Born in Milwaukee in 1966, Koch studied jazz guitar at UW-Stevens Point, and won First Prize in the 1989 Bluesbreaker Guitar Showdown judged by legendary bluesman Buddy Guy. Greg Koch and the Tone Controls went on to win five Wisconsin Area Music Awards for Blues Artist of the Year (‘93, ‘95 through ‘98), and Koch personally took in seven WAMA awards as Guitarist of the Year (‘92, ‘94 through ‘99). In its 2001 feature story, Guitar Player magazine described Koch’s approach this way: “An impossible stream of riffs jumps off of Koch’s fretboard like clowns spilling out of a VW bug – and when you’re convinced that there can be no more, out pops another one.” He has released 13 CDs.
