cdarwincole + Musician in Middlebury, CT

SEEKING

ABOUT

Right now I'm probably too busy to take on serious project, unless.... So please disregard most of the blurb below, starting with the next paragraph. I am not going to erase it because circumstances might change. All that said, I am very interested in jamming and partying with good musicians on weekends. If something clicks, well, that's another story.

Disregrd for the time being: I am currently interested in playing only with serious, skilled, and experienced musicians of professional, tour-worthy calibre. I've paid my dues in the late-night bar circuit and now want mostly to do concerts and party gigs.

I played guitar and handled most of the lead vocals in a great group, the Lone Wolf Trio, which is currently on hiatus. I also play harmonica now and then.

Two oh three, seven two five, six seven four oh is one way to find me.

We gigged pretty regularly.

I play all the guitars and lead vocals in the attached recordings, except the second part of the verses in "Sunshine" (which we had never played until that afternoon: hence the mixups). A lot of the recording signal is of bad quality, I know.

Also, I wrote the last two songs and did all the vocals and instruments and the "engineering." One is a reminiscence of the Vietnam era and the other a depiction of an emotional landscape after a fanciful shipwreck on Mars (written in 1997, long before the film, "The Martian"). I've got lots more originals, recorded and not, and in a variety of styles.

Okay, I know that this intro is pretty long, but if you read it you will be able to get a pretty good sense of who I am and what I'd be like as a bandmate.

I see this as a kind of a business -- a fun business, but a business nevertheless. I like my bandmates to be people whom I can think of as my friends, but I also treat them as business partners, with all the respect and consideration for their time that a business relationship implies.

I play lead and rhythm guitars, harmonica, and some keyboard if pressed (pun intended).

I sing lead and backing vocals.

I have a good stage presence.

I play electric and acoustic equally well, both six- and twelve-string, and can solo as an acoustic act, fingerpicking, flat-picking, hybrid picking, and singing. But I am a solid and inventive electric player, too, lead and rhythm. Cell number is two oh three, seven two five, six seven four zero. Or send message to christop dot cole at sbcglobal dot net, no spaces.

I would prefer to work with pretty polished performers, or people who are close to that and aspiring to get there, and who are able to get there without lots of delays and excuses. (I just don't have time for that anymore!) You'd need to be able to handle anything from Stevie Ray to Steely Dan. A little pretentiousness is okay if you can soon live up to the image.

I'd still be interested in mixing it up with other musicians, though, jamming, collaborating on songwriting ventures, and doing studio work. I keep expanding my musical vocabulary. I am always happy to meet good musicians. Say hi, anyway, and maybe jam with me sometime. You never know....

Screen name:

cdarwincole

Member since:

Mar 12 2008

Active within 1 week

Level of commitment:

Very Committed

Years playing music:

40

Gigs played:

Over 100

Tend to practice:

More than 3 times per week

Available to gig:

2-3 nights a week

Most available:

Nights

Influences

I do mostly classic, blues-based rock, though I like and can cover lots of the newer guitar band stuff, like Kings of Leon, Gin Blossoms, Live, Lifehouse, Tonic, Collective Soul, etc. My roots are in mostly guitar-based, blues- and folk-influenced rock, but also Fusion and Grunge: Cream (and Robben Ford or Joe Bonamassa takes on that sort of material), the Jeff Beck Group, Tom Petty, Pink Floyd, ZZ Top, Led Zeppelin, SRV, Dire Straits, Stone Temple Pilots, Nirvana, Soundgarden, David Bowie, Allman Bros., old Santana (esp. the "Welcome" album), Mahavishnu, The Grateful Dead,....

I like some variety in a set list but would be happy in a Grateful Dead tribute band or Tom Petty or SRV, tribute band or ....

I am a past V.P. of the CT Songwriters Assoc. and have lots of original material, and I am always coming up wth new ideas....

The bands that I've been in have done everything, from Allman to ZZ. We do Sting, Stevie Ray, STP, Steppenwolf, and Steely Dan; Foo Fighters and Little Feat; Tull and Tom Petty; Jane's Addiction, Alice in Chains; Sound Garden, and so on. I have covered the vocals for most everything.

I am fine with any kind of crowd and can shift gears to suit.

