It was a great show for a great cause. I had a lot of fun playing mostly covers for the supportors of this year’s Hershey’s Relay for Life. Braving the wind and the rain, I was one of several performers throughout the 2 day event.

I went on at midnight on Friday after a set by Andy Fausnacht from the band Rutland. Andy’s music is reminiscent of Howie Day and the Goo Goo Dolls. He’s a really good artist and I’m looking forward to doing a show with him and Rutland in the near future. Check out some of their songs at http://www.myspace.com/rutlandmusic.

After Andy finished up, I jumped on stage and performed for an hour. I had a great a time and it was a blast playing for my friends from JPL and the other people at the event. Since we had a Vegas theme, I couldn’t go throughout the night without a special rendition of Elvis’s “Suspicious Minds”. I finished with a medley and a cell phone salute from my friends.

Although it was a great time, it was still a very emotional event, honoring over 65 survivors and raising over $137,000 for the ACS. I’m really hoping my little contribution has helped and I’m looking forward to participating in the 2007 Relay for Life.

Last week at our team fundraiser, some one asked me why I am doing the Relay for Life. Jokingly I said, “For the chicks”. After a few laughs, I thought, “Really, why am I doing this?” Honestly, there are several reasons why I have participated in the Relay for the past three year, why I have done it in the past and why it is such an important event.

In the past
Throughout high school, I participated in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life as a member of the North Schuylkill and then the Pottsville Hospital team. In the beginning, I was there to hang out with my friends, stay out late and meet new people, but after my first lap, I realized that this was more than a late night of fun. The event was established to remember those who passed away from cancer and honor those who are fighting the disease and those who have conquered it. At that time, I remembered Mrs. Lord, one of my supervisors at the Hospital and Katie Houtz, another woman I worked with, that were fighting the disease. Mrs. Lord, fought and won, only to recently lose her husband to the same thing that she fought for years. Katie fought it for many years but ended up passing away a few years after she couldn’t take the treatment any further.

Why I Walk
As recently as last week, if you were to ask me why I am walking and collecting donations, I would have said “For OUR friend Joe”. Joe Surges was a coworker of mine at JPL. Joe could best be described as Santa Clause. He was a tall, heavy set man with a white beard. Jovial and always making people laugh. Mr. Surges, as I called him (because, “You can’t have too many Joe’s in the same company”) was always laughing, trying to push people’s buttons. There were times that I would find myself in his office, which was decorated with Beatles and Grocho Marx memorbilia, sitting and talking with him for hours about everything from wrestling to music to world events to girls. Even sometimes we’d discuss work.

He was an amazing communicator, I never saw anyone command a crowd like Joe. He got people excited about their job and their ideas. He pushed the envelope never taking no for an answer and always thinking outside the box.

A True Genius
My most memorable moment with Joe was one day he stopped by my desk and noticed that I was completely stressed out. I discussed the issue with Joe and although didn’t have an answer he did leave me with this important message. “If you put 12 geniuses in a room, they will come up with a brilliant idea, but if you put a 13th in the same room, the idea will be even greater.” Joe finished… “I want to be your genius.” He then told me to stop by his office anytime to bounce ideas off him. Joe was a true genius and an amazing man.

I only knew Joe for about two years before he passed away, but in that time, he made an everlasting impression on not only me, but everyone that he met along the way. Joe is missed and he is the reason, we at JPL started our team JPL United.

Team JPL United
Three years ago, employees, friends and family members of JPL Productions formed our Relay for Life team to remember Joe and our loved ones touched by cancer. Appropriately named, JPL United. As I said, Joe touched everyone’s life, so our team was quickly formed. Throughout the past three years, we have completed fundraisers for the event and the ACS gathering new members along the way. This year, we had a comedy night at Doc Holiday’s and we made nearly $2500 at one time. Getting closer to our goal to surpass $4000 as a team! You can help by donating online.

