Tag Archives: grammy

GRAMMY Awards 2021 Ceremony Set for March 14

The 2021 Grammy Awards ceremony will be held on Sunday, March 14. The ceremony, hosted by Trevor Noah, had been scheduled for January 31 but was rescheduled for Sunday, March 14, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“The deteriorating COVID situation in Los Angeles, with hospital services being overwhelmed, ICUs having reached capacity, and new guidance from state and local governments have all led us to conclude that postponing our show was the right thing to do,” said a statement from Grammy officials.

Hundreds of AFM musicians were nominated and participated in nominated recordings for this year’s awards. To view the full nominee list, visit www.grammy.com.

Starting Over

Chris Stapleton

Chris Stapleton, of Local 257 (Nashville, TN), has released his fourth solo album with Starting Over, an album featuring 14 tracks that examine life’s simplest joys and most serious struggles.

Finished in late February 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world, Starting Over offers southern rock, southern soul, and country ballads with American roots influences, as well as covers of Guy Clark and John Fogerty tunes.

Once again produced by Grammy Award-winning producer Dave Cobb, also of Local 257, the album features Stapleton’s trusted collaborators as well as some new faces. In addition to Cobb (acoustic guitar), the record features work by Local 257 musicians J.T. Cure (bass) and Derek Mixon (drums). Special guests include legendary musicians Benmont Tench (Hammond B3 organ) of Local 47 (Los Angeles, CA) and Paul Franklin (pedal steel) Local 257.

john Scofield

John Scofield Brings Country, Rock and More Into His World

john Scofield At age 66 this month and 40 years in, John Scofield is at the prime of his career. A major guitarist in the jazz scene since the 1970s, “Sco” is one of the most prolific jazz geniuses, in a perpetual cycle of recording and touring. In 2016, he received his first Grammy award for the album Past Present, and two more followed in 2017 for Country for Old Men. He’s been nominated a total of nine times and almost constantly has several projects in the works. “I haven’t had a lot of dead air time,” he says.

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Sarah Jarosz

Sarah Jarosz: Young Talent Now Performs with Her Heroes

At age 26, Sarah Jarosz now regularly performs with her childhood influences. As a solo artist, the Local 257 (Nashville, TN) member took home two 2017 Grammy Awards from her fourth full-length album Undercurrent, released in 2016. It was also selected International Folk Music Album of the Year.

Growing up in the Austin suburb of Wimberly, Texas, Sarah Jarosz frequently attended live shows with her family. “I was definitely affected by the Austin music scene,” she says. “Basically, for as long as I can remember, my parents would take me into Austin to see live music pretty much every weekend.”

As a youngster Jarosz began playing piano, then added mandolin at age 10. Later she picked up guitar, clawhammer banjo, and octave mandolin. One big childhood influence was the band Nickel Creek—siblings Sean and Sara Watkins of Local 47 (Los Angeles, CA) and Chris Thile of Local 257—who were just kids themselves when Jarosz began following them.

“Nickel Creek was huge for me. Right around the time I was getting into mandolin I saw their music videos on CMT and I remember thinking that there are cool young people doing this, too,” she says.

Jarosz says that one reason she is a proud union member is because of the sense of community the union provides. “Part of why I fell in love with music is because, when I was 10 years old, I found a weekly bluegrass jam and fell in love with the community of that. Any time you have a chance to continue this community experience with something like the union, it’s super positive for everyone involved.”

In addition, she says, “I feel like we have a support system, especially as hard as it is being a touring musician. I think that’s really important for people who do what we do.”

Doors Opening at Telluride

By age 12 Jarosz was performing regularly at local events. In 2007, she took on her biggest gig to date: the Telluride Music Festival in Colorado. That’s where, at age 16, she met producer Gary Paczosa, who regularly works with people like Local 257 members Chris Thile, Gillian Welch, Dolly Parton, and Alison Krauss. Impressed with Jarosz, he invited her to visit his Nashville studio.

“I was definitely super green in the studio,” recalls Jarosz. “We did some low-key, no pressure demos. It was my first time laying things down solo.”

The following spring, Jarosz signed a record deal with Sugar Hill and began working with Paczosa on her first album, Song Up in Her Head, released in 2009. With that came her first opportunity to record with some of the musicians she’d been watching for years at festivals. Guest appearances included Thile, Stuart Duncan, and Jerry Douglas of Local 257. 

