Looking For

I am eager to find collaborators who want to create original music (and carefully selected covers). Open to duo, trio, or full-band. Let's finish each other's unfinished songs and add dimension to the complete ones. If we are going to write songs, we should record them too... I have Presonus recording software and some good mics. Open to gig -if the venue is a good fit.

Bio

An avid guitarist, I rarely think in terms of rhythm and lead; guitar is guitar is guitar. When self-expression and 'what the song needs' are the same thing, it's a wonderful feeling. As a player, I am equally comfortable with strummy rhythm, lead work, fingerstyle, double stops, atmospheric bits, etc. If you're playing an open 1st position chord, I'll find a tasty inversion of it. In recent years I have begun to incorporate jazz voicings into my style -though I am by no means a 'jazz guitarist'.
I can add harmonica, mandolin, some keys, and bass if the song calls for it.

Pre-Covid, I was actively gigging in a 3-piece group. Despite having latitude to play whatsoever I wanted within any given song, it was 98% covers (and utterly soul-crushing). Most of the punters want to hear a song they know inside and out, be it classic rock or Top 40 radio pap. You can dress it up any way you like so long as they can sing along with the chorus or hear the signature lick. There is value in that, of course, but it's more than a bit discouraging if you want to perform original music.

Influences

Artists which continue to inspire and inform:
[by no mean comprehensive]

Beatles/George Harrison, the Sundays, Punch Brothers/Chris Thile, Morrissey/the Smiths, Lloyd Cole, Sunflower Bean, Melody Gardot, the Zombies, the Church, Over the Rhine, America, Mazzy Star, the Stokes, Ray Davies/the Kinks, Trashcan Sinatras, Pretenders, Amy Winehouse, Trembling Blue Stars, David J, The The, Crowded House, Johnny Clegg, Peter & Gordon, Pernice Brothers,

Players who still inspire and inform:

George Harrison, Dave Gavurin, Johnny Marr, Scotty Moore, Brian Setzer, Neil Clark, Les Paul, Django Reinhardt, James Honeyman Scott, John Squire, Marty Willson-Piper, Jim Mogine, John Jorgenson, and _________.