Three super projects

[paulk1]

Here's three new projects featuring some great lineup's:

1) Neal Morse www.nealmorse.com

Mark Leniger
Mike Portnoy
Alan Morse
Roine Stolt
Randy George
Steve Hackett
Jordan Rudess

2) Randy George www.ajalon.net

Paul Kilkenny ( thats me ) ; )
Neal Morse
Phil Keaggy
David Ragsdale
Michael Manring
David Walliman
Taylor Mesple
David Beegle
Gene Crout
Dewey Marler

3) Salem Hill www.salemhill.com

Randy George
David Ragsdale
Fred Schendel
Jeff Eacho
and others unannounced.

[Hardrock69]

Oooookay....

I have only heard of 3 of them guys...Steve Hackett, Mike Portnoy and Phil Keaggy...

Am I correct in assuming these are some kind of Shred WankFest projects where everyone gets to play a billion notes per song?
;)

[paulk1]

far from it, trust me it'll be some great stuff ;)

[Shaun Ponsonby]

Originally posted by paulk1
Here's three new projects featuring some great lineup's:

1) Neal Morse www.nealmorse.com

Mark Leniger
Mike Portnoy
Alan Morse
Roine Stolt
Randy George
Steve Hackett
Jordan Rudess



My mouth is watering

[Shaun Ponsonby]

Originally posted by Hardrock69
Oooookay....

I have only heard of 3 of them guys...Steve Hackett, Mike Portnoy and Phil Keaggy...

Am I correct in assuming these are some kind of Shred WankFest projects where everyone gets to play a billion notes per song?
;)

Neal Morse-Genius who should be a multimillionaire. Ex-Spock's Beard mainman, now a solo artist and christian. They are so good that in 2000 Spocks Beard's "V" entered the German Top 40, which for prog is very rare. Get "Snow" by Spock's Beard.

Alan Morse-Neal's brother. Also in Spock's Beard.

Jordan Rudess-I believe he is Dream Theatre's keyboard player.

Roine Stolt-A genius like Neal. From The Flower Kings/The Tangent/Transatlantic (w/Neal and Portnoy)+ more. Great guitar player, releases around 1000 albums a year, the real hadrest working man in showbusiness. Get "Flower Power" by The Flower Kings/"SMPTE" and "Bridge Across Forever" by Transatlantic.

Randy George-Don't know much about him, but know he plays bass for Neal Morse on "Testimony" and "One"

Mark Leniger-Name rings a bell, but can't place him right now.

Salem Hill-Only have one album, but like what I have heard.



Will continue later.

[nosuchluck]

Michael Manring - bass genius...

[paulk1]

Hey you wanna know something ? You guys are great The drums are for sale, but there a little pricey too, i would ask $10,000 for everything. Anyways i guess if i really had to thank anybody for me being where i am today with Randy's project besides Randy himself, it would have to be Mr. Mike Portnoy. Here's why:

