randy adams: News/Journal

On Friday , October 14 Randy Adams and Tibetan musician Tenzing Tsewang will share a set of music during the Second Friday Studio Series at Dragonfly in Reston VA . The topic of the evening will be Focus On Tibet . The Children of Tibet Trust Foundation will present a slide show highlighting their recent work in rural Tibet . This event is FREE ! Light refreshments will be served . Look in the calendar section of this site for more info . Hope to see you there !

Randy Adams and band will be taping this month for the " Larz from Mars " TV show ! Larz has been presenting his popular cable show in the D.C. area for many years now . Randy has put together a great band just for the show . Tom Bollinger from TNS and the Watchers will be on percussion , Charles Mitchell from Juggling Suns and The Bruce Middle Group on percussion , Chris Marsh from TNS and the Watchers on upright bass . Brett Lemley will be playing trumpet , he is featured regularly with the Tom Cunningham Orchestra . Last but certainly not least is Jaqui MacMillan on percussion . Jaqui has appeared with an unbelievable list of D.C. area musicians . Check out her website at www.drumforjoy.com to find out more about her . You can get there in the links section of this site . We will let you knmow when the show will air !

Things are shaping up for the Randy Adams / Tenzing Tsewang concert . Tenzing is a Tibetan artist with one foot rooted in ancient Tibetan tradition and the other walking through our everyday world . Check out the link to his sight to learn more . The concert will take place at Jammin Java in Vienna VA on Sunday August 7 at 1:30 pm . The time and venue make this a perfect concert for the whole family . Both Tenzing and I will be playing solo sets and then we will join together . . Once again thanks to all of you who came to the show at the State . I was feeling the love !

The music of Tenzing Tsewang is grounded in an extraordinary diversity of life experiences .Born into a family of nomads , Tenzing's family was forced to flee Tibet after the Chinese communist invasion . While living in exile in India , Tenzing recieved intensive training as a chanting master at the Namgyul Tantric College , the private monestary of His Holiness the Dalai Lama . Tenzing's performance will include flute , ancient Tibetan chanting and mythical Tibetan folksongs . Recently Tenzing has added the Tibetan guitar ( dram yen to his repetoire allowing him to capture the rich folk culture of Tibet in village songs , nomadic tunes and national songs of struggle and celebration . Tenzing's latest cd '' Mantra Healing '' is a unique exploration of Tibetan and world music .

Come celebrate the Summer Solstice ! Randy Adams will be debuting his new original tunes with his new band The Watchers . Sharing the bill will be The Brindley Brothers Band . The show will be tuesday June 21 at The State Theatre 220 N.Washington St. in Falls Church, VA Tickets are 5 dollars in advance . 7 dollars at the door . You can contact The State for info at 703 237 0300 . Come celebrate !

We tried to lay down some overdubs to the 4 songs recorded in March . One musician experienced what is commonly known as red light fever in which a good musician is reduced to jelly under the scrutiny of the digital mirror . The next musician's attempt was better but do to stylistic differences we did not end up with anything close to usable . This is gonna take a while . Back to square 2 .

I had a great recording session last wednesday with Eddie Hartness . Those of you from the D.C. area know Eddie as the Drummer from Eddie From Ohio who are one of the top folk / rock bands in the U.S. Those of you who don't know them should check them out asap . We laid down the foundations for 4 tunes . Thanks to J.P. Reali fro lending me his Collings guitar . It sounded great . My guitar is a little worn at this point and the intonation is a little tweaky for anything critical . The tunes we worked on will make up the core of the acoustic side of the album . The working titles are " Waiting On A Dream " " Let Me Kiss You Goodnight " The Seeds That We Sow " and " Good Bye Sweet Dreams " . Our next session will be on April 11 . We will either be overdubbing the acoustic stuff or starting on the electric tunes depending on who is available . Thanks again to Eddie who is doing the engineering for pennies an hour !

Recording sessions will begin tomorrow for
'' Awakened by the Sound of an Illusion Being Shattered " . I don't know why I am attracted to such long titles . Maybe it sounds more artsy . It's funny when I think about this project . It's like a little piece of plastic falling in the forest or stream of digital bits flowing through phone lines and out of wireless towers around the world . I wonder if it will mean anything to any one ? I guess this is what is referred to in the industry as a vanity project . I used to look in the mirror and think I looked pretty good . Now I realize that I am pretty funny looking . Tomorrow I will be laying down a guide track for 4 songs or so . Kind of like preparing a canvas with a wash . After that others will build up layers of colors which will be mixed into the final pieces . And they will be masterpieces of course . Little bits and plastic discs just waiting to find a home inside of someone's heart .

