Me playing the Bourgeois in Nashville
It's never too early to start!
My niece Blythe & I
Copper River Band - Blythe 2006
Me & My Buddy Steve @ the NSA Reunion
Me & Dana Bourgeois
Me & Lynn Dudenbostel
Me & Bela Fleck
Me & Edgar Meyer
Me & Lou Reid
Me & Sean Watkins
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I've been playing music ever since I can remember. My first instrument was a little red Yamaha keyboard that I used to sit at and pick out different melodies by ear. I think I was about 5 or 6 years old. I used to work out the tunes to Christmas carols or whatever else I knew and I'd walk around playing them all the time. I was homeschooled for the majority of my primary education. That allowed me to explore different forms of music that weren't influenced by my peers (Thank God! I grew up in the 80's :-). My parents decided to get me involved with piano lessons, and I studied piano and music theory until high school.
No one else in my immediate family plays any instruments, but one of the things I remember vividly is singing. We sang in the car, we sang at church, we sang when all the family got together at Christmas, etc. I remember hearing my grandmother singing harmony and I'd try to copy it and learn how to sing different harmonies. My two sisters and I would work up three part harmonies and sing Christmas carols. My parents and us would sing at church for different events and I'd sometimes accompany on the piano. The largest detriment but necessary evil was attending a public K-8 for the 6th-8th grades. Luckily, I began doing community theatre and continued pursuing the arts outside of the average public school environment. It was during those years that I wrote my first piano composition. I entered it and won an Arizona state composition contest with it.
I attended the New School for the Arts, a college preperatory for the arts that at the time was in Scottsdale, AZ. It has since moved to Tempe. NSA was a true testiment to how a different approach to learning can work. It is a public charter school that started the year I first attended, 1995. There were roughly about 250 students. I was part of the graduating class of 1999, the first class that had attended the school since the inception. NSA was a really huge awakening for me with regard to the arts as well as a diversity shock. The majority of the students there had come from all across the Greater Phoenix Area to further their artistic pursuits and get their high school education. The school was run much more like a college in that we had "majors" and were able to focus more in depth without having to worry about sports programs. I started off studying theater and music composition. It was here that I picked up my first stringed instruments. I learned to play the bass guitar in the schools' guitar program led by Mr. Gerry DeLaTorre. I also bought my first guitar and started taking lessons after school from Mr. DeLaTorre. There were many excellent guitar players and other musicians at the school, and the variety of the music always made for an interesting time. It's not often a student can walk down a hall full of practice rooms and hear everything from classical piano, harp, guitar, etc. and then walk out back and hear metal, rock, and everything else you could think of. Even in Spanish class our teacher, Guitano Frankel was a Flamenco guitarist and singer. We used to learn Spanish by singing gypsy songs and learning about their culture. The opportuniy to learn about so many styles of music gave me an interest in recording. I arranged to do an independent study program through a local recording studio and became interested in the recording arts. I began recording some original pieces and experimenting with arrangement. I wrote and produced a children's tune called "Bananas" that was aired on a local kids radio station. If you would like to find out more about NSA, please check out their website and if you have not chosen a school yet for your Arizona School Tax Credit, please consider them. I appreciate what a role they had in giving me the opportunity to explore the arts in so many ways.
During high school I had started a Christian band called "PURE" and was also playing as part of my church youth group's band. I played bass or guitar. I began writing some original Christian tunes that had more of a contemporary feel. We had the opportunity of playing some great camps and events for the church. It was at one of these church camps that I met my wife. Her dad still tells the story about how he heard his daughter was interested in "this guy in a band", and how he went to an "alternative school". Not exactly the best depiction of me, but they didn't discount me right off the bat. I wrote a song for her and recorded it in the studio I had interned at. Cheezy, yes, but romantic in high school. I wrote more Christian tunes as time went on and was soon able to employ them in a new band I had joined called "Carthal and the Fish Friars". We made a short album of the works of the band and we played a few local gigs. We also changed the name of the band a few times, which confused our audience, but really nobody cared. One of our favorite past times is sitting in Starbucks and having acoustic jams and playing Christian music. We still do it to this day when our schedules allow. Good times!
For my 22nd birthday, May 19, 2002, my wife gave me a mandolin. I had taken an interest in a band called "Nickel Creek". The mandolin stylings of Chris Thile had gotten me interested in further exploring bluegrass, which I had heard in small doses growing up on shows like Hee Haw and when I had paid a visit to the Grand Ole Opry as a child. I went to my first bluegrass festival a few months later and got to hear a few local bluegrass bands. I fell in love with bluegrass music and the sweet people that were involved with it locally. I found a bluegrass jam in Tempe at the Home of Howard and Susan Anderson. It was here that I first learned about traditional bluegrass and how to "jam" properly. I tried to pick up as much as I could with tablature online and by listening to other players. I was soon asked to join a new band made up of some members from the jam session called the "Dry Creek Band". We practiced a lot, which was great because I was still learning the lyrics to most of the songs that everyone else in bluegrass circles knew. I was asked once at a festival, "Do you like Bill Monroe?", to which I replied, "Who?". I was sooooooo green. How was I to know Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys were the reason why it's called, "Bluegrass" music?
