Mr. Pickhead by Paul Priest

Pickhead Is Cloned, is literally a cloning process, for whenever the song is burned or downloaded, that's what happens. As a listener, one also is a participant in the very act of actualizing the title of the song being heard.

As the story goes on, Mr. Pickhead evolves into a Pickhead/Starchild via space travel and momentarily breaks into song on track ten. The narrative finds him contemplating the vastness and emptiness of space in his space machine when suddenly a message from his sweetheart is broadcast to the Bridge, filling him with the Homeric resolve to return and to reunite.

Mr. Pickhead is intended to be a fun project, even though the subject matter is more or less real. Picks don't march, but people do. Star Wars is not just an interesting and long film series. Soldiers are not clones, but picks are similar enough to be considered as such. Thoughts can be wordless, and there's a difficulty when trying to translate or interpret these into something verbal or written. Riffs and thoughts can be cloned. Make good ones!

I began playing guitar many years ago, backing my closest older brother who then played the banjo. We were a bit of a novelty act--two blond haired, blue-eyed kids whose favorite vacation destination was the deep woods of Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula, much of which was spent vigorously pursuing the sounds of Lester Flatts and Earl Scruggs. As a result of these formative years, I had lots of practice strumming in G. But that all came to a screeching halt, because no sooner had I trampled a fair amount of the Bluegrass map, I then allowed my previous affinity for guitar-laden rock to plunge me even further into that particular bent. Jesus Christ Superstar, Disney soundtracks, and AM radio leading into Bluegrass leading into Eric Clapton into Pink Floyd into Rush into John Scofield into SRV into Yes into Ozric Tentacles into Phish into the Allman Brothers ... is as good as any explanation that can be made for the kind of music I make today. Sort of. There's really no end to amazing music. For instance, right now I'm listening to Miles Davis' "Agharta."

Mr. Pickhead is built upon a mixture of these and many more musical influences: it's a blend of musical thoughts from the amazing late 1960s through today, mingled and mangled with what I'd like to hear and shaped by what I'm able to play.

I hope you like what you hear. Tell your friends! Every penny I receive will be funneled back in order to experiment with new areas of composition (i.e., new gear and time to use it). If you like what you hear, then spread the sounds. Here is the beginning. The follow-up, "Baby Pickhead," has long since been finished, is quite overdue, and will eventually come. It features 13 more tracks of wildly narrative instrumentals and lots of Korg keyboards.

Lastly, I am anticipating an even newer release (in addition to aforementioned "Baby Pickhead," which was recorded in 2005 and has been simply sitting on the shelf until I save up the $70 to send it into CD BABY). This newer CD features a variety of amazing, Detroit area players, so it's not just me and a Mac anymore. Stay tuned~~there's more to come....

BTW: Thus far I have sold two copies of Mr. Pickhead!

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