Harvey Reid Newsletter 2010-2011

Harvey Reid Family Band Family Band? It’s just a fantasy of mine that maybe my dear boys will grow up to be shiftless musicians like their parents. Moments like this give me hope and scare me. Otto was test-driving his Halloween costume, which sort of looks like Star Trek or heavy metal banjo. Levi is on bass guitar.

The Digital Version of the Harvey Reid Yearly Analog Blog
Greetings yet again from Southern Maine.

I often quote Willie Nelson: “After taking several readings I’m surprised to find my mind still fairly sound.”
You have not gotten much in the way of e-mails, postcards or anything from me this past year, because I have stayed home like never before, to be with my family and “re-tool” myself after decades of just chugging along, being one of those traveling guitar players. This newsletter is to say hello, remind you that I still exist, and quickly tell you what I’ve been up to this year.
I decided to focus this year on books and teaching, my back catalog of music, mail-order sales and launching my new www.partialcapo.com web site, instead of just visiting gas stations & motels and performing. I am booking a lot of concert shows for 2011, which is a good sign.
It’s still anybody’s guess where the music business is headed, or whether where it goes matters to musicians like me. What pop stars say and do still has very little bearing on what I say or do as an “un-pop un-star.” Music still remains as close as anything on earth to magic, in spite of all the digiting and fidgeting, and it has not yet lost its power over people. So I hope to remain a musician, as I always have been. Wish me luck and buy me some more strong coffee. I trust that you are also well.

Chordally yours,
Harvey Reid

* * N E W S B R I E F S * *

I still don't have a complete representation of my music on YouTube, but I at least have a bunch of nice videos of me playing some of my best stuff, and not just cell phone videos from fans. I am gearing up to make many more this year and if you have requests, or are interested in certain pieces of my music, let me know.

I put 95 more songs up for legal internet download in 2010. There still is a lot of my back catalog not there, but I did focus on my best solo guitar work. They are available world-wide for purchase, not just from iTunes- but also from Amazon, eMusic, Rhapsody, CD Baby, Spotify, Napster, MySpace, Liquid Digital, Verizon, Shockhound, Nokia, LastFM, Zune, MediaNet, Tradebit, GreatIndie, Limewire, and ThumbPlay.

At the rate you folks are changing e-mail addresses (to avoid spam and to switch providers...) I may have no e-mail list left in a couple more years. My once-Utopian vision of not having to lick stamps, and just sending e-mail announcements to my mailing list, has dissolved in a sea of spam. Help me update my mailing list!!

You can now for the first time buy a single song in sheet music form from one of my books of guitar arrangements. There are 36 of them at www.partialcapo.com

56 of those 95 new iTunes songs were from the Song Train project, which is about helping people play home-made music. It has a viral thing going, and has been steadily gaining new fans. (Tell all your real and digital friends about it.) Joyce & I originally thought it did not make sense to offer it in digital form, since the glorious 80-page color hardback book was not something that could be included. If you just want a song or two, like my “Ode to the E Chord,” they can be had for 99c.

I get a feeling this newsletter is not as zany or funny as some other ones. I guess these are more serious times. I’ll make you a deal- I’ll do something wacky if you will too.

The old-fashioned country band that I play in for fun, Hank & Dixie & the Knotty Pine Boys continues to draw crowds and be quite popular here at home. We are a 5-piece country band with pedal steel and Joyce (Dixie) on vocals and fiddle. I never thought I would be singing George Jones songs with a Western shirt on, but I love it. It’s a little-known fact, but I did grow up in the South, listening to country music in the 60’s, and I know lots of Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton songs by heart. There are no recordings or videos of us yet.

I have never traveled so little since I was 16 years old. I never really had a home life before, and it is really nice, though I miss performing and being able to sleep late in the motels. I don’t miss the airplanes these days, especially considering that I usually travel with 3 instruments and a lot of wires and stage gear.

Capo Voodoo CD– $9.95

Suite: for the Duchess • Für Elise • Arkansas Traveler • The Albatross • Macallan’s Jig • Norway Suite 3• Wildwood Flower • The Unknown Soldier • Johnson’s Blues • Hard Times, Come Again No More • Slipped Through My Hand • The Lucky Penny • Red in the Sky • Sly Damsel Serenade • Camptown Races/ Oh Susannah • Prelude: From Minstrel’s Dream

LISTEN / BUY ONLINE

I devoted a lot of energy this past year to re-mastering and re-organizing my back catalog of music. I started with guitar, the thing that I am most known for, because a lot of my best work was not easy to find. I assembled what I think are my best guitar recordings into 3 guitar instrumental albums, and all 3 are now available on iTunes and many other digital download systems. (Capo Voodoo CD will not show up on iTunes etc until about Dec 1 2010)

42 guitar tracks, mostly from older CD’s now sound a lot better. 24 of them were re-released in 2010 as the Solo Guitar Project: Vol. 1 & 2 (digital download only) and 18 more on the Capo Voodoo: Solo Guitar which was also pressed as a CD available Nov 15 2010.

This was mainly done for people who are not familiar with my body of work. Long-time fans out there who have some of my CD’s will hopefully notice the sparkling new sound quality, some new and unreleased tracks, and out-of-print gems like the epic 23-minute Minstrel’s Dream (from 1986) back in action and sounding better than ever.

New Guitar Book!

Capo Voodoo- Book 1

A Big Project that I have been trying to get to for over 10 years. A mind-bending 24 ways to use the 3-string partial guitar capo with 1200 cool chords. A Rosetta Stone for how to use this mysterious and wonderful guitar gadget. A great gift for guitar players in your life of all levels.

WOODPECKER MULTIMEDIA
5 Fernald Ave York Maine 03909 USA
phone (207) 363-1886

This web site concerns the music and life of acoustic musician, writer & music educator Harvey Reid.

If you don't find what you want, or if you have comments or questions, please email to


Joyce & I laughingly call them the “Ringling Brothers” and the “Blond Boys of Alabama.” Otto is now 5, and little Levi is pushing 2 1/2. I have put many more photos of the boys on this web version of the newsletter, since they have a fan club of their own already. These pics should give you a taste of why I might not have answered your email or paid that bill or remembered to register the car... Otto is a good singer when he wants to be, has a lot of musical ability, and has learned to tell jokes quite well. In general he would rather ride his bike or watch cartoons than play music, but he is a “born performer” of some kind I think. Levi seems to have guitars in his blood, and I predict it’s going to be hard to get him to stop playing when I need to.


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WOODPECKER MULTIMEDIA 5 Fernald Ave York Maine 03909 USA phone (207) 363-1886

WOODPECKER MULTIMEDIA
5 Fernald Ave York Maine 03909 USA
phone (207) 363-1886