I remember in Jr. High we went to a local high school auditorium with a bunch of other local 7-8th graders. The Phoenix Symphony did a concert for the students and talked about classical music and the symphony. I remember being one of the only ones interested in the whole thing. Most of the kids were busy throwing spit wads and talking about who said what about who and so on. I remember thinking, "How amazing would that be to be good enough to make it into a symphony like that. I can't imagine what that would be like sitting in front of people and playing such amazing music". I loved Bach. I loved Mozart. I loved hearing classical music. As a child in such a large group of kids you don't feel like you have much of a chance at achieving something so great. I would have never expected that one day I actually would. About 9 months after I started playing the mandolin (2003), I received a call from Bob Moody, former Associate Conductor for the Phoenix Symphony, asking me if I thought I'd be able to play mandolin for a ballet they were doing in the fall. I asked them to forward the sheet music to me and later accepted the job. It was a little overwhelming being amidst such talented and educated musicians. It is an incredible experience to say the least. There is such an wonderful feeling being a part of something so big and so beautiful as a symphony. I played as a guest artist for 2 mandolin solos in Prokofiev's ballet of "Romeo and Juliet". I returned 2-1/2 years later to perform the same arrangement. It was an experience I'll never forget.
I was asked to join "Just 'N Time", another bluegrass band that was just starting. They wanted to do a program called Bluegrass In The Schools and take bluegrass performances into the public school system. This band inspired me to better myself on my instrument and fueled my interest in singing higher notes. It was with this band that I started singing lead vocals on occassion and singing high tenor parts. I also had Josh Tharp, the banjo player with Just 'N Time and luthier, build me a mandolin more suited for bluegrass, as mine was just a beginner instrument. I continued to play festivals, schools, and private parties for the better part of the next year.
In 2005 I joined the Copper River Band, who I am still with today. It is a far step from where I was at 3 years before. One of the first festivals I went to was the "Prescott Bluegrass Festival" in Prescott, AZ. I happened upon these guys in 2003, when I was still just starting with mandolin and guitar, out at the campground jamming late at night. I remember thinking, "Wow, I wish I were good enough to play in a group with guys like this. It doesn't get much better than this!". It's amazing how quickly that became a reality. I'm very pleased to say that I do play with those guys now, and I'm still just as impressed.
In 2009 I decided to take on a solo project. I wanted to get a chance to make these songs that had been nothing more than notes in my iPhone come alive. I decided to ask some of the greatest pickers in bluegrass to help me out. It was a project that took me nearly a year to create and was recorded in studios all across the US and even as far away as Stockholm Sweden. The album features Ron Block, Charlie Cushman, and Jens Koch on Banjo... Jim Govern, Sierra Hull, and Adam Steffey on Mandolin... Clay Hess, Cody Kilby, and myself on Guitar... Josh Swift on Dobro... Christian Ward on Fiddle... Austin Ward on Bass.. and Cassidy Eddy (my sister), Jeff Farias, Ray Foster, Eric Uglum, and myself on vocals. There are many different styles of bluegrass and no real theme to the album other than they are all originals I want other bluegrass artists to pick up. They vary in style and structure which is consistent with my influences in bluegrass.
The first artist to pick up a song from the album was Doyle Lawson who I had sent a copy of the song, "Teddy Bear Revival", to prior to the album's completion. He and his amazing band did a fantastic job with it. It's on the album "Light On Feet, Ready To Fly" which was released in late March 2010. I was elated when he picked up the song, as his group was the one I had imagined singing it when I wrote it. The response from that song has been great so far. People really connect with it and it brings me great joy to know that they can catch a glimpse of genuineness of this precious, true story. The song was written about a friend of mine, Dave McPherson, who's mother had told me this story from his childhood. Just like the song, he's a pastor today. He leads worship at Vineyard Anthem in Anthem, AZ.
Today I'm actively pursuing my songwriting as best I can. Since the release of my album, I've begun work on another solo project. I've decided to create a series of smaller albums with various artists. I can't wait to see who I can convince to work with me. :-) Seriously, though, it's been a wonderful process being able to work with such talented and wonderful artists. I have only great things to say about all of them. The lineup for the next album is already looking amazing! Hurry up and buy all my albums so I can afford to keep making more, alright? :-) I look forward to seeing what God has in store next. I'll write more when I get wherever there is. Thanks for reading! |