For the Chicks
As I mentioned before, until recently if you asked me why am I doing this, I would have said for Joe, but everything changed this afternoon. In a discussion with my parents, I asked them for a small donation for our team. With no hesitation, like always, my parents gave me a few dollars. This time my mom mentioned that she had already purchased three luminaries. Wait…what? Three luminaries, for who?

I guess I have been ignorant all this time. I knew my grandmother passed away from a liver disease, but not until today did I understand that this was a form of cancer. The same thing with my great grandmother, who died from a colon disease. Again, a form of cancer. Finally, my aunt who was diagnosed a few months ago, underwent treatment and because the doctors caught it so early there were no complications. How could I have been so naive? How could I forget three woman that were so instrumental on my life? I guess it was appropriate that on the day I speak in church that I remember three woman that really helped me construct my views on faith. So, this year, I am walking for the chicks… For my grandmother, great grandmother and my aunt. Yes, for the chicks.

Performing At The Event
I was asked to perform at this year’s Relay in Hershey. It will be an honor to entertain for such a great cause. I have an interesting time slot, Friday at midnight into Saturday morning. I’m excited to play and to share my music for the ACS.

The Relay
Relay For Life is a fun-filled overnight event designed to celebrate survivorship and raise money for research and programs of your American Cancer Society. During the event, teams of people gather at schools, fairgrounds, or parks and take turns walking or running laps. Each team tries to keep at least one team member on the track at all times. For more Information or donate online.

After laying down the guitar and bass tracks, the next thing was to lay down the vocals. I met up with Shane on Wednesday to do just that. Shane added some slight effects to the guitars and finished the first mix of the tracks.

The first thing we did was listen to the songs and made some adjustments to the electric guitar. Shane cleaned up the sound of the guitar removing a lot of the noise from my single coils, but if you know me, you know I love the noise. Ultimately, we removed almost all of the effects to get a pure raw tube amp sound that I love when I’m performing. One of my goals when doing this record is to get that raw sound, that raw emotion. Whether it is electric or solo acoustic, I try to put that raw emotion into every one of my shows and I want that conveyed in these songs.

We spent most of the 3 hours working on “Before”. We edited the backing tracks and then I went into the booth. It took a couple takes, but by the end of the night, I was really happy with the sound. We added a few layers to the voice to fill the chorus.

Finally, Shane and I layed down the first set of vocals for “One Step”. Next week, we will be reviewing our work, laying down the final vocals for “One Step” and then beginning to work on “Forgive”. All in all, the demo is coming along great and I can’t wait until I can share it with everyone.

Thanks to everyone who came out and braved the scorching heat at the Harrisburg ArtsFest this year to hear bailey perform. It had been exactly a year since our last show, so it was great to see so many familiar faces that still supports us even after our time off.

This year, we performed on the Walking Bridge Stage compared to last year when we were asked to perform on the “Big Stage” or the State Street Stage. When we originally got the invite from the Harrisburg Arts Council to play, we had a slot on the State Street Stage, but were bumped for a new “up and coming” band. You can ask Wes, what he thinks about that… Although the stage was smaller, we still had a good time and a lot of fun.

The pregame began right after we finished loading the truck. Dressed in our green shirts, we headed downtown to the stage just in time to catch the talented jazz band the Reese Project, who played before us.

If you are not familiar, ArtsFest is an annual event held on Front Street in Harrisburg PA. It is hosted by the Harrisburg Arts Council and welcomes local and national artists and musicians. The festival is held every Memorial Day weekend and is a great event for families and inspiring artists to share their love of art and music. For three days, musicians of all genres play on one of three stages from 10am to close. This year, bailey was asked to close the festival with a 4pm Memorial Day set.

It didn’t take too long for us to get set up and start playing. We opened with Wordless and played eight other original tunes debuting two new songs. It was HOT! (Our performance was good too!) During one of our slower tunes, I looked over to see Matt crying. This was not because he was so into the song, but because he had gotten sweat in his eyes. After a couple laughs and a No Doubt cover. (Even though requested, we did not play a No Doubt cover and will NEVER play a No Doubt cover. Besides having a female lead and a tall goofy lookin’ guitar player, we have nothing in common with No Doubt.) We finished with two songs that can be found on our demo CD, Grass So Green and One of These Days.

