Gary Snipes,
Mark Boger,
Shelton Smith,
Ken Howard,
Whitney Ohman,
Sandra Cash,
Brian Austin,
Denis Hynds,
Sarah Kasper,
Alandis Snipes,
Larry Snipes,
Kate Hagerty,
Toast,
Bill Hammaker,
Kae Pilate,
Doug Porter,
Shane Strate,
Anderea Myres.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tragic news within the eclectic family. Long time Eclectic live performance band mate Erin Murphy, (Murph) has passed away. Murph was a key player in the early Eclectic Orchestra line up. He was instrumental in the live sets which featured the original Gary Snipes compositions, Mushroom Mountain and Starship, as well as the cover songs Too Many Homeless by Pato Banton and Earache My Eye by Cheech and Chong preformed live at the Mountain Music Festival in tutu’s. He was also the driving force behind the drunken punk Christmas compilation. Murph’s creative contributions will be missed by all eclectic followers.
Influences
It has been said that a person doesn't choose music, music chooses the person. This is without a doubt the case of Gary Snipes. “Music has been my passion since early childhood, through most of my life I was making up melodies in my head. So basically I was daydreaming too much.” After several years of touring and recording with a variety of bands he decided to bring together a diverse group of musicians to make a recording of some of the melodies built throughout his life. It is sort of a sonic document of the melodies of his life. An eclectic mix of styles, sounds and moods.
Gary says, “music is a way of expressing moods for me and I enjoy writing melodies that express many moods. On the I Wonder CD the Flat Pick guitar styling comes out in many cuts, yet the mix of the stylings lends itself to a signature sound of eclecticity”.
This eclectic approach to music has allowed him to fully experience a variety of projects not limited to just one venue. Gary has had the pleasure of arranging music for several Dinner Playhouse productions, co-wrote on a punk-rock compilation recording of songs about drinking too much, a jazzy made for TV movie story about romance and heartbreak and a soundtrack for a narrated Halloween story about wizards.
The American Outreach program has used a couple of the more ambient pieces of music from early mixes of the project for national elementary school programs on positive living. Another piece was used in the ballet production of The Little Mermaid.
Recently Gary has put together a few fund raiser concerts for heightening community awareness about homelessness, and performed a blues concert for a prison. “I see the Eclectic Orchestra as a dynamically diverse ever evolving musical entity bridging a variety of musical genres”, says Snipes. And there he goes daydreaming again.
Sounds Like
All composing, arranging, and rough takes are done at Pulsar Productions Gary Snipes & Scott Kinnear.
All orchestration is created as MIDI tracks, demo tracks are layered for consideration prior to recording sessions. Then musicians are brought in to replace the MIDI tracks with real orchestration.
The recording process is completed at Morningstar Recording
Owned and operated by Doug Wells, Chief Engineer
Production Engineer Tim Acheson
Assistant Engineer Denis Hynds
The Morningstar Recording Studio is a full service, state of the art facility with over 25 years of experience in professional audio production with high-end processing utilizing vintage European digital/tube equipment.
Editing and Mastering are finalized at the Sounds Great Studio finishing lab under the direction of Tim Acheson and KinnearKreations.
Tim is a relentless auditory perfectionist, and a recent graduate with a Bachelor of Applied Sciences Degree from Full Sail School of Recording Arts in Winter Park, Florida. His mixes are immaculate. Other projects Tim has engineered are: Oakhurst, Fen Hollen, Garden of Gant, Debbie Lyons, and Father Apostolos.
All graphic finalization was completed at the Sounds Great finishing lab.
