Any musicians/studio jockeys here???

[Dick Rowe]

Thanks for the kind words folks. The sound is a result of three guys with absolutely no egos, playing together as a unit for over 25 years.

Butch .. to be honest, I did overdub some rhythm guitar on a few tracks for the recordings just because I could! Our live strength came from three guys who could all sing. We used vocal harmonies to compensate for extra instruments.

Mitchell .. the NFL thing was documented here http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...629#post746629

[Amy Leigh Baker]

I started playing the trumpet at 8, finished high school early, started a bachelor of music at Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio when I was 14, then moved to NYC after graduation. I recieved my Master's Degree in music from Queen's College two laters, all the while making a living in music. I played almost everything... soul, R & B, jazz, big-band, swing, ballroom dance bands, salsa, merengue, conpa (haitian music)... anything with a paycheck. After six years and traveling half the world I decided to move back to Alabama to live with my Mom, partly because of money issues, partly because of health issues, partly because I missed my family, & partly because music had become a job, not a passion anymore.

I haven't touched it since I moved back. I spent countless hours on stage for 16 years and grew to loath the music business. Not the music, but the business of music. I feel like a totally different person now then back then, but it doesn't affect me as much as most people think. I lived and saw more in 26 years than most people see in 100.

Now, time to go design my next WW project

[Butch Edwards]

I started playing the trumpet at 8, finished high school early, started a bachelor of music at Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio when I was 14, then moved to NYC after graduation. I recieved my Master's Degree in music from Queen's College two laters, all the while making a living in music. I played almost everything... soul, R & B, jazz, big-band, swing, ballroom dance bands, salsa, merengue, conpa (haitian music)... anything with a paycheck. After six years and traveling half the world I decided to move back to Alabama to live with my Mom, partly because of money issues, partly because of health issues, partly because I missed my family, & partly because music had become a job, not a passion anymore.

I haven't touched it since I moved back. I spent countless hours on stage for 16 years and grew to loath the music business. Not the music, but the business of music. I feel like a totally different person now then back then, but it doesn't affect me as much as most people think. I lived and saw more in 26 years than most people see in 100.

Now, time to go design my next WW project

Hmmm... I don't see rock 'n roll listed there... maybe it's time you gave that a whirl !!!
..trumpets worked for Chicago Transit Authority!!!
..not to mention the back-up for Lynyrd Skynyrd !!!

[John Dodson]

I'm currently reliving my 2nd teenage-hood Played guitar in high school and college, got married, had kids, and had to earn a living -- so I put it away for 20 years. Oldest boy at age 12 wanted to learn guitar, so I had to drag it out of the closet and brush up, which got me re-hooked into playing again (that was 15+ years ago).

I have an interest in Country Blues (acoustic blues from the 20's and 30's) and run a website for all interested in that genre.... all 20 of them. (http://weeniecampbell.com)

For the past year and a half, I've played guitar and sung lead in a Rockabilly/Rhythm and Blues (old style) band (http://slackabilly.com - We're just starting to record demos, so go easy on me.) Our goal is to play once a month and to make at least one person smile, laugh or dance. We do pretty well on all accounts.

I'm also playing/singing in a Bob Wills style Western Swing band - our first public performance will be October 7th. We have rhythm guitar, lead guitar, piano/sax player and upright bass. Looking for fiddle, steel guitar and horns -- so if you guys know of anyone.

What we've done to limit the wear and tear on aging bodies, other than pick and choose our venues, is to plug everyone into either one or two - depending on venue size - Bose L1 sound systems (also know as "the stick"). No amps, monitors, stands - sounds great, and makes gigging so much more fun. Our drummer also plays a Traps shell-less drum set - the whole kit, assembled, sits in the back of his Honda passport with room for a back passenger.

