The music of Christmas has always been very special to me, and playing it for a great audience is an experience I cherish every year.
Once again I’ll be in the South for two holiday concerts with my old buddy Bill Mize; check the itinerary for dates and locations. I’ll be returning to Laconia, NH for a special solo holiday show, and I’ll cap off the year with three Christmas concerts with my very special guest Martin Simpson. I look forward to seeing you at the concerts.
TIDBITS
The new Ken Burns documentary “Mark Twain” features several of my tunes from various albums. It is scheduled to premier January 14-15 on PBS stations nationwide. Hope you’ll check it out.
My website (www.edgerhard.com) has recently been entirely revamped. The look and functionality has been greatly improved, and we’ve added some new features as well. Among the improvements is an interactive discussion forum, where folks can ask musical and equipment questions and get responses from me and other registered users.
Hope you’ll check in often.
House of Guitars is here.
Ed’s seventh album House of Guitars finds him creating an ever wider range of sounds and textures, each carrying deep emotional impact.The sounds on this disc are up to Ed’s usual high audio standards despite being recorded using cheap, pawnshop style guitars! The material ranges widely as well, from beautiful, tender ballads like “Let it Be Me” and Paul McCartney’s wistful “Junk” to the eerie yet rocking “Because of You,This.” Ed’s music is complex yet accessible with emotional depth and directness.
Ed says simply, ” I try to make records for people who listen to music and put everything else in the background”
House of Guitars Interview
Q: Now that you’ve finished “House of Guitars,” what can you tell us about it?
A: Well, like all my records I took way too long to finish, but I’m pleased with the results. I think there’s a pretty good variety of tunes on there, from old folk songs to a couple of pop tunes. Even my own tunes show some variety, from “Promised Land” to “Because of You, This,” which are as divergent as you could get. There’s a looseness to this record that I haven’t really had on my other records; many of the tracks are demos, really.
Q: Demos?
A: Yeah, when I’m working out an arrangement or deciding how I’m going to record something I just record everything that’s in my head. “Father Along” is a demo. I sat there late one night and put a rough version down, added a couple of incidental guitars and a lap steel. I use the demos mainly to experiment. Anyway, I re-recorded it with a whole bunch of guitars, bass and drums. When I did the final mix I was pleased with it until I heard the original demo. The demo had a feel that the finished version missed entirely, so I just wound up using the rough demo mix, noisy pickups and all. “Promised Land” and “Try to Stay” are demos, too. I’m glad I saved everything!
Q: We hear artists say that a lot, how often the demo has something the finished tracks don’t. What did you find that your demos had?
A: Well, in the case of “Promised Land,” the rawness was what appealed to me. I was tempted to try to take that one a little further and mix the bejabbers out of it, but anything I did obscured the energy of it. “Promised Land” is about the feeling I got when I first got a guitar. There was a sense of destiny, I think, to wax pretentious (laughs). I just knew, and it resonated in me. There’s that excitement, the sense of discovery but at the same time there’s this respectful kind of hesitancy… if you don’t play you maybe don’t know what I’m talking about… equal parts inspiration and fear maybe. Anyway, for me “Promised Land” captures that for me. Because it’s basically a demo, there’s that sense of discovery right there in the track.
THANK YOU
The following companies and folks have been great friends to me, and I am grateful for their friendship and support. Many thanks to Breedlove Guitars, Fishman Transducers, D’Addario Strings, Neumann USA, Auralex, Calton Cases, Lance and Dawn McCollum, Alessio Ambrosi,Tom Okada, Junya Hasegawa,Toby Mountain and Anne Shepard at Northeastern Digital and Tim Sullivan at the SecretAgency.Very special thanks to Kelli Bertram for keeping things running smoothly. A big thank you to Ken Burns and all at Florentine Films. And finally, thanks to all of you who have come out to shows, workshops and clinics, bought my records and books and generally supported my creative endeavors. I am thankful to all of you. I hope to see you out there somewhere.
Wishing you love and music
-Ed
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