John Yobaccio—Lead Guitar/Vocals

John Yobaccio has been playing guitar for 40 yrs, and is primarily self-taught, although he's taken lessons along the way, and college courses in music composition, music theory, and music history.

"As a kid, I I heard Elvis doing Hound Dog and I was hooked." John remembers going to Sears with his dad to get his first real guitar around age 14.  It was an inexpensive electric Harmony with very high action.  He literally played until his fingers bled.  Pretty soon he was joining local bands, mainly playing the instrumental music that was "in" at the time. 

Then the Beatles came on the scene and "changed the music scene for me totally.  They did it all - played, wrote songs, they dressed cool, they acted cool, and they just had a great sound, I'd never heard anything like it.  It was very exciting.  It was taking music in a new direction and I wanted to be a part of that."  John met Ed Rego (drummer for The Risen) around this time and they formed their first band together, The Barons.

Closely following the whole British Invasion period and the great artists that followed (Hendrix, Clapton, Page, Dylan, etc.) in the late 60's, John developed a strong interest in the blues - Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Mike Bloomfield - specifically Chicago style blues.  For a while he pursued song-writing and recording, and then life and family intervened, although John always played and always kept his love and interest in making music alive.  Today 60's rock and Chicago blues remain John's strongest artistic influences and he brings them forward in true raw rock and roll fashion as lead guitarist and vocalist for The Risen.

Ed Rego—Drums/Vocals

Ed Rego took his first interest in drums when a local music store had an assembly at his grammar school and brought in all kinds of instruments – Ed was immediately drawn to the drums.  Some years later, when he was about 14, his schoolmate John Yobacccio told him he’d started taking guitar lessons.  Ed thought to himself, “Hey I could go to the same school to learn how to play the drums.”  His parents fully supported the idea and bought him his first drumset, a Gretch 4-piece combo.

 

Ed relates, “Of course when the Beatles came, which was around the same time, we got all real excited, we all started playing Beatles stuff.  John started the Barons and I signed up as the drummer.”  The Barons quickly immersed themselves in all the British Invasion bands – Dion, The Ventures, Dwayne Eddie, to name a few.  After the Barons split up, Ed continued playing in a 3-piece dance band called Twilight Trio, and performed at weddings and parties for a good 15-20 years.  The trio eventually moved toward playing Dixieland in the late 80’s, and Ed left to finish raising his family.

 

Then in 2006, a friend approached him about getting together with John and some others for a jam session in 2006.  Ed picked up his sticks and drummed as if he’d never stopped.  John and Ed started playing together regularly, and soon formed The Risen, adding the accomplished musicians Robert Fleig and Joe Lynn.

 

Ed says, “The Risen plays the music of my generation, and I think it’s still the best there is.  Drumming in this band gives me a chance to play the music I really love.”

Robert Fleig—Rhythm Guitar/Vocals

A Brooklyn native, Robert began playing the guitar at the age of 10.  He played on and off for a number of years until finally buying his first electric guitar in high school.  But it wasn’t until 2002, after his kids had grown and family responsibilities settled down, that he started playing seriously, with a mission to learn the craft well enough to join a band.

 

Growing up in the 60’s, Robert became, like many at the time, an avid Beatles fan.  As time went on, his musical tastes ranged from folk music, to late 60’s psychedelia, to Black Sabbath, to traditional English folk music to Doo-Wop and traditional blues.  As a guitar player, he has been most influenced by Neil Young, John Fogerty, David Gilmour, Richard Thompson and of course, John Lennon.

 

In 2002, he took some lessons from a Berklee School graduate and began to develop a passion for the guitar.  He is now the proud owner of many signature instruments, using the distinctive sound of a Rickenbacker 6-string (John Lennon model) in his role as rhythm player with The Risen.

 

Over the past three years, Robert has played in a variety of bands, from hard rock to a sock-hop band and other various conglomerations.  Joining The Risen in 2007 has finally given him the opportunity to play the kind of music that he loves, Roberts says, “with a group of talented and dedicated musicians.”  The band’s emphasis on vocals and harmonies has given him a chance to develop his voice as well as hone his guitar chops.  So Robert is living a dream come true with The Risen, singing and playing and loving every minute of it.

Joe Lynn—Bass  Guitar/Vocals

Joe Lynn started his musical career in high school.  He grew up in Hong Kong, which as a British colony was heavily influenced by British pop culture. In the late 60’s in Hong Kong, as in Europe and the States, The Beatles and other British Invasion artists took the radio and music stores by storm.  Joe was hooked; he picked up his first guitar and starting learning to play and soon was providing lead guitar for local bands.

 

As with the other musicians in The Risen, Joe stopped playing for a while due to the demands of regular life and work.  In 1997 Joe moved to the Boston area to be reunited with many of his family members.  At the time Joe was studying jazz music and playing jazz style.  Influenced by musicians such as Wes Montgomery and Miles Davis, he attended the New England Conservatory of Music for two semesters, studying “straight up” jazz and jazz composition.

 

Finally around 2001 Joe started playing bass guitar, mainly because he saw a demand for bass work and a way into the local music scene.  Joe embraced these new experiences with characteristic aplomb.  He quickly developed his own bass style and tone.

 

Then one day, perusing the internet, Joe happened upon The Risen’s advertisement auditioning bass guitarists.  He immediately like the song list.  He also liked that he would have a chance to play with contemporaries--people who like him had grown up with the original rock artists, and particularly the British Invasion sound.  He auditioned with The Risen and was well received, having a rich, clear, unobtrusive tone that solidly anchors the rock sound of the group.

 

With Joe’s stepping into the bass spot for The Risen, the band was finally complete, and within a few practices ready to tune up and play out.