I am a Brooklyn-based sideman, specializing in pedal steel guitar, dobro, lapsteel and six-string guitars. My first sideman job was playing bass guitar for Mercury Rev. We opened for Porno for Pyros and Spiritualized. My next job was playing guitar and percussion for Babe The Blue Ox. We logged about 30,000 miles opening for Cake and Marcy Playground. It was on that tour that I heard a Red House Painters song, "Have You Forgotten" that featured Bruce Kaphan's gorgeous steel guitar work, I knew instantly I had to learn how to do that. I bought my first pedal steel guitar in 2000 and played my first show in June of that year. That July I did my first recording session, for Brooklyn's avant garde pop bliss maestros Stars Like Fleas. Since then I have played on many indie records, played on Carson Daly, performed on a few soundtracks, and done dialogue beds for One Life to Live, as well as composed music for Georgia Pacific and T-Mobile industrials and online campaigns. I average 150 shows per year.
Want some steel or dobro on your demo or album, but don't live anywhere near me? No problem. I am set up to do remote sessions now, using Neumann, AEA and Rode mics, API mic pres, eqs and compressors into Apogee converters. Send me an MP3 and I will send you overdubs via Sendspace, you can use PayPal. Get in touch for more details!
I wrote the songs "The Moment" "Pick Me Up" and "Diesel Smoke Over a Flying J", and tracked them at Godel String in December 2009. "Pick Me Up" features Julia Haltigan on vocals, Rob Calder on bass, acoustic guitar by Steve Elliot and drums by Buck Nelson - er - I mean Dan Menke. Recorded and mixed by Joel Hamburger, mastered by Michael Fossenkamper at Turtletone.
"Diesel Smoke" is the same band as above minus Julia, track was also done at Godel String and mastered by Michael Fossenkamper at Turtletone.
I composed and recorded the "Credit Music for Bacchanale", and "Frontier Lawyer" is a song from my Practice Tracks for Instrumentalists CD. Drums by Dan Menke, bass by Tim Lefebvre, engineered by Michael Kohler at Golden Bug.
I am grateful to some of the artists I have worked with who graciously allowed me to use their music for my page here:
Alec Gross - All The Pretty Women
Sam Barron - The Muse
Kristin Mueller - Liberty State Park
Some of the artists I have recorded and performed with are: Justin Townes Earle, Julia Haltigan, Melanie Penn, Ari Hest, Israel Gripka, Stars Like Fleas, Super Furry Animals, Rosy Nolan, Alec Gross, Downriver, J Granelli and Mr. Lucky, Pinataland, Justin Tracy, Arum Rae Valkonen, Marc Gartman, The Glaciers, M Shanghai String Band, Emily Zuzik, Mr. Lucky, Christian Gibbs, Kristin Mueller, and many more.
I play an Emmons D-10 push pull pedal steel and a Williams 400 Series D-10, I like Peavey Nashville 400 amps with the Ken Fox mod for the steel, and Fender Deluxe Reverbs for Telecaster. I Deluxe Reverbs. These days I run both steel and tele through a custom made Bob Bradshaw pedalboard. For resonator guitar I use a Beard Vintage cherry, and I like bars by BJS for the steel and Elmer Bradley for the resonator and lap steels. Gear geek anyone?
