Who am I? And, how to find me in cyberland?

I go by two "terms" most often in my musical endeavors: SmittyG on Bass or Narada Weeps. Searching for either of those will normally get you to me pretty quickly. But, at this end of this blog, I'll post links to my most common cyber-hangs.

At one point, I was trying to make a distinction between Narada Weeps and other things I might do. The idea was that it would be used for my ambient loopy music. But then I realized that I was going to have to come up with a new "band" name every time I changed up genres. Since I tend to be all over the map musically, that's just going to get too messy. So, at this point, I use Narada Weeps for pretty much anything that is me solo or where I am the primary creative force for the music played by other musicians.

The name "Narada Weeps" has an interesting history. I've always been fascinated by studying other cultures with a primary focus on their religious/philosophical views. One of my favorites is the Hindu culture of India. In several texts, Narada is describe as holding a musical instrument. In some stories, he actually brought music to mankind. When I started looking to create my own music outside of what I was doing with the local bands at the time, I tapped into the concept of "Narada" representing musical artistry. The "weeps" side was an expression of my frustration for the fact that it was, and continues to be, far easier to find an audience/market for  my playing in cover bands than for anything I might actually create of myself. Plus, I just thought the name sounded cool.

While explaining names, I guess I can take a moment and give the explanation for "SmittyG". It comes from my time in the Navy. In the military, everyone with the last name of Smith is called Smitty. When I was in boot camp, we had two Smith's--me (first name Glenn, for those who don't know) and a guy named Michael. In military vernacular, to cut down on confusion, they called him Smitty M-type and me Smitty G-type. Over time folks just shortened those down to SmittyM and SmittyG and then, for Michael, just down to Smitty. For me, SmittyG had stuck.

Once I left the Navy back in '88, the nickname dropped from use and it would have probably stayed that way if not for a goofy little thing called trocks. Trocks is a nickname for a website started by my buddy, Scott Lent, to promote the Texarkana music scene. http://www.texarkanarocks.com is the full name/link. Back in '03, when I was creating a username for the site, instead of using "Glenn", and I still have no clue why this popped into my head at that moment, I remembered my nickname from the Navy and used "SmittyG". Once I started getting more and more involved in local bands, the name took on new life off the site and eventually jumped over into my regular non-music life. At this point, I guess it's just me.

The SmittyG on Bass variation on the name was just my attempt to stake the claim that I'm a bassist--and nothing else. While I like to see myself as a musician/composer, my weapon of choice is the electric bass guitar. Not that it is better or worse than any other instrument out there--it's just the instrument that speaks to me and allows me to best present my music. However, over the years, I've had a lot of folks, who meant well, who have tried to tell me that I need to branch over to regular guitar, or keys, or percussion. (That last one, since I did start on drums originally, has some appeal to me.) "SmittyG on Bass" was my response of "this is who I am and this is what I do--deal with it".

So just how did I become a bass player? Well, since I'm sharing everything else with you, I might as well cover that story as well. Both my father and step-father are guitar players. My step-father actually played semi-pro. When I was eight, he showed me how to play a couple of chords and started teaching me some simple songs. I immediately took those chords and started making up my own songs--creating music was always the greatest appeal to me. However, I was never really that drawn to guitar and didn't progress much past strumming some chords.

When I was 11, it was time to join school band. What I really wanted to play was either flute or French horn. The band director said my braces were a no-go on the French horn and my step-father said that playing flute wasn't for guys so drums it was. I actually have a pretty solid since of rhythm and time so I was able to grasp the basics pretty well. But, regardless of how much effort I put into it, I just could never really get into the drums as I wanted to--they just didn't "speak" to me. I dropped out of band after just three years. However, that didn't stop me from trying to play in rock bands in high school.

It was during one of these garage band phases that I found the bass. I was in a group with a couple of friends and the guy on bass didn't really play, he just liked the idea of getting the girls (boy, did he pick the wrong instrument). I would take the bass home and learn the songs so I could teach him how to play them. Over time, it became very obvious that I was far more comfortable and capable on bass than I would ever be on drums. Once I made that realization, it became my main instrument. After a couple more attempts to play both bass and guitar (not at the same time, of course), I finally dropped the "main" part of that description and decided bass is who I am and what I do.

Well, I guess that is enough story telling for now. Here are the links to where I tend to put most of my effort of sharing and promoting my music:

http://www.facebook.com/smittyg.bass

http://www.reverbnation.com/SmittyGonBass

http://naradaweeps.bandcamp.com/

http://www.youtube.com/NaradaWeeps

Come back now; ya'hear?