"Alex"
Woodland
Alex grew up in the town of Exmore on the Eastern Shore of Virginia being lulled to sleep at night by the music emitted from a Toshiba transistor radio tucked under his pillow. From this radio he first heard the sounds of Frankie Valley and the Four Seasons, Righteous Brothers, Motown , Roy Orbison, the Beach Boys, and the British Invasion Groups.
While in Exmore, Alex took piano lessons but abandoned them to learn how to play the guitar on an arched top f-hole acoustic borrowed from the family across the street. Alex and his family left Exmore for a brief stay in Louisa County and eventually Portsmouth, Virginia. In Portsmouth Alex began learning songs with high school friends using the “chords over the lyrics” method. Influenced by the Byrds and the folk rock sound Alex made the acoustic guitar his instrument of choice and began experimenting with vocal harmonies. After listening to his brother’s copy of Neil Young’s self titled album, Alex discovered his first main musical influence. While visiting a friend in college Alex listened to Closing Time, Tom Waits debut album. Alex found his next major influence and a desire to learn how to play the piano.
Other musical influences are Jimi Hendrix, The Band, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, and Elvis Costello. Other notables from the New Wave era include Tears for Fears, The Pretenders, Crowded House, Talking Heads, Men at Work and Squeeze. As far as 21st century music goes Alex likes the Counting Crows and is impressed with the Los Lonely Boys. Alex says “what catches my ear is a song with a crafty chord progression, great melody and harmony vocal parts and lyrics that aren’t obvious.”
Music
Alex has played in several local bands with Driver native Greg Parker. With Greg’s assistance Alex recorded an albums worth of original songs.
For that true grand piano sound and feel Alex plays an Alesis DG8 keyboard and plans to add the Casio WK-3000 for portability and to tap into the sax sounds via a Casio DH-100 electric sax. These are being run thru a Rouge KB-1560 keyboard amp. Alex’s collection of low-priced guitars include a vintage Silvertone amp-in-case model, Crate strat copy, and Brownsville Choirboy electric 12-string played through a Rouge GS-50R and on rare occasions a 60’s black faced Fender Pro Reverb.