Back in like 96 i was reading an interview in the Modern Drummer mag, and this was i think right around the Falling into Infinity cd, and he was asked what bands influenced him as a drummer/musician, and at that time i was searching for new music that i honestly felt i needed for inspiration, i really wasn't into Nirvanna or Pearl jam and i just felt that music was on the downward trend. After looking at his list i noticed a couple of bands that i had not heard of, one being Galactic Cowboys, and the other Spock's Beard. So i took a ride to the local Crow's Nest record store, and picked up Spock's Beard's " The Kindness of Strangers" cd, and of course GC's cd which i forget the title now, and when i came home i sat down, put on the headphones, and listened to The Beards cd, and what happened that day changed my musical direction in such a way that i felt inspired again, and touched. I then ran out and bought up " The Light " and " Beware of Darkness " and i instantly became a fan of this band. I bought every new cd that they put out and of course the Transatlantic releases which were just awsome, and i guess once Neal Morse announced his departure, i was like everyone shocked and confused about why he left, and wondered what his plan was musically, or if he just quit everything. Well Testimony came out and even though it was a new cd, it was kinda weird to hear the christian lyrics and the religeous overtones now surrounding him, but musically it was very inspireing, and of course with Mike being on it after TA, i just had to check it out. One day after joining up the Neal Morse yahoo groups thingy, there was a message posted from this dude Randy George with something to the effect of " I'm eating, drinking, and sleeping Testimony learning the bass parts for the upcoming tour" so i responded back to him privately in an email to find out more about Neal, you know inside info hehe, well after a while we exchanged phone numbers, and i decided to grow some balls and called him from work, and at first it was very awkward but i felt good enough about it and learned of his band Ajalon. After a while i was hanging out a an internet prog station, and Randy had popped in there, so we began chatting and just BSing a bit, and i was looking to get a little bit of airplay from my old band Genral Patton & His Privates on this station, which Papa J Graciously, but Humorusly did, well Randy heard it, and said " This is you " and i said yeah, well he then said " Sounds pretty good " so i felt good and thankful for the nice, yet embarrising compliment's. One day while visiting the internet prog station, Randy popped in and nicely lured me out of there, and into another station, to where the story begins..... Our friendship i think really started to develope, and of course with him being a christian, in a christian chat room, i really felt out of place, but wanted to continue to get to know him and the others, and felt that on many levels Randy and i connected in a musical sense and of course hearing a lot of music by christian prog bands, i started to become even more musically inspired. I had been in contact with him while he was out on the Testimony tour, and emailed him my bio, and some some very basic info on who i was, and who my influences were and stuff. Randy went on to record Neal's One cd and at around that time was talking about putting out a solo cd, which i thought was cool, but never thought much about it, eccept by offering to lend my drumming skills on the project. At first he had decided to go with someone else, and i was a little disappointed, but at the same time wasn't sure if i was even good enough anyways, i guess i'm just insecure about my playing. I never think i'm better than anyone else, i will always let the people who hear my playing judge me, and eccept any critisism that may follow, but really appreciate the nice compliments, and all too. Anyways one day we talked on the phone, and i out of curioustity asked how the project was going, and granted i have met the drummer who was first playing on it, and is a super nice guy, but Randy felt that the drumming might not be exactly what he was looking for, for this project, so once again being persistent and all, offered again. By this time i had heard a couple of the demo songs, and was blown away just by the demos, and felt intimidated by them, but yet figured what the hell, all he can say is no, and i was willing to at least give it a shot if nothing else. I think at first he was a little hesitant, but did offer me the oppurtunity to play drums on maybe 1 or 2 songs, and i was at this point pretty excited to at least be handed a chance at it. So i made a phone call, and kinda jumped at this shot with really nothing but a hope, and a prayer that things could somehow work themselves out. Randy said that he needed so send me the tracks in a wav format, and of course that was foreign to me, but none the less got in contact with my friend Gerry who not only does sound/recording but is a great guitar player as well who for a short time was in my other old band Darker, and who i met for the very first time when i was selling my old Pearl drumkit, he and his friend called me up, came over and bought the drums, but also they had seen the cowprint DW's, and thought " How Cool " and it wasn't until after i got divorced from my wife at the time, and was living at my parent's house while my new house was being built, that Gerry called me out of the blue, based on remembering those DWs and that i might want to jam sometime. Getting back to the story, Gerry was up for the recording after i explained who Randy was, and that he had a friend who is the top engineer at this studio who would be able to transfer the wav files to what Gerry only had which was a set of 4 da-38 tape recorders of a total of 24 tracks. So by this point i was beginning to feel great, and things were kinda working out for me for once. Randy had concluded that he would just send me all the tunes to play on, which words can't really desribe the feelings i felt, and was now totally focused, and determined to try and do the best i could. Over a 4 month period of time, figuring schedule conflicts, multiple takes of different ideas, total Guidance and Patience from Randy, Gerry, and family, my tracks were finally completed, and felt that Randy brought out the skills i needed to have to be able to make the music better, even though i felt i was being compared to Mike Portnoy in a way, i needed to be me, and play off of my ideas and influneces as well as play for the music that i felt didn't require overplaying, because the songs themselves i feel aren't designed that way. At this point, knowing what i know and who i know, i hope that once the cd is finally released in '06, it will inspire some of you like it did me, and i hope that i will be asked to involved in other future projects as well. Right now i'm not involved with any bands full time yet, and i guess if the right situation comes along, i'll get back to where i need to be. Just for the record, Randy and i have become great friends, and he even lived with me for a short period of time, during his search for the right situation, but now with the new Ajalon cd out and with great reviews, on a new label www.progrockrecords.com on Neal Morse's and Salem Hills new upcoming cds, as well as the solo cd, and his invlovement with www.cprogrock.com as Neal said it in the song The Light " This is Alright ", i feel proud and honored to have been offered a rare opputunity, and the lessons i've learned, which goes for any musician: the lucky 7.

1) Persistence
2) Patience
3) A Good Attitude
4) Knowledge
5) Diversity in different styles of music
6) Experience
7) Being Professional

I should also express that i'm not a practicing christian, hate politics, not rich, but love music, pizza, and my Fiance and friends. I opologize for the lengthy post, but i had to make it " nice ".

Paul Kilkenny

p.s. not to make a big thing out of it, but should anyone be interested i have some cds i played on:

2 - with my old band Genral Patton & His privates and 1 due out soon at www.genralpatton.com - Power Pop Punk Alternative Rock

1 - another old band called Darker, Funk Metal, and a hell of a cd, but the website is gone but you can email Chuck at darkerrocks@hotmail.com

But no big deal.

[Shaun Ponsonby]

Originally posted by paulk1

I should also express that i'm not a practicing christian, hate politics, not rich, but love music, pizza, and my Fiance and friends. I opologize for the lengthy post, but i had to make it " nice ".



Good, I was getting worried there.

As much as I love Neal, his God Squad stuff gets on my nerves a bit. Like, when he toured in Churches last year and didn't do a proper tour for "One".

Having said that, that could have been because Portnoy was making the new Dream Theatre album.

[paulk1]

I guess i do try to remain Spiritual though, and as far as Neal not touring ONE, believe me Randy wanted to, but Neal doesn't really like touring to much anymore. But you never know. ;)

[Shaun Ponsonby]

How much do you reckon it will cost me to get him to play in my school (in Liverpool)?

[paulk1]

Good question, but Neal is pretty approachable, and i think he would consider it, if the price was right i suppose. You could email him through his website, and pose that question. The other reason Neal didn't tour ONE was because of the money he had to put out to support the Testimony tour, in which he basically broke even and plus now his fanbase isn't as strong as it was back in the Spock's beard days, but that's just what i had heard, don't know if that's true, but it does makes sense.