Clarksville, TN – Music can find you, no matter where you are. Andrew (Ziggy) Zendejas grew up in Calipatria, California, a small desert town 184 feet below sea level, 150 miles from Tijuana, Mexico. There, at an early age, he picked up his first guitar. Now, a Clarksville resident, he is one of the most sought-after guitarists in Nashville.
Ziggy’s love of music came from his father. “Dad played drums and sang on the weekends,” Ziggy said. He worked a full-time job during the week. My older brother and I used to sneak into the garage and play Dad’s drums. When I was 9 or 10, we came across an old Fender Telecaster. I picked it up and started making some noise.”
Ziggy’s influences are wide-ranging. His love affair with the guitar began around 1985. “My brother turned me on to Yngwie Malmsteen, Joe Satriani, and Eddie Van Halen. I loved guitarists that were technical, but I also was a fan of melody – Neal Schon, Ritchie Blackmore.”
YouTube and social media didn’t exist, and with no guitar instructor in his very small town, Ziggy taught himself by listening and experimenting. “I was listening and wondering what these guys were doing (on his Martin acoustic he imitates the sounds he heard by hammering and lifting). That’s one of the first things I learned. Then dad taught me an “E” chord, and a little strum pattern.”
One day, Ziggy went into his brother’s room, took out the guitar, and accidentally broke a string. When his brother discovered the damage, he gifted the guitar to Ziggy. Dad strung it up with new strings, and … ( Ziggy’s hands float effortlessly up and down the neck, showing a variety of chord variations).
“That’s how it started,” Ziggy said. “One time I was watching MTV, I detuned the guitar to match what I was seeing. That’s when I learned open “E” and open “G”. Dad tuned it back, and told me ‘That’s not how you do it’.” (He laughed)
When Ziggy was a sophomore in high school, his dad walked in one day and asked him if he wanted to play bass in a band. He said yes. The gig was in a bar, so underage Ziggy wasn’t allowed to leave the stage.
“During breaks everyone would leave the stage,” Ziggy said. “I would sit there and pick on the piano and the guitar. Dad told me to stop, it was distracting. That was my first time in a band, and my first time playing country music. I didn’t know if I liked it, but people really enjoyed it.”
For Ziggy, it was just another genre to consider. He appreciated different types of music, but loved to play fast. (Ziggy shredded on the Martin). “I just wanted to play fast,” Ziggy said. “I was pretty good, but not well versed. With dad’s band, it was country.” (He strummed a slow standard country riff)
“I thought it was cool, just for a summer. I was still learning. Then I started hearing about Stevie Ray Vaughn. I started entering talent competitions. I was learning how to play the violin/fiddle at that time too, and keyboards and bass, drums, and the pedal steel. I tried the saxophone, but the different key thing made me say, no.”
It wasn’t long after that Ziggy received a scholarship to Loyola Marymount University in L.A. Acceptance was based on auditions, and for his, he chose Flamenco. (Ziggy breaks into Malaguena) “At some point I decided I love, love, love music. I had been into sports and all, but music was the thing for me.”
Though he loved music, he was worried about financial stability. “I wasn’t sure about taking the risk,” Ziggy said. “I was too worried about a lot of things, and just playing music on the side. My brother and some friends started a band called Vendetta that lasted for about 2 years. The local paper interviewed us and they asked me what I did. Our bass player worked at a convalescent home, our drummer was a pre-med student, and my brother was a manger of an auto parts store. I didn’t know what to say. That’s when I thought I really need to do something, I need a career. So, I joined the Navy.”
Skip to about 2003, Ziggy is an air traffic controller, he has a daughter. Things have changed, but he is still playing guitar. “It was my 11th or 12th year in the Navy,” Ziggy said. “I got approached by Chris Cagle. He asked us to open for him, and he asked me about moving to Nashville.”
In 2004, the Guitar Center held its Guitar-Mageddon competition. Ziggy won in San Francisco, and for western regionals, he had to go play in Hollywood. “I wasn’t sure the Navy would give me the time,” Ziggy said. “Command decided to let me compete. I won western regionals and made it to nationals. We were at the Cotton Bowl stadium during Clapton’s Crossroads festival.”
That’s when Ziggy got to meet guitar legends Steve Vai, and Eric Johnson. “I didn’t win, but those experiences made me say, man, this is great, but I decided to finish out my 20 years. When I retired in 2014, some music friends said, ‘dude, you need to move to Nashville’.
“L.A. is a music town, but Nashville is like a mecca. There is a certain collective of musicians. It’s a small community, with really robust networking. When I was encouraged to move here, my wife was like, ‘let’s do it’. She is more of the risk taker.”
When Ziggy arrived a friend told him to find his way to the Fiddle & Steel Guitar Bar, on Tuesdays. A place where players meet and network, and more importantly, get up on stage and jam.
“In August 2014, I started doing that,” Ziggy said. I also started attending SAE Institute Nashville. I got my degree in recording engineering and audio technology, just in case.
“I started finding some work, meeting people, and talking to folks. There were people showing me around downtown and Broadway. I met some tremendous players. I was pretty confident, but I was like whew, this is Nashville, I need to chill and soak in in.
“Everybody was so nice and welcoming. Being Hispanic, I wasn’t sure when I was walking into these places. I didn’t see a lot of people like me, so I was a little nervous, but everybody was very welcoming. Everybody wants to help others. It’s a community of help. I didn’t know it would be like that. I thought it would be cut-throat and competitive.”
