Hamilton Guitar Association: May 2012

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Mike Anderson Feature set..Grand Finale

HGA... Sofga meeting

Mon. May 28 , at the Pheasant Plucker, 20 Augusta Street, Hamilton

7:30 sign in, show starts at 8:00

    Another year has come to and end. Time to come out and bid all your friends adieu till fall. This is the last meeting until September and like last year, we'll finish off the season with an anticipated feature set from "Slappy" ,... "Iron" Mike "Mikey" Anderson.

   Apparently Mike has squandered an entire year learning, studying and playing the piano of all things. Help me put him firmly back on track as a guitar musician, looking forward to an illustrious career of bar food, stale draft beer and pass the hat pay structures.

Check out this vid of doing Mike doing a Don Ross tune.

    As I've said before, Mike is the best, young progressive style player I've seen. I'm pretty sure, after Monday, you'll say the same.

See you tomorrow,

Mark

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Sarah Beatty and GAry White

Here is a cool "sound man view" video and great original song from Sarah Beatty with lead by Gary White from our last meeting. Keep an eye out for Sarah's upcoming CD release at Artbar.

Remember, the next meeting featuring Mike Anderson is the final one until fall.

Monday, May 21, 2012

A Good May 24th Song

This one is from a few weeks back. It's got a lot of campfires and cowboys and makes a good May 24 song to sing to the family around the fire. I hope everyone, including the Hamilton family, had a good long weekend and kick off to summer.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

This week join us for a set featuring KILLER LEAD MAN.... GARY WHITE ....

and that Purveyor of the Hard Blues, ALFIE SMITH.

THE THRILL IS GONE with BOB DOIGE (be sure to hang in there for the rippin guitar solos)

Hey everyone, the guitar season is starting to wind down and there are only a few meetings left. Our last meeting was a farout jam session with our old buddy Po Cholly. Even more open mic highlight vids to follow.

See You Monday,

Mark

Sunday, May 6, 2012

An ideal selection to go along with a PO Cholly night

Friday, May 4, 2012

Pasta and Hot Sauce

Sometimes the club is like some thick Italian pasta, just waiting for a little hot sauce. We had an awesome open mic featuring the Hamiltons, Greg, Katie, a cool electronica set from Moira, Carl Logan doing a new Springsteen cover and a great feature performance by our friend (and blues hero), PO CHOLLY. Catch this jam with Cholly, Alf and Katie.

S.O.F.G.A.

Southern Ontario Fingerstyle Guitar Association

Some five years ago, I typed finger style guitar into a search engine because that was the type of playing I wanted to explore. Mostly because I was tired of replacing all my lost guitar picks. What I found was the SOFGA, a club dedicated to this guitar style and encourageing new people to learn by providing a non competative performance environment. They met right here in Hamilton, I knew that this was something I had to check out.

What I found was a community of people enjoying each other's music, company and friendship. And the amazing music! Cutting edge acoustic, celtic, old blues , entire bands seems to leap from guitars held by one person. No fake effects or back tape. Each meeting, one great player after the next would play. Then, one of them would take some time to show you thier style.

This is where I found my guitar teacher and mentors and some realley good friends. Though I was just a beginner, these people seemed to have a genuine desire to hear my music. This encouragement was pivital, at a time when the rest of the world just wanted me to forget the whole guitar thing .

Some five years later, when it comes to music, I still don't have it all together most of the time, but I've come a long way, mostly thanks to SOFGA.

Now , it's called the Hamilton Guitar Association but the goal and spirit are the same. That's why I'm happy to slug all the gear up the stairs at the Pheasent Plucker every other week, set up the mics and board, then, watch it all unfold.

Mark V