music

Demos

  • Covers
    • Gospel

through-it-all - a Gospel/Contemporary Christian classic written by the incredible Andrae Crouch.  this is me on vocals doing a version that was covered by Wayne Watson.  this is just a soundtrack cassette on one track and my vocals on another … very little production.

  •  
    • 70s Pop/Rock

brandy - the 70s pop classic from Looking Glass.  again, this is a karaoke cd on one track and me singing on another.

saturday in the park - one of Chicago’s greatest hits of all time - once again, like most of these, this is a karaoke cd on one track and me singing on another.

  •  
    • Soul/R&B

easy - yep, “like sunday morning” - lionel ritchie, the commodores, and me.

what’s going on - the incredible song of the late great Mr. Marvin Gaye - i’m kinda proud of this one

  •  
    • Country

three wooden crosses - the most recent song on the list so far - a big hit for Randy Travis the last couple of years - my first attempt at a country demo

  • Originals

little-bird - the name of this song is actually “Like a Little Bird” and i wrote this when i was 15 years old.  this demo does not have great sound quality as it was recorded around 1990 on a 4-track Tascam reel-to-reel.  i recorded this file last week into the computer from an old cassette tape recording of that demo … so this is a third generation recording.  i’m playing the keyboard and bass parts on a Yamaha DX-7 and the rest of the instruments are covered by former bandmates of mine from Redemption’s Blade - a Christian Rock band i helped found in Colorado Springs back in 1987 - those folks consisted of Greg Morgan on Guitar, T. J. Chambless on drums, and Dale Douglas on background vocals.  Ron Hirsch served as recording engineer on this in his basement studio.

mike-post-wannabes - an original instrumental, this cut started out as an experiment in 1987 on my very first professional synth, the Ensoniq ESQ1 - this synth was one of the first to feature sampled sounds and a built-in sequencer.  i’m playing every instrument you hear except for drums and guitar … i recorded somewhere between 4-6 tracks on the synth itself and then took it to Greg Morgan’s basement.  we then synced it up with a Boss TR-505 and recorded the drum machine to one track of a 4-track Tascam reel-to-reel, the keyboard parts to another track, and then Greg recorded a couple of tracks of guitar.  i call it Mike Post Wannabes because i think it sounds like something that venerable composer of TV themes might have produced back in the 80s.  like Little Bird above it, this is a third-generation recording from reel-to-reel to cassette and then into the computer.

  • my music background

i’ve been singing since i was about 4 years old … took voice lessons in high school and college.  i started playing piano when i was 5.5 years old … took lessons for a couple of years.  i started on drums when i was 10 years old … played in middle school band for one year as snare drummer.  i started on trumpet the next year and played in two middle school bands until i was 14 and got braces … i then returned to my first love, the piano.

i borrowed a guitar from a friend sometime during the years 2000/2001 and have been playing almost every day since then. 

i’ve been writing songs since i was 14 and was awarded a special award while in the US Army for Original Music and Lyric composition while competing in the All-Army talent show.  i was named 1st-alternate to the All Army Talent show that tours the states every year, two years in a row after winning the shows on my local posts.  while serving in Korea, i was named all-Korea and all-Pacific and was allowed to participate in a 30-day USO tour with other musicians that culminated in our being broadcast on Armed Forces Television on July 4, 1986 in a show called “Tour De Force”.

equipment i’m currently using includes :

  • a Dell vostro 1000 laptop with AMD AthlonX2 processor running WinXP
  • Steinberg Cubase LE4
  • a few software-based synths
  • a small (49 keys) m-Audio MIDI controller
  • a Tascam U122L interface so the instruments can talk to the computer and vice versa
  • Samson C01 studio large diaphragm condenser mic
  • Ibanez Talman TM71T semi-hollowbody guitar with Bigsby-style tremolo
  • Ibanez Artcore AGS83BATF semi-hollowbody with stop tailpiece

stuff i hope to buy soon:

  • a new trumpet
  • a really good keyboard/synth/controller - these things are NOT cheap!
  • a melodica - one with MIDI capabilities
  • percussion - all of it … a drum set of course, but mostly i want timbales, congas, guiro, tambourine, and all manner of stuff i can hit and make beats with.