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| "Trying to be on my best behavior - Santa is only a few feet away!" Part of the Christmas festivities at Easton Town Center. |
(May '03) I received a call from Business First, the weekly newspaper that covers the business news in central Ohio. They were planning an article on Fur Peace Ranch for their weekend get away section and wanted to talk with me to get the perspective of a Fur Peace alumni. It was great to be able to revisit the highlights of my trip to guitar heaven!
During the interview Brent Wilder asked about my professional experience. I explained that I had worked for a couple of high tech companies but was now a self employed musician. He called me a week later. This time he was writing an article on people who had been in the tech biz and were now part of the post-dot-com self-employment sector of the economy. We had a nice conversation. The article is set to run in the May 2nd edition of Business First.
Mercy Dancing - I've known Alison Kitchen for over ten years - same church, same kinship, even the same band for a brief period of time. Alison has written a number of great songs. Over the years lots of people have encouraged her to "get that recorded". But with life being what it is: work, kids, home schooling and plenty of good things that need to be done, it's hard to get to those out of the ordinary things like recording music.
That changed last July (2002). For years I had told Alison that if/when she decided to record I would be glad to help her. What I meant by that was, I would be glad to give her Tom Boyer's phone number - if you live in central Ohio what else do you need to make a great recording! Some circumstances changed which freed up a little bit of her time, so she gave me a call and said she was ready to record. What she actually asked was, "would you produce my CD?" What do producers do? I knew I didn't know. But I knew if I didn't help out some great music might never be properly recorded. Knowing what I knew, I knew I couldn't say "no"? I've since come to appreciate T-Bone Burnett's definition of the role of a producer - "You make the tea." (i.e. get the right people together, make sure everyone is comfortable and create an environment where creative people can create). When we began this project I didn't even know where the teapot was! Saying "yes" was based on two assumptions: we'd figure things out as we went and, in the end we would have a great recording.
We had a great line up of musicians including Bill Canonico and Mike Keller of Canonico, Sid Omasta and Beckie Boger of Stark Raven, Daryl Wicker a very talented producer and all-round musician, Joshua Shiek (drummer extraordinaire), Patrick Kinnell, Debbie Smith, Dave Absalom, Michael Hansen, Noelle Shearer, Mike Swartzentruber all singing like angels, Gary Pucket of Bucktown Kickback on banjo, Robin Stubbart sing and penny whistle, Craig Allen (aka Bruce Hornsby) and Dave White (aka Rick Wakeman) and renowned violinists Christian Howes and Arkadiy Gips (American Gypsy). Alison played virtually all of the guitar parts - however I did manage to sneak in a note or two.
The process began ten months ago and we are approximately a month away from having discs in-hand. It has been a fun-educational-challenging project and the result is a great looking, wonderful sounding collection of great songs. If you are on my mailing list I will let you know when the discs are available.
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| Jammin’ with young BB King at the Uptown Strings Open House. |
Foundations for Great Guitar Playing - At the end of February (2003) I finished up a book of guitar instruction. For a while I've notice a gap in the guitar instructional material that is generally available. Many of the students I have worked with over the years have quite a bit of guitar information but often they don't know how to connect-the-dots. Everyone knows a few chords and a cool riff or two. But we once beyond that comfort zone, things get a little "iffy." The purpose of the book is to explain - in a understandable way - foundational areas of guitar knowledge and technique. These include the Basics (care, maintenance, musical concepts, parts of the guitar, etc.), dexterity, finger picking styles, how to memorize the fretboard, scales, chords and chord progressions. Once you begin to understand how all this stuff fits together the fretboard really begins to open up. There are some cool publishing opportunities that may open up. Until it's available worldwide you can order copies by contacting me through this site.
Worshiping Training Center - for the past ten years I've been involved with conducting guitar classes for Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Columbus, Ohio. Two years we began to get very organized and started using Foundations for Great Guitar Playing as a big part of the instructional curriculum. We conduct this eight-week series of training classes twice a year. In the past two years each session has had between 50 and 65 participants. It's a great time and people seem to be learning a lot.
Artist in the Schools - I've recently been accepted into the Greater Columbus Art Councils, Artists in the Schools program. This means, come this Fall I will be visiting schools across central Ohio and having fun with kids teaching them about music and the guitar. If you are a teacher or know someone who is contact me and we'll get something going in your school.
Kidsquest - I've been producing a CD of worship music for children. The recording went wonderfully well. There was a genuine sweetness coming through these kids and I think we were able to capture some of it on tape. The recording and mixing is complete. We are in the process of obtaining the rights to the songs. If all goes well we should be able to release it in May. The title of this project is "Real Kids, Real Worship."
Yo - Several months ago I got a call to play for a rap session. Those of you familiar with my music realize that rap isn't my main area of expertise. Nevertheless the engineer at the studio thought my style would add to what they were laying down. My main concern was that the language and subject matter wouldn't be objectionable. The engineer assured me that, "it was cool. They were keeping it real but nothing racists or demeaning to women." I assured him that I was "down with that" The session was a blast. I gained an appreciation of what goes into putting together a good mix. On one song I played a Spanish sounding lead. On the other I played electric guitar making great use of my slide and the whammy bar. A big departure from my normal musical 'hood but very cool. Can't wait to hear the final mix.
Y'all - I'm scheduled to do my first country recording session in May. It will be fun to see how this one turns out. I'm personally committed to "stealing" and incorporating as many musical styles as I can into my own playing.
Weddings - When I was a kid I attended what seemed like a hundred weddings (the real number was probably closer to three). I found them long, boring and musically painful. At the ripe old age of 10 I made a mental vow to only attend one more wedding - my own. Somehow in the grand scheme of things life does unfold as we might expect. Long story short: in the past twenty years past I've probably played for well over 100 weddings - backyards, Ohio Historical Society, Franklin Park Conservatory and churches all over central Ohio. If you are getting married and want some beautiful guitar music - call me. |
