Guitar

Tour Diary: Greetings from Charleston WV!

Well, last night’s gig at the Empty Glass here in Charleston was a much needed joyous night of music and fun on what has been a tour of driving interspersed with small moments of playing music. 🙂

The vibe and people were just great. As I pulled up on the little street to what looks like an unassuming little bar, I thought to myself – “I came all the way here for a bar gig?” And then upon connecting with the patrons (many of whom were the town’s top blues & rock musicians) I learned that the stage at The Empty Glass has seen the likes of Bela Fleck, Waylon Jennings, Governor Mule (is that right?). Suddenly a thought “Wow – there is some history here”. Funny how the mind works, eh?

(By the way – you can check their band out at https://myspace.com/thediablobluesband)

An acoustic duo opened for me – Sean and Karen, and they were a joy to hear. Great tunes, great voices, great vibe. Thank you Sean and Karen for your music.

https://www.myspace.com/karenallenarts

https://www.myspace.com/seanrichardsonmusic

I opened the night’s festivities with “Machine Gun” and the audience and I fell right into a wonderful interchange. They loved it and I loved them. Yep, that’s what being a musician is about – that’s our currency, what we value. You can’t buy “people enjoying your music”. Once again we see that the free things in life are the most precious, and the things we pay for are replacable!

I MUST give a shout out to “Roadblock” – the soundman and booker at the Empty Glass. In a music business full of agents, promoters and a whole lotta middlemen, he gave me the gig based on the idea of getting a new guy in and helping him build up a following. Like I have said in previous posts,it’s important to put people first, money second. There’s kind of a spiritual law that when you go with that, abundance and good vibes flow. Thank you Roadblock! We need more people like YOU in the biz!

Today I get to hang in the hotel, catch up on email and practice guitar. I just did a drive here in Charleston, picked up lunch, did some post office type errands…not unlike life at home. Wherever you go, there you are!

That’s it for now everyone, I’ll be at Taylor Books tonight and give you an update after the gig.

Thanks for stoppping by! Keep swingin!

Greetings from Morehead, KY – “Americana Crossroads” Interview

By Adam Rafferty Leave a Comment

Greetings!

It’s late, but I wanted to write.

Well I ought to sleep good, it’s been a long day. Sasha Collette (host of “Americana Crossroads” – Morehead State University Public Radio) and I hit the “Huddle House” restaurant after the radio show. I had eggs, grits – and yep, southern fried steak with white gravy! Yee Haa (burp). It was her home, and I appreciate the stay there. Simple living. And yes, a patron had a gun in a holster so I kept a low profile. 🙂

Sasha did a great radio show tonight, and it was a lot of fun and laughs to interview and play on the air. I brought the streets of NYC down here, gave em some beatbox “Chameleon” live on the air.

I will get some mp3’s of the interview up online…

Well, time turn into a pumpkin here…tomorrow I’ll hit Charleston, WV – about a 2 1/2 hour drive, which is a breeze actually (everything is relative)!

Be well, and pics will be coming!!! I’ll post again tomorrow. Keep swingin’!

Tour Diary – Greetings from Louisville, KY!

By Adam Rafferty 2 Comments

Hi Y’all! Yee ha! Today is Tuesday 5/13/08 and I am in sunny Louisville, KY. My apologies for not having written in the last 2 days…

The gig at Patisserie Cafe in Lexington, VA was a joy. Kayla who runs the place is a very special person – and I gotta tell you, being on tour is about “people” not “gigs”. She rounded up a great audience and yep, the music got to ’em. I saw feet tapping and smiles…I’m sure I’ll be back there on the next trip.

Yesterday was a travel day…a LONG one!!! I drove from Lexington VA to Louisville, KY. Unexpectedly I found that Doyle Dykes was in town doing a Taylor guitar clinic, so I made myself go even after some serious driving exhaustion.

Doyle’s youtube videos were an early inspiration to me when I “caught” the fingerpicking bug 2 years ago. It was really cool to meet him, and hear him – and tell him what an inspiration he was and then plop a CD into his hands. He’s really a good ol’ southern player – with deep roots in country and bluegrass, and it’s just so cool to hear anyone play “the real thing” like that!

Here’s the video that knocked me out:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_pX2iwsYWw&hl=en]

And there I was – in Kentucky seeing Doyle Dykes,and just mesmerized at seeing the “Law of Attraction” manifest people, places and events based around the visions in my mind. Call it what you will, but the outside that was manifesting around me started on the inside…

I heard the Talking Heads lyrics “And now I am asking myself how did I get here?”…it was bizarro for a NY guy to be transported into the middle of this.

In short, it feels good to be out here on the road. At times (got lotsa thinking time behind the wheel) I am asking myself whether or not I’ve lost my mind by giving up aspects of NY to be out here sluggin’ it out.

I am starting to see that you can’t look at any one day and go “Aha!”. It’s kind of like being in school and working towards a degree…one day may not seem like much, but by putting in day after day, over time – you build and accomplish a lot. That’s why I am out here.

