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10-Week Update

Posted by JRTaylor on April 5, 2012

February 
Re:Create conference
It had all the ingredients of a life-changing experience that can only be shown with time. Not only did I make new friends, I also began to learn more of the power of online connection. Tim Sanders captured my attention with every sentence he uttered, Derek Webb challenged the way I think as an artist, and I was both inspired and refreshed by a music showcase at Provident Records. I look forward to returning next year and looking back to test my theory.
 
We made great progress in February on the hymns record and got most of the basic tracks recorded. I'm thrilled with the performances from the other guys and excited about how it's coming together!
 
I attended the Verge conference with my new friend and pastor, Paul Kemp, and was very pleased to run into so many of my friends from churches all over. Had many great conversations and most of Austin's amazing hamburgers including one of my new favs, Hopdoddy.
 
Leap Day
We celebrated my son's first "real" birthday on Feb 29th by taking him and his little brother to a small amusement park in north Austin just like the one I went to at their age in San Antonio.
 
March
Wrought with many joys and adversities, March flew by almost as soon as I realized it began. As if Daylight Saving Time weren't enough to throw off a musician, SXSW disrupts the Austin ecosystem for about two weeks. I recorded a showcase for Miles Davis House at SXSW where I witnessed one of the most inspiring performances by Trixie Whitley of Brooklyn, NY (right up there with Jeremy Enigk, in terms of being able to capture a room just with their passionate musical performance). The final day of SXSW I joined Texas country artitst, Pauline Reese, at The Stage on 6th St in downtown Austin for a showcase. 
 
The following weekend, we traveled with her to Linden, TX where she received both Entertainer of the Year and Female Vocalist of the Year from the Texas Music Awards. We played at the raucous after-party down the road in Jefferson. It was quite a different world for this city-boy!
 
Between all this, plus tax preparation, allergies, an expensive escrow mistake by my mortgage company, sick kids, hard-drive failure and other tech anomalies, it was very fast month indeed! But being back-in-the-saddle feels good. I am grateful and look forward to getting this hymns record out there!
 
On another positive note, I have two projects in the works that could be huge...more to come...
 
And finally, tomorrow I get to participate in our 3rd annual Serve Our City Good Friday event at Bass Concert Hall. The past two years have been very memorable and I am honored to serve alongside some amazing people again this year as we lead the music for this event.
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NAMM 2012

Posted by JRTaylor on January 24, 2012

It was an incredible experience at the NAMM Show 2012 in Anaheim, CA, full of amazing musicians, innovative technologies and plenty of "interesting" people.

My first few steps onto the showroom floor on the first day caught me by surprise when I found myself ten feet from the legendary Stevie Wonder, playing on a keyboard built here in Austin by Infinite Response. That really set the tone for the rest of my experience which included countless more of these "walk-bys" as well as meeting and hanging out with some guys that I have played with or recorded before, including Allan Holdsworth, Virgil Donati, Derek Sherinian, and of course my friends, Todd Sucherman & Ricky Phillips from Styx.

One of my favorite moments was an impromptu jam at the Aviom booth with Johnny Haro (The Dreaming) and Ricky Phillips.
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I think there's video somewhere, but you can't really hear much, since it was the Aviom booth after all (personal monitor mixers with headphones)! :)

Of course I got to spend some time with my friends at Carvin, who unveiled the new Legacy 3 guitar amp with the legendary Steve Vai. They continue to please with there ever-growing lineup of stellar gear. Also, my good friends at Mission Engineering have some really cool new things in the pipeline (top secret though, you'll have to keep an eye on them)! Other noteworthy pieces were a groundbreaking new amp from Yamaha and a brilliant line of sound reinforcement products from Line 6.

There are some of the highlights - there was so much more, but I have a record to get back to making! I am extremely grateful to Ricky Phillips and also the fine folks at Lectrosonics for making this whole experience possible. Here's to a great year for all of us - may we have even more wonderful things to report next year!

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