I'm not familiar with this "City List" contest you refer to. Is it a national music competition of some sort? Never heard of it. We have a local music awards event sponsored by the Denver music rag, Westword, but I have a sense that you're referring to something else.
Yes, the drummer you read about is my son, Graham. His band is The Railbenders - very hot country band, extremely popular around here and in parts of Texas. Graham has picked up a guitar on occasion, but he doesn't play much. But on drums he rules!
As for the local music scene, I don't keep tabs on it much. I have my own little niche for performing that keeps me pretty busy. In addition, I'm in the process of writing two books (that keeps my brain quite twisted) and I try to pen a new song from time to time. I leave the frantic pursuit of fame and fortune to those much younger than I.
I'm actually teaching some budding singer/songwriters that I hope to see breaking into the local music scene within a couple years. One is a 17-year old high school senior who writes incredibly singable melodies. I'm working on her vocals right now, and I think she has a lot of potential.
With the passing of my mentor, producer, manager, financier and best friend, Mike Kavanagh, my RV project got sidelined. I love the Trailer Park Troubadors, and I had actually contacted them about recording one of their tunes. The project may be resurrected at some point, but financing is an issue. Know any investors? Proceeds from sales will go to Parkinson's research and support, but we'll need production money to get it rolling.
As for record production, I've recently "released" a compilation album of banjo music that I recorded back in the last century. It's called "From Rags To Rhythms" and features some of my fancy plectrum stylings accompanied by a variety of hot musicians. I qualify the "release" because it's a pretty low-key effort. I'm doing my own packaging and duplicating on a per-order basis. That way I don't have to worry about stock-piling a ton of units that may sit around for awhile. But it's a cool album and I'm happy to have it on CD.
At this point I'm about three songs shy of enough material for another original album. Again, financing is an issue, but I'd probably put this ahead of the RV project, because it's my own material. I'm also working on an album of Praise music that I've written for our group at church. And all this in addition to my role as head cheese of our HOA. I wish I'd never taken on that project, I'll say!
Anyhow, that's my update in a nutshell. Keep in touch...
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