Today I’ll take a trip to Berea where I’ll be doing a radio interview with Dave Butler for his show “Innervisions”. Gotta hop off the computer now, the little fingers need to warmup before I play a radio gig…

Onward!!

Tour Diary- Greetings from Leesburg VA 5-10-08!

By Adam Rafferty 2 Comments

Greetings! I’m writing from a Days Inn breakfast room in Leesburg,VA and knocked out gig #1 last night of what I call my “Kentucky Fried” tour. I did a warmup gig at a small coffee house called Market Street Coffee.

Well the gig was ok, but I feel my playing was not at it’s peak. Gotta practice after finishing this post! 🙂

Before we get to Leesburg though, let’s go back to NYC in our minds – I’d like to thank Holly from Rudy’s music stop in NYC. I went there the day before the tour with a Taylor guitar with an intermittent ES pickup system. Needless to say, having equipment crap out the day before the tour is stressful. I do have a backup guitar, but the idea is to travel with 2 functioning guitars, not just 1.

Holly totally gutted & replaced the ES system. Oh, and just for kicks she filed & re crowned some frets, oiled the fingerboard, and saw that the nut grooves needed a slightly different cut. Yeah!! Thank you Holly for loving what you do and over delivering!

Last night’s gig was also the maiden voyage of my new BOSE L1. That too, was source of stress a day before leaving as it had been behaving weirdly at home. Long story short, the little T1 mixer is more akin to an ipod than a mixer. I had to download the latest firmware, reboot and all that jazz. The little T1 is incredible – 4 channels, digital effects, presets- all connected with just a data cable. Whatever the updates did, the BOSE did great on the gig.

I feel good knowing that I have a killer acoustic rig, and can show up anywhere and have great sound.

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An artist can’t stand still or just do yesterday’s tricks. What was full of life, and in the moment last month is not the same now! When I launched my acoustic direction part of the beauty was the freshness, the aliveness and the newness. I have officially hit the next stage, but an important one that I think many musicians deal with.

It’s time to refresh again. I already feel like I am doing yesterday’s tricks and it’s not even a year that the CD has been out. Yes, part of playing a great solo guitar gig is that you have great music ready to go under your fingers – and maybe it’s a question of being “in the moment” with the known music – just the same way David Copperfield has his tricks that he does night after night. Part of my practice today will be getting “the juice” back into tunes I feel like I have played ENOUGH.

Certain songs have a different meaning after having played them for a year. Some songs feel better and deeper. Some don’t feel right and need tweaking or need to be dropped / replaced. (FYI “I Got Rhythm” is one of my trickiest and I will go practice it in 5min…)

The journey never stops. Looking forward to tonight’s gig at Patisserie Cafe in Lexington,VA…..more to come!

Adam Rafferty on Tour May 2008: Kentucky Fried Pickin’, BOSE L1, Visualization and more…

By Adam Rafferty Leave a Comment

Friends, short entry here. I am very very excited about this tour that is coming up. I am doing a small tour of Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky playing SOLO guitar May 9-18, 2008.

Once again, I am PSYCHED to connect with people in the good ol’ US of A and make friends, play guitar and, well, get the hell out of NYC for a week!

Did I just say that? 🙂

Visit Adam’s Myspace for TOUR DATES

I am proud to tell you that I bought a killer sound system – the BOSE L1 (Model 2). I’ll be bringing it with me. It has to be seen (and heard) to be believed. Essentially it looks like a thin pole 7 feet tall, with a tiny subwoofer. And yep, BOSE kicked butt on the engineering. It’s better than a regular PA – less shleppping, and a better experience playing.

Take a look, and if you are near a Guitar Center, check it out:

https://www.bose.com/musicians

In fact, I spent enough on it that even if it sucks I am determined to like it 🙂

Seriously though I will post a more in-depth gear review after some gigs!

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It’s late here, yet I feel obliged to write.

I do want to say one thing – back when I started my solo guitar project is when I saw “The Secret”. Say what you will about the movie, but it is vital to know that we get what we think about whether it is wanted or unwanted.

In my minds eye I saw touring, playing for good ol’ folks in the heartland, and kickin ass on the guitar. And it’s a comin’. It took some time to manifest but iit’s on it’s way.

Now after having held the vision in my mind’s eye, it is becoming real.

Thank You, God – Universe – Source. It is an amazing feeling and realization to know that whatever I envision comes. It also gives me a “knowing” that the vision in my head is MORE important than what appears to be objective reality, as it paves the path ahead.

My current future visions – just to let you know, consist of concert hall and festival touring, a busier year-round touring schedule, more recording and well – more musical exploration.

I remember before I even had one solo arrangement down, I told my girlfriend Jill “Watch and you’ll see. It will happen…” and it is. I tell you the same!!!

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I promise I’ll write from the road. Looking forward to giving you tour updates!

Warmest Regards,

Adam