Kansas
BY ALEXIS TARRAZI – Straus News
“My mom forced (the violin) on me,” Ragsdale recalled. “I didn’t like playing the violin until I was 20. I had to give up Mighty Mouse to play the violin and there was no DVR back then.”
His first song he learned on the violin was most likely “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” Ragsdale said.
Ragsdale had always preferred the guitar and wanted to pursue a career in that direction.
“I would’ve rather missed Mighty Mouse for guitar lessons than the violin,” Ragsdale said with a laugh. “I started playing the guitar around 13 but then as I got older I saw there were so many guitar players competing and thought maybe playing violin is something I could do…. I am much better now at violin than guitar, I don’t practice much at the guitar.”
His violin interest peaked when Ragsdale was 20 when he attended his friend’s show.
“I had a friend who had played in the Mendelssohn concert with the local symphony and realized there was much more to violin,” Ragsdale said.
Ragsdale practiced multiple times a week and pursued his career with the violin.
“I would say I never really mastered the technique for the violin,” Ragsdale said. “You really need to learn that by the age of 14 and since I wasn’t interested until I was 20 I was just damn lucky.”
Lucky indeed. Ragsdale has since toured with Nashville’s Louise Mandrell and Kansas. He has also recorded with The Smashing Pumpkins (Siamese Dream), Jason Bonham (Motherland) and Queensryche (Hear in the Now Frontier). He also released a solo CD, “David & Goliath.”
Along with touring with Kansas, Ragsdale is working on making an educational DVD for children about violins.
Kansas is currently touring the west coast but will return to the local area on July 13, where they will play in Atlantic City.
Alexis Tarrazi 