Cheers,

[Amy Leigh Baker]

Hmmm... I don't see rock 'n roll listed there... maybe it's time you gave that a whirl !!!
..trumpets worked for Chicago Transit Authority!!!
..not to mention the back-up for Lynyrd Skynyrd !!!

Yeah, rock-n-roll for sure. I was just at work and in a hurry. Chicago is one of my most favorite bands!! I charted lots of their music for the identical three piece section I had in a party band. But my all-time favorite musician was and still is is Sting. Sadly I didn't even know who he was until I'd been in NYC for a few months, but of course I knew some of his music. I went to the Windows XP debut concert Bill Gates threw in Bryant Park, and Sting was the artist. So cool. Noon on a weekday in the summer in a park in downtown Manhattan. And I had played with his trombone player at the time, knew of his bass player Christian McBride, and of course his trumpet player, Chris Botti, became the musical sidekick on the Caroline Rhea show on ABC.

The business not-with-standing, I am still a lover of music. Stevie Wonder, EWF, Chicago, The Police, Sting, Tower of Power... all classics with classic horn sections. Soul and R & B, disco, funk, rock-n-roll, hip-hop, rap (yes, I can appreciate rap in some ways), salsa, and the list goes on.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Amy, my son (the younger one with the pilot's lic.) plays t-pet. He (a senior now) and his brass group at HS were selected to play at the NJ Music Educators Conference last fall. They had 2 months to prep and worked their buttons off.

The brass group The Dallas Brass held a workshop attended by 300 music teachers - the kids were invited to perform a few of the Dallas Brass numbers under their direction. For almost 3 hours the kids played and demonstrated teaching/learning techniques under a few directors, their own teacher and the Dallas guys. They were incredibly supportive of the kids and the teachers - a classy bunch of guys.

What a cool thing for HS kids to do.

In the evening The Dallas Brass held a 2 hour concert and oh, my - can these guys play!!!!

A vid of the kids playing Dallas Brass pieces at the HS concert (not great production value, but it's better than nothing) - the first tune is a bit droll, the second tune is a bit more fun:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhVf53LJGAI
My son is 2nd from the right.

Dallas Brass: (for those who haven't heard near-perfection come out of a horn)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6KsLmOvIXg

[jeremy levine]

Played drums (actually took lessons ) in high school and collage. The interesting part is I had almost a much fun refurbishing the drums. If I ever get around to it I have a 1950's Leedy snare drum to bring back to life, plus some really nice 1950's Zildjain's (cymbals)

[Doug Shepard]

Played guitar since I was 8 or 9 and even made a living at it for about 5 years playing in cover bands. Haven't had it out of the case much in the last 10 years but I'll get back into it at some point. Did about 3 years of college as a music major then decided that was never going to get me a backup plan so switched and got a degree in Math/Computer Sci. Dabbled with keyboards a bit, and bass, and even sax for a couple years but was just so-so at that. Been wanting for a long while to get into instrument building but it seems there's always something else on my To-Do list.

BTW Amy - one of the best concerts I ever saw was Tower of Power in a small club (maybe 800 seats?) about 30 feet from the stage and they definitely Funked Me Up. Kupka's Bari Sax playing really punches up a horn section. It didn't hurt none either that they were warming up for Robert Cray.

[Dennis Peacock]

Wow..!!!! The Dallas Brass ROCKS!!!!!

[Greg Narozniak]

Played Drums in grammer school. Was never very good but I sure wish I still had that Ludwig silver pearl set and those 4 Zildjain A's that went with it

Did a lot of live sound, worked for a very large Jersey Shore club in Belmar as the house sound tech. Also did some roadwork with a few big bands like The Wallflowers, Train, and some guy named Bruce

[Mitchell Andrus]

Wow..!!!! The Dallas Brass ROCKS!!!!!

Dennis, in a live performance, they absolutely blow you out of your chair.

