Sideguy/Instruction/Tech


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I came into this world as a Utility Guy, and it’s as a Utility Guy I will die. Songwriting is fun, and interesting things have happened as a byproduct, but what I’m best at is being a support player.

My first musical inspiration was Dave Letterman’s band. All of them: Anton Fig on drums, Will Lee on bass, Sid McGinnis and Felicia Collins on guitars, and Paul Shaffer as keyboardist and bandleader. I used to get up at 1:25am, to sneak out to the living room and see who they were playing with tonight: James Brown? Sheryl Crow? Toots and the Maytals? Their versatility spoke volumes to me. Same with the Saturday Night Live bands over the years. Real deal musicians: creative night after night, always in service of the Artist’s vision for the song. They made me the kind of school band geek that breaks into the music room to play over lunch, stays after school, plays in every school band, community theatre pit orchestra, goes and does a Music degree, and whose faculty advisor says:

“Okay: I’ll let you in as a Percussionist, but I don’t care what town you eventually move to; you’re going to work as a Bassist, because you play Bass with a Drummer’s sense of timekeeping, and there are so few good bass players out there. Since you also play guitar, I can’t figure out for the life of me why you don’t take classical guitar and get your fingers moving for bass, that’s what Tony Levin did.”

upright Kim kit Metro Norma rubyHighPraire

 

 

 

 

So, dear friends, let it be said that if you need a rhythm section guy, who sings, and can switch up instruments, and does not believe in doing impolite things in enclosed spaces, I’ve got your backs.

Here’s a list of our inventory:

Pearl Masters Studio drum kit (12-14-16-22 birch)
Pearl Sensitone 5×14 steel snare
Mapex 6×14 maple snare (for slack/dry tunings)
various, ever-changing cymbal collection, lots of world&hand percussion

2015 Music Man Stingray electric bass
1974 Fender Jazz bass
2009 Eminence upright bass

2007 Gibson Les Paul (PRS 57/08 pu, Page coiltap harness, Bigsby)
1984 Squier MIJ series Tele
2006 Morgan OMM acoustic
2007 Epiphone MM30E/AS mandolin
195? Stella acoustic, for dobro simulation
wide collection of fx and amps

198? Hohner Maestro III accordion

I do sing, arrange, instruct, repair, tech, and have a Toyota Matrix with 423,000 clicks on it.

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