Musical Influences - The early years.....
Well, I guess I started playing guitar when I was eleven years old way back in 1971 up in Manchester, Maine. The influences back then were the Palmer brothers who lived a few houses away. Four of the five brothers were my age and older and all of them played music at that time. David was the oldest and he sold me my first electric guitar which was a round body banjo looking thing (I should have known then that I would be heading towards Bluegrass - but that doesn't start until about twenty years later). The next younger brother was Steve and he and his buddy Bruce Crothers (RIP) were the ones to follow, they were the best musicians most of us knew. Steve also played the bass. The next younger brother, and still a couple years older than I, was Kelly who had a strong foundation and aspired to be like his older brother Steve who would be passing down the knowledge as fast as Kelly could learn it. The next younger brother was Chris and were were buddies and the same age. Chris played the drums and together they had the makings of a family band. When I finally got a guitar Kelly would teach me all the rhythm parts so he could practice the leads that Steve was teaching him. I had stepped into the role of "Rhythm Mule" which is still pretty much what I do best today, and because of that I am fortunate to be able to work with a lot of talented musicians who can do all the fancy stuff while I hold it together.
The primary influences in the beginning and the next couple of decades were: The Allman Brothers - The Beatles - Bob Dylan - Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young - The Doobie Brothers - Eric Clapton - Jackson Brown - James Taylor - Jonathan Edwards -The Eagles - Neil Young (the Harvest Album just came out when I got my first guitar - that's pretty scarey!! ) - Little Feat - Santana - Steely Dan - Van Morrison.
I think the photo of the youth me is circa 1973 and I am playing my pride and joy at the time, a Ventura Les Paul copy which I have plugged into the home stereo - boy I hope I didn't mess up the 8-track Tape player by doing that! Those things are priceless now... or do I mean worthless?
The picture below is first real band I played rhythm guitar in, "The Distance" with (pictured left to right) Kelly Palmer - lead guitar, Vinny Lord - bass and vocals, Chris Palmer - drums, Terrie Key - vocals, and me. The horse had no name. This was an awesome garage band breakout and we played the Central Maine area in the late 1980's and early 1990's and had tons of fun!!
The primary influences in the beginning and the next couple of decades were: The Allman Brothers - The Beatles - Bob Dylan - Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young - The Doobie Brothers - Eric Clapton - Jackson Brown - James Taylor - Jonathan Edwards -The Eagles - Neil Young (the Harvest Album just came out when I got my first guitar - that's pretty scarey!! ) - Little Feat - Santana - Steely Dan - Van Morrison.
I think the photo of the youth me is circa 1973 and I am playing my pride and joy at the time, a Ventura Les Paul copy which I have plugged into the home stereo - boy I hope I didn't mess up the 8-track Tape player by doing that! Those things are priceless now... or do I mean worthless?
The picture below is first real band I played rhythm guitar in, "The Distance" with (pictured left to right) Kelly Palmer - lead guitar, Vinny Lord - bass and vocals, Chris Palmer - drums, Terrie Key - vocals, and me. The horse had no name. This was an awesome garage band breakout and we played the Central Maine area in the late 1980's and early 1990's and had tons of fun!!
Musical Influences - Later on - A change of course - A meld with the past
After "The Distance" I was between bands and kind of directionless and a friend at work said to me, "Why don't you try playing guitar with my brother, he plays banjo?" When I got done laughing I told him I would like to meet him. That guy was Jeff Folger and he introduced me to Bluegrass Music and I gotta tell you I was hooked. Jeff was friends with an old timer named Hank Wilkey (RIP) and he and I would drive out to Mount Vernon, Maine from Augusta in snow storms to pick with Hank. Hank would answer the door as an old man and within a few songs his face would be lit up like a little kid and his whole posture would change. Hank lived for the music - literally - he could play any bluegrass instrument - and he took the role of mentor to teach us how the traditional music was played. Jeff, Hank, and I had a little trio together for a while called "Hornbeam Hollow".
In the spring I went to my first festival called "Blistered Fingers" and it was there that I met several of the people that I would start this new musical adventure with, and still continue to festival with today whenever possible. For the next several years there weren't many festivals in New England that I missed.
The local musical influences of this new era were: The Good Clean Fill Band (Terry Spearrin, Bernie Staples, Randy Holden, Mike O'Brien), Jimmy Chard (my next musical mentor through the mid-nineties), Doug Millett (a local musician and songwriter enjoying a successful career in Nashville). The national influences were: Alison Krauss, Bill Monroe, The Stanley Brothers, Tim O'Brien, The Seldom Scene, The Lonesome River Band, Old And In The Way, Johnny Cash, Hal Ketchum, Tony Rice, The Bluegrass Album Band, Ricky Skaggs, Sam Bush, Peter Rowan, Emmylou Harris, Garcia / Grisman, Del McCoury, Norman Blake.
