Hi, I'm Teddy.
From Detroit to Naples via the Rock and Roll Capital
Teddy Wallingford is a Naples-FL based songwriter and musical performer who has performed everywhere from Nashville on Broadway stages to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame party stage. Today, he creates rustic progressive rock music that some have called "campfire prog" or "experimental folk".
Although he didn't enjoy school, Teddy is a product of Cass Tech in Detroit, whose distinguished alumni include inventor and business titan John Delorean, Motown queen Diana Ross, rock performer Jack White of the White Stripes and the Raconteurs, rapper Big Sean, and comedic actress Lily Tomlin, among others.
The product of a rustbelt upbringing, Teddy began his musical studies at the age of six taking piano lessons on his grandmother's old console piano - which he still has in his dining room at home. As a teen, Teddy wasn't all that interested in piano-playing , and by the time he came out of high school, he was listening to bands like Rush and Living Colour while having success behind the drum kit in his own band called Eden Rock, which he co-founded with Rob Gross, Mike Gusway and Nick Klaver. Eden Rock worked for a few years on the vibrant Detroit scene playing many of the same stages as contemporaries like Sponge, Eminem, and Kid Rock.
After his children were born, Teddy moved his young family to the rock capital of the world - Cleveland, Ohio - where he worked in a supporting role behind the drums or on the bass guitar for artists like Jay Guererro and Dan Robertson. Eventually Teddy joined a country band called North of Texas after being recruited by guitarist Rick Lowe. Even with the success of that project's busy live schedule, Teddy wanted to take his music to a space that inspired something more than line dancing.
So he decided to begin utilizing acoustic guitar as his primary writing tool, and switched to focusing on funk-pop music at a time when contemporaries like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Spindoctors were proving that the mainstream still had a hunger for funky, upbeat, danceable music.
The result of those changes in focus was an introduction to Cleveland-based singer Michelle Romary, who together with Teddy founded the funk-pop band Pout to great success. Two studio albums were produced and the band played all over Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania for about five years, sometimes as often as 20 shows in a month.
From Dance Pop to Black Knight Satellite
The second of Pout's albums was co-produced by Michael Seifert (engineered sessions for Tori Amos, Bone Thugs 'n Harmony, Lifehouse, among others). Three singles from this album (Moving On and Wake Up) and achieved mainstream FM radio airplay.
Teddy executive-produced two full-length albums for his Rock City Project, a charitable organization whose mission was to provide free music education for teens who could not afford private instruction.
To advance this mission, Teddy created and produced the Rock City Festival, an annual multi-stage music festival that entertained a legion of audience members while uniting them around the mission of one-on-one music mentorship for youth in need. Notable performers who shared Teddy's festival stage with Teddy included Emily Keener ("The Voice"), Michael Stanley (of the Midlife Chryslers),
After establishing Everglades Sound in Naples, FL, Teddy began formulating the musical material that would eventually become his concept-heavy solo debut album Black Knight Satellite. This record is a raw exploration of loss, faith, redemption, and determination, stitched together by a thru-line of acoustic rock guitar, and with a lyrical insistance on free thought.
Guest performers on Black Knight Satellite include longtime friend and drummer Efrain Hernandez, daughter Madelyn Wallingford on vocals, Naples-based rapper 32MDDX, aforementioned lifelong friend and bandmate Mike Gusway (also of Reggie Smith & the Afterparty and the Dirty Elizabeths) on bass, as well as guitarists Alex Porter of the Florida Rhythm Kings, JP Soars of JP Soars and the Red Hots, and Jason "Slim" Gambill of Lady A. Everglades harmonica master Griff Griffin also appears on the album.
Primarily recorded at Teddy's studio, Everglades Sound in Naples, FL with special sessions recorded at The Fort Studios in Ft. Myers, FL, the album beckons listeners to an intimate emotional space while staying firmly "around the campfire" as Teddy intended: Heavy, technical, and rustic all at once. If southern rock and British prog had a baby, that baby would certainly be named Black Knight Satellite