Greg Parke: News

Hey all you runners out there......the annual Long Beach "Beach to Chowder" run is coming up! This is always a great event, with many people showing up to compete in many different catagories (last year they even had a Segway catagory!) You don't have to be a major athlete to compete in this one, just come prepared to have a lot of fun. The run always ends with an award ceromony at the gazebo in the middle of Long Beach with clam chowder for everyone, and musical entertainment by Greg Parke. For more info, go to www.funbeach.com

My "Fingers to the Bone" project is still alive and well, but it took a few unexpected turns! Instead of a new song, I now have a new guitar, far field studio monitors, and a new amp to power them. Here's the story: In my studio, I have several different sets of monitor speakers to use in the recording/mixdown process. One of the amplifiers that powers these speakers decided to "retire", so I went shopping for a new one. As luck would have it, I found a great deal on a much better amp that what I had before, and also found a really nice set of speakers for far field monitors to boot. The improvement in my monitoring system is like night and day! And now as Paul Harvey used to say, "The rest of the story!"
As many of you know, I have been into MIDI guitars for a few years now, and the learning curve and required equipment has kept kept me pretty occupied. As I have discovered what can be done with this new technology, and idea for a new guitar has evolved, and I have been collecting the needed parts for quite a while now. I was planning on building this new guitar as soon as I finished the CD that I am currently working on, but the MIDI pickup on my current guitar developed a major problem, and I was faced with a choice...either replace the pickup on my current guitar, or bite the bullet and build my new guitar with the features that I have been wanting to include. About the only thing I didn't have yet for the new guitar was the wood for the body, so I went out in my shop and really dug through my pile of leftovers from previous projects and came up with enough wood to come up with a stratocaster style body. In the past, I have painted my guitars, but the wood for this one was so pretty that I went with a natural finish. I am really happy with how it looks....mahogany with a dark cherry stain, hand rubbed lacquer finish, black pick guard and gold hardware. It took quite a while to get all the electronics to fit in the small space covered by the pick guard, but the guitar is about 98% finished! I have been playing it for about a week and a half now (with a few temporary parts that will be replaced) and I love it! I will post some photos soon. The past 3 days I have been recording a new demo CD for my Promo Kit, and this new guitar is doing everything I wanted it to do.....I should have built it sooner!! I can now get back on track (pun intended!) with "Fingers to the Bone" and get those new songs rolling!

"Rows Of Stone", the first song in my "Fingers To The Bone" project, is down to the final tweaking process in the studio. Almost every track except the bass guitar has been re-written and re-recorded since the original version. I had a chance to perform this song live last week for the first time. I'm looking forward to doing it again soon! With any luck, I will have the final studio version finished and up on my website in the next day or two.

It's official.... I have finally launched my "Fingers to the Bone" project! My hope is to write, record, and put up on my website a new song every two weeks. I finished writing the first song today, and so far I have recorded the basic piano, strings, and drum tracks. Tomorrow I should be able to record the guitar and bass tracks, and if all goes well, get a good start on the vocals. Yeah!!!

Just got back from another fantastic gig at Prospectors in Gold Bar, Wa. This place is becoming one of my favorite venues, and a big "Thanks" to Chris and Tami for letting me sleep on their futon after the show. It was also nice to see my old friend Skip Hamilton too!

I'm getting the last few things done so I can launch my "Fingers to the Bone" project. This has been on my mind for far to long, so I am excited about getting started. I spent the last several days building adaptors, running new cables, making countless solder joints, in general re-wiring my studio to accommodate all the new gear I have managed to come up with recently. I can't wait!