[Dave Bender]

Started playing guitar and drums when I was a kid. Played percussion (Timpani and latin) in Orchestra's through highschool, some in community orchastra's later. I could play a fairly mean rhythm guitar but never was too inventive playing lead. I could copy fine but my mind didn't think well as a soloist. In early high school I started listening to Jaco Pastorius, Stanley Clarke, and James Jamerson and switched to playing bass - it's better on the bottom you know. Played bass professionally from late high school, through college, and grad school. Most of the time it paid the rent.

During that time I also worked in radio (dj, engineer, music director for a bit) mainly public but some commercial stints too. While doing some session work I ended up learning a fair bit of recording and ended up doing live broadcast work locally (big band Jazz broadcasts for WEMU, Montreux Detroit Jazz Festival) as well as some assistant engineering work nationally (NPR - Music of the Black Church, New Years Eve Jazz Alive, CBS - Tommy Hearns Fight, Detroit, etc).

During my working life I played out some on bass and guitar but eventually started playing more acoustic music. I learned mandolin, octive mandolin (i.e. Irish Cittern), tenor banjo, and some fiddle and played a fair bit of traditional Irish, English, American Old Time, and other mainly acoustic styles. Played with a couple of good groups in Houston and enjoyed playing festivals (North Texas Irish Festival, Houston IFest, etc) as well as with friends in a park or buskin down at Galveston.

Later, work took me oversea's and I ended up getting the playing itch again. So, back to playing bass with large amps on the weekends for fun and profit. This time with much better gear because I was making some serious coin with the day job.

Well back to states now and raising kids. It seems that I play music seriously for a decade, give it up for awhile, and then get back in to it for a decade. I'm starting to play more and practice. Need to work some damage out of my fingers but they're starting to get back into the grove again. I'm starting to put the studio back again and the basement is taking shape. Hopefully the kids will start to join me on some tunes.

The current rigs are

Sobell archtop guitar, Sobell octive mandolin
Ovation electric mandolin
My great gradfathers old fiddle (no idea who made it, was rebuilt by Bill Northcut and sounds great for trad music)
1926 Vega Style X no 9 tenor banjo
Clevenger Upright bass
Alembic Spoiler
Warwick 5 string
Fender P-bass, fretless
Taylor AB-1 bass
Taylor 810 (1989 model worked on a few times by Taylor - love this)
Taylor 914
Baby Taylor (son learning on this one)
Fender Custom Shop Richie Sambora Strat
Telecaster (I made the body, neck from a supplier, cool electronics)
Gibson ES-336 (like a 335 but Custom Shop model)
1965 Moserite VI Standard
a couple of mid 60's strats in various states of playability (bought in the mid 70's for cheap)

Amps
Two SWR SM-900 bass amps that I can split apart or use together with 2 2x10, and 2 4x10 SWR cabs.
Little GK B150 amp (practice or onstage in an acoustic gig).
Marshall Studio 15
Marshall 100w/ch rack mounted amp
Marshall JMP-100
Marshall 1960A cab w/greenbacks
Lexicon guitar pre, Marshall pre, a few other preamps
Fender Blues Deluxe
SWR California Blonde
Roland Keyboard Amp

Recording
Yamaha 02/R with 24T of Alesis ADAT - Ok, it's fairly old school now but it still works great.
A couple of Lexicon, DBX, Manley, TC Electronics, Ensoniq effects units that work in the studio or go out in the bass rig.
Neuman U-86, KM-86, AKG, Sennheiser, and Sure microphones. Neuman's were purchased a long, long time ago and really are great to have - way to expensive to buy new now.

Keyboard
Ensoniq TS-12. Still works, too bad it's orphaned. Don't know what I'll replace it with when it dies.
ASR-10 sampler (has a couple of fantastic drum kits)
KAT (need something to pound the beat on in midi)

[Butch Edwards]

Started playing guitar and drums when I was a kid. Played percussion (Timpani and latin) in Orchestra's through highschool, some in community orchastra's later. I could play a fairly mean rhythm guitar but never was too inventive playing lead. I could copy fine but my mind didn't think well as a soloist. In early high school I started listening to Jaco Pastorius, Stanley Clarke, and James Jamerson and switched to playing bass - it's better on the bottom you know. Played bass professionally from late high school, through college, and grad school. Most of the time it paid the rent.

