Trey's Blog

Saint Rocke Show

2011-05-20T14:51:00.000-07:00

A while back I played a gig at St. Rocke in Hermosa with Drew Zepernick and Jack Connor. We opened up for the White Buffalo and his band. Great show for us. We had about 18 people show up on a Sunday night which gets you jack shit as far as money is concerned, but we played really good.

I busted out two new songs, "Marquis Lights" and "Don't Tell on Me." I am looking to record those two this weekend as a matter of fact. Best part of the entire show was probably when I announced a celebration for the death of Obama instead of Osama. Serves me right for celebrating someones death in the first place. Regardless of that it was a damn good show and a ton of fun.

After we got off stage the White Buffalo came on and blew us out of the water. He should play with his rhythm section all the time.

Below are some shots from photograhpy Paul Joyner. Considering the funky lighting in Saint Rocke I think they turned out well. Click the image below to check them out.

Jazzfest 2011 - Gumbo, Grits, Oysters, Blues, TraJazz, & Kid Rock

2011-05-10T10:57:00.000-07:00

New Orleans jazzfest cannot be summed up in one blog post. It is impossible. I could write separate posts on the music, the food, the amazing weather, Frenchman Street, New Orleans culture, etc. Unfortunately I don't have that kind time.

What I can say is that it was a learning experience. This wasn't your typical trip to New Orleans black out drunk on bourbon street, Mardi Gras beads and tits, or any of what a large majority of people know and have experienced in New Orleans.

I was introduced to so many new great bands that I felt like I should have known about. I learned what I want to incorporate in my own band and the stage presence I want to have. I am hoping in the next few months when you see me perform i will have a horn section, an organ player, and whole mess of funk to move you and sweet guitar solos.

Below are some bands I was fortunate enough to see and if you like blues, jazz, funk or rock you will definitely want to check them out:

Marsha Ball
Alan Toussant
Trombone Shorty
Robert Randolph
Eric Lindell
The Wetland Allstars featuring Tab Benoit
Troy Turner
Walter "Wolfman" Washington
Soul Rebels Brass Band
Bonerama
Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers

This list doesn't include Kid Rock, Jimi Buffet, Cowboy Mouth, or Edie Brickell.

Gary Busey and Buddy Holly

2011-04-28T06:33:00.000-07:00

Not long ago Gary Busey made a guest appearance on KROQ. His most recent fame has come from his appearance on Celebrity Apprentice and during the course of the interview with Kevin & Bean he some how got onto the topic of the Buddy Holly Story.

A few days later my dad caught the movie on TV one night and told me to check it out because what a lot of people may not know is that Buddy Holly sang and played all of the songs in the movie. So I put the movie at the top of my list and watched it last night and it was incredible to see the Masochist from Big Wednesday rocking out.

What I found event more interesting is that Gary Busey is originally from Texas and began his career as drummer. According to wikipedia the guy has been featured on several Leon Russell records. Busey won an Oscar for the Buddy Holly story and that movie came out in 1978. Even though he comes off as bat shit crazy I have a new found respect. It also reintroduced me to Buddy Holly, which, if you haven't heard in a while I suggest you dip into the vault and have a listen.

Here is a little taste of Busey playing in the move. This clip is from when Buddy Holly and the Crickets are the first white band to play at the Apollo. Best part is around a 1:40 when he calls out Bo Diddley. Enjoy!

Prince

2011-04-25T16:46:00.000-07:00

Prince is my sister's generation. Born eight years older than me Prince is someone I see from the 80's. Someone I used to call a gay and a fruit and thought ridiculous. About six years ago I worked for a company that had a box at the Staples Center. Prince was playing and I opted out on the concert. Everyone said he was amazing but I ignored any praise for Prince because I was a closet music snob that thought I knew more about music than most. I had heard he was a good guitarist.

Fast forward to last Friday night when a friend tells me he has an extra ticket to see Prince at the Forum. I actually jumped on the opportunity to go and I have never been happier. One of the top 5 concerts I have ever been to in my life. Prince is a performer that transcends an era. He moves like James Brown and he plays guitar like Hendrix. I have never been happier about my decision to check him out. With four encores and playing over two and a half hours he is a musicians musician. Anyone who doesn't think so...obviously doesn't know much about music.

There are no recordings of the show that I could find but the link below shows his set list from this last Saturday.

Edit this setlist More Prince setlists

Foo Fighters: Back and Forth

2011-04-25T16:43:00.000-07:00

When the hell will I get to see this damn movie! I missed it on VH1, it isn't on the damn interweb of spacebook, Netlflix doesnt register it exists and Blockbusters are shutting down all over the world.

I heard this movie was epic and one day I will get to watch this rockumentary and be inspired. Until then I have to settle for watching the trailer over and over.

