Christmas in April?

Why not!

I ordered two more pedals from Caline Technology (via Amazon) and received each a day apart. Keeps me busy.

First up is the Eagle Eye Boost. I’ve had my eye (no pun intended) on this pedal since January, watching demo videos online. Kept thinking “I already have the Killer Shark boost but this one looks interesting.” I was right (for once!) This pedal is very transparent, doesn’t muddy up the tones. The Mode button is a great feature, as it has six different settings so you can attenuate things to whatever room you are in. I found the fifth and sixth settings work best, they really beef things up.

Now I can sound more metal 😉

The second piece is the Green Mamba overdrive. Okay I admit this pedal looks friggin’ cool as hell! Again, checked out demo clips and everyone compared it to the Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer (and that’s a great pedal too). So of course once this landed at my doorstep, I ripped the envelope open with much vigor and aplomb.

And my cats looked at me funny.

The GM pedal sounds very cool too which is always a plus. I had the Drive at zero and it still sounded awesome….HUH?! What pedal sounds great at ZERO?! With a clean tone, I achieved a nice bluesy tone, and I’m the world’s worst blues player. When it’s engaged with overdrive, it really adds a bit more hair, and I have a good amount of hair to begin with.

Safe to say that Caline has REALLY impressed me with their pedals. I hope they make a switchless wah and phaser soon.

Yes, those are hints.

April has been an interesting month and it’s only the first couple of weeks!

This year feels like one long Monday as well.

Full moon…surprise earthquake…solar eclipse…anything else?

Oh yeah, Facebook being all stupid and taking down everyone’s posts about the ISSA voting poll. Apparently the link that we all shared goes against community standards because of the word “vote”. I am not kidding. Yet others can post fake stuff and get away with it.

Someone explain this world to me.

At first I thought I was being sabotaged (not the first time) but when other artists said “My post is gone”, Tamanie Dove looked into it. Yes, the wording had to be changed so as not to be removed. Free speech is not free, people. Unless you pepper your posts with hate and rhetoric. So now the link can be posted again WITHOUT the word “Vote” in it.

ISSA VOTING POLL (I can say the word here HA!)

Oh I forgot Mercury is in Gatorade too.

At least my car passed inspection.

A couple of years ago, my album MOOD SWINGS was up for Male Album of the Year, and “Never Be The Sane” was up for Male Single. The single didn’t advance to the finals, which was cool. The album did, which shocked everyone including me. It didn’t win, and that’s okay. As I always say, being acknowledged is already a win.

Wash rinse repeat.

Now the album ACT NATURAL is in the running as well as the single “Walk Through Lightning”. Voting polls are open now until midnight April 30. After that, ISSA founder Tamanie Dove will announce those who will advance to the finals. And from there…who knows! But your vote counts, so hit this link and follow all the directions carefully:

ISSA Voting

And I will keep saying that being nominated is already a nice feather in my cap.

Now GO VOTE!!!!

I was always a “go with the flow” person, which doesn’t sit too well with others. Some prefer to fly by the seat of their pants. Others are very calculating and cunning. I’m neither.

Which explains why I am seen as “quirky” and “eccentric” to some.

Fine with me.

Anyway, I recorded some ambient tracks last year, didn’t put too much thought into them outside of “Well these are nice” and let them simmer on the sidelines. But my world is changing, my heart is pulling me elsewhere. Will I go back to heavier music? Am sure of that. For now, I am going with the flow, whether you agree with it or not.

I released “Strangers Again” last month and reception for that was better than my last album! That to me spoke volumes. I get that as we age, we tend to mellow. I really don’t want to go down the Yanni path (no disrespect to him) and be this new age type musician. If that’s going to be my path, even if temporary, then I will follow it. No sense fighting things.

I’ve been distancing myself from the “scene” around here, as I was never truly welcomed. Reminds me of being back in high school where I wasn’t cool/metal enough or whatever. I still love heavy music, but when it doesn’t love back, what do I do? I go where the muse takes me. If I’m going to be excluded, I may as well do it myself so I don’t feel like “Wow, nobody wants me around.”

Hence this new piece called “God’s Camera” (title inspired by the famous photo from NASA that I think is called “Eye Of God”). I’m not religious by any means, but I do believe in the Big Guy Upstairs. I wrote and recorded this piece on September 14 last year, a few days before my newest album came out. Which, right there, should tell you something.

It spoke to me VERY loud and clear.

And to add more shock and awe, I “played” synth pads for the first time ever. I have had others help me with that on previous works. But after I recorded this, I shelved it. Brought it back out of hiding, and thought “It needs something…but what?” I found synth patches on BandLab, then came across “choir” sounds. Hey, it worked, right? I’m no Keith Emerson (even though we shared the same birthday) but my hunt-and-peck playing did the trick.

I hope you all get to check the song out on the MUSIC page here or Bandcamp. It should be on other streaming sites soon.

I may or may not have one more tune like this up my sleeve…

I’m not saying goodbye to metal, just the gatekeepers.

In a world on internet hoaxes, I had to really make sure this was true.

Sadly it is.

We lost TM Stevens Sunday night at the age of 72. He was without question the best bass player that I ever played with. We didn’t do many shows but the ones we did were thrilling and magical.

He had been battling dementia since 2017 and had heard various stories from people such as Vernon Reid and TC Tolliver about their visits to the hospital. Dementia is cruel, without a doubt.

I really have nothing else to say at this moment except “Thank you for the memories” and RIP TM…

Two gigs with two different cover band over two weekends. That’s a world tour for me. In the words of TM Stevens, “Gotta put mustard on that hot dog!”