“Gary always encouraged me, from the very beginning, to reach for the stars, and ask the best people we could think of to be part of it,” says Jarosz. “I think working with him, those musicians realized I was taking it seriously.

 

“One of the things that was so exciting as a young musician was having the opportunity to attend music festivals during the summer break from school, and not only seeing many of my musical heroes perform live, but often times getting to jam with them backstage or sit in during their sets,” she says. “Thinking back on it, I am so thankful to all of those people for being so generous with their time and wisdom to contribute their musical genius to my albums over the years, especially the first one. It was a dream come true for those musicians to believe in me at such an early age.”

After high school, Jarosz headed straight to the New England Conservatory where she balanced studying and her career while earning a degree in Contemporary Improvisation. “It was tough, especially in my sophomore year when I was working on my second record, Follow Me Down,” she says. “I wanted to have the experience of moving to a new city and doing the college thing. I think it was important for me to have the time and the ‘buffer’ of not going directly on the road after high school.”

“Psychologically, it had a positive impact on my life, and maybe even the longevity of my career,” she explains. “Musically, it exposed me to different styles that I hadn’t been exposed to before—a lot of jazz and free improvisation, and more in-depth work on my own music. Those musical experiences expanded my ear and prepared me for the different musical situations that I find myself in [now]. To be thrown into something completely different makes you look differently at what you do.”

Meanwhile, the acoustic world was already taking note of her talent. She received a Grammy nomination for “Mansinneedof” off her very first album. Her third album, Build Me Up from Bones, was nominated Best Folk Album and its title track was nominated Best American Roots Song in 2014. The Americana Music Association’s American Music Honors & Awards nominated her for Emerging Artist of the Year (2010) and Instrumentalist of the Year (2011). In 2012, her song “Come Around” was nominated Americana Music Association Song of the Year.

Upon graduation in 2013, it was a relief to finally be free to focus on music. “Now I feel fully settled into my life and I am sort of honing in on what I want to do as a musician,” she says. As she’s matured and relaxed into her true musical self, she says Undercurrent, takes a fresh approach compared to her previous albums, which relied heavily on her instrumental virtuosity.

Paring Down

“The longer I do this, the more I think that simple is sometimes better and I don’t need to prove my musicianship within the songs themselves,” she says. “Undercurrent is the simplest album both in terms of songs and the way it was recorded. I’m trying to get closer to the ‘marrow’ of the song.”

One of Jarosz’s greatest learning experiences has been the opportunity to work with Prairie Home Companion, first with Garrison Keillor’s The America the Beautiful—Prairie Home Companion show tour and now with Chris Thile’s weekly broadcast.

“It’s been a really great outlet to sing harmony on this person’s song or play a little mandolin to back up an arrangement. It forces me to be a listener in a more supportive way. I’ve learned such great lessons from having the opportunity to do that,” she says.

Another project that got its start a couple years ago is a trio she formed with fiddler-singer Sara Watkins (from Nickel Creek) and singer-songwriter Aoife O’Donovan of Local 802 (New York City). During an impromptu opening set they did for the Punch Brothers at the 2014 Telluride Festival something clicked and the musicians made it a priority to get together again.

This summer the band they formed, I’m With Her, is doing a series of concerts as part of the American Acoustic tour with the Punch Brothers. The trio of ladies is somewhat of an anomaly in the acoustic world. “In some festival settings there are a lot of dudes in the line-up,” says Jarosz, though they do not dwell on the negative energy of that reality. “I know that Sara and Aoife feel the same way. If you are the best at what you do, are genuine to yourself, and do it long enough, the cream will rise to the top. Hopefully, as time goes on, those [gender] lines will continue to blur.”

“I’m really excited about this project with Aoife and Sara, and I feel like it will play a bigger role in my life and career over the next couple years,” she says. The group released its first original song, “Little Lies,” in July.

“I’m happy to say that some of my biggest influences I now consider friends. They were heroes, and then mentors, especially Chris. He’s put in so much time to teach me over the years. Now I have the opportunity to work with him on Prairie Home Companion. It’s kind of cool to look over the last 15 years and see that progression,” she says.

“I think it’s really kind of special within the acoustic scene, and I know that Chris had that as well with people like Belá Fleck and Jerry Douglas [both members of Local 257] mentoring him from an early age,” she says. “You are inclined to do that for younger people who are coming up after you.”

