About a month ago, I got a lovely email from a gentleman “Les”, from London. He plays bass in a pub band and very respectfully asked me for permission to cover “Gutbucket”, a song I wrote in November of 1993, and was the opening track to The Shuffling Hungarians first recording, released in November of…
In the spring of 1994, my friend and production partner Bob Acquaviva started to assemble painstakingly the aural physical reality of a blueprint that was in the design process for three years, and mostly contained in my twisted brain. We had completed basic tracks in February over a seven day period, including minor fixes to…
When you decide to play music as a career, other than the fact that you have to be a little crazy to make that a life choice in the first place, you also quickly find out a few truths about that quest. And some truths take time to develop, but they always lead you to…
I was working on yesterday’s DOSE and crashed my creative bus into a tree. That’s a little melodramatic, but the metaphor serves my current purpose. Although crafting these daily injections has thus far been unexpectedly time consuming, they’ve also been fun to create. They flowed pretty freely out of me, without too much intellectual over-baking…
The very real denizens who actually actively participate in my invented and imaginary world (That would be the mythic land of “Hungaria”, to the un-initiated) often ask me: “When did you know that you wanted to be a professional musician?” Although I can accurately pin-point the exact moment that I decided, I haven’t really shared…
I’m getting ready to pack the gear up in the car and head out to a rehearsal. But this isn’t your run of the mill rehearsal. It’s with the Dean Brothers, my very early childhood heroes. I grew up in a very small town called Skaneateles, NY. Skaneateles has a little village, but its surrounded…
When you set personal goals for yourself, you have to identify just how high the bar has been raised in your chosen field. This is why we have “heroes”, or “influences”… however you want to define role models, or more specifically, the output of your role models. I love Bobby Darin, but if I’m looking…
ROADKILL I drove a friend down to New York City yesterday, and drove back home alone today, Memorial Day, 2011. From Syracuse,NY, its a quick shot to the eastside of Manhattan. 81 south to Binghamton, 17 east through the southern mountain regions of the state including a portion of the Catskills and the Hudson Valley,…
There are highs and lows in life. There’s Euphoria and Utter Devastation, and the sine wave shaped path between them. Most folks will tell you that the the key to life is balance, and some kind of middle position. I find consistency, and the need to achieve it, rather banal. Aiming straight for the middle…