The Network was conceived in 1994 when Hal Martin and Nicky DeMatteo, two very successful solo musicians in the Philadelphia and Delaware Valley area, noticed that solo musicians seldom talk to each other, even though we have so much in common. At best, each of us had a small list of other players to call when we needed a fill-in or wanted advice. They decided to get as many players as possible together for a dinner in order to talk about whatever came up.

They called the other players they knew, including George Sinkler, who later became the driving force of the organization. We all presumed that we basically knew the same list of players and there wouldn't be that large a list. Surprisingly, each person knew a quite different list... and it has kept growing with each new contact. We have contacted over 300 solo musicians, and over 100 of those are active members.

We originally considered creating a Network only for keyboard players, but decided that "solo musician" was a more useful line to draw, since we share so many common areas of interest. Thus, the membership currently includes solo guitarists, harpists, accordionists, and singers (who work solo with sequences or recorded backup).