Older Nooz: (11/13/2008) GW ist Gut!!...What may very well be the last review of One Band Man appears on the German folk music website Folkworld. It proclaims "Welchman ist ein begabter Musiker und Liedermacher mit einer schoenen Singstimme. Bewundernswert ist vor allem, dass er alles im Alleingang aufgenommen hat, ein sicherlich schwieriges Unterfangen." We couldn't agree more!
(10/30/2008) BMC Compilation Album!!!...Yes, folks, the Baltimore Music Conference Compilation Album has hit the (virtual) street. GW's intensely bluesy "Out on the Road" is featured alongside Hip-hop, Alternative, and Electronic tracks from a wealth of artists. A great souvenir of GW's terrific BMC gig!
(9/18/2008) GW played a fine set at Leadbetter's last nite, as part of the Baltimore Music Conference.
(8/25/2008) Testing, testing....For the first time, GW.com proudly offers One Band Man CD's for sale direct through PayPal at the experimental rate of $8.00!! This is a secure way to pay by check, credit card, or PayPal account. Check out the Sale Center!
(8/11/2008) GW joins in....On Saturday the 9th, GW sat in with the Peace Junkies, a 'supergroup' of local songwriters (Russ Haire, Karyn Oliver, Joe Spatarella, and Kate McGuire) at Hull Street Blues. Playing bongos and bass, GW was pleased to take part in the birthday celebration for Joe's wife, Maggie. Joining in the fun were singer Claudia Sansoucie, and a talented singer/songwriter from Virginia, Lisa Taylor, who played the bongos towards the end of the evening. Good times!
(7/10/2008) Tidings from Britain....News has reached us that yet another British music magazine (in this case Blues Matters!) is set to review One Band Man. The response from UK mags and websites has been terrific, and we welcome any readers from Wales, Scotland, England, and the various Isles!
(5/12/2008) Award Time.....GW is thrilled to have received a nod from RadioIndy, in the form of their GrIndie Award! The category is Acoustic music, and the award is "a symbol of good quality for an independent artist CD." Thanks, RadioIndy!
(4/29/2008) A very froggy bloggy...and news that GW's "Figuring Out the Six" instrumental track has been submitted for consideration by a documentary film production. Cross your fingers!
(4/10/2008) Review of the Year....Maverick Magazine, a UK country music magazine, has rated One Band Man with 4½ out of 5 stars and describing it as Highly Recommended in a glowing review! As a result, GW has authorized his first-ever Ad Buy for that issue of Maverick Magazine!
(4/3/2008) Exclusive One Band Man out-take...go to the DownLow to hear the delightful ragtimey ballad "Nothing to Lose." This track is a fingerpicker's delight, and was originally intended for inclusion on One Band Man. (Please note: the song is presented in rough-mix form--it never reached the mastering stage). Also new bloggy.
(3/27/2008) New bloggy, samples and purchase options...There are now three songs on the DownLow (the new track and one from each album), AND there's a new way to purchase both albums---as a digital download of MP3s and album art, directly from CDbaby!
(3/19/2008) New bloggy....along with a new excerpt from GW's memoir, Notes of a Never Was. This piece recounts the tragic demise of GW's second guitar.
(3/13/2008) New Feature--The DownLow page...A place to hear samples of new work and leave your mark. First up, GW presents a new acoustic guitar instrumental, a tune called Figuring Out the 6, recorded at Poison Dart Studios. Hear the track for Free, on the DownLow! And while you're there, send some feedback!
(2/26/2008) Gig Alert, March 5! Venue Correction!...GW will appear at Tyson's Tavernwith Gina Desimone and host Ken Gutbertlet. This will be a great warm-up for GW's appearance at SingerSongwriter Cape May on March 7th! (2/19/2008) Reviews still rolling in...a great review of One Band Man on the Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange (FAME). It describes GW as a "remarkable multi-instrumental musician as well as...a facile and versatile vocalist," and the album as having "a seductive quality." (2/4/2008) All that glitters...Many thanks to RadioIndy.com, for naming GW a Gold Artist! From their announcement: "We screen thousands of songs by indie artists and focus on musicianship, songwriting and recording quality when determining Gold artist status. Congratulations!"....And in other news, One Band Man gets a thoughtful review in the UK webzine Americana UK
(1/31/2008) Thanks to writer Larry Perl....who included GW in an article that appeared this week in the Baltimore Messenger. The piece discovers the BSA's Open Mic night at Gallery G, a great art gallery in Baltimore's Rotunda.
