About Us

Lyn is originally from the Pacific Northwest where she began studying voice and music performance. After she and her husband retired to Arizona, she happily joined the Trilogy Players community theatre and the Trilogy Troubadours choir and spent several years performing with both. Recently, she started learning to play the violin (which she had not touched since fifth-grade orchestra). Now she fiddles around on a couple of songs in the band. It’s never too late to try something new!

 Rick started his music career at the age of five when his mother taught him to play the piano.  At age nine his father began instructing him on the trumpet, and Rick took up the guitar when he was in Junior High School.  While in High School he played lead guitar and provided lead vocals for a rock band, and played guitar for an award winning jazz band.  He played in rock bands all through his college years at Penn State, taking several music theory courses on the way to his MBA degree.  He gave up playing music after college to raise his six kids, and only rekindled his interest after moving to Trilogy in 2013.  

 Steve hails from London, England and suffered piano lessons as a kid in a musical family before convincing his Mum to allow him to take up the guitar as a teenager.  He played lead guitar in a garage band that performed gigs at local pubs in SE London in the late 60’s prior to emigrating to Canada as a student and settling into family life. On buying a winter get away residence in Trilogy at Vistancia in 2007, Steve’s interest in playing the guitar was rekindled and he began to jam with musician friends.  Pretty soon he realized that a keys part is a necessary ingredient in many Rock and Country classics, so he dusted off those forgotten piano skills and now plays keys with the 85 Degrees Band, though he loves to pitch in with some guitar work when the opportunity arises. 

I grew up in a small town in north central Indiana and began my first entry into the guitar when I was about 12 years old.  After a number of garage bands during the high school years, I moved to the east coast where I began playing with friends on a casual level. Moving to Denver offered me an opportunity to become fully immersed in the music business, starting my own music entertainment business, which I ran for 20 years.

After moving to Trilogy full time in 2020, I had the opportunity to joining the great group of neighbors/friends that make up the “85 Degree Band”

Jim’s fingers were movin’ and groovin’ by age 7 with playing the accordion and piano. His musical inclination expanded to bass instruments starting in 4th grade with the Sousaphone, later adding the Tuba and String Bass. Musical opportunities abounded with Concert, Jazz, Pep and Marching Bands and Orchestra. In high school, Jim picked up the bass guitar and joined the rock band “The Blue Suede Egg”, traveling around Wisconsin in their bright blue redecorated milk truck. As a member of the UW-Madison marching band, he performed as one of the “Marching Tubas”. He even met his future bride as a counselor at the UW-Madison Summer Music Clinic. The 85 Degrees Band seems a natural fit as he rekindles his life-long passion for music!

Garnet is from Alberta.  After an early interest in playing drums and encouragement from his band teacher, Garnet completed a BEd with a Major in Music.  Teaching band in an Alberta High School was a large part of a rewarding career where Garnet had the pleasure of seeing dozens of his students move into careers as professional musicians and music educators.  Garnet’s career concluded with 23 years in administration, 13 years as a school principal.  He retired in 2013 and spends winters in Arizona with his wife.  After many years of placing music on the shelf, moving to Trilogy in 2016 allowed an opportunity to rekindle the fun of playing in a band.  Since joining 85 Degrees, Garnet has thoroughly enjoyed the camaraderie, creative release and re-living the past by playing music from the era of his youth with a great group of fine musicians.