The Blade ran a nice feature on Black Swamp Rebels today! You can check out the online version here.
NOT FAST ENUFF to appear at Perrysburg “Music at the Market”
In advance of NOT FAST ENÜFF’s August 18 appearance at the Perrysburg Music at the Market concert series, the Perrysburg Messenger Journal ran a nice article profiling the band. At least as far as local cover bands, these sorts of articles typically offer little more than a bare-bones paragraph stating where and when a performance takes place. But the Journal went quite a bit further here, doing a great job highlighting NFE’s newest members, Terry Rice(keyboards) and Melissa Toth (lead vocals). Check it out below: 
Acoustics for Autism schedule update
Today, the band line-ups were released for the Acoustics for Autism event in Maumee on March 6! The schedule is a “who’s who” of Toledo musicians, with performances at five venues, from noon until 1:30am. The complete schedule is posted below. NOT FAST ENÜFF will hit the Bier Garden stage from 8:45 to 9:30pm! Earlier in the day, I’ll perform with Black Swamp Rebels on the Buster Brown’s stage from 1:45 to 2:25pm! Don’t miss this special event!
Toolbox tip: inexpensive cable ties
I’ll admit, this isn’t the sexiest gear topic. But when you gig as much as I do, you’ll end up carrying quite a few instrument, mic and power cables. No matter how neatly you put ’em away, without cable ties, your gig bag quickly turns into a frustrating mess, slowing down set up and tear down. Velcro straps work well, but I was always irritated by the prices music stores would charge for these things. For instance, even on sale, Guitar Center charges three bucks (exclusive of shipping) for only five velcro straps. To me, that’s like paying three bucks for five paper clips. So when I recently ran short of velcro straps, I stopped by Lowe’s to check out their velcro offerings. Sure enough, they sell velcro cable straps at the same price point…but with a quantity of fifty! 
Just goes to show the value of looking for generic alternatives for “specialty” items!
My Brother Nature CD release!
During mid-2015, I did some session work at Wade Paul’s Guerilla Studios for My Brother Nature, a band featuring original compositions by Scott Fish and Clayton Jagodzinski. We’ve done several gigs and television appearances since then. Most recently, My Brother Nature’s new album ‘Down Here’ is now available to buy online at CD Baby. You can preview and purchase the album here. The CD features original artwork by Ema Fish (Ema also did makeup and costume design for the “Down Here” music video). These tracks feature some of the best musicians Toledo has to offer, including (but by no means limited to) saxophonist Art Bishop, and guitarists John McAfee and Chris Shutters. Check it out, and let me know what you think!
My Brother Nature returns to WTOL-11 morning show
Earlier this year, I did some session work, recording original compositions by Scott Fish and Clayton Jagodzinski at Wade Paul’s Guerilla Studios under the band name My Brother Nature. We premiered two of these songs on WTOL-11’s morning show on Labor Day. More recently, WTOL invited us back for a Black Friday appearance. The video is below:
Photos from Skid Row show
I’m a bit behind posting these images (below the fold…hit “Read More”) from the Skid Row show. Most of these are mine, but I also found a few shots of our opening set. Enjoy!
Mid-afternoon load-in:
I snapped this photo of the crowd minutes before we started our set:
NOT FAST ENÜFF on stage!
Me ‘n Rob Green throwing down the harmony lead in “Round and Round”:
After our set, it was a treat to hang stage left and hear Skid Row tear it up!
Of all these photos, this one is my favorite. The spirit of 80’s rock lives on!
NOT FAST ENUFF rehearsals for Skid Row opener
This Saturday, NOT FAST ENÜFF will open for Skid Row at Bar 145 on Monroe Street here in Toledo. Given that Skid Row will attract a crowd of 80’s hair metal fans, we chose a set of favorites from that genre, including Def Leppard, Guns ‘n Roses, Bon Jovi and Ratt. When covering this type of material, the economics of the typical cover band gig don’t allow for two guitars. This means no rhythm guitar during solos, and otherwise not being able to cover all the parts. For this show, we enlisted the help of our friend Rob Green (guitarist for The Bridges) to round out the ensemble. Among other advantages, this presented the opportunity to do some harmonized twin lead guitar work, which I never get to do in other settings. Check out this excerpt of Ratt’s “Round and Round” from rehearsal last night:
I think we’re almost there. It will be a blast pulling this off at the show!
WTOL-11 Promo for My Brother Nature
This spring and early summer, I did some session work at Wade Paul’s Guerilla Studios for My Brother Nature, a band featuring original compositions by Scott Fish and Clayton Jagodzinski. Last week, Scott Fish contacted me about performing two songs from the My Brother Nature CD for two television appearances on Labor Day. This was a challenge to pull off, given the short timeframe and various schedules of the personnel. For instance, I had gigs scheduled for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, in addition to guitar lessons on each day (and a wedding to attend on Sunday!). To prepare, I started by reviewing the tracks on CD, and put together some detailed lead sheets. Although it is ideal to have parts memorized for a performance, I do run into short-notice situations where lead sheets are a life-saver. Also, it may be months before I perform these tunes again. In that case, I’ll already have these sheets in my Ipad, which will shorten the time to refresh my memory.
Fortunately, I was able to schedule a short rehearsal with Fish and Clayton on Saturday morning to work out our parts. Other than that one rehearsal, we were able to run the tunes a few times with the full band after loading in at the studio. We did two performances, one for WTOL and one for the local Fox affiliate. A video of the WTOL segment is below:
My view of the WTOL/FOX studio:
For these performances, I used my Fender Blues Junior and Reverend Reeves Gabrels axe. On the pedalboard, I used a Boss mini volume pedal, Vox Ice-9 and MXR Carbon Copy.
My Brother Nature with WTOL’s Ali Bradley. Personnel from left to right, Scott Fish (lead vocals & keyboards), Art Bishop (saxophone), Clayton Jagodzinski (acoustic guitar), myself, and Wade Paul (percussion):
“Playground Rules” video
Several months ago, Scott Fish of Distant Cousinz invited me to participate in a recording project. Scott had written a new tune, “Playground Rules,” for an anti-bullying campaign. He asked me to lay down some guitar tracks, looking specifically for an ambient Pink Floyd vibe. My go-to rig for those sounds is a Reverend Reeves Gabrels guitar, Fender Blues Junior tube amp, MXR Carbon Copy delay pedal, and Vox Ice 9 overdrive for leads. Although I generally prefer to be familiar with the material in advance of a session, in the right circumstances it can also be fun and rewarding to hear a track once or twice and spontaneously compose parts (as was the case here). We layered chords and arpeggios, and I also came up with several harmonized melodies.
After recording and mixing the track, Scott worked with two local filmmakers, Branden Welch and Christian ‘Whitey’ Pokrywka, to shoot an accompanying video. One very cool aspect of the shoot was the use of an aerial drone, which allowed for some awesome overhead shots! You can check out the vise below: