Its been a good long while since the last update here- just over a year as I’m beginning to realize.  Plenty has happened since I’ve last checked in as I’ve had the pleasure of working with plenty of great groups and continued to build my teaching studio in the city at Guitar New York.  This past week, I had the pleasure of making my Bitter End debut with the amazing Taylor Faith and her band and was treated to a set by one of my all-time favorite guitarists, Oz Noy immediately afterwards (a happy surprise, as I had no idea he was on the bill that evening).  A few days before I was in the studio laying down bass for the gritty, southern-tinged folk group Prays The Kid following a set the night before.  I’ve also been able to begin working with the fellows in St. Van Cortlandt & the 101, trying to bring their forthcoming EP “The Lion Tree” to life.  Finally, there’s an exciting jazz/funk project in the works tentatively titled “Stereobrow”, which will be having its inaugural show this July.

As for teaching, we’ve had a great number of students in our offices and as the first quarter rush winds down, I’m finally afforded the time to begin assembling an online component which should give the aspiring guitarists, bassists and ukelele aficionados I see every week a bevy of new resources.  We’re aiming for a June launch with this one so things ought to be coming along quite nicely.

There may be a few tours and EP’s on the horizon for this summer, but in the meantime, come check out some of the upcoming dates:

May 21st with Eden James & Prays The Kid @ The Trash Bar in Williamsburg

June 8th with Taylor Faith @ Rockwood Music Hall in Manhattan

July 18th with Taylor Faith @ Hill Country Barbecque in Manhattan

July 21st with Stereobrow @ The Legion in Williamsburg

There will be plenty more added in that time, I’m sure.  Check back for updates!

Emily Kimball - When I Stay

Way back in my college days I had the pleasure of playing with singer/songwriter Emily Kimball.  I never sat down and figured out why but she was one of those rare musicians who, whenever I played with them, managed to create something that made me smile.  Not a, “Hey, check out this sweet lick!” kind of smile, but the kind that you get from watching an artist who manages to be unmistakably themselves with every note.  It was something genuine, and as I get older and look at music differently, seems to be a much more monumental feat than I used to think.

I was also lucky enough to head into a recording studio with her and drumming-savant/Last Action Hero Chris Carlson for an all-night session to lay down tracks for a full-length album.  We got in at 10PM, left around 6AM and somehow managed to leave and make it through a day of classes afterwards.  Weeks went on, the semester ended, and somehow the project fell by the way side.  This went on for years as Emily went on to grad school and I split my time between Boston, New York, Maine and a couple of tours.

It was only recently that we managed to hunt each other down in the Big Apple and I got to hear the finished product.

Boy, was it ever worth it.

If you have Spotify, you can check it out “When I Stay” in its entirety.  Otherwise, go pick it up on CDBaby.

Also, since I’m finally settling in to a ridiculous teaching schedule at Guitar New York, I’m beginning to book more shows in the coming months.  I’ll be re-joining the Stephanie Fisher Band for a night of blues and R&B at the Big Easy in Portland, Maine on February 18th, and I’ll be in Concord, NH on April 22nd and 23rd for a weekend run of the musical Always Patsy Cline at the Concord Audi.  I’ll post more dates as they’re announced, so stay tuned!

I’m proud to announce that I am now one of the latest additions to the teaching faculty at Guitar New York!  Guitar New York is part of the Guitar Cities network of music schools, providing acoustic guitar, electric guitar and bass guitar instruction to students of all ages and experience levels.  From their site:

“We provide professional music instruction around the United States, with expansion to Europe in October of 2011. Our instructors have been selected out of the top 3% of applicants, so we pride ourselves in teachers that are extraordinary musicians, but also great communicators and instructors. We aim to provide our students with music instruction that caters to their styles and goals, and we can build a foundation to expand their knowledge of the instrument. If you are a beginner that has never touched an instrument, or if you are an experienced player that wants to fine-tune your playing, our instructors will be able to work with you! “

To learn more about Guitar New York, and to schedule a lesson, visit their site at www.guitarnewyork.com.

After consulting with a handful of other people using the video player I had installed here, it appears that YouTube did indeed change whatever permissions their site granted when they merged with Google, effectively killing my video player. The good news is that the videos are back up using the plain-Jane embed code from YouTube.  It lacks some serious class but at least works at this point.  Hopefully sometime soon I’ll be able to find a new way to condense those all into one tidy box.  Until then, head over to the Look page and check out the new Beam vid!

So it seems that sometime in the past month or so YouTube has changed in such a way that its preventing the video player on the Look page from playing anything.  That’s bad.  I discovered this in the past week in the midst of trying to post new video from a Jeff Beam gig.  That’s good!

