Geary Nelson (US)

Geary Nelson is a singer-songwriter from the suburbs of Chicago, Ill. Now living in the Northwest Arkansas area and performing in many different venues through the years, Geary reflects his background and how he got started in the music business.

Born in Jonesboro, AR, Geary’s family moved to Illinois when he was 2 years old, and was raised in the suburbs of Chicago, Geary gained success as a teenager after his band won second place in a notable contest. The prize was a recording session. “I was part of a band in Chicago called the ‘Panik’ Geary says, we were in a national band contest at McCormick Place with hundreds of bands competing. We recorded a record and played local TV in Chicago and the majority of teen clubs that were around at that time. The exposure allowed “Panik” to tour the country. We toured the South through Memphis, Tenn., and played on the ‘Dance Party’ TV show there.

Geary plays with a local band in Arkansas, “Rockin’ Roads,” which performs classic rock songs. Geary also records all of his own songs in his home studio. It was there that he recorded “Continues to Burn,” the track that some overseas population grew to admire, so much so that they voted it onto the charts.

Geary says “I loved to hear Elvis sing, and in those guitar learning years there were a lot of instrumental songs on the radio, but it was the Beatles that gave me the fever to write my own songs. The English invasion gave way to a different music style back then, and as the years went by, my father’s country music, along with the Beatles, Elvis, and lot of Rock groups over the years forged my writing style with interesting melodies and rhythms, these gave me the basic roots for creating my own material”

Geary performs all the lead vocals, backup vocals, and instruments, except some occasional keyboard performances by his wife Peggy on his song recordings. Of course sometimes there are some exceptions by various friends of Geary’s. “On “Maid of Love” I had my friends Bob Fontana and Norman Jones play the Saxophone and lead guitar parts respectfully” It is fun to have other musicians play on the recordings when we can schedule the time. Geary loves to write songs that have interesting melodies and rhythms. Geary says, “I try to focus on what sounds interesting or “catchy” as they would say, so I spend a lot of time in my home studio working on writing, arranging and mastering my songs. As a singer and performer, Geary continues to perform on stage locally, and travel some during the year. “When I perform we do about a mixture of my songs, and Classic Rock”

Geary states, “As a songwriter, my goal is to have other singers or bands perform my songs. I have a large catalog of unpublished songs that I would love to have other artists perform” Geary says the most difficult part of songwriting is matching a particular song to the correct artists, as a song writer Geary states that he hears specific arrangements for his songs that many times another artist will over look. So there is the difficulty, matching a song to any desired artist. Geary says that song writing has become the entire focus of his return to music after many years of working a daytime job traveling. “When I played in my band many years ago in the Chicago suburbs, the focus was on top 40 music at the time, and the ability to have a large fan base to follow the band to all the different clubs we played at that time” Geary said he was always writing songs during his band days, and after the band broke up, so there was always his fascination with songwriting, and telling stories.

So today Geary Nelson works tirelessly in his studio, recording, mixing and mastering his songs “one at a time” for the rest of the world to hear what one single musician can dream up on his own. Geary states, “I’m not in for the money, God knows there is none ? but just to make music as long as I can” Geary said he intends to do his best at recording each and every song he ever wrote so they can be handed down to his grandchildren. “I have 2 granddaughters, a grandson and a great granddaughter, and my entire song catalog will go to them, copyrights and all, hoping they will keep the song catalog in the family”

But while I can still play an instrument and sing, I will continue to do live performances and write songs. I may never catch up with getting them all recorded, but I will try. I write about 2 new songs each month, and having a 100 song catalog already, the odds are that I will never get caught up simply because there are too many songs. So when I complete a set of songs, I then go back and review my catalog for the songs I would like to move to the top of the list. Of course as all songwriter know, not every song you write deserves to be recorded, and I also have a few of them ?

For any information and songs of Geary Nelson, visit Geary at his home music page, you will find his CD’s and all his released songwriting’s there. New music is being released on a monthly basis from Geary Nelson.

www.GearyNelson.com

www.Facebook.com/JamesGearyNelson

www.Twitter.com/Geary_Nelson

I started as a lead guitar player at 9 years old, and started singing at 19. I have played in many bands over the years, playing multiple instruments, and have been writing songs since I was a teenager. I have played in front of thousands of people at McCormick Place in Chicago, and Universities all over the country in my youth.

I have been in front of audiences since I was a teenager, all are very special to me, I have met so many nice people over the years.

Beatles, Elvis, Dion and The Belmont's, Led Zeppelin, The Eagles, Roy Orbison

BC.Rich Mockingbird Guitar, Fender and Marshall amps.