Just 10 years into her career, Jarosz can already name dozens of big name collaborators. This summer Jarosz will also be doing shows with Mary Chapin Carpenter of Local 161-710 (Atlanta, GA).

“The nice thing about working with Sara and Aoife is that we tend to have similar instincts when it comes to music, so working on a song we all sort of fall into the same way musically. It’s also nice to work with someone who doesn’t think the same way. That’s happened a lot on Prairie Home Companion where we are working out other peoples’ songs and seeing other approaches. Sometimes that can lead to really beautiful things because it’s not necessarily the obvious outcome. It’s important to put yourself in musical situations where you have a good balance of both,” she says.

Jarosz advises young people considering a career in the acoustic world to follow that path. “Growing up, if I was scared to sit down and jam with someone like Chris Thile, or any of my heroes, ultimately, I got the nerve to do it and it was always rewarding. Finding those situations and embracing them makes you grow as a young musician, even if they scare you a little bit. If you are constantly doing things within your comfort zone, you are not going to grow,” she says. “I attribute a lot of the work I’ve done to having great heroes to look up to.”

She concludes, “Also, finding people you love to play music with and finding ways to keep it fun is all important for a long-lasting career and love of music.”

2017 AFM member Grammy winners

Congratulations to the 2017 AFM member Grammy Winners

Congratulations to the 2017 AFM member Grammy winners from signatory recordings listed here. The benefits of recording under the AFM Sound Recording Labor Agreement (SRLA) are compelling. Musicians receive at least the standard wages for sound recordings, which include pension fund contributions and health and welfare fund contributions. Properly filed report forms are submitted to the Sound Recording Special Payments Fund (SPF), which secures participation in proceeds from that fund for each of the next five years. Further, if the recording is licensed for use in other areas (motion pictures, theatrical motion pictures, commercial announcements, etc.) the AFM will bill for the appropriate “new use” payments on behalf of the musicians involved.

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album: Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin, Willie Nelson of Local 433 (Austin, TX) [Legacy Recordings]

Best Country Duo/Group Performance:  “Jolene,” Pentatonix, including Kevin Olusola of Local 47 (Los Angeles, CA)
and featuring Dolly Parton of Local 257
(Nashville, TN) [RCA Records]

Best Improvised Jazz Solo:
“I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” track
from Country for Old Men, John Scofield
of Local 802 (New York City) [Impulse!]

Best Jazz Instrumental Album: Country for Old Men, John Scofield [Impulse!]

Best American Roots Performance: “House of Mercy,” track from Undercurrent,
Sarah Jarosz of Local 257 [Sugar Hill Records]

Best American Roots Song: “Kid Sister,” track from Kid Sister, Vince Gill and Time Jumpers of Local 257 [Rounder Records]

Best Americana Album: This Is Where I Live, William Bell of Local 148-462
(Atlanta, GA) [Stax]

Best Folk Album: Undercurrent, Sarah Jarosz of Local 257 [Sugar Hill Records]

Best Musical Theater Album:
The Color Purple [Broadway Records]

Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media: Star Wars: The Force Awakens, John Williams of Locals 9-535 (Boston, MA) and 47
(Los Angeles, CA) [Walt Disney Records]

Best Historical Album: The Cutting Edge 1965-1966: The Bootleg Series, Vol.12 (Collector’s Edition), Bob Dylan of Local 802 [Columbia/Legacy]

Producer of the Year, Non-Classical:
Greg Kurstin of Local 47

Best Orchestral Performance:
Shostakovich: Under Stalin’s Shadow
—Symphonies Nos. 5, 8 and 9
, Boston
Symphony Orchestra of Local 9-535,
conducted by Andris Nelsons

Best Opera Recording: The Ghosts of Versailles, John Corigliano & William M. Hoffman, Los Angeles Opera Orchestra of Local 47 and Los Angeles Opera Chorus, conducted by James Conlon.