So, sadly, until I’m able to fix the player, videos are disabled.  In the  meantime, I encourage you all to check out this recent footage of the Jeff Beam Preservation Society performing the title track to Beam’s most recent solo-effort, Venus Flying Trapeze, recorded at our Feburary 25th performance at Union Hall in Brooklyn.

We have a few more shows coming up in the near future, including a free show at the Delancey on the lower east side of Manhattan tomorrow night at 9PM and a performance at the Legion in Williamsburg on March 12th at 8PM.  Stay tuned for more gigs and hopefully the resurrection of my beloved video player.

It looks like my spring calendar is slowly filling up, hot on the heels on my recent relocation to the Big Apple.  I’ll be playing a few dates around town with fellow Portland, Maine expatriate Jeff Beam and his newly-formed NYC band, which includes Jacob Wolk on drums and Mike O’Neal on guitar.  You can catch us this Saturday, February 5th at the Living Room at 7PM (for free!) opening up for Chad Perrone of Averi.  We’ll also be rocking the Trash Bar in Brooklyn on the 22nd of the month in the 10PM time slot and Union Hall on the 25th, time TBA.

In the meantime, I highly recommend you check out Jeff’s latest solo release, Venus Flying Trapeze, which you can stream in its entirety at his Bandcamp page.

Happy New Year, everyone!  I’m pleased to now be working with pop-electronica outfit She’s The Queen.  From the band’s Facebook page:

“She’s the Queen is a pop/electro trio based out of New York City and Philadelphia. The group was formed in 2009 and is composed of Emily White (writing, vocals), Andrew Kuryloski (writing, production) and Marcel Hamel (bass, guitar).  Emily and Drew formed the band while attending Ithaca College in upstate New York. Their synth-heavy electro/dance rhythms and energetic performances have gained them a substantial local following. Their online presence continues to grow through social networking sites like Myspace, Facebook, and Soundcloud. In Early 2011 Marcel Hamel joined She’s the Queen as both a bass player, and guitar player. Once beginning their serious recording as a group, they recorded in Andrew’s parents’ house, recording in the garage attic. She’s the Queen continues to release web-based singles through Soundcloud offering their listeners free music.”

I’m excited to be making my debut with the group this Friday (January 14th) at the Bar East in Manhattan where we’ll be opening for Montreal’s own Dearling Physique.  It should be a great bill if you’re in the NYC area and haven’t been trapped in your apartment by the half foot of snow that’s recently fallen on us.  We hit the stage at 8PM which leaves you plenty of time to go out and enjoy the rest of your night or hang out with us and check out the rest of the bands!

A quick update before I venture into the punishing heat and humidity that somehow made it all the way up here to the “deep south of the far north”… I’m finally published!  Guitarmessenger has just run my “Tour Survival Guide” article and asked me to continue to contribute in the future.  With any luck, this will continue to keep me within the confines of my home, sheltered from the songbird sized mosquitoes that usually populate this neck of the woods during the summer months.  You can find the article here.

I’m currently sitting in the hotel attached to the “John Ascuaga’s Nugget” casino in Reno, Nevada about halfway through the two week run here that will more or less end my little excursion with Cabaret.  The days have been long, occasionally unforgiving and it seems like everywhere we go we’re missing some other great show by a few days… but not anymore!  I’ve been filling my days here enjoying the above-average people watching, free food, and head-scratching abundance of college lacrosse coverage afforded by the Biggest Little City in the World.  Sadly, I’ll be forced to leave this behind soon, and board a plane for the first time in twenty years (I’m not making that up) as I head back to the east coast.  The good news however, is that I’ll be walking off of the plane and straight onto the stage of this year’s Bridge Music Festival!

The Bridge Music Festival is an annual event set up by Portland music teachers Joe Farrell and Matthew Fogg to raise awareness and support of young, local musicians and give them an opportunity to perform on a large stage with professional artists.  The all-day concert features dozens of student and professional bands and manages to be a fantastic show every year for a very worthy cause.  This year’s festival will take place at Deering Oaks park on June 7th, with the first act dead noon.  For more information visit: Bridgemusicfestival.org

I’ve been out on the road here for a few months now and while its been a great trip so far I haven’t exactly had the time to write that I’d expected.  A couple weeks into the trip I was recruited into the technical crew as the “pit rat” which is an affectionate way of describing the audio engineer’s assistant.  The upside to this is that I’m allowed a little more practice time, I get to see a bit more of the country than I would otherwise and my travel schedule is a little easier.  The downside of course is that it has completely derailed my plans to write a tour blog for Guitarmessenger and it everything will now be condensed into one or two much smaller articles about interpreting a musical theatre score, and maybe some pearls of wisdom about surviving a national tour. 

At any rate, I’m looking forward to returning to the Portland area this summer and have already begun booking gigs and working on new material so there should be a lot of good stuff coming.  See you all back in real life in June!