We got a lot of compliments from our friends and new fans. We are really excited to get out and play again… At least more frequently than once a year!

Check out photos from the show. Comments about the show? You can leave them here or leave them on the bailey Myspace page.

I met up with producer Shane Garland again on Tuesday for my second day of recording. I spent over 3 hours laying down the bass track and the electric guitar for “Forgive”, “One Step” and “Before”.

Shane had already cleaned up and added a few minor effects to the acoustic tracks that we recorded early. They sounded awesome. The tone was crystal clear, I was really impressed. We talked for a while and he played a few songs that he recorded with a band from Johnstown, Shades of June. The songs were really good and the mix was amazing. Shane and I discussed how we were going to lay the bass tracks and the layers of guitar. After I transposed my chords into bass lines and different voicings, we started recording.

I’ve been doing solo gigs on a consistant basis for over a year and before that I played open mics and a show here and there by myself. I have mentioned it before, there is no feeling better than when someone approaches you and comments (postively) on one of your original numbers. The past few shows, I have received comments specifically about one song – “One Step”. Although Shane has never heard me perform this song live, when we started our session on Tuesday, he said, “This is the song we are doing first!” It was a good feeling and made me think, “Wow, this song actually might be good.”

After a few hours, and multiple takes on producing feedback, we wrapped up for the night. Shane played the songs one last time before I took off. We are only half way there and already, I’m really impressed. Next, I will be laying down the vocals and the drums. I’m really excited to hear the final piece. If everything goes according to play, I’m expecting the songs to be completed mid-June.

I just got back from laying down a few tracks for my debut EP. I’m hoping to record 4 or 5 songs for a release in June.

I’m working with producer Shane Garland. Shane and I graduated high school together. While in high school, Shane and I were in a band together. Shane played the keyboard and guitar, while I played guitar and sang. Those were the days! Even at 17, I knew Shane was one of most gifted musicians I would ever play with and I was right. Shane is an amazing pianist and has an ear for music and tone that few can match.

Currently Shane produces and records for a record label in Philly called LocknLoad. The label is home to mostly hip-hop and r&b acts. He has also worked with solo artists and several bands in the Pittsburgh area before moving to Harrisburg. He has awesome gear in his studio. A great computer with a huge mixing board and a mic that can pick up sounds that you can’t even hear. I’m very excited that Shane is willing to help me with this CD.

Shane had some free time tonight, so I went over and laid down my first tracks. Within a few short hours, we had the acoustic tracks completed for “Forgive”, “Before” and “One Step”. We discussed how the other instruments will come in. My plan is to play an acoustic rythmn guitar, an electric lead and a funky bass. Shane will play the drums and add keys where appropriate. Already the songs sound awesome and we have only started!

I had never been to the Harbour Company before my performance. When I walked in, I could feel the laid back atmosphere. It was really a cool hangout for teens and adults. The Harbour Coffee Company was originally a Christian coffee shop, while Christian acts still perform there and I believe the majority of the patrons are still very religious, the Company has started to encourage non-secular acts to perform. That’s where I come in. I contacted the Company about performing and within a month, I had a show booked.

The staff was awesome. They helped me set up and pointed me in the right direction for my sound check. Kudos!

After I got set up and ran through a couple chords an older gentleman walked in and sat down in front. He knew my name although we never met. He said that he checkout my site and liked what he heard. He was a regular at the Harbour Company and had seen many acts there, so he decided to come on Friday night to listen for himself. We talked about music for a while before my first set, discussing influences and my musical background. As I began to play, he started taking notes (writing good things I hope) and rocking back and forth to the beat. He was really into it.

There were many other people there that came in and out through the night, but mostly the people that came stayed for at least one set. It is always great to have people come up to you and say, “Good job”, or “I really liked that song.” I think I made a couple fans that night.

I finished the show with an extended version of “Hey hey, My my” and I think people really dug it. The response was so good, I was asked to come back and play again in May or June.