Frequently referred to by BBC Radio One as "a rock'n'roll Renaissance man" and by Ireland's Hot Press as "The Great Enthusiast" Sid Griffin, though born in Kentucky USA, now lives in London where he is ringleader of both the Coal Porters, the UK's leading exponents of Alt-bluegrass as well as Western Electric, alt-country heroes and the creaters of Country & Eastern.

In addition to those chores Sid Griffin records and performs as a solo acoustic act, touring worldwide as well as gaining a whole new profile as a record producer of note. (Pun intended.) He is an author, whose third and latest book, a 94,000 word study of Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes era called Million Dollar Bash, was published in late September 2007.

He is also a journalist having written for The Guardian, Mojo, Q, BAM, Country Music International, Ruta 66, Music Week and a host of other publications. As a rock'n'roll archivist he has overseen reissue projects for the Everly Bros., Long John Baldry, Dolly Parton, Arthur Lee, Nils Lofgren, his friend the late Gene Clark, Michael Nesmith, the Flying Burrito Bros., Gram Parsons, Phil Ochs, his old band the Long Ryders, Joe Ely, Steve Young and his dear buddy the late Ronnie Lane, amongst others, while participating in the reissue of many other albums for a variety of record labels both great and small.

Sid was also a DJ on Mean Country Radio 1035AM before it was sold, hosting a very popular Thursday night bluegrass show and a Saturday afternoon C&W honky tonk show.

Yet it is for his activities as a musician and songwriter that Griffin is best known. Having founded and even named the Long Ryders back in 1982 Griffin was their ringleader during their long hard ride, a ride which ended a little over six years later after numerous tours, appearances on national TV, magazine covers and seemingly endless interviews. He wrote and sang the band's biggest single, "Looking For Lewis And Clark" and still gets requests for Long Ryders material every time he takes the stage. (Frequently longtime fans will even ask him for songs he wrote.)

When the Long Ryders disbanded Sid eventually relocated from Los Angeles to London, taking the name of his new band with him: the Coal Porters. Based in London since February 1992 the Coal Porters started out as a Long Ryders Mk. II but are now an all acoustic five piece playing uptempo folk, acoustic indie and bluegrass in a brew they refer to as Alt-bluegrass.

In addition he started Western Electric, the alt-country band to beat all alt-country bands. Their debut album in the year 2000 was Mojo magazine's Americana Album Of The Month and led them to some exhausting touring in the USA and Europe. Best described as "Portishead meet Wilco" Western Electric is the world's first Country & Eastern band, crossing straight C&W with psychedelia and modern produciton values to exciting effect.

His work as a record producer has led him to produce tracks for Lindisfarne, Eric Burdon, blues heroes Skip Bond & the Law Clerks, US indie hero Harry Chin and young Nashville alt-country diva Esther Mae. His production of the 1998 Lindisfarne studio album, "Here Comes The Neighborhood", helped give the classic Geordie band what many consider their most exciting release yet.

And during all this Griffin has been performing as a solo acoustic troubadour, at first in support of his well-received 1997 release "Little Victories" and now in support of his new solo CD "As Certain As Sunrise". This long awaited album is in the shops and easily downloadable from a number of sources...this is music which will soon be in your heart forever...if you purchase a copy and listen to it first.

If this seems like a full schedule that's because Sid Griffin has a full life. This is a man whose best friend says "Sid isn't happy unless he is doing five things at once". Griffin is always involved in one project or another be it a new album, a tour, writing his latest book or conducting research for a CD reissue or working with the BBC on a TV documentary such as the recent collaboration with German director/producer Gandulf Hennig on Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel.

He lives in north London with his daughter Esther Mae Griffin, his record collection, a rare Ming vase, a turtle named Jim Ray Hart and a pet rabbit named Cactus Jack Gardner.