MySpace a place for friends

Todd Howard has been playing music since he could reach up to the piano keys. As young kids, he and younger brother Jesse wrote and recorded songs that they would sing with their Muppets - alter egos Animal (Todd) and Rowlf (Jesse). There were always instruments in the house to play, such as their black Wurlitzer upright piano, and a pair of baritone ukes that the parents Howard bestowed on them at 7 and 5 years old respectively (Todd is the older of the two). A particularly epic early project had Todd and Jesse writing and recording piano and vocal tracks on their Dad's old Teac reel to reel - one original song for each of about 30-40 different Star Wars action figures. Each song was sung from the "perspective" of each character such as "Jawa Joe", "Chewie", and "Yoda", and Todd has the cassette tape mixdowns to prove it.

Todd's first band was with childhood friend Glen Nelson, and the two called their Drums and Keyboard outfit "High Adventure." Using a beat up boombox with a line in as a PA, the two switched off drums and keys and covered their favorite tunes by Van Halen, Slade, Night Ranger and other 80's pop/rock bands. Their performances were limited to a live "Veteran's Day World Tour - a day when the world comes to us" in 1984 and a party with all their middle school pals in attendance - when spin-the-bottle was suggested, the concert ended and Todd and Glen enthusiastically spun an empty 2 liter coke bottle for the chance to kiss their adoring female fans. That blowout was followed up by a keen promotional move when the two sent away for cheap ball point pens with "High Adventure - Live in '85" printed on the side. Again, the proof is in a box deep in Todd's attic to this day. Needless to say the duo were never signed.

Focusing mostly on piano and drums during his teen years, he was awarded a full scholarship to attend The Greater Hartford Academy of the Performing Arts, in Hartford, CT, to study music. After spending his Junior year at the Academy playing piano, he turned to electric bass as his main instrument. Paul McCartney, Geddy Lee and his father Paul's band Last Fair Deal's many bass players were strong early influences. He steeped in ever-present harmony singing constantly listening to the Beatles and by hearing his parents Paul and Sandi sing together throughout his childhood. His dad joined Last Fair Deal in 1974, when Todd was 5, and all throughout his childhood there were rehersals in the living room and many a live outdoor music festival in the summer which found Todd reclined on some awesome lawn somewhere listening to bluegrass and folk music from all corners and styles. Autograph collecting became a pastime, while he studied up close the songwriting and performances of Ricky Skaggs, Peter Rowan, Emmylou Harris, The Whites, Dry Branch Fire Squad, Doc Watson and Bill Monroe.

During the late 80's he co-founded the Connecticut-based rock trio Gaillion with Don Gunn and Jim Vasquenza, and released "Admit One" on their own label in 1989. The three eventually dissolved the trio, but Todd and Don have continued to write and record music since then. With an EP in the mid 90's "One Wide View" representing 5 of 11 tracks they wrote together on Martha's Vineyard in 1995, the duo's sound began to veer away from their Rush-influenced debut release. Don began his now lifelong pursuit of engineering and producing, and the "Chalk" songs (as they took to calling themselves) are the result of his work recording and mixing the duo's tunes into the heavy rhythm and melody rock tracks that they became. For the most part, Don has provided the lyrics of their songs, and Todd has written the music - inspired directly by each set of lyrics Don wrote. The two collaborate to create their arrangements, and Todd handles lead vocals, guitars and bass, while Don hits lots of cool things with sticks and programs synths and sequencers adding textural and rhythmic layers to the songs.

Todd has also collaborated for many years with his younger brother Jesse, and they performed and recorded as a four-piece acoustic/progressive/folk band in Seattle from 1993 to 1995 called Mobile Home and as an acoustic singer/songwriter duo through the mid to late 90's when the brothers lived in Seattle and on Martha's Vineyard. The Vinyard also played host Todd's first ever solo acoustic performance, which took place at much-loved and now defunct Wintertide Coffeehouse, where Todd played and sang a 1 hour set of all original tunes. This would be the only live solo show Todd would play until 2005 in Williamstown, MA. He returned to Seattle in 1996 to co-found the film production company Home Movies and co-edited the short film "Strike My Key" and then produced and co-edited the indie feature "The Trouble With Boys and Girls" - both written and directed by brother Jesse. "Trouble" also featured Mobile Home keyboardist/vocalist Jesse Moore as director of photography, and the all-original big-band/solo piano/folk rock soundtrack - composed by Hugh Sutton and Jesse Howard - was recorded, mixed and mastered for the film by none other than Don Gunn. This music project would stand alone as an incredible album release even if there were no feature flick attached.

After completing the film, Todd (as well as Todd's wife Erika, Jesse, and his wife Kate) returned to New England and settled in northwestern Massachusetts. In the fall of 2002, Todd began to get together with his dad and Last Fair Deal fiddler Tom Hagymasi to jam on Fridays, and brought his new 5-string bass sound back to the rootsy acoustic fold. After two or three sessions, it became apparent that the opportunity to play music professionally with his old man was at hand, and Paul and Tom realized that there could be a bona-fide Last Fair Deal reunion more than a decade after the group had called it quits in 1991. After a few Friday jams with original Last Fair Dealer Phil Zimmerman on Mandolin and Banjo, it was clear that it was time to move forward into a whole new era of LFD. Todd handles many of the technical aspects of the band's marketing and promo including designing and managing the website, creating the CD package artwork for the band's CD releases, and served as mixing engineer on "True Tales." Todd is quite enjoying being part of the string band that used to play and sing in his living room when he was a kid.

During the early part of the new century (that's so fun to say), Todd has reunited with childhood pal Glen Nelson and has joined he and his wife Sue's rock band for the whole family "Spaghetti Cake," and handles bass and harmony vocals at the groups many live festival performances, as well as elementary and middle school gigs. Glen and Todd have dome some songwriting together as well, and turned out the now classic "Farm Boy," an homage to Star Wars cloaked inside a proggy folk rock tune complete with lead synth tones from Glen that are straight out of the 80's progressive lead playing the two so loved growing up. Almost as much as they loved Star Wars. The song has been featured on several podcasts, including the top rated "Force Cast", which has proudly spent months in the top 10 at PodcastAlley.com. "Farm Boy" being included on this cast is perhaps the biggest exposure Todd has had of any original song to date, as the Force Cast has tens of thousands of subscribers all of whom heard the track close out the episode released on October 13th 2006.

Todd has also collaborated, recorded and performed with Karmen Buttler, a singer/songwriter from northern California, who has been based out of Williamstown, MA since 2003. The two have given a few duo concert performances in the local area, and also travelled to Charlottesville, VA to open for Disappear Fear at the Gravity Lounge. Todd played bass and sang backup on Karmen's original tunes for the packed house. One of Karmen's newer songs was recorded that weekend in a local studio with some friends of Karmen's, and that experience set the two on a path that would include many more recordings in Williamstown at Todd's home studio of Karmen originals.

A late 2006 jaunt to Seattle put Todd and Don back together in the studio - this time Don's own home studio. The two wrote a new song together called "vermilion," and laid bass and drum tracks down for the 4 minute heavy rock workout. Todd will be recording guitars and vocals back in Massachusetts, and the project files will be sent back to Don in Seattle over the Internet for his mixing and mastering treatment.

So for now, it's back to basics. I am writing new acoustic material for solo performance, or a band or something... who knows? Just new songs. That's the "basics" that's being referred to. It's all about the songs. So I'm going to go work on the guitar tracks for that new Todd and Don number now.