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- Schenectady, NY
- Life:
Born here in 1964 and spent first 5
years of my life studying escape artist skills, juvenile delinquency and music
with my grandfather.
and escape artist skills before the first of many more
moves...
- Music: Years spent listening to my
grandfather (Chick O'Day and the Cousins) and his band which toured during the
'50's, and my grandmother's extensive Eddy Arnold and Johnny Cash collection of
LPs as well as enormous symphonic collection. From age 3 pretty much dedicated
to music.
- Rotterdam Junction, NY
- Life:
Spent 10 years here playing paper boy,
alter boy
and aspiring juvenile delinquent. Failing miserably at
all
three... succeeding at music, growing as writer and performer.
- Music:
- Start of the music drive as a trumpet player, saved
me from Juvie Hall.
Typical younger brother - I wanted to play trumpet at
first because my older brother Tom
tried it and I thought I could do better. I did - since he quit. He switched to
electric guitar, I kept on the trumpet. Loved guitar but all my grandfather's
guitars he let me use had bowed necks... painful stuff.
- Music: Concert and jazz bands, trumpet.
Proudest moment was earning my new Bach Stradivarius Model 37 Silver trumpet
from years of paper delivery money and no small help from my grandfather
(mentioned above), and moving from last chair 4th trumpet to 3rd chair 1st
trumpet in concert band, and 1st chair, 2nd trumpet in Jazz band as only a lowly
freshman in a single year at Schalmont High School - the
school that will always have my heart for where I committed myself to
music.
- Salem,
NY
- Life:
Spent 4 years here pitching hay,
trapping coon,
hitchhiking, exploring the woods, drinking, and somehow not
getting killed, maimed or arrested. Total culture shock from
Schenectady/Rotterdam.
- Life:
Decided being a delinquent was pretty
boring, and passed on the upgrade to full criminal status - as did my best
friend who is now a supervisor with the County Sheriff's Dept.
- Music: Concert, symphonic and jazz bands,
trumpet. Performed at about every church, event, funeral, wedding, etc. in
Washington County. School band was a bit of a painful experience after
Schalmont's intense and competitive environment, but it was interesting all the
same to see 6th graders rise to the challenge of sitting next to seniors in high
school and performing musicial pieces. Inspired me to think about becoming a
Music Teacher
- Music:
Helped form the first Jazz band at
Salem which was a real cool combination of students and teachers - learned a ton
from a mild mannered math teacher who could smoke solos on the trumpet.
- Music:
Worked extensively with members of the
New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony and other composers, concert
musicians
- Music Styles & Instruments:
Symphonic and Jazz, trumpet, tenor sax, trombone, baritone horn, clarinet and
piano. I wanted to understand it all to write better pieces.
- Music:
First public performance of my
compositions. Put together a brass quintet and arranged a piece of original work
performed at the Spring Concert my senior year called "Conquest of the Dark
Lord" - I knew almost nothing at the time of "proper" arranging and composition
so this is completely a "felt" and "heard" piece. Think of Bach meets John
Cage... :)
- Accepted at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston for its
Arranging/Composition program. Being just a poor hillbilly - I had to hitchhike
to Boston for the audition and interview. My thumb saw a lot of road those
years.
- Moved to Boston permanently my second year at
Berklee.
- Los Angeles,
CA
- Life:
Took a Volkswagen Rabbit cross-country
with a Juno 106 on top...saw everything in the United States north of
I-40
- Music:
Star Search tryouts... recording
sessions, starving, selling luggage, guess this is where I realized I would be a
musician forever - it actually felt right that regardless of circumstance I
remained in love with music. My best friend and amazing singer Ray Vega went on
to get signed to MCA Records in 1985, worked with the renown Jimmy Bowen as one
half of the group The Vega Brothers. Their first release made it to the
20's on the Country charts I believe. The third part of our unholy trio, Jamie
Reamer is now a leading music educator in Delaware.
