Be my friend!
7.21.06
The CDs have been selling well to friends and family, and even some friends of friends. I have sent some more out to be reviewed by all the biggest rags and I have a whole bunch more I can send to later when I get around to it. Now we have to see how well they will sell to strangers. Heading out on the road next week to play the Stevenson Bluegrass Festival up in the Columbia River Gorge by way of the Valley of the Rogue and Crater Lake. Road trip!
I also sent a CD to James King asking him to take a listen to "The Bar Fight" hoping that he would want to record and/or perform it. It's a story, and he's the bluegrass storyteller, so I figured hey, why not give it a shot.
Besides the CD, I have been having fun updating this web site with all kinds of cool stuff, make sure you check out the "Other Stuff" section for podcasts, a new interview, and, well, other stuff.
6.10.06
Rad, you made it to my new site. My obvious big news is that my new
CD, "Walkaway" is finally here! Rewind to Christmas
2004; my dad re-gifted me a Digidesign MBox, a neat little tech toy
that allows one to get recorded sound into any old desktop PC (in
my case an old Mac G4) and then process it with the industry standard
music editing software, ProTools. The good news was that this piece
of the puzzle was taken care of, but I quickly realized I was going
to need about 10 other items to even get started, including
headphones, monitors, etc.
I made a spreadsheet of the songs
I wanted to record and who I thought should perform each one.
My vision was to produce a solo CD that had all original tunes written
by me or my close friends and family. I wanted something that sounded
good, had wide appeal, and had a bunch of my friends on it. I am pretty
sure I got what I wanted, but you be the judge. Click on "My
Music" to learn more about the project...or click the album
cover just below.
Here
are my vitals:
Born: San Jose, CA,
December 5, 1975
Status: married recently
to Ivona, a woman I met while working at the library at UC Berkeley.
No children yet. For more about my family, click that link up top.
Education: Willow
Glen High School graduate, then off to UC Berkeley for 5 years (yes
I had a good excuse for taking an extra year), then back to San Jose
to live and work. My degree was in Biological Environmental Science,
with a minor in Forestry and Resource Management, plus I am a certified
Master Composter (send me questions about compost if you have any)
Music: I like all
kinds of music, but when I was about 20 I started playing bluegrass
music. I mainly play mandolin, but dabble in guitar, bass, and banjo,
and enjoy songwriting when the mood strikes me. My main influences
are the Bluegrass Album Band, David Grisman, Doyle Lawson, and most
of all, the Paisleys. For more on this, see my "Hooked on Bluegrass"
story below. In other genres, I like the Smashing Pumpkins, Matisyahu,
Bobby McFerrin, and probably my favorite, 311.
Hobbies Besides Music:
I read some, mainly to fall asleep. Some of my favorite authors are
Orson Scott Card, Michael Connolly, Douglas Adams, and my dad. Disc
golf is a lot of fun if you can keep it out of the bushes, and I enjoy
time in front of the XBox playing Halo or whatever game I have at
the time. I am a rigorous movie watcher, probably about 4-6/week thanks
to Netflix. Top movies for me include the Phantom Tollbooth, Ferris
Bueller's Day Off, and Memento.
Politics: skip this
part if you aren't into politics. I am pretty liberal, actually registered
with the Green Party. I don't care if Gay people get married, abortion
is a woman's choice, and I think we need to treat the environment
a lot better. Some of my best friends don't agree with any of this
and I could care less. I think everyone is entitled to his or her
own opinions.
Work: I work for
the Friends of Guadalupe River Park & Gardens, a nonprofit group
that does stuff. If you want to know what stuff, click on the name
of the company in the previous sentence, it'll take you to that web
site, which I maintain, so no need to go into it here. I like my job
and the people I work with, but when I get home, I like to kick back
and relax and not think too much about work.
Other Work: I also
do design work on the side for extra cash. Mostly web sites, but I
also do the occasional flyer or postcard. If you need anything like
this, check out my business web site, by clicking here...
Hooked
On Bluegrass
The California Bluegrass Assosiation collects and archives anyone and everyone's story about how they became "Hooked on Bluegrass." My story is below...
IF IT WAS not the first CBA Father’s Day Bluegrass Festival, it was the second or third, and I was either a baby or a toddler or a very small person. After that I missed few here and there because of school, or sports, or something else only slightly more important. It did not become because of the music until later, back then it was about fishing, or riding my bike, or playing with friends.
My dad played bass and sang lead for many years with many different lineups in his band, the Grass Menagerie. I am not exactly sure when, but he decided to start playing fiddle, and attacked the task with all of his ADD, or OCD, or whatever he has that makes him obsess about the most recent passion do jour. This took the form of playing fiddle tunes in the morning, and then again at night, incessantly, for hours on end. My brother and I laid in bed trying to fall asleep while the tunes rattled around the house looking for ears to enter. This was not the way to hook someone on bluegrass, especially kids trying to be cool everyday at school, but then again, that was not his goal.
So I went off to college at UC Berkeley, and Dad stayed behind and went about his business. One day I found an old recording of the Grass Menagerie; an album called Buffalo Bluegrass, and popped it in my tape deck. I listened to it many times and it started to grow on me. I started memorizing words without even thinking about it. I started hearing tenor harmonies without even realizing it.
Since home was only a short BART ride away, I would visit on the weekends if nothing else was going on around campus. One Friday night I visited Dad’s house for dinner. Turned out others were visiting as well for a bluegrass jam. I stood around the periphery and listened, not really knowing if the music was any good or not, but it was entertaining. Someone called a song I recognized off the Buffalo Bluegrass tape and when the chorus came up, I chimed in with the tenor part. Dad looked at me bewildered. Apparently, this was the first time he had ever heard me sing a real song. Maybe a video game theme song, or sing along songs in the car, but not a real song in front of people. It was not hard to tell that he liked what he heard and wanted more of it.
There were more visits, more jams, and more tenor singing, and then maybe some lead singing, but still no instrument in my hand. Dad also started passing me CD’s of his favorite tunes or bands, and I started listening to more bluegrass music in general.
Then my grandpa C.O. died and we went to visit my grandma on the eastern side of the Sierras to help her settle things up and get the house ready for sale. In the attic I found a baritone ukulele along with an instruction book. I took the ukulele back to Forestry school to finish out the summer, and some of my guitar playing friends there helped me learn more about the instrument. By the time I got back to Berkeley, I could strum chords and sing at the same time, and could even figure out chords to a new song by ear.
The next time I went to a jam at Dad’s house, I brought the ukulele along and sat on the edges seeing what I could do. I could sing, but the ukulele did not pack enough heat to be heard over any of the other instruments. I guess at this point I was already hooked because when Dad looked over at me and suggested we get me a true bluegrass instrument, I jumped at the chance. That Christmas he gave me my first mandolin. I chose the mandolin because it was small and easy to carry around campus, as I had been doing with the ukulele.
Practice began instantly. I was amazed at how quickly I could learn the standard fiddle tunes. Then I realized they had been lying dormant in my head all these years because of listening to Dad practice them over and over and over…I could pick them out on my own, or someone could show me a new one and I could learn it by ear.
I stuck with it and started meeting new people and forming bands. Now when I went to the Father’s Day Festival is was all about the music, there was no time to ride my bike or go fishing. I even got to join Dad’s band, the Grass Menagerie for several years until he moved up to the mountains. I joined other bands and even started recording albums.
But it’s not about the music, it’s about the people who play and love the music. Bluegrass music is what brings us together, but the friendships are what keep us coming back year after year. Clearly it was Dad that got me hooked on Bluegrass, and I can never thank him enough for all the joy it has brought me.
