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- Instrumental
I picked up the guitar at 20 years old, and taught myself to play, as a means to work through the pains of living. Best decision of my life. It continues to satisfy that need to this day
My influences are diverse and my teachers varied, making my sound unique, but the comments I hear include phrases like "spanish", "percussive", "classical", "medieval times". Rodrigo y Gabriela and Andy McKee are the kind of styles I relate to, but I have my own atmosphere. One of the best compliments paid to me after a performance was "Your music calms my demons."
Wordless, my songs are about however they make you feel while you listen to them.
I play for the chemo ward of a hospital in Philly a lot, so I find myself carrying my guitar to and fro as I walk to my friends' apartment, to the train, all around, so I have frequent spontaneous jam sessions with strangers on the street. One had a dog I was petting before I realized he had a guitar with him, and we ended up playing for a good hour or so, another time someone put down their guitar and started singing improvised lyrics to my songs. Once there was a group of those big drum sticks and a saxophone. That was interesting.
The funniest was when a friend and I decided we needed a sign and wrote "Hello! Our names are (his name) and Barry and we need money for vodka! Please help!!" One lady did a double take and then laughed uproariously saying "I LOVE vodka!" and tipped us handsomely.
Vonnegut once wrote "the human condition can be summed up in just one word, and this is the word: Embarrassment." This has proven true throughout my playing from not remembering how to work a friend's looper mid-performance right at that crucial moment, to a venue's power shutting off as I was going on with a bunch of people I invited in the crowd, to just messing up a song so bad I had to stop half-way through and apologize.
My first guitar was my mom’s, that she used to play for church when we lived in South Carolina. She stopped after we moved to a new state, and so it just sat there. When I was 20, my girlfriend at the time was hit by a van putting her in a coma, and my friends were getting into dangerous habits I wouldn't be a part of. This made my days spent at the hospital, and my nights alone filled with a storm of emotions. Fortunately, I found my mom's old guitar and decided to teach myself to play in order to keep my mind occupied, and to purge some emotional nausea.
My girlfriend recovered, but we parted ways years ago. Some of my friends recovered, some departed years ago. The guitar's neck cracked during travel. I still have it, but it's retired. Such is life.