It is not necessary, but at some point down the road we could add some original material, if practicable.My performances of my originals have appeared on a number of Connecticut Songwriters’ Association albums. And yes, I love collaborating with other songwriters.

About the MP3s:

I wrote the last two songs. I write and play in lots of other styles, too. Maybe these two are not the best representations of what can I do, and I don't know how marketable they are. But this is what I have available as MP3s right now. I have lots more that I should add and that exhibit other styles. Both of these songs are on Connecticut Songwriters Association albums. I play all the instruments and sing all the vocals and did the recording in my home studio.

The other recordings are not great quality, I know. They are either from live performances or just crude records of practice sessions. one thing, our harmonies sound much better than this when the mix is right. They are with the band I am in now, the one seeking a keyboardist. Ours just resigned. I sing lead vocal on all of them except for some verses of Sunshine, and I am the only guitarist on this recordings.

"Young and Green" I wrote in 1994. It's about growing up during the Viet Nam War era. The title is an obvious invocation of the poem by Dylan Thomas, but with a twist. I hope it takes you somewhere interesting.

I wrote "Mars to Earth" in April of 1997, while the Voyager probe was about midway to Mars. I imagine what it would be like to have landed on Mars, away from Earth for a minimum of 18 months, given current technologies, and perhaps forever if something went wrong....

Instrument experience:

Vocalist:

Expert

Rhythm Guitar:

Expert

Lead Guitar:

Expert

Acoustic Guitar:

Expert

Background Singer:

Expert

Harmonica:

Advanced

EQUIPMENT

My equipment list is subject to occasional changes -- esp. overdrive pedals and acoustic guitars -- but the standards are high and the foundations are well established. The following is what I have at the moment.

ELECTRIC GUITARS
I have done my own electronic customizations on my electric guitars. Each has pickups selected to suit woods and body type. Those with humbuckers have serial / parallel / single coil and phase switching. Vintage Ibanez guitars are perfect platforms for this sort of modding. The results are as good as the best boutique guitars. I use military spec PIO capacitors and other exotic spices and tweaked tube amps to get the savory tones I seek.

* 1985 Ibanez AR-300AV Artist Super Edition, WCR pickups
* 1990 Ibanez Artist, heavily customized with WCR bridge and neck pickups and Graph Tech Acousti-phonic system
* 1995 Ibanez AM205 with WCR bridge and Sheptone neck pickup
* 1981 Ibanez AS100 (Scofield) with Guitarforce (neck) and Sheptone (bridge) pickups
* 1978 Ibanez MC300 Musician
* 2006 PRS CE22
* Strat assembled by me with carefully selected top-shelf parts (e.g., Fred Stuart Black Guard pickups, padouk/pau ferro neck)
* Schecter TSH-12 12-string electric, customized with Vintage Vibe HCC AlNico II pickups, custom wound for me, and a Rickenbacker harness
* usually a few project guitars under construction...

AMPS
* Two Rock Onyx signature
* MK Steel String Singer
* Fuchs ODS (100 watt)
* Fender Bassbreaker 15 (15 watt) - my usual small club amp
* various custom speaker cabs

PEDALS (often in flux...)
* Rivera Sustain Shaman Compressor
* Wampler Euphoria
* Lovepedal SuperSix
* El Mo
* Wampler Plexi-Drive
* Bearfoot Honey Beest
* Foxxtone clone (Fuzz/Ocatavia)
* Blackout Effectors Musket
* Analogman Mini-Chorus
* Red Witch Violetta delay
* Mooer Tender Octaver
* Wilson Effects Ten Spot Wah
* Moollon Signal Boost/Buffer
* Roger Mayer Voodoo Vibe TC
* Ernie Ball Jr. volume pedal
* self-built, dovetail jointed pedal board / case
* Line 6 G50 wireless relay system

ACOUSTIC GUITARS
* Taylor 356ce Grand Symphony 12-string
* Larrivee LV-03RE 6-string

MICS
Shure SM58 Beta (main vocal mike)
Sennheiser e906 (amp mic)
Hohner Blues Master harp mic
Audio Technica Pro 5

HARMONICAS
* the usual suspects and bullet mic

MUSIC