~~ My 7 Decade Musical Adventure ~~ Posted at 2018-03-22 ~+~ ~My 7 Decade Musical Adventure~so far~ ~+~ I started on the bongo drums at 4 years old in while living in Albany, NY in 1958, trying to learn the Twilight Zone bongo part, then later attempted the Mission Impossible bongo piece and that was also mission impossible. In 1959 my dad started me on the piano, we moved to Arlington, Virginia in 1962 and a few years later I got a set of 1968 Slingerland Drums from Giant Music in Falls Church for those locals. Also in 1968 I began the long and tedious road which is the guitar. But my primary interest has always been songwriting. I started at songwriting in 1970 at this time in Fredonia, NY; some 35 miles south of Buffalo and lots of cold and snow. Began the synthesizer in Fayetteville, NC in 1992 and the bass guitar in Blythe, Georgia in 1995 near Augusta, Georgia. I began recording original music in 1970 and multi-track recording in 1992, did some studio recording in 1993-96. Took recording engineering as an elective in my degree program at Northern Virginia Community College (Associates in Applied Science in Electronics Technology) and Capital Institute of Technology/ Regents College of NY (BS Telecommunications Technology). Have currently been homeless for the past 21 years paying off my child support and have been to busking and recording (Tascam D8) on the streets of Washington, DC. It's really been a blast and as a result of being a homeless street performer I've made $63,000 in donations over the past six years. I volunteered for the US Army in 1982 receiving Tech Control, Satellite Communications, Telephone Switch Engineering and Internet TCIP based architecture certifications. And was primarily a Technical Instructor for the US Army, US Air Force and US Navy for 13 years and also a Technician/Engineer on various Telecommunications systems in the commercial Telecommunications industry. I made it to Woodstock in 1969, it was truly the best three days of my life! Afterwards, everything was forever changed in my life; about music, the Vietnam war, protesting, activism, the hippie movement, We were sure we were going to change the world and I guess in some ways we really did!
Creating music is somewhat of a great escape from the horrid world which we live in today; I truly wish the 60's and 70's hippie movement had never ended, but when I'm writing and playing the guitar; I can go back in time to that wonderful place~
The same as it always has been; to write that great song~
A music festival that never ends~
"Clouds" by Joni Mitchell
Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who, Bob Dylan, Donovan, Steely Dan, Tom Petty
It's an emotional feeling I get from playing, especially some thing I wrote.
Peace, Love, Hope, Faith~
If I'm on, I feel rewarded~
Music today seems very crude, lacking melody and to fake with the advent of computer and beat generated audio.
I think Drooble is an excellent platform for content, distribution, submission to films, TV, etc.
Equipment problems, cost of professional equipment, guitar frets wrwearing out, amps losing effect quality.
Listening to other indie artists and supporting their musical efforts.
Be very network savvy~
"The Last Year; a band from Baltimore, Md who really puts on a fantastic live performance.