My name is Gary and I play guitar. My first musical memories are of Chet Atkins and Sons of the Pioneers on my parents’ RCA Console stereo and me with my plastic Roy Rogers guitar. At 8, my first real guitar was a very used Kay Super Jumbo Concert. It felt like an upright bass on my lap. With the help of some Black Diamond strings, and a John Dever songbook, I conquered that beast.

My eclectic musical tastes bloomed at the Bristol Public Library, finding my earliest influences: (rock) Carlos Santana, Jeff Beck, and David Gilmore; (jazz) George Benson, D’jango Rheinhardt, Al DiMeola. Even with this Eclectic Electric and two years of jazz theory  music in my brain, I still leaned toward playing the "folkies:" Dylan, Paul Simon, James Taylor and, yes, John Denver. You can still hear John Denver in my songs.

In college I played solo in small showcases and coffee houses, and as “filler” for larger events. Then I ran into a big name on the local acoustic circuit who said: "I’m putting a band together -- you are going to be my guitarist, and band leader: Get a bassist, a drummer, and a keyboard player. We will start next month." I jumped at the challenge.

I found a bassist, who knew a drummer, who brought along a keyboardist. The singer quit before her first practice, but we decided to go on without her. We hired another friend of a friend, and The Tease – a female fronted new wave cover band, was born. Over the next two years The Tease went through several lead singers, two drummers and traded the keyboardist for a second guitar player -- before morphing into a thrash band called KGB Secret.

I discovered the Edge, Andy Summers and Adrian Belew and wanted to emulate the nuanced textures of these masters. KGB’s sonic bombast did not allow for nuance. The music that I had begun writing, with nuanced textures and pop sensibilities, didn’t fit KGB Secret, so they “fired” me, but I was relieved that I didn’t have to quit. Shortly after being fired, I formed Circle 13. We had 13 nuanced, textured pop songs, and opened for my friends’ bands. C13 morphed quickly into Modern Logic.

Modern Logic by the Numbers: 10 years, 1200+ shows, 6 Bassists, 2 drummers, 6 Acoustic spin-offs. An untold number of managers, agents, road managers, engineers, roadies, techs and flunkies (and the wonderful Modern-Logic-Ladies-Auxiliary Corps); 1 pilot, 2 trucks, 4 records (one unreleased); 2 movie tie-ins, 1 cancelled tour of the Soviet Union. 1 record contract that died with Freddy Mercury.

After Modern Logic retired, I was broken and no longer pursued music full time. I joined “normal reality(?)” and found that I resented it.  I did some time with Yesterday’s Boy, Uncle Remus, CowGoMoo, and Neon Kings, but after Neon Kings ended, I hung up my guitars “for good”. I didn’t pick up a guitar for a long while, except for the occasional benefit.

Then I met Adam JR Stoffel. He played drums in Ice House Road and was excited about music. His enthusiasm rubbed off on me. When I saw IHR, they were a hot mess, but I saw the real and felt the soul. They bent genres with great songs about cowboys that just needed some guitar. My guitar.

But alas IHR was not my forever band either. After years of County and State Fairs, Honky Tonks and Rodeos, the singer’s job took him away from IHR. I was not happy, because they had dragged me back into this, so I called our Artist Rep to book some solo shows for me.

I hadn’t played a full solo set in over twenty years. I was terrified, but… JR couldn’t stop either and joined me to create BiG!. BiG! played everywhere we could as often as we could. Until we had to go electric again and released a well-received CD in 2019. BiG! became thebandbig! and then ToBe Fare because of legal/branding issues. Then JR got bitten by the acting bug and our band dates became limited, and rehearsal became rare. I became restless, again. ToBe Fare was still a going concern, but I couldn’t deal with playing less. So, I went back to open mics. Then guitar master Carl DeTroia began a night for song writers at a little gelato shop in Palmyra, promoted by Margo Renfro. After a few sets, Carl and Margo persuaded me to return to solo performance.

So here I am. I have returned to full time music. After completing almost 6+ months of 2 weekly residences to get my chops back, I am back, -- playing 3-4 shows a week, prepping for the first show of my new side project, and helping some younger songwriters hone their craft. ToBe Fare has released the new “hits” album (plan b). I have wrapped up my first-ever solo tour. I’m writing and learning new songs and I look forward to playing them for you soon.

~g