(1/29/2008) What is this thing called blog?....after holding out for years, GW has joined the blogging ranks with his very own Blargh/Bloggy page. This is separate from his Scribblings section, which collects essays and interviews from his magazine-writing days.
(1/25/2008)New year, new GIG....GW will play a showcase at the Singer Songwriter Cape May Festival, on Friday, March 7 at the C-View Inn in Cape May, NJ, at 9:30. It'll be an exciting night of original music!
In other news....GW has been building up his home-studio and recording acoustic instrumentals for film/tv/video markets. A first attempt, an instrumental from his NYC days called "Figuring Out the 6," was a success! Hope to make those tunes available online...more news soon.
Finally, a new 5-star review of One Band Man, in the Everyone's A Critic section!
(1/12/2008) Write again....GW contributed a short piece on the album-making process to Men's Journal! The piece appeared in the January issue, in a section about Life Lists. Many thanks to Men's Journal for the invitation to contribute--go to the Scribblings page to see a full-size version!
(11/19/2007) Nice New Review....of One Band Man, this time in the online zine New-Noise.net. Reviewer Lisa Holmes hears "a very 60s each-song-must-sound-different feel throughout that works to hold your attention" and sums up the album as "literate poppy folk".
(11/5/2007) Time capsule...."Children in Any Garden," a bittersweet ballad GW recorded live in NYC for the Fast Folk Music Magazine: Live at the Hoot (Vol. 4 No. 3, Jan. 1987), is available for digital download on Amazon.com! GW is surprised that a late 80s track has turned up online; here's the link to purchase it (only 99 cents!). Others on the album include Richard Julian, Peter Pasco, and JoLynn Daniel.
(10/1/2007) "Out on the Road" Selected....."Out on the Road" (from One Band Man) was selected as a single and posted on the "Local Music Cafe" website for a three-month stay! The website is affiliated with Mvyradio.com, an important outlet for adult alternative music on the web. Give 'em a listen and support Net Radio.
(9/10/2007) Appearing at Folk Music Night in Perry Hall....GW will be the featured performer at the Perry Hall United Methodist Church's monthly Folk Music Night on October 6th.GW looks forward to a fun gig (followed by an Open Mic after his set) in a very friendly setting.
(8/30/2007) Great minds think alike?....none other than the legendary James Taylor is releasing One Man Band,a CD/DVD set, which some press articles have cited as One Band Man, the title of GW's new album. Any similarity between albums (living or dead) is purely coincidental, and we wish Mr. Taylor all the best with his retrospective.
(8/18/2007) Playing at Gallery G....playing songs from One Band Man and Comfort Noise, GW performed at Gallery G in Baltimore's Rotunda with local music legend Jay Graboski.
(8/8/2007) Rave Review....a review of One Band Man just appeared in August's Music Monthly, and it's fantastic! A few examples: "..an intelligent, confident musician at work . . . each song is unique, highly creative, and non-formulaic . . . one of the best truly solo albums since Todd Rundgren's Something/Anything" Many thanks to the good folks at Music Monthly for this welcome endorsement! See more on the revamped Reviews page.
(7/23/2007) GW's busy week!......Appearing with Karyn Oliver, GW performed at Borders Lutherville on Thursday July 19th,and a good time was had by all! Playing songs from both his albums, GW was captured in action by musician/photographer Russ Haire in the new photo above. Also, GW was at the BSA's booth at ArtScape Saturday night, and hung out with many nice folks, including talented fellow members Sarah Pinsker and BSA president Paul Iwancio.
(6/19/2007) Sneak-peek review....Music Monthly describes GW's new album One Band Man as "very interesting stuff" ("Dear Readers" column). Thanks, MM! (6/18/2007) On the Radio...."Crowd Control" was played on WCVF-FM's "General Eclectic" show, and was named "Protest Song of the Week". Many thanks to SUNY Fredonia station WCVF-FM and DJ Tom Bingham!
