The Session #9 - Music and Beer

Music and beer. Or beer and music if you prefer. Either way, it's exactly what I've blogged about here since day one of Akelas Biggins. Aside from family and friends, music and beer are my two major interests. I've been playing music off and on since the age of 8 when I started taking piano lessons. I stuck with that for a little while, but as I got older the guitar began to interest me as well. I got into playing the bass. I largely taught myself to play the bass. I don't mind saying I got to be a pretty good bassist, and I still am. Truthfully, I'm a more competent bass player than a keyboardist, but I still love playing keyboards anyway. I own three basses, two keyboards, a piano, one electric six-string guitar and one acoustic six-string guitar. There is no shortage of musical equipment at my house. Here are a few of my "toys":


(click images for larger versions)

I'll get back to music, but for now let's jump to the beer. I've been homebrewing off and on for ~12 years. My wife bought me a kit as a Christmas present one year and I just kept doing it. Naturally brewing my own led me to sample as many different commercially brewed beers as I could. I've sampled a pretty fair number of beers and brewed a pretty fair number as well. I'm no Michael Jackson or Charlie Papazian but hey, who is, right? I've brewed some things that were way less than conventional. Beer style purists would likely have turned their noses up at a batch of star anise flavored trappist ale I brewed one time, but I wasn't asking them to drink it.

Likewise, I play music that often doesn't really fit into any conventionally accepted style. Classically trained musicians would likely laugh at me. But guess what. Just like with my unconventional beer, I don't particularly care. I do it for me. I have a day job that involves neither beer nor music.

I guess that brings us back to the music, and where and how beer fits into it. Frankly, I can't remember a time recently that my recording wasn't accompanied by a beer. Does the beer help? Does it hinder? I don't know. It doesn't matter though. It's just one of those things that is what it is. I try not to be too highbrow about any of it. With that thought in mind, I submit to you a recording I did for this session on my Roland Fantom (which isn't pictured above):



.mp3 file download link

Homer Simpson isn't highbrow. He's pretty much an every man kind of man; a dude like any other dude. If Homer was a real guy, I suspect he and I would get along pretty well. I'm not really sure what that says about me. Doh!

If you'd like to hear some more samples of music I've done (some in conjunction with my friend Joe who plays guitar and sings) you can find them here, here and here. I'm thankful to have met Joe and consider him a great friend. People who have heard me sing before are glad I found a guy that can sing too. If you've read this far then I sincerely thank you for indulging me in my descriptions of a couple things that bring me joy in life: music and beer. May you all find the joy in your lives that I've been blessed with in mine.

UPDATE: Tomme posts the wrap-up here.

Beer