New Member

[preachingblues]

I just registered and wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. I'm a 27-year-old guy from W.Va. Occupation: newspaper writer. I'm not new to songwriting, but I'm not a professional. I've been writing songs for four or five years and I've been playing guitar for about 14 years. It's mostly a hobby for me, but I do go out and perform locally from time to time and I enjoy participating in the songwriting community in my hometown. I am trying to further my songcraft and would like to grow in all areas. My goals are to continue improving my writing, guitar playing and become more involved in the performance aspect. Eventually, I'd like to be able to make money performing locally and possibly regionally (or, someday, beyond). I have a full-time job and a family, so I do what I can around those obligations.

I don't really have any big commercial aspirations. I perform what I write, and I don't have any desire to pitch my stuff to other musicians. My goal would be to have a performance-based semi-pro "career" and to either self-produce CDs or get with a small label.

Stylistically, my songs fall into the folk- and blues-influenced category. I'm very much into acoustic music and poetic lyrics (though I'm quite aware of the distinction between poetry and lyrics). There is a difference, but I do believe poetry has its place is lyricism. My songs tend to be lyrically heavy with just one guitar acompanying the vocals/lyrics. My lyrics tend to be introspective and personal. I tend to use a lot of figurative language and I'm not always straightforward, but I do believe the messages aren't that hard to catch in my songs. My non-commercial leanings allow me to just explore songwriting as a personal creative outlet that I can share with others. I shy away from strict narratives and storytelling. I like those types of songs, but they aren't my forte, so to speak.

I do some recording with a Zoom H4 and, when I'm ambitious, I might even add a second guitar track or two. However, I tend to focus on just writing and playing. Musically, I tend to favor finger picking on the guitar, though I do some sing-and-strum arrangements. Lyrically, my original stuff tends to lean toward the singer-songwriter genre, but my guitar playing is heavily influenced by country blues. In addition to writing original material, I consider myself a student of the country blues. In terms of technical ability, that's my area of expertise in addition my own songwriting. I play everything from Rev. Gary Davis and Blind Willie McTell songs to Son House and Robert Johnson. I'm proficient in slide guitar, alternating bass fingerpicking and the "dead-thumb" style. It's important to me to be one of the people who carries on these styles. Like most guitar players, I also strum/sing a lot of other covers (everything from classic rock to contemporary -- lots of songwriter-based stuff).

I'm also familiar with the critique process from being part of other forums.

Sorry for the long-winded post, but that's me in a nutshell. Looking forward to making new friends here.

Edited May 21, 2009 by preachingblues

[neoism]

glad to have you aboard !

looking forward to your stuff and knowledge too !

[john]

Hi

Welcome to Songstuff!

Nice intro

Looking forward to reading and hearing your songs.

Cheers

john

[musicthom]

Hi and welcome preachingblues come in and enjoy , loads to do

[preachingblues]

Thanks for the warm welcomes. I hope to make some friends and be an active member of the board. I posted a lyric in the critique forum, if anyone would like to see an example of my work.

[Retrosaurus Rex]

Hey Roger, welcome! Are you going to post up some recordings showing off your guitar-playing?

[preachingblues]

Retro,

Thanks for the welcome. Yeah, I'll definitely post some sounds at some point. I'm not really one to show off. I'm no virtuoso, by any means. I'm just a folk and blues fingerpicker.

I'm lazy when it comes to recording, but maybe I'll work up a 1+1 of one of my tunes to post.

[FinnArild]

Welcome to us ...