Hello everyone!

My name is Michael. @matt-a and @tommyinthesun turned me on to this lovely platform. I've been lurking for a couple months, but just now feeling brave enough to make my introduction post.

https://steemitimages.com/DQmb92TxfYmvMH9mAd4Z3XdzuZBU13GDJNwE7BtPispFsnT/oop.jpg

I've lived in Eastern Kentucky for all 25 years of my existence. As a teen I often referred to the area as "mundane" or "boring" and always planned on leaving the minute I turned 18. However I find myself growing fonder of the area more and more every year, to the point I can't imagine myself living anywhere else.

https://steemitimages.com/DQmQDtcpwRgTn3evtFxqbbWb5zhwpBReS589Xpa72CvMDpi/natt.jpg

I was born into a very music oriented family and consider myself lucky for that.

A little background on the musicians in my family;

My great grandfather and his 2 brothers had a group aptly named "The Howard Family". They were active from the early 40's to around 49 and were located in the David/Blue River region of Floyd County. Every Sunday they would pack their instruments for miles through the hills just to play on the local radio station. Luckily I have 3 78's of The Howard Family, all of which were cut live at the same radio station. It seems all 3 of the records were cut in 1948, shortly before my grandfather was born.

My grandfather followed in this tradition, playing piano in church as a child and picking up the guitar shortly after. He played in multiple groups from the 60's - mid 80's, mostly of the rock genre. His longest running band was named "Sweet Run" (pretty solid 70's band name, right?). A lot of times they would serve as the backing band for entertainers who either didn't want to bus their band all the way to Kentucky or just didn't want to split the guarantee with their actual band. This led them to backing everyone from Chuck Berry to Chubby Checker in the Tri-state area.Apparently famous 50's acts were fairly affordable to book in the early 70's. My father also joined the band for a few years in his high school days.

(My grandfather is the guy in the middle going through a Harry Nilsson phase, hence the hat)

https://steemitimages.com/DQme68f3zeod6ogY4ZDYpDLxMBuDCEMsWSYLCWWZ8afpenA/File.jpg

I could go on and on about the musicians in my family but I guess I'll finally get around to me.

I've been interested in playing music ever since my dad bought me a Teisco Del Ray at the age of 8. Despite it being a piece of plywood with serious intentions of making your fingers bleed, I loved it. I dabble with drums, bass & synth but guitar has always been my favorite relaxation tool. At 25 I'm still obsessed with all things audio. I enjoy nothing more than tracking my dumb songs to tape (R2R or cassette, as long as its got that warmth and warble!). My latest band is a 3 piece Post-Punk band based in Whitesburg, KY named Tenure (probably a bad name since it's nearly impossible to google us, haha).

https://steemitimages.com/DQmVK9o96fN2ghUyQVSmo96N7m9pL7xNEVrkHw5nCa9Q6vf/tenure.jpg

My goal on Steemit is to write articles on all things that are of interest to me.

Such as;
Budget home recording, building dumb fuzz pedals and other audio gear, sharing recordings, making genre specific album lists, collecting bad truckin' country albums (despite never being able to drive due to seizures, lol), and whatever else that may pop into this head of mine.

I'm really looking forward to share & learn with all of you.

Cheers!
- Michael Howard