Gary Brandin's a talented player and i'm looking forward to his upcoming CD.
I'm sorry that I misspelt his name in the earlier post though!
There has already been a reference to his work on the cartoon mentioned.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">quote:</font><HR><SMALL>Q - Brandin, are you the ball of fire playing that great Hawaiian guitar in the Spongebob Squarepants soundtrack?
A - Yes, but not all the music is played by us (The Blue Hawaiians). They have us go in the studio and make up songs. Nickelodeon buys the songs, and pays for the studio. What's are influence? Dick Dale, Hank Marvin, and Henry Mancini to name a few.
I'm playing my Rickenbacker D-8, and sometimes my Fender 400 tuned to C6th.</SMALL><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
The L.A.-based Blue Hawaiians formed in 1994 when bassist/vocalist Mark Fontana, guitarists Mark Sproull and Bron Tieman and drummer Tom Maxwell played at the opening of her a then new nightclub, the Lava Lounge.
Gary joined them a few years later and has added to a great sounding outfit.
For Gary's history you have to go back to 1974, when he was living in South Pasadena CA., and admits that he didn't know one end of a guitar from another. His neighbors Bill Bryson and John Egenes, got Gary interested in playing guitar. They took him to the Palomino a few times to hear the Palomino Riders led by Jerry Inman.
That's the line up with Jerry Inman, Buck Felts {bass}, Jay Dee Maness (steel guitar), Archie Francis (drums) and Russ Hanson on guitar. Ethan Reilly replaced Jay Dee for some months in late 1974 into 1975.
A great group and Gary wrote "So I was hooked. I found a cheap MSA S-10 and started to practice. About four months later I was working in the bars full time."
And it began, Gary worked in the Phantom Herd, a 1970s country-rock band with Chris Gaffney joining as lead vocalist for a few years.
He also went on to work at the Foothill Club with Billy Mize and Cliff Crofford's band.
As well as the 1980s Sunday radio show hosted by Paul Bowman. The band was, Mark Bowman on drums, Don Whaley on bass and, Red Volkaert on guitar.
Jay Dee was playing steel on this show first, but was too busy with the new Desert Rose Band.
In the mid 80's he started working with Chris Gaffney's band, they played the punk clubs in LA. along with Jim Lauderdale,
Lucinda Williams, Patty Booker, Buddy Miller, (who lived in South Pasadena at the time) Heather Myles, Rick Shea, and Dave
Alvin among others. Gary played on Gaff's first three CD's. Of the others, Patty Booker, Heather Myles, and Rick Shea were the the ones he worked with most frequently.
In the 1990s Gary also worked with Marc Cory Lee; they did his last CD (Stardust Cowboy) live in the studio, on a tight budget!
And of course Gary joined the Blue Hawaiians in March of 97. With them he appears in
the BBC 'History of Rock&Roll' hand syncing to Brom Tieman's steel part on "A Cheat". For the studio version they let Gary go in the studio and play the solo. The short film "Searchin' for Da Cat" was done before I was in the band, but Gary played steel on a version of the song the BH's last Pascal CD. Check out; [link]pascalrecords.com[/link]
The group is on a larger label and cut a CD with Gary in 1999. I strongly recommend all of the stuff he's appeared on.
Gary's sessions (well some of them)
Blue Hawaiians:
- Sway (1998)
- Savage Night (1999)
Chris Gaffney & The Cold Hard Facts:
- Chris Gaffney & The Cold Hard Facts 1989)
- Mi Vida Loca (1992) Guitar (Steel)
Heather Myles:
- Just Like Old Times (1992)
- Sweet Little Dangerous: Live at...(1996)
- Highways and Honky Tonks (1998) Guitar
Jetpack:
- Planet Reverb (2000)
Marc Cory Lee:
Stardust Cowboy (2000)
Patty Booker:
- I Don't Need All that (1999)
Various Artists Town South of Bakersfield, Vol. 3 (1992)