Three tracks fron " The Transmigration of Blind Joe Death " appear in the " Colors Dance with Music - The Art of John Vanderhayden " a video by C.L. Kunst . The tracks that appear are " As A Child I Used To Know " " In Tance " and The Voice of Autumn "

Many of you who have visited this site from around the world have been presented with a variety of esoteric instrumental guitar music . Most of you who live in the Washington D.C. area know me best as an electric guitar player in Rock bands . In fact the release of " The Transmigration of Blind Joe Death " was a bit of a jolt to those of you expecting an electric oriented rock cd . It is a blessing and a curse to want to create so many different kinds of music . It makes it difficult to know what to expect . Those of you who enjoyed " TToBJD " and " Meadowlark " may have no interest in a rock cd . " The Sounds of the Floating World " is a creation that is extremely satisfying to some but seems absolutely retarded to others . I just make the stuff . The last two cd's were created with the materials available . A DAT recorder , a microphone , a cheesy electronic processor , an acoustic guitar and a budget of zero . I was fortunate to have Kelly Johnson contribute her graphic arts skills to " TToBJD " . Chris Engnoth created all the graphics for " Meadowlark " . So , knowing all things are possible we begin this new cd . Some of these songs have been like a little family of monkees on my back just itching to jump off . Some were written in the past few weeks . This momentum for this project picked up a while back when I tried to create some demos with a multi track recorder . This experiment led to to the following realizations : 1 ) I am a terrible recording engineer , 2 ) I am not avery good bass player , 3 ) I need to find people that know what the hell they are doing . So sifting through my mind I seemed to remember that Eddie Hartness from the band " Eddie from Ohio " had mentioned that he had recorded some pre production stuff for EFO in his basement . An email or two later and Eddie was in . Another overheard conversation pointed to Martha Roberts who runs the house sound at the State Theatre . She was an audio student at AU . Would she be interested ? Yes she would . Drums ? Tom Bollinger from TNS said let's go . Of course Eddie is great drummer as well . I wanted to have another guitarist as well . I called up an old student of mine feeling he would be the right kind of guy . Enter Anthony Pirog . Last night I recorded acouctic guitar / vocal demos of 11 songs for everyone to learn from on a mini disc player I borrowed from Bolli . From here he will transfer them to cd for everyone to use as a guide . Next will be a few rehearsals and pinning down some recording dates . Check back soon !

I am pleased to announce that I will be collaborating with Tibetan multi-instrumentalist Tenzing Tsewang this summer . We will be playing afew shows in the D.C. area and hopefully producing a recording . Check out Tenzing's site in the links . He is an artist that is bringing an ancient tradition into a modern context . I will announce the dates and venues as soon as they are confirmed .

I will be recording a new rock cd in March. Joining me so far on the date are Eddie Hartness , Tom Bollinger , Anthony Pirog and Mike Melchione . I will keep everyone updated as the work progresses. Cheers !

Special thaks to Lance Neal of WBAI in NYC for playing tracks off " The Transmigration of Blind Joe Death "

There will be some great sounds to download as spring comes our way . Look for tracks from " The Transmigration of Blind Joe Death " and " Meadowlark " featuring Randy Adams on acoustic and slide guitar . For those that like to watch clouds drift through the sky there will be tracks from the " Sounds of the Floating World " Vol . 1

Songs from last falls Shadow World show will be available for free download soon ! This freewheeling jam ensemble features some great , great musicians . Jon Ozment on keyboards is known for his work with Maceo Parker and Buck Hill among others . Percussionist Sam " Seguito " Turner's resume reads like a who's who of Latin Jazz with the great Mongo Santemaria heading the list and his most recent steady the Rhumba Club . Drummer Mark Merella also lays it down for the cutting edge group " Mantra " . Randy Adams guitar is dark , electric and eclectic . Joining Shadow World at this show were Ya Meena and Raven of the World Fusion Belly Dance group " Martiya Possession " The still photo's in the photo section do not do their work justice . Check out their link for more .