- Music Styles & Instruments: Rock,
Adult/MOR, keyboards, trumpet
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- Boston, MA
- Music:
Berklee College of Music from 1982-1986, University of Massachusetts from 1986-1988,
College of Hard Knocks from 1988-1993
- Life:
Spent 7 years here trying to figure out
why I hated wearing a tie and working just about every type of job imaginable
during the day when not on the road, doing my best not to live my dream and be
happy...
'cause God forbid that actually happened! <grin>
- Music Styles and Instruments: Concert,
symphonic and jazz bands, trumpet
- Music Styles and Instruments: Club and rock
bands, keyboards, vocals
- Music Styles and Instruments: Gradual
shift to strictly writing and recording.
- Music: Shifted back to found the band Planet IF /
Sadhana which to this day still amazes me with the sheer creative talent of its
members. Check out Lizzy Daymont's
life now.
- Sarasota, FL
- Life: A coin
flip at an Irish bar in Boston (Kinvara you are missed!), after having
my cardboard cutout life evaporate put me in my little brother Ray's rented van
heading south to Florida. It was tails... Nashville and New York lost that time
to mending painful rifts in our family by committing to Florida.
- Life:
Spent time with Mom after a 20 year
estrangement.
She passed away in 1996... glad we had that time.
- Life & Music: Worked with my younger brother Ray
Foss who is one of the most amazing pop and rock Piano players I have worked
with. His former group Oakhurst out of Denver, Colorado has a great CD, Google
for Oakhurst. Ray - get your ass back behind the keys!
- Got great support form my Step-Dad Ray who, though
tough - never faded in his support for my or my younger brother's career
decisions.
- Music:
Shift from pop/rock/alternative to
country
- Music:
Alternative / rock bands -
bass
- Music:
Country bands - bass, vocals, rhythm
guitar, keyboards. Founded High Noon
- Music:
Random
Bands - bass, vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards, fishing for the right
group to make things happen. Worked through acoustic acts, and ended up starting
Heavy Metal band called Clutch before we met a fantastic country singer and
started High Noon.
- Life:
- Near fatal motorcycle accident in Tampa on the way
to a recording session in Ft Myers. I had to buy another helmet, had a hell of a
headache and some road rash that took years to completely go away... caught up
with me again 6 months later and laid me out in hospital for 3 weeks - DVT,
entire leg to heart one huge clot, pulmonary embolisms.. nasty stuff.
- Heart stopped twice but I was tossed back like a bad
penny...twice. Just in case once wasn't enough to let me know...
- I didn't see any bright light or tunnel, but
it is incredible peaceful.
- I stood with my grandfather and mother (both passed during past
6 months, mom only a month previously) and watched them reviving me on the table
below... very surreal - but so incredibly at peace - not just quiet but complete
utter peace and stillness.
- I prefer not to debate the validity of it - it was real to me
at the time. Still don't know what lies beyond this life, but that was an
amazing thing.
- Moved South to Charlotte County, Florida to work
closer with the band (High Noon).
- Punta Gorda,
FL
- Music:
High Noon
Band: This was truly an amazing band. Great times, great gigs,
lifelong friends and brothers, opened for everyone in Country, 'Got drunk more
than got sober', typical road dogs... total immersion. I often miss these guys
and the shows we could pull off. I feel honored to have played with these guys
and am excited with what each has done since the band retired. NOt a single guy
left music, and not a single one gave up. If you can get a High Noon alum in
your band you have something special.
- Life: I
finally got caught when I was least expecting it... fell in love with a woman
who happened to live 700 miles away in North Carolina and found I wanted more in
my life then hangovers and pizza boxes... when it's right you know it's right.
So I packed the shaving kit and headed North...
- Chapel Hill,
NC
- Life:
Married my best friend and soul mate
(see http://www.tracielliott.com),
have 2 beautiful boys (layne and walker),
had another go at the real
world for awhile with own software and web development shop...
no ties and
suits this time, its much better, gave the company to Traci and keep
writing...