Best Classical Compendium: Michael Daugherty: Tales of Hemingway; American Gothic; Once Upon a Castle, Nashville
Symphony of Local 257, conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero

Best Contemporary Classical Composition: Michael Daugherty: Tales of Hemingway;
American Gothic; Once Upon A Castle
, Nashville Symphony of Local 257,
conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero

Grammy Salute to Music Legends

Grammy Salute to Music Legends: All-Star Artists Pay Tribute to Their Musical Heroes

Grammy Salute to Music LegendsIn addition to recognizing the best recordings, each year The Recording Academy honors a handful of musical icons through its Special Merit Awards—Lifetime Achievement, Trustee, and Technical Grammy Awards. Up until now, they were highlighted only in the Grammy program book where noted artists and musicians pay tribute to them. The Recording Academy and Hal Leonard have now collected two decades worth, featuring 87 honorees in this book.

Grammy Salute to Music Legends: All-Star Artists Pay Tribute to Their Musical Heroes, edited by David Konjoyan, Hal Leonard Corporation, www.halleonard.com.

The AFM Recognizes Signatory Grammy Winners

Taylor_Swift_-_1989There were many AFM members among those honored with nominations and awards at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards. Following is a list of Grammy winners who are AFM members and whose work was recorded on labels signatory to AFM agreements. The AFM celebrates all artists whose works are supported by AFM musicians, under AFM agreements.

Record of the Year:
“Uptown Funk,” Bruno Mars, member of Local 47 (Los Angels, CA).

Album of the Year:
1989, Taylor Swift, member of Local 257 (Nashville, TN).

Best New Artist:
Meghan Trainor of Local 257.

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance:
“Uptown Funk,” Bruno Mars.

Best Pop Vocal Album:
1989, Taylor Swift.

Best Country Solo Performance:
“Traveller,” Chris Stapleton of Local 257.

Best Country Album:
Traveller, Chris Stapleton.

Best Latin Jazz Album:
Made In Brazil, Eliane Elias of Local 802 (New York City).

Best Blues Album:
Born to Play Guitar, Buddy Guy of Local 10-208 (Chicago, IL).

Best Arrangement, Instrument and Vocals:
“Sue (Or in a Season of Crime),”
Maria Schneider of Local 802.

Best Musical Theater Album:
Hamilton, performed by musicians from Local 802.

Best Album Notes:
Love Has Many Faces: A Quartet, A Ballet,
Waiting to Be Danced
, Joni Mitchell of Local 47.

Best Historical Album:
The Basement Tapes Complete: The Bootleg Series Vol. 11,
Bob Dylan of Local 47 and The Band.

Producer of the Year, Non-Classical:
Jeff Bhasker, of Local 47.

Best Orchestral Performance:
Shostakovich: Under Stalin’s Shadow – Symphony No. 10,
Boston Symphony Orchestra, members of Local 9-535.

Best Engineered Album, Classical:
Ask Your Mama, San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, members of Local 6.

Producer of the Year, Classical:
Ask Your Mama, San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, members of Local 6.

Best Classical Compendium:
Paulus: Three Places of Enlightenment Veil of Tears and Grand Concerto,
Nashville Symphony, members of Local 257.

AFM Recognizes Signatory Grammy Winners

Numerous AFM members were among those honored with nominations and awards at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards. Following is a list of Grammy winners who are AFM members and whose work is recorded on labels signatory to AFM agreements. The AFM celebrates all artists whose works are supported by AFM musicians, under AFM agreements.

adams-city-noir-450x419

Best Orchestral Performance: John Adams: City Noir,
St. Louis Symphony, all members of Local 2-197 (St. Louis, MO).

Hilary_Hahn_In_27_Pieces_Hilary_Hahn_Encores

Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance: “In 27 Pieces,”
Hilary Hahn of Local 40-543 (Baltimore, MD) and Cory Smythe.

Partch

Best Classical Compendium: Partch: Plectra & Percussion Dances, Partch: Alison Bjorkedal and Nick Terry of Local 47 (Los Angeles, CA).

christhieleMeyer

Best Contemporary Instrumental Album: Bass & Mandolin,
Chris Thile and Edgar Meyer, both of Local 257 (Nashville, TN).

Earls-of-Leicester

Best Bluegrass Album: The Earls of Leicester, The Earls of Leicester:
Shawn Camp, Charlie Cushman, Jerry Douglas, Tim O’Brien,
Johnny Warren, and Barry Bales, all members of Local 257.

Best Improvised Jazz Solo: “Fingerprints,” track from Trilogy,
Chick Corea Trio: Chick Corea, Christian McBride, and Brian Blade,
all members of Local 802 (New York City).

Best Instrumental Album: Trilogy, Chick Corea Trio: Chick Corea,
Christian McBride, and Brian Blade, all members of Local 802.