Ziggy’s talent opened doors. Soon, he met Dink Cook, Toby Keith’s bass player, and learned that he had to learn Nashville’s music shorthand. “They’re counting it in, in the key of “A”. My ear got me through, but I knew I had to learn Nashville’s number system. Playing in Nashville there are so many requests, you have to be able to play a lot of songs. We had charts, but it was a challenge. (He strums and narrates, “We’re in “E”, here’s the “1”, the “4”, the “6”, the “2”, “2 minor” “2 major”)
“Now I know it really well. In the beginning, it was super critical. The first band I played with was the Tim Bridges Band, at Honky Tonk Central five nights a week. That was a humbling experience. I didn’t really have it all together like I thought I did. On Broadway, the musicians approach it differently. Everything has to move. It has to keep going. It’s all based on the number system.
“If one person knows the song, we can get through it. But, how do we start. When does the solo come in. How does it end. I would go into a jam, and they’re like. ‘Ziggy, no. Don’t do these jams’. This fantastic drummer, Clark ‘CJ’ James, was instrumental in helping me with the start and the finish. He was so helpful to me.”
Now Ziggy has been playing in Nashville for nine years. “I play with the Dugger Band. They’re affiliated with Luke Bryan, Chuck Wix the great singer/songwriter. I play with Mark Johnson Grammy award winning songwriter/musician. For the past 1/1-2 years I play with Brady Seals, formerly with Little Texas. We still do some Little Texas stuff, but also Seals and Crofts because he is related to Jimmy Seals. I’m full time with them and Lua Crofts, Dash Crofts’ daughter. I still do all the calls down in Nashville. I still do some studio as well. Nowadays, I work on a lot of material at my home studio.
“I work with Mark Consulo, a great bass player and great friend. We did a show with April Consulo. She is a tremendous singer. We did a show at Downtown Commons about a year ago. I’m doing so many things, musically, sessions, Broadway, an 80’s corporate show band, and Brady Seals. I also play at LifePoint Church and I do sound at their APSU campus.”
I asked Ziggy if his life was full. He said, “That brings me to my new album.
“A while back I was getting overwhelmed with all the calls, my wife Staci was saying, ‘you can’t do it all’. She walked into my studio and said, ‘when are you going to do your stuff?’ That was a good question. She has always wanted me to put out my music, but I was so busy saying yes to everyone else. I said , ya know what, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. I think it’s time.”
Ziggy had songs that he had originally written some twenty years ago. “December 2004 is when I first recorded them, in my apartment, on active duty. January 2005 I had to go on deployment, so I wanted to get these songs down. All these songs are from 2004, and 2006, ten songs in total.”
Fall of 2023, Ziggy released the first five on an EP called Different World. It’s a compilation of country, rock, smooth jazz, and different takes on what he really enjoys. He also tackles some progressive things, and the harder stuff.
Always humble and soft-spoken, he talks about some of the lessons he learned along the way.
Ziggy said, “There are so many great players. I know there are people better than me. When I first started I thought, oh, I’m good.
“I remember once I signed up for a blues jam. I got up to play, and everybody was doing a simple jam. I started shredding, Van Halen style. It wasn’t going over well. After the jam, the owner came up and said, ‘you’re really good, but when you come here you can’t be playing like that. It’s too much information. The best guitar players can play one note and make it sing. When you can make one note sing for a minute or more, then you can come back. I was like OMG.
“When I went to that flamenco school in LA. I was so distracted by other things, my instructor got mad at me. He had this exercise, and I wasn’t practicing. He tore me down – ‘Is this the attitude you want to have? You have to keep your mind open. You have to practice. There is always room for improvement.’ He was tall, dressed in purple, oddly intimidating. I had lots of experiences that let me know there are better players. You have to chill, do the best you can, and keep it going. I always practice as much as I can, almost every day.”
Now in his fifties, Ziggy also works hard to keep himself physically and mentally in shape.
“I’m not as young as I used to be,” Ziggy admits. “I thank God. These things could have gone a different way. Sometimes I was hanging with the wrong people, but I was trying to keep myself in tune with good folks, and people of faith.
“So, when I came back to these songs, I thought, they are still fresh. This is still good. When I submitted the EP to Distrokid Music Distribution to be streamed to the platforms, it came back without any adjustments. Staci was like, ‘Don’t change anything.’ I had thought about it.
Since moving here, Ziggy has met and worked with some of Nashville’s greats, like Tyson Leslie. He has also been included on a short list of great Nashville Guitar Players.
“I was surprised,” Ziggy said. “My wife has more confidence in me than I do. I’m doing what I love. I put in the time and effort. I love being able to do something that connects with people. It’s cool to be able to do that.
“I wasn’t sure I could be successful as a full time musician in Nashville. We came out here once to check it out. I thought I would have to be in a band for years, but that’s not how it is. I just wanted to do the best I could, and if they liked what I do, great. I have been extremely fortunate.
“Different World contains five songs. The first track opens in an ethereal way, with keys and synth sounds. It sounds like a movie-scape. There is an electric guitar solo, fast but melodic. There is a song called Ohio, for my wife. That’s funk, brassy, uplifting, it’s all instrumental. Far Away is about being away from home while I was in the Navy. It’s slow, sort of in the smooth jazz genre. ZigZag is progressive and goes all over the place, changing tempos, keys, time signatures. Revelation Symphony is all over the place, showcasing the different types of music I like and all that I really want to do.”
Ziggy says it’s not about album sales at this point. He wants his music to reach people.“My wife got a text from someone in Africa,” Ziggy said. “It’s finding an audience all over. People have been asking me to do this, forever, and they are ecstatic. I think these songs are cool, I don’t know who will like them. But people really enjoy the music. It has me wanting to stay off-Broadway and concentrate on my music. There is definitely more music in store.
Look for Ziggy or Andrew Ziggy Zendejas on all platforms. You can also order the physical CD at his Website, www.ziggyzendejas.com.