The Eclectic Orchestra is the life blood & brain child, of Singer/Songwriter, Guitarist/Composer Gary Snipes. The conception has been evolving for a number of years. All songs were written by Gary Snipes except “The River Song” by Shelton Smith, performed by Smith & Snipes. Shelton Smith, “Bluesman extraordinaire,” currently with Sonny Boy and Money & the Serious Business Blues Band, was a long time childhood collaborator of Gary Snipes. Both grew up children of military families, traveling and relocating throughout the United States and Western Europe, writing and performing together. The bands Destiny and WW3 were spawned from this creative union. That collaboration team morphed into what is now the Eclectic Orchestra of today. In celebration of that collaboration, we have included the River Song in this project. Shelton Smith has also contributed guitar tracks to the CD songs “It don't matter” and “Just like on TV.” The remaining members of the Eclectic Orchestra vary between Studio Musicians, Performance Band Members and current co-composers. Another notable member of the Band is Mark Boger of the Egamufin Band.. Co-corroborator of the Eclectic vision and composer of the hit “Blood Red Moon,” Mark brings his song into the Live Eclectic play list. Mark Boger is featured on the CD, as well as being a vital part of the performance group, and shows his versatility on Guitar, Vocals and Bass. One more very noteworthy member of the band is the lovely and talented young veteran Studio Musician Whitney Ohman. Whitney's contribution was massive. Her vocal skills are evident on the songs “Love Will” and “What a Day,” as well as “Sunrise Country Sunday.” Whitney brought to the project a strong, sultry and confident style that turned out to be the perfect compliment to Gary's vocal exchanges in “Love Will.” Her celestial vocal voracity brought the tender chords of “Sunrise Country Sunday” over the horizon. A recent addition to the current lineup is Randy Mummert. Randy comes from the side project band Blue Northern. He brings his hit “She Took All of my Money” to the live play list. Randy is an accomplished Guitarist, Singer/Songwriter, who also plays Sax and Keyboard. Randy received his music degree in music. This project came together with the efforts of many unsung hero musicians, such as orchestra member Bill Hammaker, who played French Horn and Harmonica on the CD and spent hours transposing early MIDI tracks to workable Horn tracks on “Love Will.” Sarah Kaspar, who played violin on “What a day” and “Sunrise Country Sunday.” Andrea Myers, who played Cello on “What a Day.” Kate Hagerty, who played Violin and Viola on “Sunrise Country Sunday.” Shane Strate, who smoothed over the Cello and horn tracks, and played electronic Clarinet, and Kae Pilate, studio stand in on Piano for “What a Day.” Also,thanks to Brian Austin for his early Engineering prowess, as well his creative guitar addition to the “Colfax Avenue” song. Kudos to Ken Howard and Doug Kirkelie for their steadfast rhythm, and also to Denis Hynds who co-engineered many of the more difficult mixes requiring two sets of hands, also Drummed on two Studio tracks “Working” and “TV.” Tiana Thompson plays Cello and Sax in the performance lineup with Richard Jackson on Harmonica, Vocals and Keyboards. The Band even got a little help from two of Gary's six children, with Larry on Bass and Alandis on Congas. Another recent inductee is Steve on Sax, an amazing horn player with a Music degree from the University of California Berkley who helps bring new dimension to the current band. John Meraz doubled on Electric Guitar during live shows, exchanging leads with Gary. Long time Eclectic Member Sandra Cash, evens out the live performance band with the spirit needed to win an audience. Her stage presence is quite “Joplinesk.” Her live rendition of “Love Will” is thoroughly enchanting. The strength of her voice can be heard on the CD's title track “I Wonder” (the Ballad of Gary and Martha), a song written about the adventures of coming of age with wife Martha., concluding with the line, “Sometimes I wonder about us.” The driving force behind the Eclectic Orchestra is without a doubt the soaring guitar mastery woven throughout each song, that plays out like the Soundtrack to the life of one songwriter; Gary Snipes. The musical cast that supports the Eclectic Orchestra amounts to over thirty musicians. Without Gary's vision and their support, this endeavor would not have been possible. "If you don't know where you are going, all roads will lead you there. Not all who wander are lost." The song What a Day hit number 99 on the Radio Indie World Wide music charts in the abstract song category. This is a Huge success for Gary as a songwriter and Orchestrator as well as Whitney for her singing.Number 99 World Wide is an amazing feat! The I Wonder CD by The Eclectic Orchestra was featured on the Radio Gets Wild music program in Kings Lynn, Norfolk England on Super Bowl Sunday as music from across the big swamp. Also available a live DVD performance of The Eclectic Orchestra doing the Colfax jive! See our site on CD Baby, Radio Indy and i-Tunes.
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Gary Snipes and the Eclectic Orchestra's Friend Space (Top 15)
Gary Snipes and the Eclectic Orchestra has 127 friends.
Hey Gary, Dropped in to say Hi. What ever happened to Doug Wells? Last I heard he was moving to Arizona. He mastered and recorded alot of my tunes. I think he still has an ADAT of mine. Do you know how to get a hold of him? Tell him I said Hi. Keep in touch, Thanks, Alie
Thanks for requesting me as a friend. I hope you enjoy my music. Stop by as often as you would like. I appreciate you as one of my fans/friends for supporting what I do. I'm keeping the blues alive in Mississippi. Lots of love to you and yours, Jr. Greene.