Gordon-Goodwin-Life-in-the-Bubble-Album-Cover

Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album: Life in the Bubble,
Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band, all members of Local 47.

riverthread

Best American Roots Performance: “A Feather’s Not a Bird,”
track from The River & The Thread, Rosanne Cash of Local 802.

Best Roots Song: “A Feather’s Not a Bird,” track from
The River & The Thread, Rosanne Cash of Local 802.

Best Americana Album: The River & The Thread, Rosanne Cash of Local 802.

Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals: New York Tendaberry,
featuring Renée Fleming and Yo-Yo Ma of Local 802.

Best Instrumental Composition: “The Book Thief,” track from The Book Thief soundtrack, composed by John Williams of Locals 47 and 9-535 (Boston, MA).

Weird-Al

Best Comedy Album: Mandatory Fun, Weird Al Yankovic of Local 47.

les paul

Les Paul: The Wizard of Guitar Strings & Gizmos

les paulFrom the time he was a young boy and his mother would let him “take something apart” if he got all his chores done on time, Les Paul has had a drive to learn what makes something work. The family piano, the radio, and various household appliances — Paul took apart whatever he could get his hands on. And invariably it worked better when he was done with it. When he was about nine years old, he got his hands on a guitar, and the world has never been the same. Over the years he tinkered and toyed, figuring out how to get his guitar to play through his radio. And this was just the beginning. He didn’t just want to change the way his instrument sounded live; he wanted to change the way live music sounded when it was recorded.

Paul lives and breathes through his guitar, even at 86. Every Monday night at the Iridium in Manhattan, the Les Paul Trio performs to a packed house. But his playing, which defines his life to this day (despite his fairly severe arthritis), is only a part of what makes Paul the living icon that he is. He is the inventor of the solid body electric guitar — which exists today as Gibson’s most popular Les Paul model — almost unchanged from when it was first introduced in 1952. He also introduced the world to multitrack recording with his 1948 hit “Brazil.” The song featured six guitar parts, all played by Paul. The pioneer of overdubbing and electronic reverb didn’t stop there. He fashioned the first 8-track by stacking eight tape machines on top of one another and synchronizing them to play perfectly together. Virtually all of modern music, whether recorded in the world’s most technologically advanced studios or by someone working with a home-recording system in their basement, is made using innovations sparked by the inventions of Les Paul.

A lifetime member of both Local 802 in New York and Local 47 in Los Angeles, Paul will always be grateful to the union for the assistance given to him when he was in a devastating car accident in 1948 that shattered his right arm and elbow. At Paul’s insistence, the doctors set his arm at an angle that would allow him to cradle a guitar and pick at the strings.

As a musician, Paul soared to popularity in the ’50s with his late wife, Mary Ford. The combination of Ford on vocals, Paul on guitar — along with Paul’s cutting edge re-cording skills — sold millions of records, including such hits as “How High the Moon,” and “Vaya Con Dios.” He has influenced almost all genres of music since the ’50s, especially blues, jazz, country, and southern rock. Today his music of choice is jazz, although he won a GRAMMY in 1977 for Best Country Instrumental Award Performance with the late Chet Atkins for their “Chester and Lester” album. In 2001, Paul received a Technical GRAMMY award.

Paul continues to absorb knowledge like a sponge. “You would think that a person would say ‘Well, I’ve retired, I’m going to go on a boat and just drop a line and wait for that cork to go down,'” says Paul. “Instead, in my case, it’s just a constant learning, a constant curiosity, to see what’s going on — the great steps forward, along with the obstacles that come with progress.

“We have mono, and we’ll get our music to where we’re very proud of it. And then we make it stereo, and the problem becomes twice as tricky. And so then you go to surround sound, and it just goes deeper, deeper, deeper. And then you get to digital and from digital, it goes on and on. It just never ends. It’s amusing, it’s interesting, and it’s scary — it’s just something. It’s a wonderful time with the way we’re progressing, when we think of where we were a couple of hundred years ago. But I’m not sure that we’re not getting to a point where we’re outsmarting ourselves!”

Les Paul is just as likely to tell you about his need for speed as he is to share his passion
for music and the manipulation of sound. But even those stories eventually come around to music.

