bluesreveler.weebly.com
Playing Since: 1985
Experience Level: Purty Good

Interests:
[Socializing]

Occupation: Private music instructor/Custodian extraordinaire

Gender: Male
Age: 48

My Instruments:
guitar, sax, mandolin, piano, hurdy gurdy, banjolin, penny whistle, and some other odds and ends

Favorite Bands/Musicians:
Sleepy John Estes, Yank Rachel, Gus Cannon, Elizabeth Cotten, The Chieftains, James Booker, The Dubliners, Willie Dixon, Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, Rev. Gary Davis, Doc Watson, Clarence Ashley, Roscoe Holcomb, Professor Longhair, Balazs Nagy, Jesse Henry, John Hurt, Willie McTell, Blind Boy Fuller

Classified Rating: not rated
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Profile Info:
Visible to: Public
Created 2/28/2012
Last Visit 4/25/2015

I've been in love with traditional music since the early 1990s, trying to copy the old blues guitar masters since I was 12 or 13 years old (Pre-WWII guitar blues is still what I do best). Before that, though, I studied saxophone pretty seriously and learned a lot of blues and jazz from Richard Schefdore, a local Toledo tenor player who worked with the Homewreckers and the Griswalds. I went to school at Bluffton College, OH to study classical saxophone and get my music education degree (teaching K-8 music provides my bread and butter). After undergrad, I took a brief foray into graduate-level ethnomusicology at Bowling Green State University, OH. As part of my course work I travelled to Ghana, West Africa and Bali, Indonesia and briefly studied the music and dance of those countries. Along the way I picked up mandolin and taught myself to read music on it. After learning a small repertoire of Chieftains pennywhistle tunes from the recordings, I began transfering them to the mandolin. Most recently, I've aquired a Hungarian hurdy gurdy (tekerolant) and 1920s mandolin-banjo. I've reduced the mandolin-banjo to a 4-string instrument for intonation purposes, which I guess would make it a banjolin (at least that's what I call it). I've started playing a lot of ragtime on both the mandolin and banjolin. I currently have a band, Blues Reveler, but we do such a wide array of music that we really shouldn't call ourselves by such a stylistically-limiting name. I'm taking a break to get to know my new son Michael Lawrence, though, so no gigs right now. I'm always interested in branching out, stylistically and instrumentally. My youtube screen name is blues reveler. Check out my stuff if you get a chance.