Kevin Blair

Music:

Member Since: 20/05/2007
Band Website: www.myspace.com/ksblair
Band Members: Kevin Blair: Vocals, Guitar, Mandolin, Piano, Synthesizer, Bass, and Harmonica. Bruce Bartlett: Bass and percussion. Guy Gerard: Banjo, Nylon String Guitar, Electric Guitar, and Synthesizer.
Influences: Started out as a visual artist. When composing music, visual subjects and themes in my mind are the template. Prefer the classic poets and writers: Lord Byron, William Blake, Poe, Dickens, Milton, Colridge, Virginia Wolfe, Yeats.... Other poet influences: John Masefield, Jack London, T.S. Elliot, Dylan Thomas, Robert Browning, Marshall Mcluhan, Holy Scriptures...
Sounds Like: Blairs music is acoustic having a folk sound with thoughtfully written lyrics, unique playing style and his own contemporary original picturesque music composition. He writes journals, prose and poetry and coverts it to music with his vocal arrangements, sometimes adding narration to his instrumentals.Guitar, mandolin, harmonica, percussion sundry, piano and occasional synthesizers are his choice instruments. Songs "Jesus Owns My Bones", "Day Pass To Heaven", "Travelin", and "Heaven Is Just A Prayer Away" were co written with Joel Camp in Dade City, Florida, with Joel writing most the words. "I woke up from a turbulant sleep one morning and wrote down the words to "Jesus Owns My Bones", and a couple weeks later Kevin put them to music at my cousin Teresa's house in San Antonio.Bruce Bartlett, a musician and recording engineer, accompanies Blair on bass with some percussion in songs off albums "Walk Me On Down Lord" and "Dialogue With Mystery". Bruce's playing of the bass guitar adds real life and theatrics to those recordings.Blair's performances are dynamic. His vocal clarity is memorable.His love for the Lord abounds, and is obvious in each composition he creates. Many of his inspirational and Gospel compositions are written about the times we are living in, with no bars held. Kevin Blair eloquently portrays today's world and events with timeless pristine poetry, that avoids tendency toward the topical and dated.He started out with visual art, oil and acrylic on canvas and masonite (see "From Dust To Ashes" the background to this page. Other photos of his work are in pics and the slide show below), most being acrylic and alkyd on plexiglass.Instrumental collaborations with Guy Gerard have proved to be a great addition to Blair's work. Here, there are sounds in studio generated textures on guitars and synthesizer that Guy uses, venturing into very ethereal and surreal compositions, making these more recent songs even more powerful and to the point."When Id Meets Pi" is a good example of this (final song on the player, from album "Wander"). The song takes one to a whole other world that is yet a part of this world, with its lyrics of poetic, archaic language, similar to classical literature. Its a tour de' force of lyric poetry and music, thanks to Guy's sensitive, and articulated instrumentation. His playing style manages to paint a landscape where dreams and visions meet the challenging realities we all face. And his banjo playing in "Id" manages to keep this work accessible and grounded for easier contemplation as well. Much kudos goes to Guy Gerard for his contribution to this and other works in progress. See his website to learn more about him in friends.
Record Label: unsigned
Type of Label: Indie