This page contains a few thoughts and links to some other Web pages relating to music, bands that I perform with, performers or recordings that I recommend, etc.
Rock City Band
I am the bass player for Rock City Band. Our current lineup is Brenda White on lead vocals, Colleen Desmond lead guitar and vocals, Daryl Desmond on guitars, keys and vocals, Charlie Sweeney drums, and me on bass. (more photos, schedule).
A few short clips with me on bass:
- Already Gone: recorded live in March, 2009, with me sitting in on bass, Charlie Sweeney (drums), Colleen Desmond (guitar and vocals), Daryl Desmond (guitar and vocals), and Brenda White (lead vocals). That's Daryl doing the guitar solo at the end of the clip.
- Authority Song and Hurts So Bad, recorded live at the Payson Park Music Festival in Belmont, MA, summer of 2010. Todd McLellan plays drums on these, and Karen Slusher sings lead on Hurts so Bad.
My equipment
I play an American Fender Precision Deluxe bass, which is basically a Fender Jazz bass with a Precision Bass neck pickup.
For gigs with Rock City I use an old SWR SM-400 amp along with a GK-400RB.
This particular SM-400 turns out to have been on tour for years
with John Garnache, who played with Jefferson Starship, and who used this amp while backing Ry Cooder.
I use the SWR in bridged mode, driving an Electrovoice EVX-155 driver in an old
Hartke 1x15 cabinet.
The high frequency feed from the SWR crossover goes into the GK-400, driving an SWR 2x10 to add some punch to the mids and highs.
At most clubs where there's dancing, we sweeten the bottom a bit by feeding the SWR direct output into the 18" cabinets in the house PA.
For smaller gigs I use just the 2x10, usually with the GK amp. One interesting twist is that for some reason this bass is unusually bright for a passive pickup bass, so I often wind up turning down the tone control on the bass, and also on the amps.
Some Interesting Musicians
Everyone knows the Beatles, Beethoven, and Vladimir Horowitz. Here's a list of some less well known performers and composers I like (in no particular order).
- Ivan Moravec: a really wonderful classical pianist.
- Gram Parsons: Yes, he's become a cult figure, but his harmony singing with Emmylou Harris was marvelous, his songwriting was good, and he created a style that's been hugely influential. Check out GP/Grievous Angel; Live is very rough, but the Love Hurts cut won a Grammy; Commemerativo is not the official tribute CD, but it's truer to his spirit.
- James Jamerson: Arguably the greatest pop bass player ever, Jamerson was the heart of the Motown Funk Brothers Rhythmn section. He was a key influence on Paul McCartney and on most all the great rock/pop bass players. If you play bass, you should absolutely get and work through Dr. Licks' terrific Standing in the Shadows of Motown. It's got top players like Will Lee doing Jamerson's parts, isolated in one channel, or pan to the other channel and play along. Careful note-for-note transcriptions and interesting background on Jamerson is provided in the accompanying book.
- Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson: was a wonderful blues & jazz sax player. I heard him live with Pinetop Perkins at a great show at the Bach, Dancing and Dynamite Society in Miramar in about 1979.
- Clarence White just about invented bluegrass lead guitar, a great country picker who played on the Byrd's Sweetheart Album and with the legendary Nashville West — a truly fine guitar player...and he invented the b-bender! He was hit and killed by a drunk driver while loading up up after a gig in 1973.
- James Burton: an absolutely spectacular country guitarist who can play many other styles too. From Ricky Nelson (Hello Mary Lou) to the lead position in Elvis' band for years, Jerry Lee Lewis, Merle Haggard (Lonesome Fugitive, Mama Tried), and eventually Elvis Costello, Burton has played with an astonishing collection of the best. After playing lead in the Elvis band, he got drafted by Gram Parsons for his pioneering country-rock albums GP and Greivous Angel (check out astonishing the Burton solo on Ooh Las Vegas). When Gram died, Emmylou Harris convinced Burton to anchor the Hot Band, which he did for a few years, and since then he's played with many others. That's him playing guitar on the Roy Orbison Black & White special that PBS shows at fundraising time. (biography, discography)
- More to come!