David Budin

David Budin began writing at an early age and has done almost every type of writing that exists, including magazine and newspaper articles, comedy routines, TV and movie scripts, speeches, press releases, advertising copy, newsletters, marketing brochures, restaurant reviews, greeting cards, and more. He has written one book and is working on proposals for four more.

As a free-lance writer, he has written for national, regional and local publications and Web sites; and for clients ranging from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Rhino Records/Looney Tunes and arts organizations, to NASA, educational institutions and health facilities.

A full-time musician for many years, Budin started playing guitar and singing in rock and folk groups as a child in Cleveland. He moved to New York City at the age of 18, at the height of the psychedelic rock era. He played with a group that indirectly eventually evolved into Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (though he left a couple of years before Springsteen entered). Budin recorded for Sire Records and other labels and toured with bands and as a solo artist. He had the experience of playing onstage with such artists as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrisson, and opening for such artists as the Grateful Dead, Linda Ronstadt, the Lovin' Spoonful, Canned Heat, Tim Buckley and others.

Budin has also worked as a comedian and as a comedy writer for stage and radio personalities.

During his music career in New York, Los Angeles and Cleveland, he has worked as a songwriter, record producer, musical arranger, artist manager, concert promoter and as a publicist for artists, record labels, radio stations and arts organizations. As a manager, Budin and his then-business partner, Bart Friedman (a pioneer in video art), booked magician/comedian/actor/author Ricky Jay on the Tonight show Starring Johnny Carson for Jay's first national TV appearance.

For the past 25 years, Budin has worked as a writer and editor, serving as editor of both Northern Ohio Live magazine and Cleveland Magazine, Cleveland's two city magazines. He currently works as a free-lance writer. In his writing he concentrates on popular culture in general, and rock music history in particular, but has also written investigative pieces, travel and food articles, humor essays, and others.

Budin presents lectures and workshops on various aspects of the history of rock music and on writing.

In recent years he has returned to performing music, part time. In May 2003, he wrote an orchestral arrangement of Graham Nash's song "Teach Your Children" for the 90-member Contemporary Youth Orchestra, with which Graham Nash sang in a concert in Cleveland. Budin now performs with a folk-pop group called Long Road, and also accompanies his brother, singer-songwriter Noah Budin, and produced Noah's most recent CD, Metaphor.

David Budin can be reached at popcycles@sbcglobal.net.