| and many many others. Guitar wise influences in style are Richard Crampton, Leo Kottke and Michael Hedges. Now residing in Ogden, Utah closer to the mtns that he loves. An avid Mtn biker, snowboarder and outdoorsman, quite a few of his songs are based around the life as such. Two of the tunes on his first release were written while on trips to So. Utah to mountain bike and camp. In REA's own words: "My older brother is the one responsible for me playing the guitar. You see, Chuck was a 'boy scout' and a 'jock'... Not that there is anything wrong with that. He went as high in the Scouts as you could achieve, then moved on to the Explorers. I looked up to him a lot.. He was also a starting lineman on the football squad at the school we both attended. An Air Force base school. 5 yrs older than me..and everyone assumed that I would be just like him. I was a nerd, geek, loner and really didn't fit in high school. But one summer my brother had been a camp counselor at a summer camp (because of his clean, goodie image), and showed up at home with a 'new toy' he had picked up while sitting around the fire at camp. A 4 string Kent tenor guitar..and folk was the rage at the time....Peter, Paul and Mary; Bob Dylan... the late 60's... I was sucked in by the guitar. The 1st song I ever learned on that 4-strng...'Stewball Was A RaceHorse'...and I wish he were mine... Around 1968, Bowling Green, Ky ..the first group... 'Natural GAS' .. playing local coffee houses and 'cool' places. Gaines .. Anderson .. Shelton. a folk rock threesome playing mostly original stuff... Then real rock, 'Thief' which was basically 'Natural GAS' electrofied and an added lead guitarist...Jimmy Tomes. We played the local circuit...college, HS dances...Hendrix, Cream, CCR.. etc..etc. Then on to 'Our Time Spent', a jazz/rock band, playing mostly covers and few originals...Chicago, Blood Sweat & Tears, Traffic... Then a major move after graduating with a B.S. in Biol/Anthro from Western Ky Univ, to Lua'vul, Ky, continuing to hone my playing, getting more into the acoustic end at this point. Here is where I was first introduced to Leo Kottke...Whoa!! A stint of 3 yrs., playing with a lot of local acoustic musicians, then got a call from my old playing partner Rick Shelton...the 'S' in Natural GAS of old. He was being stationed in Florida and wanted to get back together and work on all original stuff. I packed up and moved. A year in Fort Walton Beach, playing very little in the area other then practicing and writing tons, we then moved up to Clarksville, Tenn, close to Nashville and music. We played locally as a duo ... 'SRAD'. We even tried out for Opryland, but our stuff wasn't what they were looking for...our original stuff was pretty strange...It was at this time that I traded in my 1967 Fender Telecaster for a Leo banjo...and started to learn picking...3-finger Scruggs style.. Rick kept pining about the 'Rockies' and I didn't really understand...he'd been stationed @ Hill AFB, Utah for a couple of yrs and had married his wife there...& eventually talked me into packing up and heading west. In Nov., 1977, I drove into the Salt Lake Valley in the middle of the night, a thick inversion and couldn't see anything. But seeing the mtns the next morning blew me away...and have been in Utah since. This place is the inspiration for many many of my pieces. Sometime during this 'new place' experience, I started trying 3-finger banjo style on my guitar. I was amazed at what it sounded like...then started experimenting using all 5 fingers...Whoa!! I could almost sound like Leo.... Rick and I continued to play locally a lot...the Herm, Sweetwater, etc. In 1979, I met one musician that changed my style forever...Richard Crampton. A local Utah grade school teacher and a pheonominal finger picker. He only used his thumb and little finger to play. And he played in different tunings. This was a first for me. To do some of the stuff he played with two fingers, I had to use five. We played locally for a yr or so as 'Crampton & Anderson'. Then Richard & his sweet lady, Ginger, moved to Maine and I returned to solo or no gigs. In the 80's, music kind of went on the back burner for a while. I was into Desert racing motorcycles and loved it. From about 1982 to 1989, I raced full tilt..never missed a race and always placed. In 1989 I earned #1 Over-30 Expert and 5th overall in the state. Whew! With that out of my system, music crept back in. It was around this time I was introduced to Michael Hedges and the didjeridoo. It was also the time when I lost my voice. Really! Thru some sort of virus, 1/2 my vocal chord became paralyzed...I could no longer sing!! All of my original music with lyrics, I could no longer perform..very bummed to say the least. But trying to be optimistic, I figured the powers that be wanted me to be a better guitarist...so off I went looking for my own voice. I don't sing. Mtn biking had taken over where motorcycles used to be. Love the outofdoors and nature. Love the quietness of mtn biking and the thrill of downhill. I started going to Moab, Utah to camp and mtn bike. That place has inspired more tunes than I even know. It was then that I met thru a mutual mtn bike/musician friend, Dan Weldon, a blues man then employed at Hill AFB. So we first met mtn biking if you can believe that. Dan thought I was nuts on a bike, but we hit it off. I played him some of my original picking tunes & he kind of adopted me into his life. Dan, being a really good person, offered to record some of my tunes @ his home studio. I didn't realize how privileged that I really was. Dan is a true traditionlist and roots man. He loves the acoustic, but can rip it with the best when he chooses. So my first cd - 'Splorin Acoustically - came about in a period of a couple of days from his living room. All acoustic and just me playing, except for one tune - The Hale Bop - where my good friend Mark Hafterson plays the didjeridoo. Thanks Dannyboy...because of you, I now am at the music 'thang' full tilt. Now I have my own digital station set up in my home and I now record there. My 2nd cd - 'Epics To Live Bye' - was recorded there. This is a way more experimental cd in that I had access to software...and effects. So, I went a little out of the traditional range on this one. Drum programming, didjeridoo, pipe slapping, whistling, reverse tracks and a miriad of things to make sounds, are used to accompany my own style of finger picking. Most of my present tunes are just myself playing acoustic with maybe some effects pedal on it. I write, perform, record, master and design everything to do with my cds. From the pictures to the songs. On this release, I worked online, over the net with a musician that I met thru myspace. Dirk Barkemeijer de Wit aka DidgWizard, added an amazing track to accompany my guitar on 'The RedKnot Wind'. Funny thing is... we've never met face to face. I don't perform much live, but do play at some of Dan's open mics. So you might catch me sometime at the old Wine Cellar ... or ....not! Just make sure you come up and say 'Hi'." A 3rd cd - 'Too Little Time' is now finished and released. This is a collection of 12 songs, both new and older original instrumentals based around the acoustic guitar. This release is available June 15, 2008. Look for it here as well as samples on REA's myspace space. A 4th release... 'Fore For Four' is now finished and available on 4-15-2009. Another collective of 12 original tunes, one a Dan Weldon cover called 'Montauk' and another, a remix of 'The Hale Bop' from my 1st release...remixed and re-recorded!! And that's all for now folks!!! As of 12/23/2009, I have a new compilation MP3 disc available. Called 'REA - The Total Collection', it is a complete recorded collection of tunes off my previous 4 cd releases, plus 3 previously unreleased songs, all in MP3 format @ 192 bps for great quality and great quanity (46 original tunes). Check it out on my music page. |
| The artist REA, is a self taught finger picker from Ky. Was born in Wichita Falls, Tx., the son of an Air Force career man. Moved frequently while growing up, living in places as varied as Japan to Delaware. Influences musically are Led Zep, Jimi Hendrix, Doors, Ali Farke Toure, Neil Young, Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream, |
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| Hey! Motor on over to MySpace and check out REA's myspace space. HUH? New stuff to listen/download www.myspace.com/reakrit send me a friend request! |
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