Greetings to all \u201cGreat Southern Brainfart\u201d followers and readers!\u00a0 I\u2019m honored to have been asked by Don to contribute to his excellent music news and blog page.\u00a0 I hope to be adding some interesting content in the coming months including album and concert reviews, as well as some of my own personal footage from the shows I attend.<\/p>\n
I originally grew up in the Capital District of upstate New York where I spent the first 20 years of my life.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been writing music criticism and obsessing over my favorite bands since I was just 10 years old.\u00a0 I cut my teeth reading various US music trade magazines at the time such as Billboard, Rolling Stone, Creem and Hit Parader.\u00a0 I would later find myself getting much more impressed British and European music scene through Kerrang and NME.\u00a0 This inspired me to start writing my own album reviews and honing my own perspective on hard rock and heavy metal music (for starters).<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve also been playing the guitar for most of my life and would consider myself to be more than competent in that department, but I\u2019ll allow others to be the judge there.\u00a0 I\u2019m currently playing with the Atlanta based tribute band, Slack Sabbath.\u00a0 More recently, I\u2019ve been enjoying the new adventure of learning the bass guitar, which provides me yet another window into the music I love.\u00a0 Being a musician certainly provides a bit more insight into the music I\u2019ve been writing about.<\/p>\n
Some readers might know me from my work in the Black Sabbath fan community.\u00a0 I was originally the webmaster and creator of the Black Sabbath Live Project (formerly at www.sabbathlive.com<\/a>).\u00a0 That was largely a research project to create an accurate listing of Black Sabbath\u2019s past gig dates.\u00a0 As I got deeper into that, it became an even larger database which included known audio and video recordings, as well as pictures and stories from each show.\u00a0 (An archived version of my site can be viewed here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Running Sabbathive was quite an adventure as I communicated with people from around the world and amassed a collection I\u2019ll never find time to hear or see every minute of.\u00a0 During that time, I was also granted the opportunity to compete in a trivia contest against Ozzy Osbourne on the Jimmy Kimmel Show in May 2005.\u00a0 I also corresponded a bit with Geezer Butler, who kindly gave me passes to see Heaven & Hell in Chicago back in 2008.<\/p>\n I had to abandon ship after nearly 10 years once it became a bit too demanding to balance with the demands of my career in I. T.\u00a0 I am still the Tour Dates guy for Black-Sabbath.com, which is Joe Siegler\u2019s long running fan site for the band, as time allows.<\/p>\n Another interesting aspect of my life in music has been my work in concert videography.\u00a0 I started filming bands back in 1994 and always felt I had a knack for knowing how to capture a live show.\u00a0 I\u2019ve done this mostly as a hobby through the years, but have been blessed to capture some really great shows for posterity.<\/p>\n