Welcome to Guitopia – a CD of 13 guitar instrumentals with an “electronic orchestra” back-up, composed back in 2004. I’m re-releasing it now in 2022 to a new and hopefully larger audience. With a history as a progressive rock guitarist, this album was quite a 180 turn for me. Back in 2003, I found myself…
Category: My Life as a Musician
Over the western border of Arizona, just across the Colorado River, lies the town of Blythe, California. Blythe hosts a yearly bluegrass festival which we have attended four times now. Last year was cancelled due to the crummy Covid thing. And so we’re back for this year’s festival, keeping ourselves socially distant and pretty much…
I’ve posted a few blogs on my history with the band “Stockade.” I was a member of that band throughout my teen years and it was an amazing period of my life. Here’s the links to those stories if you want to review or check them out for the first time: The last time we…
In the early ’80s, I began to make a musical transition from rock ‘n’ roll guitarist to bluegrass guitarist. This came about as the result of three main influences going on at this time. First, I had been taking banjo lessons with Roger Sprung. Roger was selling me records that not only featured his banjo…
It’s about time! Banjoist Roger Sprung, after years and years in the business, was finally inducted into the American Banjo Museum Hall of Fame. He came along at just the right time in my life when I lost my band, failed in music school, and had pretty much lost all confidence in myself as a…
This story about the place that I called “The Box”, covers a large arc of time in my life from childhood to young adult (ca. 1963 to 1979). It begins looking through the lens of the naive little kid, who’s primary activities involved nothing more than playful imagination. It winds up with a young man,…
A day to celebrate the life of a truly great musician. Artie Traum (1943-2008) would have been 77 years old today. Unfortunately, liver cancer cut his life short back in 2008 at age 65. However, it matters not how long a great artist lives. Musicians are not judged by their longevity, but in the volume…
Need a sticker for your banjo case? We’ve got ’em. When I was spending time at my parent’s home in Franklin, North Carolina, I came across a record by “The Dry Branch String Band.” They had a regular gig in The Smoky Mountain National Park. The band would entertain the “folks” from the front porch…
Since “settling down” in Phoenix in early 2019, I have taken the plunge into Facebook, partly out of curiosity and partly from a business perspective. It has become quite the eye-opener for me as I reconnect with SO many folks with whom I worked SO closely in the music business from ca. 1965-on. In the…
Another Contest – This one was at the “Jenny Brook” Bluegrass Festival, specifically for bluegrass bands. From 2006 to 2016, I was part of a band called “Out of the Bluegrass” with three very talented fellers, and then me. We would go to these festivals together mostly just to play our tunes at the campsite…