Originally from Lake Charles, Louisiana, this spunky Cajun guitarist was lured to Houston by the promise of cleaner air and unlimited humidity. He has played in a number of area bands including the Cult Figures, Idiot Savant, Blind Dates, Kim Martin and the Mustangs, Texas Heartbreakers, Idle Chaos, the ToneKings, and now the Stone Kings.

Ed was raised on bluegrass breakdowns, hornpipes and reels so it was only natural that Bill Northcutt, an old-time Texas fiddler would become his mentor. He admitted that he always enjoyed the intricacies of music and the science of harmony even though the ability to read music eluded him. Before long, Ed’s talent had him performing as a regular on the local bluegrass and country music circuit.

As Ed put it, That all changed in the late sixties when I saw Eric Clapton and Cream in concert at the Houston Coliseum. From that moment on, electricity took on an entirely new significance for me.

During high school, I attended a year-end dance with music provided by a rock quintet. I didn’t fully appreciate the identities of the band members until later when I ended up jamming with Rocky Ericson, of the Thirteenth Floor Elevators who happened to be in town picking up a fill-in job with a bunch of local professionals.”

The excitement and sheer volume of the music changed everything for this Houston-based musician. “Throughout my college years and since, I’ve played continuously in the music industry in some form or another. And in several incarnations, I’ve played bass, so it was just natural when asked to play, I thought I may as well handle the low-end so I don’t have to keep explaining to someone else what I want to hear” says the StoneKings bass player.

Also an avid songwriter, Ed nurtured his writing skills first at the University of Houston school of Journalism and then as a semi-professional musician in and out of the Houston music scene.

“I do my best work, I believe, in collaboration with others and usually play bass on my recordings, so playing strictly bass in this band was a natural decision. Skip introduced me to CJ who was working with Matt Hoffpauir (just happens to be my nephew) at the time, we jammed together a few times and we all thought simultaneously that the group would work. We’re glad it’s together,” said Ed.

“Generally I let the demo set a sort of groundwork for the musicians and let them put a little something of themselves into the arrangement. It always ends up sounding better than I originally imagined anyway. I enjoy it the most when the guys make me sound better than I am. The whole is bigger than the sum of its parts, “ he added.