For those of you who aren't familiar with my history, prior to my career in finance I was a musician. I began playing guitar at age 12. When I was about 15 (1967) I joined a band called the "Patch of Blue." I was their lead singer and we did the pop tunes of the day at high school dances and Sweet Sixteens. About 2 years later I joined up with my good friends Don Cook and Hugh Fisher and we started writing our own original material. We sounded like a cross between Crosby Stills and Nash and Simon and Garfunkle. We added a fourth, David Kalpakis, and the harmonies began to get fuller and more complicated. Years later I decided to get a formal education in music. I spent a couple of years studying harmony and composition with Ovid Avarma at Dawson College in Montreal. I took up flute, bass guitar and I learned a little keyboard.
As often happens with young artists
and musicians life got in the way, children were born and bills had to
get paid. So I left my foolish notions of stardom behind and joined the
ranks of the middle class. As I got older I felt that if I couldn't make
a living playing and writing pop tunes I could a least leave a record of
my efforts. So that's what this is all about. I'm going to post a mix of
originals and cover tunes that I recorded myself for anyone who's interested.
For the time being the only musician playing and singing on these cuts
is me. To find out how I put together the arrangements and my recording
techniques, see below.
Here's a picture of my kids
The older two Brent and Caitlin have been hinting that I'm getting
a little too mellow in my old age. "Dad, do some Rock n Roll" they suggest.
So to stop their whining here's a really raw, not too mixed at all, version
of Roll Over Beethoven
done with the help of 2 of my jam buddies, (shown towards the bottom of
this page) Norma Abbott and Murray Britstone.
I wasn't completely happy
with some of the midi files in this next one. Also I threw in an electric
guitar here and there when there was never one on the original. But I figured
if I was going to wait until I was completely satifisfied with the arrangement
I'd never post the damn thing! So here's my version of Cole Porter's memorable
tune I've Got You Under
My Skin. Cole wrote this in 1936 but it wasn't until 1956
that Frank Sinatra actually recorded it.
In the Early seventies
Don, Hughie, David and I played a lot of Crosby Stills and Nash Tunes. We would just take out a couple of acoustic guitars and we'd harmonize to "Suite Judy Blue Eyes" or Helplessly Hoping. We played this one quite a bit and our fans appreciated it. This version features just 3 part harmony and a single acoustic guitar.
This is the band I played with back in 1977 when I still had hair. I'm the bass player on the far right.
Ever since I was a kid and learned the words to Elvis Presley's "Are you Lonesome Tonight?" I wanted to be a singer. When I was 7 I got my 2 foster sisters to act out back-up harmony while I crooned out Elvis' ballad. At 14 I was lead singer with a neighborhood band called "A Patch of Blue." I picked up the guitar when I was about 16 and soon began writing my own material with the help of my good friend and collaborator Don Cook. From 1968 to about 1972 Don and I wrote and played together, mostly acoustic guitar duets. Around '69 Hughie joined the group as our bass guitarist and vocalist. Finally in the early 70's we added David Kalpakis and formed a band that would later be called Family Friends and Future, this phrase taken from a song I had written. Many "interesting" (in the Chinese sense of the term) things happened to me during this period and I hope to set them all down one day .
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