Getting Started in Nashville
So you just moved to Nashville, you're a good solid player with a good attitude and excited to begin working. You don't care about being a superstar, you just want to play music with others but you are quickly learning that this can be hard to do. You are having ...
I Found My Bus Driver on Match.com
It was almost midnight on a Friday in late September, 2006 when I pulled up to the bus near Opryland in Nashville, TN. The Longbranch saloon in Raleigh, North Carolina would be the destination for Rhett Akins and band, and this ten hour - 540 mile trip would be a ...
Train Wreck at Tootsies and a New Beginning
During the summer of 2002 I was aggressively exploring the live music scene of Nashville. Upon the recommendation of my friend, D, I was regularly making the rounds at clubs on Broadway, Printers Alley, and other spots around the city to better understand the scene, and to begin building the ...
April 19, 2012 | 
Author Some of my earliest childhood memories are of my dad playing records and, dare I say, reel to reel tapes of the music of Paul Butterfield, John Lee Hooker, Santana, and Derek and the Dominoes. I guess this music made an impression, because by my early teens in the early 1980’s I was buying my own records, not of the pop-based FM radio music of my generation, but of the previous generations more blues-based artists. While everyone else was listening to E.L.O. and Michael Jackson, I was discovering Jimi Hendrix, the Allman Brothers, BB King and Bobby Bland. Sure, I liked some of the 80’s guitar rock of the day, but always kept digging back to a more rootsy sound. Then right smack in the middle of 80’s hair band mania came Stevie Ray Vaughan, and I immediately related to his music.
Posted in Music | 
Tags: Allman Brothers, Austin, Berklee, blues, Country Music, Fillin' Station, gigging, guitar playing, inspiration, jam, Little Wing, Music, music business, musician, Nashville, Nashville Musician's Survival Guide, nightclub, recording industry, records, Stevie Ray Vaughan, studio, touring | 
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Our second “Nashville Berklee Jam” at The Fillin’ Station in Kingston Springs this past Tuesday was a great success! The guest speaker on this night was none other than Nashville’s award-winning vocal coach, Judy Rodman. Judy has played many a role in the Nashville music industry 
over the years – recording artist, A-list session singer, producer, hit songwriter – and on this night her talk focused on different career paths for vocalists. Judy was involved in the writing of my book “The Nashville Musician’s Survival Guide” and, backing up my theory of the necessity to “wear a lot of hats”, she talked about multiple streams of income for today’s musicians and artists. Among the potential jobs for vocalists she outlined were artists, live singers, and session singers (jingle singers, background vocals, demo singing, and voiceovers).
Posted in Nasville Berklee Jams | Tags: Artist, Background Singer, Berklee, Berklee Alumni, Berklee College of Music, Community, entertainer, Fillin' Station, gigging, inspiration, jam, Judy Rodman, Leann Rimes, Music, music business, musician, Nashville, Nashville Musician's Survival Guide, Nashville Number System, networking, nightclub, Recording Artist, recording industry, Session Singer, singing, Songwriter, studio, touring, vocal coach, Vocalist | No Comments »
Last night’s “First Tuesday of the Month Nashville Berklee Jam” was a huge success! The otherwise quiet Nashville suburb of Kingston Springs came alive as the alums began filtering into The Fillin’ Station for this night of camaraderie and music.
Posted in Networking | Tags: alumni, Berklee, blues, entertainer, inspiration, jam, Music, music business, musician, Nashville Musician's Survival Guide, networking, nightclub, Songwriter | No Comments »
I hope everybody is having a great winter so far and that 2012 will be a great year for us all. February is looking to be a busy month for me and I would like to tell you about some of these gigs and events.
Posted in Newsletters | Tags: blues, business, Concert, gigging, guitar playing, guitar tech, Music, music business, musician, Nashville, Nashville Musician's Survival Guide, nightclub | No Comments »
Have you ever played a gig that seemed to go on forever? I’m not talking about your typical three to four hour bar band performance that occasionally might drag a little in the middle, or some uninspired club gig full of “T n’ A” (tables and ashtrays). No, I’m talking about a gig that goes on for hours and hours, eight hours to be exact, by the end of which you felt like you aged 10 years. A few years back I did a few gigs like this, and lived to tell about it.
It was a warm summer afternoon in a small town in southern New Hampshire, back in the summer of ’79, and it had finally arrived. Summer vacation had just begun, and for this group of friends gathered around the family pool, the air was ripe with the kind of optimism and mystery that only a teenager can have – you know, that “anything can happen” feeling that occupies the youthful soul. Staring at the pool in cheerful content, they basked in the warmth of the sun while listening to the “Woodstock” soundtrack booming out a bedroom window. The youngest in this pack, a 
couple of eleven year old boys who were a few months away from starting junior high, seemed more than intrigued by some of these “new” electric sounds permeating this virgin summer air.
Posted in Inpirational | Tags: blues, Guitar, guitar playing, inspiration, Jimi Hendrix, John Lee Hooker, Music, musician, New England, New Hampshire, records, Santana, Spirituality, vinyl, Woodstock | 2 Comments »
Berklee is alive and well in Nashville! On Monday, November 7 we had our first “New to Nashville” Berklee alumni reception at the NSAI studio on Music Row, and the event was a huge success. Upon the suggestion of Berklee Alumni Affairs Officer, Karen Bell, I put this event together to welcome alum’s who recently relocated to Nashville.
Posted in music business | Tags: alumni, Berklee, Berklee College of Music, Broadway, gigging, Music, music business, musician, Nashville, Nashville Musician's Survival Guide, networking, nightclub, Rhett Akins, Songwriting, touring | 1 Comment »
Whether you are a longtime veteran of your local music scene, a recent music school graduate, a hired gun working for a national act, or an aspiring independent artist, you all have something in common – that being a life centered around music. This life of music will lead you into many different performance situations. Like many of my musician friends, I have found myself in a plethora of musical situations over the years; including top 40 bands, rock bands, blues bands, national acts, and start-up original projects, to name a few. I’ve played at festivals, mud bogs, weddings, frat parties, blues jams, jazz jams, open mics, on the Grand Ole Opry, and of course, in nightclubs and bars, the latter being be the arena in which I have probably performed the most.
Have you ever experienced hand or arm pain, or pain in your joints when playing a musical instrument? Perhaps you experience this pain while working at a computer or a mixing console? How about weakness or numbness in your hands or fingers? If you have, or do experience any of these symptoms on a regular basis you are not alone, you, like me, are one of many who live with repetitive motion injuries.
Posted in Musician's Corner - Performance Tips & Advice | Tags: arm pain, carpal tunnel, Country Music, entertainer, gigging, guitar playing, guitar tech, health and wellness, inflamation, musician, Nashville, Nashville Musician's Survival Guide, repetitive motion injuries, repetitive motion injury, self improvment, tendinitis, tendonitis, Toby Keith, wrist pain, yoga | 1 Comment »
With my new book “The Nashville Musician’s Survival Guide” finally being out into the world, I’m starting to get my life back again. And going out on the town to network and check out the scene a little more often has now become a little more practical.
Posted in Book Progress | Tags: blues, Country Music, gigging, inspiration, Music, music business, musician, Nashville, Nashville Musician's Survival Guide, networking, nightclub, Tennessee | No Comments »