Ridgewood High School graduate releases CD
Friday, April 19, 2013
BY BETSY MURPHY
CORRESPONDENT
The Ridgewood News
Doug Perkins, RHS 1977 graduate, guitarist and longtime sideman, (“I’ve played on more records than I can remember”) is now front and center – on the cover of his first CD: “Music for Flat-Top Guitar.”
His father, John Perkins, taught German and English at the high school and coached baseball and basketball. His mother, Nancy Zambelli, still very active in the village, taught in Paterson, played tennis with her son at Upper Ridgewood and is now a realtor at Weichert. Acknowledging Doug is “very bright, well-informed,” she could not be happier with the appearance of his first CD.
Doug credits Bert Harmon, at George Washington Middle School, who gave him guitar lessons and “who got me excited about music,” and Mrs. Bennett, from whom he took piano, as influences in his life. As a sophomore in high school, he studied classical guitar, “a great instrument,” he says, “to start with,” though he admits that he was more interested in “sports and carousing” at that time.