taking Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger as models, Sherman began playing his folk protest songs at soup kitchens and homeless encampments, just himself and an acoustic guitar.

Appalled at the disparity between rich and poor in Ronald Reagan’s America and the intentional dismantling of social safety nets, he started working with the Frontline Foundation[11] and Xela-Aid[12] distributing food and other necessities to those in need.

He traveled to Guatemala in 1991 and 1992 as part of Xela-Aid's in-country effort, providing music for the crowds waiting in line to see the volunteer doctors and nurses.

[15] In 2001 Glass released a double CD of archival recordings called No Stranger To The Skies which earned uniformly positive reviews.

[22] At the Progman Cometh festivals in 2002 and 2003 Sherman met and befriended fellow bassist Hugh Hopper, and the two began working together via remote file sharing.