The Cat’s Out Of The Bag!

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I have exciting news! Also, it’s time I came clean about what Iv’e been doing and why I dropped off the face of the earth at the end of my performance season last year.

 

First things first.

I have a brand new electric harp that cost more than most of the cars I have ever owned put together along with a whole bunch of much needed equipment that I have been wanting to upgrade, for on stage performances and recording purposes. I am also exited to announce that Todd Que, the guitarist responsible for starting me on my musical journey and co-creator of our “prytaneum” project is going to be traveling back to this end of the country in a few months and we plan to put together more music and adventure! At this stage of the game, we are ready to really push our envelope with a new lineup of classical crossover instruments that we have amassed. We have Ideas for a range of music from Christmas tunes to adrenaline pumping battle rock (BTW, according to my friend who loves to play games for cash, he and I both think gamers and cosplayers are going to love it!). This is a phase of our music that we’ve been aching to get to, for a long time.

 

Now, where the heck have I been for almost a year?!?!

I was feeling a ton of growing pains in 2018. I have been literally beating my poor harp to death! It’s not very old but is starting to fall apart. I often call it my work truck. It’s filthy dirty and I half jokingly tell people that I’m afraid to clean it because the grime is the only thing holding it together! With that said, if you have seen me live, you know that I don’t play that poor instrument the way it was designed to be played. I have made many attempts to run guitar effects through it and have had very limited success. The need for a harp without a sound box was ever increasing because of the standard harp’s tendency to feed back when using such affects. Also, I needed a harp that was built tougher and stronger for the kind of venues I play. I wanted carbon fiber and no sound box. I wanted heavy duty quality and I wanted a new sound that would flip a listener’s lid!

 

Yellowstone In January … 17 degrees!

I saw no way of being able to save up for such a thing in a reasonable amount of time and wasn’t interested in going into debt for one. I got so frustrated and anxious to find a solution to this problem that I made a very rash decision. In hind sight, It was just short of selling my soul to the devil! I researched trucking companies, got my CDL license and they chained me to the wheel of an 18 wheeler. I have been a career musician for years. I have been very outspoken about being true to my goals and dreams. For the next 8 months, I drove, slept, drove and drove some more. I no longer had my family, I no longer had a life of creativity. I no longer could perform, compose or play. I had a flute on the truck that I never played because I didn’t have time. To keep this post short, I won’t go into too much detail. I talk about it in the live stream that I did last week. If you missed it, you can check it out by clicking here. A few weeks ago, after having completed my financial objective, I left the trucking business and am back in the music business!

 

The reason I titled this “The cat’s out of the bag” is because, as I just mentioned, last week, I broadcasted a “reveal party” where I played my harp and talked with fans live. If you were able to make it, I really appreciated everyone who came and supported the broadcast. It was way more fun than I expected and I have been getting fantastic feedback from it. If you missed it and haven’t seen this incredible harp in action, you can check it out by going to:
https://www.facebook.com/aaronstokesmusic/videos/356552885000183/

 

Thank you so much for being a listener! Look forward to a WHOLE LOT OF NEW MUSIC AND ADVENTURE!! I am very excited to share it with you as it comes together!

 

note – I wasn’t sure if I would leave the broadcast up for replay but there were several people who couldn’t make the broadcast time so I made it available for replay. For the moment, I’m leaving the replay up but facebook times out videos after a while (I haven’t learned what that time is but my older videos are all gone) so be sure to check it out as soon as you can.