Postcards From Page Side: Musical Malarkey

Now, a little bit about myself. You may have seen some of my scribblings on JamBase.com, in Relix Magazine, at Jambands.com, within Surrender to the Flow or worked with me at Rolling Stone or HeadCount – all publications and organizations I am or have been involved with to some degree, and have to thank in part for leading me to this new column, which I am extremely excited to be bringing to you at Hidden Track every other week.

My background is a typical one of sorts, and completely unique in others. From my first Phish and Grateful Dead shows in ’94 to falling in love with the music of God Street Wine and The Samples at legendary places like the Wetlands Preserve, I’ve not only grown up and cut my teeth in the suburbs of and concrete jungle of New York City, where I am simply trying to take my own, over-sized bite, but also, quite literally, tens of thousands of miles on the road and tour. I’ll have much more on those adventures as this latest, writing adventure organically unfolds, I promise.

While I am currently the VP of Recruiting & Sales for a leading Wall Street Staffing firm and do have what I consider to be a successful career away from music, it is clear where my true love lies – and vacation days are spent. Somewhere along the way to arriving here, I was able to snag Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees In English Literature and Writing from Fairfield University and SUNY New Paltz, the half of my life that certainly got drunk one night and slept with a musical bad boy to produce the likes of myself as we know it today: a musical, bastard child of sorts – the best kind, in my opinion. After all, what about rock-n-roll is boring? Nothing. That’s what makes it so groovy, ya dig?

Coincidentally, this debut column hits the web exactly one week shy of my 30th birthday (cupcakes can be mailed to me here, c/o Hidden Track, and my favorite are Red Velvet if you really wanna welcome a guy properly) as, let’s face it, being a kid at heart is what it, and music, is all about: losing yourself and letting go. So despite my expanding waistline (I told you I liked cupcakes, didn’t I?) and ever increasing adult worries (who the hell needs that insurance, anyway?), I promise to keep the starry-eyed perspective of a concert-going teenager whose lid was just blown off for the first time, when appropriate, while attempting to mix that with the “real world” and parking lot lessons and ideas that I’ve also accumulated along this journey.

I will spare no expense in delving into the vaults of audio recordings, videos and pictures to help make the all around experience that much richer. I will channel my inner Shakespeare, Lefsetz, Garcia and Van Gough, mix them in a blender and hopefully pour the results in a musical, (hopefully) intelligent cocktail on these here pages. So, please stay tuned every other hump-day for a slice of musical life and perspective in the form of a Postcard from the perspective I’ve known best over the years: Page Side. Thanks for coming along…I hope you enjoy the ride.