During that time I also worked in radio (dj, engineer, music director for a bit) mainly public but some commercial stints too. While doing some session work I ended up learning a fair bit of recording and ended up doing live broadcast work locally (big band Jazz broadcasts for WEMU, Montreux Detroit Jazz Festival) as well as some assistant engineering work nationally (NPR - Music of the Black Church, New Years Eve Jazz Alive, CBS - Tommy Hearns Fight, Detroit, etc).

During my working life I played out some on bass and guitar but eventually started playing more acoustic music. I learned mandolin, octive mandolin (i.e. Irish Cittern), tenor banjo, and some fiddle and played a fair bit of traditional Irish, English, American Old Time, and other mainly acoustic styles. Played with a couple of good groups in Houston and enjoyed playing festivals (North Texas Irish Festival, Houston IFest, etc) as well as with friends in a park or buskin down at Galveston.

Later, work took me oversea's and I ended up getting the playing itch again. So, back to playing bass with large amps on the weekends for fun and profit. This time with much better gear because I was making some serious coin with the day job.

Well back to states now and raising kids. It seems that I play music seriously for a decade, give it up for awhile, and then get back in to it for a decade. I'm starting to play more and practice. Need to work some damage out of my fingers but they're starting to get back into the grove again. I'm starting to put the studio back again and the basement is taking shape. Hopefully the kids will start to join me on some tunes.

The current rigs are

Sobell archtop guitar, Sobell octive mandolin
Ovation electric mandolin
My great gradfathers old fiddle (no idea who made it, was rebuilt by Bill Northcut and sounds great for trad music)
1926 Vega Style X no 9 tenor banjo
Clevenger Upright bass
Alembic Spoiler
Warwick 5 string
Fender P-bass, fretless
Taylor AB-1 bass
Taylor 810 (1989 model worked on a few times by Taylor - love this)
Taylor 914
Baby Taylor (son learning on this one)
Fender Custom Shop Richie Sambora Strat
Telecaster (I made the body, neck from a supplier, cool electronics)
Gibson ES-336 (like a 335 but Custom Shop model)
1965 Moserite VI Standard
a couple of mid 60's strats in various states of playability (bought in the mid 70's for cheap)

Amps
Two SWR SM-900 bass amps that I can split apart or use together with 2 2x10, and 2 4x10 SWR cabs.
Little GK B150 amp (practice or onstage in an acoustic gig).
Marshall Studio 15
Marshall 100w/ch rack mounted amp
Marshall JMP-100
Marshall 1960A cab w/greenbacks
Lexicon guitar pre, Marshall pre, a few other preamps
Fender Blues Deluxe
SWR California Blonde
Roland Keyboard Amp

Recording
Yamaha 02/R with 24T of Alesis ADAT - Ok, it's fairly old school now but it still works great.
A couple of Lexicon, DBX, Manley, TC Electronics, Ensoniq effects units that work in the studio or go out in the bass rig.
Neuman U-86, KM-86, AKG, Sennheiser, and Sure microphones. Neuman's were purchased a long, long time ago and really are great to have - way to expensive to buy new now.

Keyboard
Ensoniq TS-12. Still works, too bad it's orphaned. Don't know what I'll replace it with when it dies.
ASR-10 sampler (has a couple of fantastic drum kits)
KAT (need something to pound the beat on in midi)

SWEET GEAR!!! I'd love to hook up and play some of that stuff...
all I gots is some Les Pauls/Engl cab/Soldano amp..assorted stomp boxes... oh yeah, and a ES-135 LE with 57 Classics... where you at?