 Mike Nelson |
Mike is a native of San Diego, California, and has been playing the guitar since the age of eleven. He began listening to classical guitarists Andres Segovia and Christopher Parkening, Eric Wiessburg's banjo playing on the "Deliverance" soundtrack album, and the folk-pop of Jim Croce and John Denver. The common thread was the fingerstyle approach. It always seemed to make sense that the way to get the most out of the guitar was to use all of the fingers. There was a lot of varied music played in the home growing up, from his Swedish grandfather's piano playing of his native country's folk songs and dances, to his mother's playing of popular songs on the piano, to his brother's professional bagpipe playing. Mike spent many hours on the guitar daily, and continued to improve. There were school and church performances, of original and cover material. It was his study at San Diego State University with Celin Romero of "Los Romeros", the Spanish master player/teacher who currently resides in Del Mar, California, that inspired and pushed Mike to really excel on the guitar. Mr. Romero called him a natural and believed in Mike's ability. Mike continued to supplement his musical education via the National Guitar Summer Workshop in Connecticut, in jazz harmony. He says it's the jazz guys who are really on the cutting edge of harmony and chord theory. Mike studied with classical guitarist/composer Andrew York and fingerstyle jazz guitarist/arranger Howard Morgen at the Workshop. In San Diego, local jazz master Peter Sprague and top classical teacher/performer/studio artist Fred Benedetti, through their collaborative efforts with "Blurring the Edges", fascinated Mike with Brazilian jazz. Another very influential local guitarist was D.R. Auten, who's compositions utilize an ingenious blend of country, blues, and jazz for steel-string guitar as well as apt titles changed the way Mike looked at the guitar. After seeing Mr. Auten in a concert, Mike was so impressed, he went out the next day and bought a Taylor 612-C, the same type of acoustic steel stringed guitar that he was playing. A CD was the next logical step in the progression, and so was born "The Eclectic Acoustic", so-named for the various styles represented. He wanted it to be representative of his performances, which run the gamut of classical, jazz, blues, ragtime, bossa nova, and popular styles, as well as original tunes. The project was done with a tremendous amount of help from Richard Alcoy, a multi-faceted guitarist, computer-whiz, and music teacher from Cerritos, California. All of the tunes on the CD were recorded at his home. "Farewell" has a thin texture and had to be redone at Studio West of Rancho Bernardo, because the chirping birds outside were too loud. You can hear them on other cuts if you crank up the volume. Mainstring recording artist Pat Kirtley had this to say, "Mike Nelson has produced a very fine album. He did everything right, accomplished talents in composition, arranging, tone, and touch are well-presented. I get tons of guitar stuff to listen to and this one easily stands out from the pack." The Association of Fingerstyle Guitarists, based in Anaheim, California, has been very helpful in Mike's development, where he met Mr. Alcoy originally, and other great local (Los Angeles area) guitarists, such as Gary Lambert, Michael OĠDorn, and Al Meyers, to name a few. The Association also provides a great venue for performance and learning. The AFG recently sponsored Mike in a concert at Kirk Sand's Guitar Shoppe in Laguna Niguel, California. He performed solos, as well as duo and trio settings with Christopher Dean and Tom Boyer. Mr. Sand had this to say about the concert, "Mike Nelson is a great fingerstylist and arranger. His fingerstyle selections and Scott Joplin Ragtime arrangements are a real pleasure to listen to." Mike is also a member of the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society, and has performed on the main stage of the annual convention three years in a row. He claims, "Every fingerstyle player has to listen to Chet to really see how it's done." At present, Mike continues to write and arrange for the guitar, and is writing out transcriptions of the tunes from his CD. His first goal is to increase his repertoire enough to make it in the local scene, fine restaurants, corporate functions, and parties. This will enable him to quit his day job as a manager of a very successful Marie Callender's restaurant, and in turn allow him to write more original music.
Other Sites: The Guitar of Mike Nelson |
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