Gitman-Demian Bell

Demian Bell the writer and performer of these songs invites you to enjoy the fruit of years of writing music.From The critically acclaimed Maypole album to the present. Demian has been a writer of songs with sensitive and hard hitting lyrics, the full range of musical influences. True dedication to the art of music best describes this artist.Demian Bell who is the founder of the group The Maypole.This is a catalog of songs that he has written over the years.

Demian Bell, born Dennis Tobell in 1949 near Chicago.He started Classical piano at age 7 and then went to guitar when he was 13.His first gig was at the Gold Horse Saloon in Folsom California, when he was 15 with a band called "The Rogues".A mixture of Blues,Folk and Country marked the debut of this artist. Demian sang and played guitar...He ran away from home at 15 to Greenwich Village, New York City, played solo in the coffee houses, jammed with Jimmy Hendrix at the Cafe Wha.. He then joined a band with much older players from the Baltimore blues scene, called "The Moss" which won an important "Battle Of The Bands" contest sponsored by The Baltimore Sun newspaper. He was then doing concerts and TV shows in the Baltimore.Washington area.He later formed The Pychedelic Propellor in 1965, which then recorded an album in New York and played the more important venues in the area.Disenchanted with the local scene, Demian then went to London, and joined a Band called "The Attack", after 6 months returned to the states, to Boston where he played with "Van Morrison", and "Moulty and The Barbarians" touring all over the States. The group had 3 gold records."Are You A Girl Or Are You A Boy","Moulty" and "What The New Breed Say". Then returned to Baltimore in,1969,formed "Maypole" with Paul Welsh on Drums, Steve Mace on 2nd guitar and vocals, John Nickels on Bass and Kenny Ross as lead singer. The songs were a rather heavy rock, with a lot of harmonies with complex arrangements but with bluesy guitar solos. They got a record deal with Collosus-MGM, and made an album in New York at A&R studios with Demian writing 90% of the material. This album was critically acclaimed, and the group toured extensively with many of the great acts of the day such as Bob Seeger, Elephants Memory, The Nazz, Nils Lofgrin, Bill Haley& The Comets, The Kingsmen, Redbone, and many more.The group appeared on many National and local T.V. programs for two and a half years, then the group split up, and Demian joined Renaud and The Junction, a very popular band which went on to sign with Motown under the name "Contraband" as the opening act for the Jackson 5 on a 18 city U.S. Tour .in 1973..Demian and Renaud's friendship has lasted through the years and have done many recording projects together with Deodato, Teddy Pendergrass, and their own songs.During this time Demian used to play with Roy Buchanan in the Washington D.C. Georgetown Blues club scene. Moving then to Holland,in what he calls the anti-disco period, formed a band there called "Island" playing the many venues around Holland,in the 70's as a raw energy blues trio. Gaining many fans and playing The Melkweg, Paradiso, Vondel Park, Paard Van Troy and with "The Free Folk Ensemble"an acoustic group, at The Concertgebouw, and The American Hotel, where they did a live radio show every Sunday, for the Dutch World Service. This is the period when Demian became a lead singer, after backing other people,on guitar for many years. Over the years Demian has recorded with many artists, as a guitarist,vocalist, a recording engineer and producer. He studied engineering with Steve Boone of The Lovin Spoonful and Neil Case of The Beat Dominator and The Bass Mekanik fame.Tom Graefe of Sony MCI. The emphasis has always been on live performance and recording and throughout the 70's he did many sessions with bands in California, Maryland, and New York,with his new found partner Neil Case also a recording engineer from Jamaica, who had worked on The Stones Album "Goats Head Soup", Joe Cocker(You Are So Beautiful), and Peter Tosh records to name a few.In 1981 he signed with Nouveaux Records,Miami and recorded a single Gotta Let Go and The Move with Gary Vandy,and filmed his first video.Toured Europe and was named West Germany's Musician of the month be the Aachener Volks Zeitung. The 80's found Demian in Spain playing with the most famous of musicians there, such as Mike Kennedy of "Los Bravos", Benet Nogue of "Attila", and Jaume Rivera of "Miguel Rios"and Evolution, and Oh Well. He played the most important venues in Barcelona and Catalonia,as "Demian Bell and Human Nature" until returning to Florida in 1989. There he concentrated on acoustic blues with Steve Levy, a harp player, playing the The Musicians Exchange, The River Walk Blues Festival, and clubs From West Palm Beach to Key West. as "Harp N Chords" and recording two albums of acoustic blues. He continued playing, but as a duo with Bill Davis, a buddy from the old Baltimore days in Clubs and cruise ships in the Caribean. In the early 90's when moving to Denver Colorado,His Band Demian Bell And Human Nature played the college circuit in Boulder "On The Hill" and other venues in Vail and Denver.Demian started to compose a lot of music on Midi equipment and started doing techno music with Neil Case of "The Beat Dominator" and "The Bass Mekanik" fame with Pandisc Records, Miami, Demian has contributed many songs in under the name "Bass Waves", and "The Bass Mekanik" which are still under production.. Demian then concentrated on doing film scores and got his first film "Manosaur" which was done in Hollywood in 1996.Spending some time in the LA area working on several film projects.He then formed "Earthtone Records" a division of "Demian Bell Productions" his label and production company,and started producing the group Home Planet, Frank Cornelius, of "The Cornelius Bros. and Sister Rose Band" and his own instrumental music with John Flood on Sax for the Face On Mars Project.Demian recently did a Reggae album,"Bass Over Babylon" with Neil and Brian Jobson, who has produced many hits for "No Doubt"(Hey Baby). Demian moved to Germany, and formed a new band The "Blues Mekaniks", which has recorded a new album,"Heavy On Wire". He then revived the Maypole name and formed a new band currently touring Europe. and recorded a live album "Live In Germany" on the Wemo Record Label released in 2010. He has recorded for Bang Records, MGM Records, Motown Records, Laurie Records, Pandisc Records, Nouveaux Records, Earthtone Records, Avex Records in Japan.Wemo Records, Germany. Demian is also a keyboardist with many recordings,original film scores and documentaries to his credit.

Yes

Fender guitars, Strats mostly.

This is a record of the catalog of songs from the 70's and 80's