Raleigh Hinman grew up in Plains - a town of about one thousand people in the southwest part of Kansas. He got his first guitar when he was twelve years old. He has had no formal training and prefers to say that he has learned to play guitar “…from every guitar player I have ever known.”

Wrapped Around the Axle is a collection of my original songs and songs that I have grown to love over the years. It started out as a small project that sort of took on a life of its own. Through the months that it was recorded it grew into a monster. It doesn't bite and I hope you will enjoy it for quite some time.

Raleigh has spent the past several years working as an engineer at Boeing & Spirit AeroSystems and writing satiric songs about the programs on which he has worked. So when the engineers were talking about going on strike in 2000, he thought he would try to help the effort by writing a song that he describes as, “A really stupid take-off on Country Joe and the Fish. It was kind of a ‘One, two, three what are we striking for?’ type thing ”. But it went over well and allowed him to play in front of groups of people again. One thing led to another and a follow up song that he wrote for the union’s organizing effort landed him in Las Vegas, playing at the convention of the International Fellowship of Professional and Technical Engineers. “It was a lot of fun. And, now I have bragging rights that I have played ‘Vegas.”

These days he is casually looking for some place where he can get an occasional gig in a smaller setting. In his own words, “I am not looking to be a star, I just like to play.”
 
 
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