The photo is of my guitar "Big Mo" for Mojo. All those years of festivals and going to Nashville a couple of times allowed me to meet some of my heros. Check out the "Big Mo" spread below and see how many autographs you can recognize. If you click on any of the pictures in any of the photo albums they will enlarge and as I have time I will add comments that can be viewed when opened.
In the spring I went to my first festival called "Blistered Fingers" and it was there that I met several of the people that I would start this new musical adventure with, and still continue to festival with today whenever possible. For the next several years there weren't many festivals in New England that I missed.
The local musical influences of this new era were: The Good Clean Fill Band (Terry Spearrin, Bernie Staples, Randy Holden, Mike O'Brien), Jimmy Chard (my next musical mentor through the mid-nineties), Doug Millett (a local musician and songwriter enjoying a successful career in Nashville). The national influences were: Alison Krauss, Bill Monroe, The Stanley Brothers, Tim O'Brien, The Seldom Scene, The Lonesome River Band, Old And In The Way, Johnny Cash, Hal Ketchum, Tony Rice, The Bluegrass Album Band, Ricky Skaggs, Sam Bush, Peter Rowan, Emmylou Harris, Garcia / Grisman, Del McCoury, Norman Blake.
The photo is of my guitar "Big Mo" for Mojo. All those years of festivals and going to Nashville a couple of times allowed me to meet some of my heros. Check out the "Big Mo" spread below and see how many autographs you can recognize. If you click on any of the pictures in any of the photo albums they will enlarge and as I have time I will add comments that can be viewed when opened.
Two More For The Road
I met Jimmy Chard in the early ninties at the first Bluegrass Festival I went to and before I knew it we were taking turns on the one hour drive between Belgrade and Brunswick to get together and play music. Our voices worked real well together and I was the ryhthm mule and Jim would play great bluegrass instrumentals on the guitar and the mandolin. Jimmy and I had a common background with Jonathan Edwards and Bob Dylan tunes but he held the key to the obscure and eclectic bluegrass repertoire that would become our trademark for the next few years as we formed the guitar - mandolin duo called "Two More Fore The Road". It didn't take long before I gave up my rental and chose to rent a room at Jimmy's so we could practice more. We would play twenty to thirty hours a week in a real rural environment in Brunswick Maine for the next couple of years without the distractions of television or much other media except for musical instruments. I grew more musically in these two years than I had in the previous twenty. Jimmy and I were both writing a bunch of tunes during this time so it was common place to be sitting around the table and say,"checkout the song I just wrote" and the harmonies would be in place before it was sung through the first time. We played a lot of gigs in Central Maine and headlined a couple of small Bluegrass Festivals in the area. We had a tremendous amount of great and talented friends in the music community who we called upon when it came time to attempt a recording. Three of the songs from this "Two More From The Road" effort are in my Original Music Showcase on this site, so if you want to go back in time check out ("Your The Only One I'm Thinking Of", "For More Than a Song" and "Follow Your Dreams" - a co-write with Jimmy Chard).
The picture is from when Jimmy hired up a limo to go from Brunswick ME to Jaffery NH to pick up his new mandolin when Jack O'Brien had finished the handmade instrument he had waited two years for.
The picture is from when Jimmy hired up a limo to go from Brunswick ME to Jaffery NH to pick up his new mandolin when Jack O'Brien had finished the handmade instrument he had waited two years for.
The Rosenthornes
In the mid-nineties I moved to the Portsmouth area of New Hampshire chasing work and found some great new friends and musicians. For six of those years I was in a folk band called the Rosenthornes with Chuck, and Lynne Weston, and Richard Thyng. We would practice every week and then when we had a gig coming up we would practice some more for that. Our chops and vocals were pretty polished. We got the name because Lynne has red hair so she was the "Rose", and Chuck and Richard and I were the "Thornes". If we ever played music without her we called ourselves "The Thornes".
Those six years were some very special times for me and we played some great music. Lynne actually contributed verses / co-wrote a couple of my tunes with me (Verse 2 in "Get Off My Track", and Verse 2 in "I Will Remember You", and the vocally emphasized walking line in "From Across The Room") You can find two out of three of these songs in the Original Song Showcase on this website.
Those six years were some very special times for me and we played some great music. Lynne actually contributed verses / co-wrote a couple of my tunes with me (Verse 2 in "Get Off My Track", and Verse 2 in "I Will Remember You", and the vocally emphasized walking line in "From Across The Room") You can find two out of three of these songs in the Original Song Showcase on this website.