Alex Walsh
Roots rock with a twist. Beatles meets T.Rex meets the Replacements
4
songs
114
plays
She's Making Waves She's Making Waves
Playing guitar with a group of dear friends on a starry night at the edge of cliffs and the moon overlooking the Pacific Ocean
Just me and my guitar, a full band, or anything in-between.Have you performed in front of an audience?I play in The San Francisco Bay Area.
Your musical influences
Beatles, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, T. Rex, Replacements,Anything else?
Alex Walsh plays a catchy mix of original roots rock that has been compared to Elvis Costello, T. Rex, and The Replacements. He regularly performs solo and with his band at well-known San Francisco Bay Area venues, and in 2003 won a "Best Performance" award from the West Coast Songwriters Association.
Immediately upon release, Alex's 2003 CD 'Light Another Candle' earned him an exclusive music licensing deal with Optic Noise, a San Francisco based company that specializes in "Music from the Underground". West Coast Performer Magazine raved, "Veering expertly between Westerburg styled smart-guy rock and classic brit-inspired pop, this is the kind of disc that radio programmers should glom right onto. Each of these twelve tracks is well produced and, thanks to the presence of a remarkable roster of musicians, rendered eminently listenable."
Alex is currently working on new recordings while he continues to promote ‘Light Another Candle’ to media and industry, as well as maintaining a solid performance schedule. Previous venues include Café Dunord, The Tongue & Groove, and Yerba Buena Gardens Summer Concert Series, while the future includes a spot at The Red Devil Lounge's infamous 'VIV & a Movie', his very own dance party dubbed 'Waziema Jams' at San Francisco’s legendary Club Waziema, and a West Coast tour.
Alex was born on the cusp of the Summer of Love in the Bronx, New York. Caught up in the spirit of the times, his parents moved to the Bay Area where Alex played on the grass with his mom in Golden Gate Park, soaking up the sounds of the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix. As a young child, Alex was fascinated by his mothers' record collection, and would often wake up the family at the crack of dawn by blasting the Beatles 'Revolver', or the Who's 'Tommy' on the record player.
By the 1980's, Alex's parents had divorced, and his mom remarried. Alex moved often during his teen years due to his step-fathers' advancing career as an environmental scientist. At the age of fourteen while in Mississippi, he received his first guitar. High School saw Alex jamming with friends and developing his writing skills. In his senior year Alex wrote and directed a play, and was picked up by the Cherry County Playhouse in Traverse City, MI, for their summer apprentice program where he worked with stars such as Phyllis Diller, and Pat Paulson. Alex returned to Ann Arbor, where his family had settled, and went to college at Eastern Michigan University. During this period he wrote a play for a local Beatle Convention, and began writing songs.
Alex returned to the Bay Area in 1987, where he started his music career. He soon became a favorite on the open mic scene, and was very successful as a street performer. In 1989 Alex released his first recording 'Tape For Ann Arbor', a solo acoustic affair that he sold at shows. In 1990 he formed his first band, The Young Blue Bucks, which released two tapes and established themselves on the club scene as well as playing a small tour of France and Spain.
In 1993, Alex returned to college where he finished a B.A. degree in Creative Writing, Music & Performance, at the New College of California. It was here that he studied under San Francisco Renaissance Poet and Nashville songwriter Michael Rothenberg, who eventually became a collaborator on many songs and projects. In the mid and late nineties Alex started several bands, each one bringing his songwriting skills, arranging chops, and business acumen to a higher level. In 2001 he was recruited for a staff position at the Musicians Union Local 6, where he currently works.
It is here where Alex began to make contact with the best musicians in town, and became inspired to record his latest offering, 'Light Another Candle'. Alex recorded twenty-one tunes over nine months at Patrick Simms Studios, located in the musicians union. Patrick played on many of the tunes, and eventually signed on as co-producer. Alex began the recording process by rehearsing with a rhythm section--Kurt Ribak on bass, and Dana Kelly on drums, and then recording the trio live, adding other instruments to flesh out the sound. Twenty musicians contributed their talent including Joe Rodriguez, veteran trumpet player from Elvis Presley's Vegas show, Tom Heimberg, violist for the San Francisco Opera, and Jeremy Cohen, violinist for the Turtle Island String Quartet, to name a few.Contact
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