Flying has always been fun for me. I never run out of amazement for airplane flight. I’ve always enjoyed getting up in the air to read a good book and imagine how things work down on Earth. However, taking off and landing is especially exciting for me. It takes a lot of energy to get a plane to cruising altitude and to bring it back down. Lately though, I’ve come to appreciate the cost of it all, how much integration between people, machines, and the environment goes into it all, and the pros and cons involved. Starting a new career in music is a similar process. There’s lot’s of energy spent on the front end. For me that’s meant a return to school, studying, practicing, and going through the paces of being a rookie with a new instrument. I haven’t reached cruising altitude yet, but its also not my first flight. In this final installment of “Do What You Came Here To Do”, I’ll look back on the music journey that led me here. As I have migrated through different soundscapes, I’ve picked up elements of a variety of styles and forms of music. I’ll explore the concept of migration as it applies to my music travels. Beginning with a school marching band.

That’s me dressed out in my little league uniform and playing the saxophone. My first formal introduction to music was in my junior high and high school bands. I always enjoyed the process of practicing, preparing for a concert or parade and all the energy that leads up to performances. It was about the same time my uncle gave me his drum kit. I would play it everyday when I came home from school to my favorite rock tunes. I’ve always enjoyed having had the formal and informal music experience together. As my guitar professor would say more recently, “Don’t downplay what you know of good music and from the songs you’ve grown up listening to. They have trained your ear already, because they wouldn’t have made it to the radio if they weren’t examples of good music!”

That reminds me of my first “garage band”. My cousins and I would assemble all the instruments we were learning to play and sometimes what we produced what resembled musical sounds. Most of the time we would default to air guitar sessions inspired by whatever rock band we were into at the time. We did come up with what we thought was a catchy and clever name though, “The Uncalled Four”! That plane didn’t ever get off the ground, but I’ve never forgotten what it felt like to be in the process of an attempted take off.

After college my baseball days were over and I migrated away from my birthplace where I settled down to raise a family. The saxophone was long gone and I’d accomplished enough on the drum kit to start a band with a friend and colleague. The Urban Horse Thieves. It was my first experience in a semi-professional band. We gigged often, recorded two CDs with I-Town Records in Ithaca, NY. One song made it to an independent film soundtrack and others to an Americana play list in the Netherlands. I also, began sitting in with the Zydeco Trail Riders also based in and around Ithaca. I would go on to play with the Trail Riders full time for a few years before my move to Pennsylvania. Alternative Rock/Americana and Zydeco music include sounds and forms from all over the United States.

The Urban Horse Thieves & Zydeco Trail Riders

It has been an eye opener to see how music from Louisiana can migrate all the way up to New York and take shape in a completely different climate and cultural setting. Despite being established in different venues, people love the music and dancing that goes with it. The Zydeco dance step uses short quick movements designed to keep you cool in the sweltering Louisiana climate. Nonetheless, it has taken hold firmly amongst the network of bands and dancers looking to keep warm in the snow belt regions of New York.

Music has always had a firm hold on my attention and heart. When I recently decided to devote my full attention to it, it was a return to places I had been before. This time with a new instrument and fusion of all the elements and forms that I’ve picked up in my travels. I recently arranged a cover of an Urban Horse Thieves tune, “Green Apple” with me on guitar, bass, and vocals. It’s like going back again to where I’ve been. To find out more of what I’m doing now, I’ve put a collection of guitar tunes to video. They include a variety of my influences. If you’d like to support my work and first blues album, please consider buying a copy of my videos. I’ll need a real push to get to climbing altitude and I appreciate all the support I can get.

In the meantime … In the video “Fly” I used a video from a recent flight to inspire an instrumental piece I thought of as a mini-soundtrack. It was the first time I experimented with the wah-wah pedal on the rhythm guitar and a crunchier lead tone. I think of these videos as “musical haikus”. Short, but thought through. On this one I took the opportunity to play around with the structure of the tune. I really like long orchestral pieces, like concertos, that have different movements built on a similar theme. The intro to “Fly” is based on patterns of thirds and sonically minimal to give it the feel of the plane taxiing on the tarmac before take off. I love the contrast between the ethereal voices and crunchy guitars. It’s like Enya (a favorite Irish singer/composer) meets Starsky & Hutch. Its amazing how much attention goes into just a couple of minutes of music!

There and back again

Irish eyes