- Music:
Writing break, time to allow the songs
to be uninfluenced by gigs for awhile, and influenced by life instead.
- Music: Occasional Recording
sessions
- Asheboro, NC -
Current:
- Music: Writing
songs, in a dry town with a powerful thirst...wondering which came first -
country music or drinking...
- Life:
- Helping Traci run the business, but shorts and
t-shirts now, shaving optional and a suit will result in instant termination...
do I care?
- Finally got to go to Ireland and England. Business
trip - in and out in 4 days several times. Saw a lot of the airport and
transportation systems. Got to go Golfing at Carton House in Dublin though so
that was cool.
- Surviving the Dot com bust. Traci gives the company
back to me so she can focus on her life's dream of working with books and
literacy.
- Falling in love with my sons every day, all over
again. Working on being the best damn Dad I can be.
- Music Resume:
- Available for band and writing
collaborations
- Songwriter:
First and foremost - contact for
a catalog! - Plays well with others, runs with scissors, but still generally
ok!. Can write anything from Symphonic to Rock to Country, Pop, Bluegrass,
etc.
- Professional:
Bass player w/ backup vocals -
all around musician. Natural band leader who earns and keeps the respect of my
band mates and artists.
- Flexible:
Back in the pocket with drummer or
up on the frontline
- Experienced:
Veteran performer who has worked
with and opened for many many acts and artists on stage and in the studio. When
God created dirt he turned to me and said, "How's that?" :), Seriously - not
ready for the VFWs yet by decades.
- Committed:
Rehearsals are sacred and are just
that, shows are never cancelled - practice is what you do at home to prepare for
rehearsal.
- Available:
Can travel "tomorrow" for right
national/international act.
- Adaptable:
Comfortable anywhere - bus, hotel,
motel, club, stage, radio station, studio - its the music that matters..
- Personable:
Easy to work with, write with,
hang out with - not an ego hound.
- Intelligent:
While this could be suspect in
some eyes, you have to be, to be a decent writer and observer of life.
- Equipped:
Own PA, own pro gear, own songs,
own life, own look, own sound.
- Been There:
Here's the obligatory list of
namedrops...
- Opened for...Lorrie Morgan, Darryl Singletary, Jeff
Carson, Neil McCoy, Pam Tillis, David Kersch, many many more in country
- Opened for Concussion Ensemble, Extreme, Mighty
Mighty Bosstones, O Positive, many many more in rock...
- Performed with members of the New York Philharmonic,
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Symphony Orchestra and many others in
symphonic gigs, Kansas Symhpony...
- Call me or email if interested in starting something
up!
- Music: Joined a
group of guys and we call ourselves Blind Crisis - check out the site at
www.blnidcrisis.com. Amazing originals,
Modern Rock, Southern Rock, Country, Rock, Originals - good music everyone
digs. Born from the ashes of a band called Unraveled.
- Music: Working
with Country artist Michael Rimmer on his debut CD due out Spring 2006.
- Music:
Working with various artists and
groups performing my songs and compositions in North Carolina, Florida, LA,
Texas, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Figure something has to break
soon right? :)
- Web Design &
Development: Check out my "Clark Kent" identity at www.eachinc.com (Elliott Associates) a web
design and application development firm. I build pretty amazing websites and
applications for an extremely wide range of clients.
- Recording Studio
Owner: Checkout my other "Clark Kent" identity at www.sunsetrecordingstudio.net ,
a fully equipped Analog and digital no-nonsense recording studio in Asheboro,
North Carolina. It is a "hole in the wall" studio but we produce a great sound
and are working with Rock, Country, Rap, Corporate (voiceovers), and Radio
clients.
However, regardless of the storms of
life...
- For me, Life = Music, as it always has been and
always will be, despite my delusions at times and need to pay bills doing other
things between major music gigs. It is my calling, my gift and my obsession.
Everything else in my life supports that.
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