“This one state trooper pulled me over, and I told him ‘I’m Les Paul, I’m a musician, a guitar-player,’ and he says, ‘Well, I hate music.’ Now how do you hate music? So I thought I might be in trouble, but then I told him that his radar was off. I offered to drive by again at exactly 70. He liked the idea, and since I helped him calibrate his radar gun, he let me go!

“Usually they see the license and say something like, ‘The Les Paul?’ Sometimes he’ll say, ‘I play guitar,’ and I’ll say, ‘Yeah? You any good?’ Now I’ve always got my guitar in the trunk, so I’ll get it out and hand him the guitar and he’ll start to play, and I’ll show him how he could be better if he did it this way or that way, and here I am with this police officer with his left foot up on the bumper …”

Usually the officer is so ecstatic about getting an impromptu lesson from a guitar legend that he forgets why he pulled him over in the first place.

les paul oldPaul is the first to admit that life as a professional musician has its perks. But he’s not going to tell anyone that it’s easy. “Once in a while someone will come up and tell me that they bought their son a guitar, and I’m tempted to say ‘Why?!'” laughs Paul. “No, that’s terrible advice to give,” he went on, serious. “The guitar is a wonderful, wonderful instrument; it does so much for a person. It solves a lot of problems, helps you put up with the world. I guess this applies to music all around the board; you can always turn to your guitar and shut the world off temporarily.”

For those who don’t play, the guitar has a way of getting under your skin. Which would be the only way to explain why someone suffering from painful arthritis in his hands still shows up to the club every Monday evening to jam. “It’s something musicians can do, which probably most other people can’t, and that is to go to such a ripe old age and continue be able to communicate through your instrument with other people, young, old, it doesn’t matter.” He also feels a responsibility to continue to entertain people for as long as he can. “There’s a thing about jazz; it’s serious, generally speaking,” explains Paul. “I have a whole different approach to it. To me there’s a lot of laughs, lot of humor. Put it this way: people pay to come in, and they probably come with one thought in mind, and that is to be really turned on with a lot playing. Music, music, music. They come in here to get their mind off of their problems and to be entertained; that’s what we do. And when they leave they say, ‘Jeez, I’ve had a wonderful time!’

“I have three other players; they’re all great. There’s Nicki Parrott on bass, she’s just great. There’s Lou Pallo, who has been with me many years. He’s the foundation, he plays the rhythm and the background and he sings. Then I have Frank Vignola, who is a very fine technical guitar player. It’s great to have the three of them up there with me, because there’s a lot of things that I would put on a record — where I could put down multiple tracks — but when I come out on stage I can only do one. With my hands and the arthritis, I’m lucky if I get one-tenth of what I’d like to do. So having these other three musicians with me, we work around it. They just give me great support. That’s where it really shines, the mix of all of us. They work hard!”

And Paul has no intention of slowing down any time soon. In addition to playing every Monday, there are several books that he’s “threatening” to write, as well as several other archival and museum projects he’s involved in. “Every once in while I’ll take on a fistful and go for it,” he says. “It’s like there’s always more, and more, and more.”

Although his one-night-a-week gig is just about all his hands can deal with nowadays, Paul cannot stress enough the importance of practice to an aspiring professional.

“Practice. That’s the thing,” he asserts. “You need to practice all the time. If you really want to be with it, you have to just absolutely, constantly keep on your playing. My advice to anyone is that there just aren’t enough hours in a day; be religious about it. That’s the key.”

The thing about practicing is that playing also breeds creation. With a constant flow of music from your head right out of your fingertips, you never know what you may end up with. “If you spend enough time with it, you can really communicate with that guitar,” says Paul. “You surprise yourself. Before you can think of it, you’ve already played it.”

While the life of a professional musician has got to be one of the most enjoyable careers, it’s also probably one of the most difficult in the sheer amount of time it takes to maintain your craft. “It’s a lot different than being a plumber,” laughs Paul. “But I’ll tell you what, that plumber isn’t jamming at midnight, either! He doesn’t come home and say to his wife, ‘Hey, put your clothes on, I want to take you over and show you this job I just did!’

“Here’s another little bit of wisdom that runs across my mind,” muses Paul, “It’s not so much the intro as it is the ending. It’s easy to walk out on the stage, but you better have something to get the hell off! That’s where you get caught. You get out there and it doesn’t matter — you could be up, down, in the middle, whatever — but when it’s time to leave, you better have something up your sleeve, to be able to give it your best shot!”