GW with engineer Scotty O'Toole
(5/31/2007) "Hildegard" tops Soundclick's Acoustic Chart!...."Hildegard" topped the Soundclick Acoustic and Acoustic Folk Charts for two days in a row! (Incidentally, "Hildegard" is track number 8 on GW's new album, One Band Man)
Since the Acoustic category has a total of over 85,000 songs listed,
and the Acoustic Folk category has over 10,000 tracks, this seemed
worth reporting! Bravo!
(5/29/30) Word gets around....News about the release of GW's One Band Man
is flying around the internet-o-sphere, bringing in requests from radio
stations, magazines, and websites, even from far-flung locales like Greece and Italy! (5/24/07) Now on iTunes---One Band Man!! The good people at CDBaby are distributing the new album to online/digital retailers, and iTunes has it! Just click here to find it! Other sites with One Band Man include: Napster and MP3Tunes.
(5/3/07) Lyrics for One Band Man posted....check out the new Lyrics page, arranged with lyrics for both Comfort Noise and One Band Man on separate pages.
(4/26/07) Now on sale...The brand new One Band Man are at CDBaby!!! Only $9 for One Band Man and $8 for Comfort Noise---with a 20% discount if you buy more than one!!
(3/23/07) Ready for the kiln! Gary Sweda of Sound Design Mastering worked his magic and the master disk of One Band Man is now officially "done." All that remains is replication/production, which will be underway within the week at NP Recording/Nice Package studio. Excitement abounds!
The tentative release date is May 30, at which point the album should be available at CDBaby--we'll keep you posted on digital distribution. Read a press releaseOne Band Man. prepared for
(2/14/07) More progress: Rough mixes of all twelve tracks of the upcoming album (One Band Man) are done! After a bit more tinkering they will be ready for mastering (a process that Comfort Noise skipped). Master of Mastering Ceremonies Gary Sweda will take over at that point, and the album should be on schedule for a springtime release.
(1/4/07) Happy New Year! Progress report: GW's tracks for One Band Man are now in the capable hands of NP Recording/Nice Package studio
in Towson, MD! This facility was recently upgraded to a top-notch
recording studio, run by Damon & Jason George. Twelve tracks are
slated to appear on the album, which we hope to have available on CDBaby.com and online by spring. For real!
Also! A short-stack of GW's first album (Comfort Noise) will be printed and sent to CDBaby, where they're on back-order. Right now, Comfort Noise is onlyavailable digitally,on ITunes and other online retailers (Yahoo Music, MP3.com, even Walmart.com),
(12/4/06) New album? When?!? . . . It's no secret that GW's long-delayed 2nd album (One Band Man)
finished recording just over a year ago, but since then there's been
one long delay in getting it mixed. Finally the tracks are in GW's
hands, and he's shopping for a studio to mix
it with. This has been a very frustrating "lost year" but our sincerest
hope is that the album will be available early next year.
(9/12/06) New Scribbles! . . . The first chapter in GW's unpublished musical memoir, Notes of a Never-Was, has been posted in the Scribblings section! It's called "The Autograph." It's fortified with 16 vitamins and minerals!
(8/30/06) GW rocks the Clipper City Ship! . . . On Sunday,
August 27th, GW joined the likes of Acoustic Mojo, Aleksis Bilmanis,
and Psycho Mike on the Clipper City for a "three-hour tour" (without
shipwreck) of the Baltimore Inner Harbor. The picture on this page
comes from that very same event---a great time was had by all. (See Blargh for more)
This capped a fine summer.....new events for the fall are being booked . . . . keep an eye on the schedule for the whole picture.
(5/16/06) GW's music in Podcast! . . . the lovely and talented online diarist Kymm Zuckert chose GW as the 'Featured Artist' in her second podcast! Please download and enjoy!
(3/20/06) GW emerges from his cave! . . . Playing "Freddie's Lament"--a track from Comfort Noise--and "Is It Okay" (rough mix on Soundclick) GW made an appearance at the Baltimore Songwriter's Association Open Mike, hosted by BSA president Karyn Oliver.
