Here is the latest on what's happening. I released my debut CD - "A Walk Down Familiar Paths" This CD features 9 original songs all played on acoustic guitar, parlor guitar, slide guitar, dobro and mandolin. Unplugged and without bass and drums, these songs feature a wide variety of open tunings and organic melodies.
I was fortunate to work with Guitarist Neal Harris to record, mix and master the CD. He is an amazing musician, great friend and has a great pair of ears! Neal has worked with many great artists and engineered the Grammy nominated CD "The Water Garden" by Alex De Grassi. I was inspired by the great acoustic players like Alex De Grassi, Jerry Douglas, Leo Kottke, Ledward Kaapana and Keola Beamer when making this album. Buy and listen here!
The FJH Music Company released a new guitar method series that I helped edit. It's called "Everybody's Guitar Method 1" A Step by Step approach. This is a fantastic guitar series that features many helpful tools to help with your playing and note reading. Also check out the other series that I helped edit, "Young Beginner Guitar Method". This series includes 3 books: Lessons, Exploring Chords and a Performance Book. FJH offers many great teaching methods for both guitar and piano.
I composed music for the short film "The Cold War" written and directed by Arizona filmmaker Bill Henderson with cinematography by Jon Aliano ( Pixar Univeristy ) which was a finalist in the 97.3 Alice Radio Film Festival at Bimbo’s in San Francisco. "The Cold War" also recently won an Emmy Award at the Rocky Mountain Emmy Awards. The film played on television in Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, as well as parts of California and Wyoming.
The song "Lonely Side of Town" from "A Walk Down Familiar Paths" was placed in the film "Outside In", a documentary about the death penalty, filmed at San Quentin Prison. Directed by Bay Area Filmmakers Buff & Cynthia Whitman-Bradley. "Outside In" was part of the 2006 Oakland International Film Festival, this film contains Interviews with people who visit death row prisoners in California – a lawyer, a priest, two prison activist, two mothers, including one who visits the man who killed her daughter.
The song "Out to Pasture" from my CD "A Walk Down Familiar Paths" was included on a great compilation CD produced by the talented Susan Z for the Wine, Women and Song Organization, raising money for the the fight against breast cancer. It features many talented artists - Eric Martin, Susan Z, Austin Willacy, Christie McCarthy, Edie Carey and Victoria George and many others.
Available at SusanZ.com
I co-wrote and played on a song called "Heroine" with singer songwriter Sarah Eden Davis. The song was released on her new CD "Floodlight". Sarah is a really fantastic singer songwriter from San Francisco. She has had a contract with Virgin Records affiliate label Flood Records and has sang backing vocals on Italian pop star Zucchero's CD's. Sarah has worked with amazing producers like Corrado Rustici (Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Stevie Ray Vaughan, BB King, Sting, Andrea Bocelli). Her new CD is really fantastic!
Available at SarahEdenDavis.com
I finished composing music with my writing partner for a film called "Incubus" written and directed by talented Bay Area filmmaker Luigi Passalacqua .and directed by Jen Dombek. It's a remake of an old Italian short film made in 1969. “Incubus”- was screened at the Speak Easy Theater in Berkley for the 2008 San Francisco Women’s Film festival. This is a cool old movie theater established in 1937 that shows many feature films along with independent films.
I played acoustic Dobro on a fun children's CD called "Songs for Little Hands" This is part of a series of sigh language books called Sign , Sing and Play - written by Monta Briant with music composed by Susan Z and published by Hay House. Hay House publishes books, cds , newsletters and dvds for many authors such as - Suze Orman to Dr. Wayne Dyer. This is part of a baby sigh language kit that includes a book, flash cards and audio cd. also available as audio cd only. They are all available at Barnes & Noble, Borders Books & Music , Target and Amazon.com.
I recently finished sessions playing on two cd's for up and coming singer-songwriters. One was a pop - country artist in the style of Taylor Swift and Miranda Lambert, who writes great tunes that are very catchy and radio friendly. I produced the songs and played acoustic, electric and slide guitars. The other is a songwriter in the style of Bob Dylan and Hank Williams. I played acoustic , electric guitars along with dobro. I was honored to be on this cd with my friend Jerry Cortex the amazing guitarist for Tower of Power!
I have been working in my studio on my new all electric cd. I am really excited with how the new songs are coming along. I hope to have it done this spring . I have been working with an amazing rhthym section - drummer Jimmy Sage (Dave Edmonds, Lee Rocker) and bassist Rod Fordyce and Jon Alevizakis. Check out the first 3 songs from the upcoming cd on my music page "Farmers Daughter" "20 Years Gone" and "Song for Jeff"
Thanks to all of you who have bought or downloaded my CD, offered musical inspiration, help and advice in making the journey much more fun. I appreciate your support in helping keep the music alive in all of us. Thank you for listening!
In memory of my friend Steve "Agent" Bishop. Thank you for being a true friend, beautiful person and sharing your amazing talents, knowledge and music, it has truly been an inspiration!
Peace and Love~
Paul G.