Lucky Strike Lanes First Bowling Wedding

2010-07-21T09:24:00.000-07:00

Lucky Strike is not only a great place to take a date, host a kick ass party, or just watch a game, but apprently it is also a nice venue for a wedding...WHAT!?

That's right. Rachel Sifuentes recently got married at Lucky Strike Lanes in Orange County. Walking the alley instead of the isle the wedding party chose an alternative route to the expensive traditional wedding.

Stephanie Chen of CNN wrote in a recent article about creativity being priceless in a bad economy:

Sifuentes’ bowling alley wedding in January may not have been traditional, but the creative ceremony saved her thousands of dollars at a time when wallet tightening has become necessary for many American families. Her offbeat wedding is representative of a growing trend, wedding experts say, as brides are discovering cheap can be chic, and also inspire innovative party ideas.

But her bowling alley wedding turned out to be classy, she said. About 70 of the couple's closest friends and family members joined them to feast on an Italian buffet. There was plenty of dancing, but they also found time to bowl.

To see their wedding experience check out http://www.youtube.com/user/RachelnAJwed.

The Shore Nov. 28th, 2009

2009-11-29T10:39:00.000-08:00

I played another gig with drummer Dan Fowler at the Shore on Friday night. It turned out better than the first. We have another show coming up in December. It gets more and more fun every time and the feedback we got was really good. We opened for a band called Killola. They are a good rock band and their lead singer goes crazy. She gets into and she isn't afraid to call you a pussy. check them out: http://www.killola.com/

We got some footage of our third song of the set called , "Build Me a Stage." This song happens to be my favorite song I have written yet. check out the link below to see us perform it live.

Shore Set List:

The Way You Roll
Leavin Trunk - Taj Mahal
Build Me a Stage
Wind Cries Mary - Jimi Hendrix
How Long
South Bay Song
Hells Coming Down
I Got Mine - Black Keys
Rise Above
Boom Boom Boom - John Lee Hooker
Folsom Prison Blues - Johnny Cash

Mary V photos

2009-11-29T10:30:00.001-08:00

It has been a while since my last post and a lot has been going on. I landed a new job working for Lucky Strike Lanes and Lounge which has caused me to change up my schedule a bit and explains my lack of writing.

In an attempt to get some photos I can use for posters to promote future shows I had my friend Mary V help me out. She has a really nice camera and has really gotten into photography as of lately. Below are some of the shots she took. We were in North Hollywood in the middle of nowhere.

People were drying by us wondering what the hell was going on. The pic of me looking the other way is because someone was coming and I didn't want to act like were really taking photos. Didn't turn out that bad.

Buying A Guitar Amp

2009-09-16T21:48:00.000-07:00

Up until the last year I have always played guitar in my room for myself. Not until this past year I have I started to play around town and in the last couple of months have I developed a set list and the confidence to begin using my guitar amp and some pedals. Unfortunately my Peavy guitar amp that I was given at 16 was not able to hand my hard core gut busting guitar solos and shit the bed on me. Since I now consider myself a real player and somewhat of a real musician I figured it was time I spend the money for a decent amp.

I am going to give you my advice and what I found out during this process. There are tons of amps out there for all different needs. All I can tell is my experience looking for a tube amp that has great tone and is completely clean with no effects involved. What I ended up with is essentially a 59' Fender Bassman. It is in a Twin-amp tweed blonde cabinet but it has two 12"amps and one is a celestion its about 40 watts. All I know is thing has great tone and can get really loud. I suggest you find a clean sounding guitar amp and then use your pedals to do the dirty work of tweaking the sound. I think that is the best way to go. If you have an amp with good tone and sound it can make a shitty guitar sound good. Other amps that i considered were:

Marshall Bluesbreaker

Marshall 1974X

Fender Deluxe Reverb (very common)

I really don't think you can go wrong with a fender amp and depending on your price point you can get a good one from $200 on up to $2K. The most useful site i found was reviews.harmony-central.com which provides personal reviews of all types of equipment and guitars.

I found my new amp on craigslist and did a lot of searching on ebay as well to figure out the correct price points for the secondary market. These things are expensive and an amp is definitely an investment. Below is a short video of my new amp. I used a Boss Blues pedal for the first few riffs and then clean at the end.

Got Rhythm? Live @ Cafe Boogaloo

2009-09-01T17:16:00.000-07:00

I had my favorite show to date this past Sunday at Cafe Boogaloo. It was the first time I have played live with a drummer behind me and it was awesome. Drums add a whole new element to playing. It gives you the freedom as a guitar player to do other things with the guitar rather than just play rhythm and the basic chords. The best part about it is that my buddy Dan is such a good drummer we don't have to have every song locked into a structure. We pretty much jammed for two hour long sets and it was a blast.

