News stories tagged with "guitar"

(05/25/12) New York City has always held a special place in the American imagination. For generations, it has inspired more than its fair share of musical dreams.

Musician Christopher Battles is hoping to make his mark as an acoustic singer/songwriter. He graduated from the Crane School of Music last spring and moved from his upstate hometown -- Oswego -- to New York City. He studied percussion and music education at Crane, and when he's not busking at a subway stop or on stage at a coffee house, he's a substitute band teacher.

Next Saturday, he'll release his first solo EP recording, titled Miles upon Miles. Not quite a single and not quite an album, EPs are usually an artist's debut recording and contain just a few musical tracks.

In the coming months, Christopher Battles has agreed to share his musical journey via audio postcards. We'll hear occasional stories of his new life -- the pressures, emotional highs and lows and what it's like for an upstate troubadour in the big city.

(05/16/12) While reporting on traditional work the last couple of weeks, we learned about a North Country craftsman who builds stringed instruments and applies inlay to them in a way that is the same as it has been done for generations. It wasn't long before Joel Hurd, a guitar enthusiast himself, was on his way to Parishville to meet Tracy Cox. more

(08/03/11) Three master guitarists from Potsdam: Paul Meyers, Danny Gotham and Richard Stephan, will be getting together for the first time as a trio tomorrow night at the Norwood Village Green Concert Series. There will be plenty of jazz standards, some original tunes and a few surprises. Joel Hurd has a preview.

(12/03/09) Kim Simmonds is heading into four decades of playing the Blues. He founded legendary British Blues band, Savoy Brown, in 1965. He recently finished a solo cd, and has been quietly and passionately painting and drawing for the last ten years. Simmonds hosts an exhibit of his guitar paintings and a concert at Saranac Village at Will Rogers, Saturday at 7:00 pm. Todd Moe spoke with him about connections between making music and the visual arts.

(06/12/09) North Country classical guitarist Lynn McGrath is moving west this month to pursue her musical career. She joined Todd Moe in the studio this morning to share music inspired by Spanish poet Juan Ramón Jiménez, and his most popular work, Platero y yo.

(07/29/08) In addition to being a skilled musician, Dave Rush is a scholar of traditional music in the Adirondacks. Part of his job as an educator is to offer special programs in schools all over the state. For his UpNorth Music session last summer, he sang and played guitar, mandolin and octave mandolin. After the session he spoke with Jill Breit.

(06/25/08) Fingerstyle guitarist Neil Fitzgerald, of Potsdam, has crafted his style around intricate, percussive playing and alternate tunings. Last September, he showed up at his UpNorth Music recording session in Plattsburgh with a couple of beautiful custom-made guitars and demonstrated the sonic possibilities of his instrument. After the session he spoke with Jill Breit.

(05/25/06) A 15-year-old classical guitarist from Madrid, in St. Lawrence county, will be traveling to California this weekend for the Parkening Young Guitarist Competition at Pepperdine University in Malibu. Julia Sinclair will be competing against other exceptional under-18 guitarists from around the world in a contest that's well-known on the classical circuit. Julia and her mother stopped by NCPR recently for a chat. She told Todd Moe that, although she's been around music all her life, she's been playing classical guitar for just a few years.

(02/24/06) If you're a fan of great guitar playing or great bass playing, one musician is giving you two good reasons to visit the Higher Ground Ballroom in South Burlington this Sunday night. Joel Hurd explains.

(07/23/04) The power and emotion of flamenco guitar -- Albany Guitarist and composer Maria Zemantauski will be in Potsdam tonight for a concert at Creative Spirit Art Center (7 pm). Maria was a visiting artist at St. Lawrence University last fall, and she stopped by our studios for music and conversation.