I prefer ketchup.

Last Saturday I sat in with Supernova at Sparta Lanes. Yes, a bowling alley! Let me tell you (because it’s my blog) that it was SUPER fun! Never did I expect things to sound good at a bowling alley but it sounded HUGE. Always a blast playing with Tony, Chris, and Mike, doing songs ranging from The Beatles to Billy Idol, even chucked in some Van Halen (I broke my “no Eruption” rule LOL). And we didn’t do “Chicken Fried” 🙂 Was interesting hearing the sound of pins being knocked down as we played. Hey, there’s a first for everything!

Last night (Friday March 8), Rock Hard returned to Bardi’s. We played there back in September and it was cool, but this time it was OFF THE WALL! Everything sounded full, the crowd were really into it, and no requests for “Free Bird” (though one guy asked me to do Slayer…one day…) Even though it was our third show, it sounded pretty polished and yet teetered on anything can happen in an instant. Playing with Tom, Alana and James is always a treat, and we ripped through songs by Motorhead, Led Zeppelin, Bush, AC/DC and my fave Living Colour. Added White Zombie and Jimi Hendrix to the list (Alana freaked that I played guitar with my teeth).

Come to think of it, I played my third show with Supernova too. Third time really is the charm.

Now I can decompress after feeling like a guitar god for two shows 🙂

A picture of Rush? Why not!

I am typing this on a Saturday morning, so you won’t see this until either Sunday or Monday, depending on how I schedule it. No matter how many bands/artists influenced me over the years, if there’s one band that really made a severe dent in my skull, it’s the power trio from Canada.

As I sit here listening to HEMISPHERES with my headphones on, I am always reminded of what compelled me to be the guitarist/musician that I became. And if there’s one thing the late great Neil Peart said in an interview: “Compromise is not a word in my dictionary” (or something to that effect).

As a pre-teen, I was grooving to my Atari video games as well as bands like Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Queen, Cheap Trick, Kiss and Bay City Rollers (no shame here, not one to act “too cool for school” because I will never be cool). I don’t miss my youth at all but I have those fleeting moments of nostalgia where for a brief period, it was cool to be a kid. Almost.

I heard this strange noise come through my radio after hearing (and taping) Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” on WNEW. What is this?! I listened a bit more…and was sucked in. At the end of it, the DJ said, “That was brand new Rush from the album MOVING PICTURES called ‘Tom Sawyer’.” My 11-year-old brain couldn’t process this sci-fi sound. I had to have more of this!

I bought MP on cassette and my world changed. And I wasn’t even really learning guitar (that’s where Jimi Hendrix and Ritchie Blackmore came in a year later). I was fixated on this band, this sound. I was teased for liking them (and other bands…life in North Arlington sucked). When I really focused on learning guitar, after figuring out Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and The Cars “Drive”, I had to tackle Rush songs.

There’s no such thing as an easy Rush song.

I learned about time signatures and funny chords as if the band invented them. I had to be a great musician. NO COMPROMISE! Yes, I honestly convinced myself in my halcyon days that if I wasn’t a great guitarist, nobody would like me.

Oh I was so wrong there.

Here I am many years later, still with the same perfectionism and undying appetite to grow as a musician. Others are content with “This is what I know, so leave me alone” but not me. You can thank or blame Rush for who/how/why I am the way I am. I still get excited hearing them, whether it’s “La Villa Strangiato” or “Time Stand Still”, or a deep cut like “Alien Shore”.

Now to crank that F#7add11 chord…

It’s been six months since the release of my latest cd ACT NATURAL. Buzz for it started off kinda strange. Peoples’ reaction to the first video, the title track, varied from “Wow this is cool” to “This is f—-n’ weird!” (No weirder than a Tool or Mr. Bungle video!) Radio stations warmed up to the music, and then interest seemingly dropped off. Magazines didn’t respond to emails for interviews, and those who did gave me the runaround.

I am just going to be honest here…

This album, compared to the others I released in the past, was met with such a tepid reception. I chalk it up to something not connecting with the public. Also when people are hyper-fixated on Taylor Swift’s next move, or that suddenly “Mick Mars is Motley Crue” (nobody cared for years), chances of my music being noticed were slim to none.

I simply lost the heart after a while. I stopped talking about the album. Others did too. Hey it was bound to happen. We live in a very nostalgic age and that’s scary. Old bands put out new albums, there’s excitement for a couple of weeks, and then the subject changes. New bands are trying to look and sound retro, raiding their mom’s closets and being nostalgic for a decade where they weren’t even a thought in their parents’ eyes.

Just being honest here.

So what do I do?

I know…remaster and re-release the first two albums because people have been asking me for years “When are we going to hear the old stuff?” So I did, and was met with…crickets.

I get the hint, really. I’m not what some people want to hear. This is not a pity party, this is fact. I will not stop writing music though. I won’t change my stripes either for public acceptance. MOOD SWINGS connected with people, whereas ACT NATURAL didn’t. And of course some will say “If you only had a singer…” I can’t work with singers, and they don’t like me either, so we’re even.

So what else do I do?

I help out cover bands who need a fill-in guitarist. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. I was in a cover band from 2013-2017 that shall remain nameless (plus they want you to forget I played with them too). I figured NO MORE! But then I helped out Naked Glory for a short time, and get asked by the band Supernova to pinch hit. I have been enjoying time with Rock Hard, as everyone are really cool, and I’m playing songs that are equally as cool. If this is my new path, along with being a teacher, fine with me.

Without a guitar in my hands, I’m pretty f—-n’ boring.