The best part of the whole night was when a nice young lady brought Dan a beer and he played and chugged the beer at the same time. I mean he never stopped! That is fucking talent. Cafe Boogaloo was a great set-up for a Sunday Afternoon and hope we get to play there more often. Maybe even make it a regular gig.

Here are some clips from Sunday

Dan ripping on drums:

The Way You Roll:

29th Bday Celebration

2009-08-23T22:15:00.000-07:00

I recently celebrated my 29^th birthday by palying a gig at my favorite bar in Manhattan Beach. 30 of my friends packed the place to watch me choke through a 2 hour set. Everything started off smoothly until the first tequila shot after my third song was given to me. Thanks for that Kayla! After that a shot would come up between every other song leaving the second set a complete mess. My dialogue between songs became longer because I couldn’t remember the words to certain songs and I began to drop F bombs like it was my job. All in all I think everyone had a good time.

I added two new songs to the set, Dollar a Day by Ryan Bingham and Jack and Diane by John Cougar Mellencamp. Even though Jack and Diane is somewhat of a cliché tune I think almost everyone enjoyed it and it was in tribute to my friends Susan and Corey who recently got engaged.

The following night I took a limo to see Kings of Leon which I enjoyed. Great band and a ton of fun. I would have liked to see the band interact with the crowd more and the Forum in Inglewood isn’t my favorite venue but it was still a good time. Maybe that was because of the Pabst Blue Ribbon they had on tap for $10.

So now here I am 29 and a new year in my life. Definitely looking to make some big changes this coming year. Not let those things I can’t control get me down and not take for granted the amazing friends and family I have around me on a daily basis. At 25 I felt lost, at 27 I experienced change, at 29 I know now know what I want out of life and I think I should probably go get.

Thanks to everyone that came out Friday night to celebrate.

Is it cliche to name your guitar?

2009-08-14T16:50:00.000-07:00

My answer is maybe. Guys name their car, motorcycle, surfboard, dick, etc so why not name your guitar. It makes perfect sense. BB King had Lucille and Stevie Ray Vaughn had Lenny. I went so far as to search this on “The Google” to find out what the consensus is and yeah everyone names there guitar.

So do you name every guitar or just the ones that matter? In my case I have named the four that have meaning and matter to me the most. My naming approach is very much cliché because majority of them are women in my life. And why not, I would much rather be holding a woman than a man and each one holds a special place in my heart. So below are my guitars and their names and the stories behind them:

Rhonda:

My mother. She is amazing, she is beautiful, she is supportive, and she bought me my first guitar. She listened to me beg to play for a year then she listened to me battle to play it for four years, and now she comes to see me play it every chance she gets. This is a 1994 Mitchell guitar bought at Guitar Center in Dallas

Jodi:
She was my high school sweet heart and one of my closest friends. My first relationship in life is very similar to how I played this guitar. I have made so many mistakes on playing this thing but it has helped me become the guitar player I am today. I love this guitar just as much as I did when I got it Christmas morning in 96’ and I play it all the time to this day. 1996 Fender Stratocaster – All white Jimi Hendrix style.

Kristi:
I named my guitar Kristi before that relationship ended, but she doesn’t know that. She sparked me to write and the majority of my songs have a hint of her in them. Similar to the girl this guitar is absolutely beautiful. If you see me out performing I will be playing this guitar. It is Carbon fiber and was given to me as a present from my Uncle Jeff for playing at his daughters wedding. He got a special deal on it when he bought some roofing parts the sales guy through in three of these guitars. It is a CA guitar prototype http://caguitars.com/

Texas Jimi

This guitar was named by Pamelina H, the artist who painted it. Based on the guitar Jimi Hendrix burned at the Monterey pop festival I had her give it some Texas flavor. If you look close enough you will see the outline of the state of Texas and a roman numeral 3 for Trey.

1994 Fender Stratocaster

Morning Sessions

2009-08-14T16:05:00.000-07:00

I would like to take this first post to explain the title of my blog. I chose early morning sessions because I am an early riser. No matter what happens I am usually up by 6am. I am at my very best in the morning. My head is most clear in the morning. Something about rising before the sun and starting the day before most people are awake gets me going. I have written some of my favorite guitar licks just out of bed, as well as, some of my favorite lyrics.

I am a surfer and the best time to surf is usually in the early morning when the ocean is glassy and the tides are right. I have come to a lot of decisions in that early morning time frame sitting in the water.

My assumption is that the majority of this blog will be written in the morning when I wake up before I start my day. That way I can say what is fresh on my mind and get anything off my chest that I need to.

But probably most importantly I like getting some lovin’ early in the morning, as the G. Love song goes. Like I said…I am at my best in the morning!