Darryl Gregory

Take a little Mellencamp Flavor with Springsteen and Earle Throw in some Cash and a pinch of Hiatt Cook it up over a HOT flame Sounds like Darryl Gregory Heat & Eat Mmmm Good! Visit his website at www.DarrylGregory.com

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Dizzy’s Club at JALC to hear Kim Nalley. What an awesome band and set! (at Dizzy's Club) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt909vGA0Jhkx2UwmKasc1tTZKZxEBc9Cf8-mE0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1vp43oo0tvn0e

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Redesign of my Christmas album cover. I write a Christmas song every year and you can hear all 9 years of songs at darrylgregory.bandcamp.com https://www.instagram.com/p/BracZMsASOCe3I3itadfVuCMN7ds6I_Ml5abbQ0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=yy7y0fhosyia

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So what’s the first thing I learn on my new banjo? Shave and a haircut of course! https://www.instagram.com/p/BrIPq03gPb4-2-pZ0xMcVlNiAlI3QK692hAwYA0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=4fpvlf2q580b

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Ready to hear a Miles retrospective. (at Jazz at Lincoln Center) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bp-va5EA5PL0zXczipPM10bc6Bw23LXm_J3HMY0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=2kkwfh6ri0h2

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Thank you God for giving me the ability to pull Music from the air and share it. https://www.instagram.com/p/BpxBSRSgCCKQbghV1nj3z7lME0qqxBg_dJwOL40/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=7rtcq8ni8byx

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The sole reason I do yoga is to be able to put my socks on without sitting down. https://www.instagram.com/p/BpZswIogOeLrO1PR3hkwVWhJPC4-oqRYqQYgI40/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1o1lw9o3m29pb

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Every time I go out to eat I am reminded that I can probably make what I am served at the restaurant for less money and tasting just as good if not better. Pulled pork and roasted butternut squash and new potatoes. https://www.instagram.com/p/BopHqxwgi3gs2elLF9sLE44AEBfwTO3WDhfLz00/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=yo2wftfgkohh

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All packed for a gig. Thank God for MUSIC, otherwise I’d be crazier than a South Carolina Senator. 🧐 https://www.instagram.com/p/BoSU4c0AUg12La7SEh6V2GBIwWo-uCKLBQHLDM0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1a7ze4o6hklzn

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Unfamiliar Instruments

I’m going back over some old recordings of my Christmas songs - remixing and then remastering - for a seasonal release of a Holiday Album. (Side note: I’ve been writing a Christmas song every year for the past 7 years - time for a CD). One of my songs was recorded initially with guitar, mandolin, glockenspiel and voice and has an Irish lilt to it. So where is the penny whistle? Hmmm... If you have two ask, then you better make amends...

I so happen to have a nice collection of whistles that I had played in a previous band I was in. I got pretty good at bending notes and scooping the pitches while playing the stuff we had composed, but I have no idea what correct ornamentation would be for “authentic” Irish penny whistle performance practice. Suffice it to say I have listened a lot and know what sounds approximately correct and that’s what I did - the approximately correct version of Irish folk ornamentation. 

I tend to play out of the side of my embouchure. I feel it works better for me some how - meaning there’s no real reason. I use very little to no tongue when playing - like a jazz cat - and I play flat fingered. 

This is not my instrument, but I treat it like a vocal and try to make it sing. You can’t let up on the airstream or else the tone will sag and crack. Luckily I have deep lungs from years of tromboning - ha! 

I came close to writing out my part, but I hate reading music in these cases as it detracts from my playing it like I hear it in my head - if that makes sense. 

Hopefully you’ll get to hear this when the holiday CD comes out. 

- Cheers!

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‪What I’m reading. Plus I have my iPhone close to reference all the bands I may not know. ‬

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Gig 2 of 2 at the Golf Country Club. Raining is done. Rainbow is out. We are inside.

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Gig 1 of 2 today. Our third year at the Trumbull Blueberry Fest! (at Long Hill United Methodist Church Trumbull CT)

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Simple Things Are Often the Hardest

I have two songs that are ukulele songs that I want to record for the new album. They’re cute, kitschy tunes and are pretty simple (this one is a little less than 2 minutes). When I perform them “live” they are really fun to do and usually get a great response from the audience. I also figured (assumed) that these would be pretty easy to record and knock out quickly: WRONG!

Simple things are usually the hardest to translate into a recording as they are more exposed. So, as I sat in the chair pictured above, and played into the microphone, I heard every detail of the strumming, the muting, the glissandi, the sustain and the little mistakes. Those “little mistakes” often go unnoticed when playing and singing live, but when put under the microscope of recording, they become huge and annoying. This particular song is only voice and uke, so there’s nowhere to hide. I’m standing naked in the middle of Fifth Avenue singing this one. Good Luck, right?!?

So I do a lot of takes. I get cranky. I think that maybe I should buy a new uke (no, it’s me). Then I record the vocals and I try to get that certain inflection that will hi-light the words and the nuance of what I’m trying to get across to the listener. There’s one point where I want it to sound like I’m asking a question, but the words kind of zip by - how do I do that and still keep the rhythm. Yikes! This is only a voice and uke song! 

So the proof is in the pudding, as they say, and I try different things and take a taste and then go back to the kitchen. My point here is that what I thought to be simple isn’t. Even a two track song can be time consuming and detailed. And therein lies your moment of Zen. 

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New CD display case from old suitcase.

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Grilled Cheeeeeese

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Day 13 Song of the Day from my album “Fact From Fiction”

Day 13 song of the day: ‘I Want To Fall In Love (again)’

Well here we are on the final song of my new album “Fact From Fiction” and it’s an outlier, unlike anything else on the album. This started out as a ukulele song that I wrote for my wife, but I didn’t want to have another uke song. Eddy Vedder already did a uke CD, I didn’t need to add to the pile. So I started thinking about arrangement and came up with an old time jazz combo feel: uke, accordion, cornet with a plunger mute, and tuba. I also whistle on the track - yes I’m a damned good whistler. 

Thanks for listening and reading about my songs for the past 13 days. I hope you enjoyed it and are inspired to go purchase the album and share this music with your friends. You can get the album from iTunes, Amazon, CDBaby, BandCamp and a bunch of other places I’m sure.

Click here to listen to: ‘I Want To Fall In Love (again)’

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Day 12 Song of the Day from my album “Fact From Fiction”

Day 12 song of the day: ‘Dear Hollywood’

Here’s another example of writing from a prompt. The idea was to write in an epistilary style. A letter to someone or something in this case. Dear Hollywood like a Dear John - I’m leaving you. Told from am actor’s perspective and in a pseudo doo-wop style tongue-in-cheek. 

Click to hear ‘Dear Hollywood’