About Me

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Atlanta, GA, United States
When I suffered a lip injury that ended my career as a classical trombonist, I thought my life as a musician was finished, but I fell in love with music all over again when Santa gave me a guitar for Christmas in 2003. Even as I was struggling with my first chords, I was planning a new performance career. As a trombonist, I performed with the Heritage of America Band at Langley Air Force Base, the Ohio Light Opera, and in pick-up bands for touring acts that included Rosemary Clooney, George Burns, and the Manhattan Transfer. Reborn as a jazz guitarist, I sing and play my own solo arrangements of jazz classics, am half of the Godfrey and Guy duo, and hold the guitar chair in the Sentimental Journey Orchestra. I have been a freelance music copyist since 1995, served as Director of Music at Northwest Unitarian Universalist Congregation from 2011 to 2017, and currently serve as Contemporary Band Director at the same congregation.

Friday, October 8, 2010

InTown Band Debut Album

I'm pleased to announce that InTown Band has released a self-titled debut mini-album of seven original songs!

A while back, we won an open mic contest at Earthshaking Music. The prize was two free hours in their recording studio. We originally went into the studio thinking that we would claim our two free hours, pay for two more, and record a good demo. We prepared seven songs and figured we would get 3-4 songs that we could use. The session went so well that we ended up recording all seven songs. If we had gone into the studio with the idea that we would lay down the tracks for a mini-album in one session, we probably couldn't have done it. We would have felt the pressure and been too uptight to make it happen. Instead, we had a blast recording. We were joking around, feeling loose, and having fun. We were quite surprised at the end of the session when we realized we had seven good tracks.

We describe our original music as Soul Fusion. It's a blend of rock, jazz, blues, reggae, soul, and whatever else we feel like throwing into the pot. Some of our music is written individually by Thomas Vinton or me. Many of our latest songs are co-written by the entire group. For example, I'm good at writing melodies and harmonies, but I'm not so hot at lyrics. I'll bring a new melody to the group and have the others write lyrics. That's how Cutesy Blues came about. On top of that, the group morphed Cutesy Blues from a cute little swing blues to a "funk blues" with more of an edge. Change Jar is another group song. I sent an email to Thomas Vinton about an idea for a song that would use the change jar as a metaphor. (See my blog about the Change Jar Principle.) He took my rambling email and crafted it into a lyric. Thomas also came up with the guitar lick you hear after the 2nd verse, and I wrote the bass and guitar riff that you hear from beginning to end. When Patricia arrived at rehearsal, we presented her the lyrics and told her to sing the lyrics and make up the melody as she went. That's how Change Jar came to life.

InTown Band is really excited about this first album. We continue to write more music, and we're planning on recording a full length album in the near future.

You can purchase the album by visiting InTown Band's website and clicking "Buy," going directly to CD Baby, or by searching for "InTown Band" at any number of download sites, including iTunes, Amazon MP3, Rhapsody, Zune, and many, many more.

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