Dreamy, Multi-layered Acoustic Guitar
About
This page is dedicated to the current phase of a 30 year pursuit of music. A pursuit that includes performance, composition, and contemplation. Music is more than just theories of rhythm and melody, it is tonality, quality of sound, space or “air” as I like to call it, and emotion.
This music was a process of allowing the music to be simple. To simply play it as I heard it not thinking it needed to be anything else. With its forward moving rhythms and rich dreamy textures, it’s an excellent addition to any social environment be it lounge, bar, wedding or concert hall. It can be the focus of a room, or a supporting element that can meet the energy of any event.
THE LONG VERSION:
I got my first guitar when I was five, and began proper lessons at 13, having already studied piano, trumpet, baritone horn, and drums from an early age. My first stab at original music was in high school, using the old-school Tascam 4 track recorder. After playing all through high-school and early college, subsequent traveling landed me in Portland, OR. The genre bending, groundbreaking Michael Peters Quartet was born, summing up everything that was Portland in the mid 90’s.
Landing in Ashland a couple of years later, I took part in what was then, a very thriving, young music scene. Bands were playing and people were out there for it. Ashland culminated in a year of traveling the west coast supporting local favorite Alice DiMicele, including sets at the Strawberry Music Festival and the Oregon Country Fair.
Moving to Santa Cruz shortly after, I began Synchrosystem, with Mandolinist Christian Runge. After that I joined 10 piece Hip-hop/R&B outfit Otis Goodnight, playing all over Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco.
Returning to Ashland, there were several years of high energy, high-profile First Fridays at Tabú (when it was Tabú), the joining of 10-piece funk extravaganza, Funkamungus, a downtemp electronica record and subsequent group uPhonic Soundsystem, original Psych-Funk group, Deep Sea, picking up the heavyweight position of Jimmy Page in Led Zeppelin Tribute Living Loving Led, the short-lived improv dance band The Gyrations, the development of an album’s worth of new downtemp electronic tracks, which lead to stylistic and instrument flip and totally new musical direction.
In early 2024, feeling artistically frustrated, I logged off the computer and picked up my acoustic guitar, tuned it to an open tuning I knew from studying Jimmy Page, and began to just play. Embracing pure stream of consciousness, I just let my fingers do the talking. What emerged was a series of brand new, original compositions of a style and genre that I had only ever scratched the surface on. As the music presented itself, it was my job to focus on non-judgement. Don’t make it complicated for complication’s sake. Just allow it to be as it is. When the music is talking to you, best to not get in the way. Embrace, relax, and enjoy.