GRASSROOTS
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GrassRoots Networking is
dedicated to helping musicians and music organizations
reach their full potential by encouraging creative
partnerships.
Networking is quickly
becoming one of the best ways to establish business
connections. Music, already a connecting agent with
people, is now involved with the networking approach to
recognition and business. sell. - USA Musicians
"Scott
Murray sings like a bird." Townes
van Zandt
Scott
Christopher Murray is an accomplished singer/songwriter
and a veteran of the acoustic music scene. Raised in the
heart of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, Scott grew up
absorbing its rich story-telling tradition and
Appalachian music legacy. His first album "The Old
Man Dreams," a collection of original material, was
a regional success. more info
The
Velocity Band, Classic Rock, Contemporary Rock, Jazz,
Power Trio, Philadelphia,
Montgomery County, Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Classic
Rock Band, also play Jazz standards for Dance Clubs,
Weddings, Country Clubs, Private and Corporate Parties in
the Philadelphia, Montgomery County, Bucks County,
Pennsylvania, area
Velocity
consists of a three-piece band with Carl on lead guitar,
keyboards and vocals, Joe on bass and vocals and Ron on
drums and percussion.
The current lineup of Velocity has been in place for over
5 years and unlike most bands, Carl and Ron have been
playing together since High School. Now that's experience!
In that time, the band has greatly expanded the range of
their repertoire to include many crowd favorites as well
as an extensive mix of modem and classic rock songs.
Such a wide range of music and our high degree of
professionalism allows the band great flexibility of
being able to offer your patrons any kind of music from
dance to hard rock to easy listening, depending on the
venue.
Sullivan
Guitars are high end, handmade acoustic guitars, Jim Sullivan caters to the
discerning musician in search of exceptional tone,
craftsmanship, and playability.
The home of quality
handmade guitars, handbuilt by luthier and master
craftsman Jim Sullivan. If your looking for a
handmade acoustic guitar with
outstanding sound, playability, and attention to
detail, then a Sullivan Guitar could be the
answer to your dreams. They are truly one of a
kind artisan built guitars with the absence of
mediocrity. Jim uses a special patented bracing
system in the side assembly that changes how the
guitar works, producing much more volume and
frequency response in a small bodied guitar. Try
a Sullivan handmade acoustic guitar and you'll be
hooked for life - Handmade Acoustic Guitars - Artisan Built Guitars - Handmade acoustic Guitar
Gallery
"Jim
Sullivan is truly a master guitar builder. If you are
looking for a guitar that feels and sounds like the best
guitar you have ever played and a guitar that you can
hand down and keep in the family, I recommend you drive
down to TN and pick one out today." - Mark
Barreres
"His
fingers dancing over the guitar strings, his head thrown
back then bending deeply forward, eyes often shut, now
one foot poised in midair, he feels the music. He is
the music." - Mary Byrd Blackwell The Shenandoah
Valley-Herald - more info
Call
Rick Harris at 703-722-6012
Rick
Harris, Jr. Celebrating Life and Family with Music
His fingers
dancing over the guitar strings, his head thrown back
then bending deeply forward, eyes often shut, now one
foot poised in midair, he feels the music. He is the
music.
Rick Harris, Jr. hosts the Sunday night open jam every
week at Chappalino’s in downtown Woodstock, and pops
up at other venues and open mics in the Shenandoah County
area, such at The Art Group’s monthly First Friday
in Mount Jackson. He blends country, bluegrass, jazz,
classical, blues, honky-tonk, rock and roll, and just
about any other flavor of music you can think of in his
original songs.
How does he categorize his style?
“I don’t know. I just like music,” he says.
“If you don’t have one style of music, no one
can put you in a box.”
An exceptional guitarist and a gifted poet, Harris is a
rare talent with the potential to be a national celebrity.
He has no need of stardom.
“I’m the richest man you’ll ever meet,”
he says. “Why would anyone want to go on the road?
You can lose your kids on the road. You can lose your
wife on the road.”
“I’ve played for 50,000 people, and I’ve
played for no one, and it’s all the same,” he
says. “I’m glad people enjoy what I do.
Performing is a strange thing. I just want to play with
my friends.”
“When they turn the big eye on you, it ruins your
life. I’ve watched all the people self-destruct or
be self-destructed,” Harris maintains. “I
don’t want to be popular, I really don’t.”
For Harris, the magic happens when musicians come
together and just make music.
“Music is a community thing, not an individual thing,”
he says. “The word ‘ensemble’ is what
excites me.”
“No part is more important that any other, it’s
the combination that makes it exciting.”
The anti-star
Harris Jr., as he refers to himself, lives a simple
life.
“My wife’s family and my family all live within
a 20-mile radius,” he comments. “Thirty
families have lived all over the place, and they’ve
all chosen to live here.”
