Gary "Woody" Woods
Bio
Woody has always had music in his blood. His grandmother had her own Jazz band in the1940's and 50's. Playing a kind of stride-bass piano that showed its roots. The ones grown while playing every weekend for the silent movie shows in her Massachusetts hometown.
Woody remembers the weekend "jam sessions" at his grandparents Connecticut home. His mother would help load his entire drumset in the back of the station wagon, for the weekly trip after Sunday church, without a fuss. He would set up sometimes indoors and play along with his grandmother to the classic dance songs of that long gone period that was Grammy's heyday. Sometimes, he would set up out back of the house with the stereo from the house and a long extension cord from the garage. There, with no one to bother but the horses in the corrals that surrounded the back yard, Woody would show off his licks to Grammy. Not on the her music, but on the music that was happening then... The Beatles, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass and the jazz that his Dad introduced him too like NY great Jonah Jones and George Shearing. She listened intently and always clapped and showed great support for her young grandson's obvious talents.
Growing up, he always took drum lessons and for a short time piano but he seemed to have the ability to pick up instruments and be able to play them passably in a short time. First it was flute and later baritone horn and valve trombone. He picked up bass guitar and guitar in NY in his early teens and from there it has grown to mastering most keyboard instruments, mandolin and more.
He was always a singer too.. When he was 12 he was invited to be the guest boy soprano with a regional men's glee club and shone at it. While still in high school Woody was invited to participate in many choirs and bands with the Crane School of Music at Potsdam State University. He always made the New York State School Music Association's statewide choir nominations and never missed a chance to perform at them.
Playing in clubs regularly since he was 16, he is a seasoned professional. While still in high school he was playing jazz in one band and rock and roll in another.... never letting his chops in either genre get rusty. He has played in Society bands, Orchestras, Marching bands, Jazz trio's and quartets, Rock bands, Oldies bands, Hard Rock acts, Country bands, bluegrass bands, jug bands... well, you get the idea.
He tried his hand at acting, performing Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar while in college and later in a comedy troupe in Portland, Oregon where he was Musical Director for a short time and the only male member of a troupe consisting of overweight, middle-aged, female potheads. To this day, they apparently have trouble remembering their own names.
His love for the art of recording started as a freshman in high school. His school in northern New York had a small 4-channel recording studio setup in a large closet off the music room. Woody, as the only music major in his school, had the use of the studio and was soon bouncing tracks and making his own recordings by performing all of the instruments and vocals himself. Woods actually still has cassette copies of some of these in his vaults and while not polished, show the promise of later things to come.
After college, Woods got tired of shoveling snow and decided to move to Houston, Texas which was the nations biggest boomtown in the late seventies. While not finding much about Texas to his liking, Woody did meet and team up with singer-songwriter, Rusty Hounsel who would become his music partner through five years and two states. They eventually relocated to the beautiful Pacific Northwest and after Woods got his a certificate in Recording Arts in a 24-track studio in Portland, they formed an all original music band called Full Circle and set up a small recording studio of their own in Woods' garage.
Full Circle rose to the top of the music scene in Portland. They tired of playing the same half dozen clubs that could afford them and to make more money decided to take it on the road. Traveling extensively in Oregon, Washington and Idaho they managed to burn themselves out in a year of constant traveling. They broke up shortly after releasing their record "How Long Can I Stand It?"... how apropos!
Woods was offered the chance to go to Los Angeles in the summer of 1985 with a free place to stay for the summer. That somehow turned into a 16 year stay. Shortly after moving to LA, Woody met a crazy songwriter who shared many of his beliefs and had similar roots named James Bartlett. Woody and James formed the Mosey Bros. and over the course of the next 14 years they wrote several hundred songs, composed a theme song for a National Public Radio show, scored two films and had a hell of a lot of fun together. Both are still performing some of the great music they created together.
In 1992, Woods borrowed some money from his credit union and purchased a complete 8-track studio from a production company that was going out of business. When he hit the wall with bouncing tracks he started learning how to sync MIDI to his Tascam 8-track tape. That carried him for another year but he soon realized that the future was Digital and not analog. Woods was already a UNIX Systems Administrator for a lawfirm and so going digital offered Woods the chance to combine his two favorite things in the world... Music and Computers!
Woody settled on Steinberg's Cubase Score and later upgraded to their VST (Virtual Studio Technology) program. VST is robust Hard-disk recording software written in Germany. It has every studio tool known to man built right in. To further expand the studio, Woods purchased Steinberg's WaveLab program for complete editing capabilities. As Woody likes to say, he is now only limited by "imagination and hard drive space".
Woods and his family relocated to Southern Maine in the Fall of 2001. Their home is situated right on the shore of beautiful Sabattus Lake within 30 minutes of Maine's two largest cities.
Woody is currently rebuilding the studio and bluegrassing with The NitPickers at clubs and festivals around New England.
Woody has lived and breathed music for 40 years now. If you get the chance to hear him play then go and... Catch the Fire!!