"Swervin" Irvin Nelson is our keyboard player. He also plays bass and sings many of our lead vocals.

Irv has been playing keyboards since the age of eight. He plays every kind of keyboard instrument imaginable (except accordian!), including grand piano, Wurlitzer and Rhodes electric pianos, Hammond and Vox electric organs, many varieties of analog and digital synthesizers (including vintage Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 and Yamaha DX7), samplers, and even pipe organs! Not only is he good at playing the notes, he is also expert in the technical side of keyboards and knows how to dial in great sounds. As a child, Irv had five years of classical piano lessons, but he always frustrated his teachers because, instead of working on the Chopin or Bach that had been assigned for the week, he would spend most of his practice time figuring out how to play popular rock songs. He'd spend hours each night in bed (when his parents thought he was asleep) with his "transistor radio" pressed against his ear, listening to 1320 KCPX radio: The Beatles, Monkees, Rolling Stones, Paul Revere & The Raiders, Neil Diamond, CCR, and so on. The next day, Irv would sit at the piano and figure out how to play those songs by ear. Several years later, the rock piano greats Billy Joel and Elton John also had a profound influence on Irv's musical style.

Irv started composing music in 5th grade. In 6th grade, he wrote and arranged a piece for his elemetary school orchestra. He recorded his first song (with a 2-track reel-to-reel recorder borrowed from his uncle) in 7th grade. In junior high, he played viola in the school orchestra, and in high school (Cottonwood High School in Salt Lake County, class of '72), he sang with the concert choir. In college, he sang with the University of Utah A'Cappella Choir and was assistant conductor of the Salt Lake Institute Concert Choir. More recently, he was a member of the Northern Utah Chorale Society for several years.

Irv has played in bands since 1975 in California, Nebraska, and Utah. One of them, the band "Christopher," was one of the top bands in the Salt Lake area in the early 1980s. Here's a picture of Irv in about 1982 (playing a Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 synthesizer stacked on a Yamaha CP70b electric grand piano - exactly the same setup as Journey's Gregg Rolie used in those days):

Irv is a CPA who has been a professor of accounting in the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University for the last 15 years.  People who know him professionally are often surprised to learn about this "other side" of Irv's personality and interests. He played in rock bands to pay his way through college, and has done it since just for fun! Here's a picture of Irv (playing a Yamaha YC-30 organ into a Leslie 147 rotating speaker amp, stacked on a dyno'd  Rhodes Stage 73 Mark II electric piano) with his band "The Rockerfellers" in Lincoln, Nebraska, during his Ph.D. program in about 1992:

Irv does NOT play 100% vintage instruments. That's because most of his old, vintage keyboards weighed more than his house. Irv is very thankful for modern technology. He now plays a single Kurzweil K2661 sampling synthesizer that weighs 35lbs, which does FAR more than all his back-breaking, old, boat-anchor keyboards put together. And it sounds REAL good -- especially when played through Irv's circa-1975 Fender "Bassman Ten" amp combo that has been highly modified with a pair of enormous KT-88 tubes, beefy Eminence Beta speakers, and a titanium tweeter. (Although CBS-era "silverface" Fender amps are not generally favored by guitar players, they are excellent for keyboards!) Only a purist would be able to tell the difference between a real Hammond B3 played into a Leslie 122 versus Irv's organ sounds. His Vox, Wurlitzer, Rhodes, analog synth, and grand piano sounds are also amazingly authentic.  Irv's newest toy is a Casio AZ-1 "keytar" MIDI controller keyboard that allows him to remotely play the Kurzweil through cordless MIDI like a guitar.

Irv picked up the bass guitar a few years ago and thoroughly enjoys playing it on songs that have no keyboard parts. Irv's favorite "axe" is a genuine Fender Jazz bass guitar with that recognizable, punchy, "jbass" sound. He also has a remake of a 1960's-era Danelectro bass, which is famous for its unique tone that comes from three "lipstick tube" single-coil pickups wired in series (yes, they are actually encased in old-fashioned, chrome lipstick tubes that increase tone and cut noise!). He also plays a gutsy, 5-string, Ibanez SRX505TK with fat-sounding "humbucker" pickups, and a fretless Ibanez SR400FL with a warm, semi-acoustic tone. His bass amp is a "pre-Fender" SWR SM-500 head played into "pre-Fender" SWR Goliath III 4x10 and SWR Big Ben 1x18 cabinets.

Irv arranges and composes a variety of musical styles, including sacred choral, vocal, and instrumental music. You can download his sheet music for free from his website, Irv Nelson Music.

Irv also enjoys winter and water sports. To see how crazy Irv is, CLICK HERE...