His father -- minister, teacher and illustrator --
brought the family to the Valley when Harris was a teen.
Now this corner of the world is all the home he wants.
He’s been a rancher, a poultry grower, a house
painter, a photographer and a rug salesman. He was a
partner and recording engineer in a Tacoma Park, Md.,
studio, where he placed people with major labels and
played with hot D.C. performers.
“Most of the music I was being forced to listen to a
hundred times, I wouldn’t want to listen to once,”
he says.
Currently he is a woodworker at Merillat in Mount Jackson.
“I don’t think you can write music unless you
do manual labor,” he says. “Most musicians are
out here living the day-to-day life.”
“I’m working paycheck to paycheck. I’ve
got two kids, I’ve been faithful to my wife for 20
years,” he says. “I don’t have a computer,
I don’t have a good stereo. That’s not
important. The things that are important are the family.”
He lives with his wife and children in a tidy doublewide
next to a bend in the North Fork of the Shenandoah River
west of New Market. There where the Plains Mill ground
grain a century ago and Native Americans camped centuries
before that, Harris and his sons have collected fistfuls
of ancient stone tools.
"My
dad is a historian, and he got me interested,” he
explains. “My favorite things are looking for
artifacts and playing with folks.”
Harris says he has no need to travel. He goes to
Harrisonburg, the nearest city, a few times a year and to
Woodstock once a week for the jam at Chappalino’s.
He doesn’t drive on the interstate. His inspirations
and his joys are within arm’s reach: river,
mountains, history, family.
“Somehow if you don’t immerse yourself in the
natural world, you’re not going to write beautiful
music,” he says. “If you don’t surround
yourself with things that are beautiful, you’re not
going to be a beautiful person. It’s pretty simple,
nothing complex.”
His wife Donna is a professional singer and until
recently has been a stay-at-home mom. Son Logan, plays
guitar and clarinet; Jacob, the sax.
Harris says he doesn’t force music on his boys.
“If music is a hobby, you should be able to do it
whenever you want,” he maintains. “If they want
to make it a part of their life, if they need it,
they’ll make it a part of their lives. I need it.”
Reluctant performer
Harris hates to go on stage.
“Two hours before, I don’t want to do it,”
he says. “I don’t feel like playing music. Then
all the sudden you realize, if I don’t do this,
I’m not going to be happy.”
“Then I get there, and they can’t shut me down,”
he says with a chuckle. “The next thing you know,
it’s one o’clock, and they’re saying,
‘Can you pack your stuff up?’ because they want
to vacuum the floor. And it happens every time.”
“I sweat more than anybody else on stage, because I
don’t know if I’ll ever do it again,” he
says. “Every day is a gift.”
Harris plays it all, what he calls the soundtrack of his
life: a rollicking drinking song, an ode to his beloved
Valley, a quest for the meaning of existence, a cowboy
song, a father’s lullaby, a sensuous love song. He
finishes with a rich chord or a single plucked sting,
then his rolling laugh, like children in an old wagon
making their voices shake with the ruts.
He hosts the weekly jam session to make music the way he
likes.
“I don’t have a band. I have lots of bands,”
he says. “I put together a group, and I sit in with
them.”
“There have been incredible people who keep me here,”
Harris says. “Our musical exchange is more
meaningful than I can explain to anyone. It’s beyond
sex or religion or any other wonderful things that can
come along.”
“I have had the rare privilege of experiencing a
community of music in a number of exotic places,” he
relates. “Sitting on the rocky beach outside Halifax,
Nova Scotia, and singing with the fishermen going out
lobster fishing; riding with the natives of the Amazon on
a riverboat late at night, clapping rhythms and chanting
for the rowers; joining the bluegrass pickers at
Raymond’s up on Rude’s Hill outside Mount
Jackson. Each of these experiences has had a profound
effect on my opinions about music.”
Music stars miss the reasons Harris loves music
celebration, family and community by trying to impress
strangers, he says.
“Impress the people you know by your ability to
celebrate life with all its ups and downs, its blues and
its greens. Impress your family by your love and
consistency. Celebrate shared experiences with your
friends.”
“I don’t want to impress people I don’t
know,” he says. “I want to impress people I do
know. I want to impress my wife.”
He has turned down lucrative offers. His CD “Harris
Jr. and Friends,” which was available locally, has
sold out, and Harris doesn’t feel pressed to have
more printed or to release another album.
“I don’t want to be remembered for anything
other than I stimulated other people into doing their
music,” he says.
Song craft
“Some people hunt, some people work on cars to
relieve stress,” Harris says. “I write music.”
“It doesn’t cost money and you don’t need
a prescription,” he notes. “It keeps me from
seeking professional help.”
He says he has written more than 300 songs.
“I’ve written music for 30 years, recorded all
but 30, heard my voice from age 18 to 48,” he notes.
