Mostly Blue

Denis Hulett is the primary songwriter for Mostly Blue. His musical journey began in the late 1960’s as a member of the St. Rose folk group, where he learned to play guitar and made musical friendships that have lasted a lifetime. In the 1970’s he and his friends Bob Williams and Theresa Stoops were founding members the Northern California rock band Ocean Breeze, a musical fixture in Sonoma County back in the day. Denis began songwriting to provide original material for the band. During this period Denis completed two certificate programs at Santa Rosa Junior College, one in electronics and another in music. Ocean Breeze opened an 8-track recording studio to record their original music. There Denis honed his skills as a recording engineer/music producer working with local bands and producing commercial jingles. Denis and Theresa later joined Warren Dennis in opening the Banquet Sound Studio, one of the few 24-track facilities in the county. For more than a decade Denis recorded a wide variety of musicians including country, rock and metal bands as well as religious groups. In the 1990’s Denis partnered with video/music producer Rennie Mau to open Media Bridge, a music production company. The focus of their studio was to record music and spoken word for audio books. The company specialized in producing audio for children’s educational media created by child developmentalist, Joy Berry. At this time Denis continued to write and produce jingles under the moniker Sound Advantage. He and his partner Barry Volk produced award winning commercials for Northern California companies including Raley’s/ Belair Markets, Sun Trips, and Tap Plastics. Denis’ work with children’s educational media inspired him to return to college and earn a B.A. in psychology with the goal of gaining expertise in child development. Much to his surprise, there he became fascinated with psychological research and statistical methods and changed his education focus. After graduation Denis took a job with UCSF as a statistician. There he collaborated with a multi-disciplinary team evaluating a state-run reproductive health program for low-income Californians, Family PACT. After a decade with the team and earning MS in Psychology: Evaluation, Research and Measurement, Denis accepted a position as a principal statistician with the California Medicaid Research Institute. As a certified SAS programmer and statistician Denis currently works with this team evaluating a host of state-run health programs. More importantly, while advancing his career and earning degrees, Denis married Susan Bacon and became step-father to her precocious and wonderful daughter Kathleen. They went on to have two boys of their own Dylan and Samson. He will tell you that being a husband and a father was the best part of his life. Lots of work and lots of laughs. With the exception of directing a choir at St. Francis Church in Sonoma, CA, Denis set music aside until the children got old enough to begin learning music themselves. During the 2010 decade the muse of songwriting returned. Joined by his Ocean Breeze friends, Bob and Theresa and long-time friend Elvin Duncan they have recorded over 40 original songs in Denis’s home studio (living room; thanks Susan). The styles are eclectic but tend toward Americana/roots and are unafraid of dark and soulful subjects. Thus, the name MostlyBlue seems appropriate for this musical collaboration.