“There are songs I’ve recorded that I’ve
never done live, never done again. Some songs you
don’t sing because they are too real.”
“I can write a song anywhere or any time, at the
drop of a hat,” he says, not boasting, just stating
fact. “I can write another song tomorrow, and it
would probably be better, because I’m older.”
“Sometimes [the music and the words] come together,
and that’s just great,” he says.
“That’s the best way.” But sometimes the
two happen years apart.”
“I am trying to write songs -- melodies, I should
say,” Harris says. “To me if you create a good
melody, like Stephen Foster who sticks around for a
hundred years, then you’ve achieved a kind of
immortality. ... Then the melody is bigger than you are.”
Support: Americana
Rhythm Featuring
local and regional artists, events, venues, and related
stories of interest. Americana Rhythm will bring together
the richly talented local music community and provide a
vehicle from which a broader audience of fans will be
able to access that community, and appreciate it's talent.
www.americanarhythm.com
Melissa
Wade, from Knoxville, on lead vocals and rhythm
guitar, fronts the band and writes most of their original
material. She is also an accomplished pianist and piano
instructor. She brings to the band many years of
performance experience in a variety of musical styles.
Philip
Coward, from Knoxville, on mandolin, lead
acoustic guitar and vocals, shares leadership duties in
the band and contributes to their signature energetic
show. He also co-writes and arranges much of the group's
original material and has performed in various bands for
almost 30 years, one of which toured overseas with the
USO in the 1970's.
Classically-trained
violinist and virtuoso fiddlers, sisters, Laura
Knight and Cindy Wallace light
up the band's stage show with lively fiddle tunes as well
as beautiful string arrangements on their slower numbers.
They have performed in many bands, including Wild
Mountain Honey, and The Wallace Sisters. Their
credentials also include many years at Dollywood theme
park.
When it
comes right down to it, we all want the same thing, right?
To be given a chance, to be heard, to be loved. To
connect with other humanoids on some level, however small,
and find reason to believe that we're not as alone as we
sometimes feel. To take our muse from the safety of the
living room to stages far from home, to find our voice
and sing our song . . .
OK, thus go the mental ramblings of an artist. Thanks to
Mark Barrerres and Grassroots Networking for turning
dreams and ramblings into real results and even - dare we
say it - money. Yes, the "M" word. We in
Wild Blue Yonder are not afraid to say that we appreciate
being paid for our art, and Mark's "connect the dots"
system is already making that happen for us. We haven't
been affiliated very long, but already hits on our
website are up and new connections are being made daily.
Thanks so much, Grassroots Networking, for linking us up
in so many ways and so many places! We can't wait to see
what the future holds, to grow our relationships and to
tell more music biz people what great things you are
doing. - Philip Coward
Jason
Harshbarger - Highland Guitars and Mandolins
All Highland Strings guitars and mandolins are designed, built, and
finished solely by the hands of luthier Jason Harshbarger. Highland instruments are created to be
unique pieces of art as well as exquisitely functioning
musical tools. Jason strives to achieve a delicate
balance between the appearance, strength, weight, and
tonal properties of each piece of wood used in a Highland
instrument. The creativity of the human spirit, imbued
into each work by the hands of one craftsman, merge with
the incomparable natural beauty of materials given by the
Creator. This provides you with a blend of sight, touch,
and sound that has never been experienced before.
Performers of all
genres of music - Composers and arrangers
With todays
technology you can save time and money by allowing our
musicians to use their own home studios and by adding
their own music track to your music files. You can
produce a total live feel on the drums, keyboard, or any
musical instrument by having a session musician add
individual tracks for mixing. All this keeps the cost
down substantially. - Online Studio Musicians
Hungry for Music (HFM) began April 15,
1992 as an annual benefit concert to help the homeless.
The concerts were organized by Hungry For Music founder
Jeff Campbell, with the help of Washington, D.C.
area musicians and music organizations. The contrast of
street musicians and homeless street people led to the
initial concept of Hungry for Music - to assemble D.C.'s
best street musicians and other local musicians for a concerts to
benefit the homeless and underprivileged. The concert
had a dual purpose - to raise money and collect food for
the National
Coalition for the Homeless and to give street musicians some well
deserved attention and exposure. - Hungry For Music
Without the
following artists and companies, Hungry Fom Music
CD compilations couldn't be possible.
Hungry For Music
is a grassroots volunteer-driven 501 (c)(3) charity
organization with a nationwide and international outreach.
Hungry for Music's mission is to inspire underprivileged
children (and others) by bringing positive musical and
creative experiences into their lives. Since becoming a
non-profit in 1994, Hungry for Music has brought the
healing quality of music to thousands of people through
its musical instrument donations, concerts, and workshops.
We support our programs through memberships, benefit
concerts and events, raffles, and the sale of Hungry for
Music produced compact discs. - www.hungryformusic.com
