7209 Whispering Oaks Dr.
Austin, TX 78745 USA
(512) 707-0836
| Music Theory |
More of my songs are on their way. Here are two - performed by Greg Forest.
CLICK HERE to a demo with me playing parts
of many songs in a satire about Men and Women.
Contact Information: |
Gary L. Wimmer
7209 Whispering Oaks Dr.
Austin, TX 78745 USA
(512) 707-0836
Return to garywimmer.com Click on a picture to enlarge in new browser.
|
| For more on my life see my Biography Page. As far as music goes, I began playing guitar in 1963, motivated by my love of music and, of course, a testosterone-charged teenager's dreams of sex, fame and fortune. Like most beginning guitarists, I constantly listened to records and stole riffs from my heroes at the time: Freddie King, Scotty Moore, Chet Atkins, Chuck Berry, the Beatles, the Stones, and several jazz guitarists. Within a year I was playing in dives and bars that I was too young to even legally enter, often with Jerry Lynn Williams, the songwriter extraordinaire. When I finished high school I wanted to play music full-time, but Uncle Sam was doing Vietnam at the time and I was a prime candidate for soldierhood, which was not quite what I had in mind. I was against US involvement, so I went for a college deferment and plowed through five years at Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas. While there, I played lead guitar in several less-than-Earth-shattering rock and folk bands, participated in antiwar activities and student politics, and relished in the psychedelia, madness and magic of the 60's. Somehow I escaped with a BS in Electrical Engineering. What a colorful and intense decade! I suppose I'll always be a 60's child at heart. After serving two years as a Conscientious Objector at the Austin State School, I was faced with a decision. Get a job as an engineer, probably in the defense industry, which offered most of the engineering jobs at the time… or… Sex, Drugs and Music? Well, that was a no-brainer. Accordingly, I zipped off to western Canada, Northern Europe and Mexico, playing music, seeing some of the world and meeting many unique and interesting characters. Fascinating place, indeed, this planet is! And round, just like they told us. In 1973 I moved back to Austin and began studying Filmmaking at the University of Texas, but quit to make a living through music. Soon I was again traveling almost non-stop. You gotta be crazy, love music and cherish even the hardest of times to be on the road playing for a living. I'm guilty on all counts, proud of every moment I've spent in the trenches and grateful to the Universe for providing me the opportunity to live such a bizarre lifestyle. Plus, it sure beats a real job. Many times during my first few years as a professional musician the cash flow got rather slim. Still, there was always a gig around the corner, often in some throw-together band for the night, so I never ended up tossed out on the street by irate landlords or deposed of by women because I was light years from financial security. To the contrary, I always made my bills, had a lot of fun and lived for experience. And I got it, plus some. Thanks to music, I've traveled throughout most of the US and Northern Europe. I have fond memories of the many years I've spent packed in a van with other equally wayward musicians, crashing in all sorts of weird places and playing for all kinds of folks in venues that spanned the spectrum from packed concerts to half-empty clubs with tone-deaf drunks who'd rather fight than dance or try to get laid. Along the way I experienced more than my share of insanity, and in the process one can't help but learn a lot about life and people. I certainly have no complaints. |
| Life as a working musician is quite different from life as a megastar musician, I'm sure. I lived the former, not the latter. A working musician on the road must also be a part-time mechanic, psychologist, agent, lawyer, roadie and promoter. Being stranded and making temporary engine repairs with duct tape and coat hangers - I've been there many times. Preventing arguments between musicians from turning into fistfights due to too many months on the road together - I've done my share of that. Having equipment stolen, being scammed by club owners, getting double-booked, arriving at City A when we should be arriving at City B three hundred miles away - I've been through all those as well. Arriving penniless at a club only to find it became a parking lot the prior week… and the agent forgot to notify us band members. I've been there too. I've seen drugs and alcohol cripple some great players, then enlighten them to seek recovery. Yes, I've had my share of homesick blues, on-the-road insanity and long distance relationships, but it's also been a remarkably rewarding trip so far, and I'm just getting a second wind. Throughout the years I've performed as a lead guitarist, keyboard player, singer and songwriter in every format from soloist (guitar and piano) to large bands and have covered every popular style: Rock, blues, country, jazz, folk and original. I was always one of those guys who musically jumped around a lot, lead guitar one night, piano bar the next, folk duo the following night. As a band member during the late 70's and early 80's, I opened for Willie Nelson, Leon Russell, David Allen Coe, Guy Clark, Jerry Jeff Walker, Robert Gordon, The Geezinslaw Brothers, Gary Stewart and many other major artists. During the late 80's I began to work more as a soloist and singer-songwriter. In 1993 I went to Copenhagen and Oslo to play for a few months and several agents offered me a lot of gigs. Hmmm… interesting. I love Europe and Europeans, so I moved to Copenhagen and for the rest of the decade I performed as a soloist in clubs, at concerts and on cruise ships throughout northern Europe. During those years I played six or seven nights week for over four hours, and sometimes two gigs a day. As I result, I developed an intricate and unique style of playing solo acoustic guitar arrangements. What a blast Europe is! These folks have been around a while and they've learned a great deal about tolerance and how to care for their people. They also love to drink and they have a completely different concept of 'space' than Americans are used to. The large clubs had such magnificent sound systems that one full strum of an E chord on my acoustic guitar would vibrate an entire city block. In some of the small clubs - packed to the gills, but with no stage - I often had to barricade myself behind a wall of barstools to prevent overzealous fans or clumsy dancers from crashing into the microphone stand and sending my teeth down my throat. An evening with a solo musician in some of these places was a participatory sport. Fortunately, my fortress usually held up, and even more fortunately, owners of most of these smaller clubs began building stages as the popularity of solo acts grew in Europe during the 90's. Europeans know how to have fun. They are very appreciative audiences and they love American music. I feel blessed to have been a southern boy raised on roots music, and I was honored by the acceptance I received everywhere I performed. While living in Copenhagen, I met and played with musicians from all over the world and our common language of music bound us. Danish was another matter. It is one of the most difficult of the world's languages and everyone to whom I spoke Danish answered me in English, which they speak almost flawlessly. I was fortunate to spend the 90's in Europe, a time of love and respect for Americans. |
| Cruise ships were a real trip - one endless party on the water, hampered only by periods of raging seas. One evening during a gig a gorilla of a man from Iceland grabbed a tip jar and began hustling exorbitant tips for me from everyone who walked by or even glanced toward the packed club, let alone the patrons in attendance. He was extremely pushy, so I was embarrassed, but soon everyone was tossing bills toward him from all corners of the room. By the end of the evening the Icelandic Gorilla had netted me over $1200 in tips. For me, that was a record. And everyone had a blast playing Tip The Musician. Their game certainly made my night as well. In 1966 I played in Greenland during February and March at the Rock Café in Nuuk, the capital. One night's snowfall would necessitate a long snow-shoveling expedition just get out of the house where I was staying and make it to the club fifty yards away. The Greenlanders were also avid drinkers, and during any given night's performance at least a few inebriated patrons would seriously misjudge their ability to navigate, causing them to tumble down the stairs between the stage area and the lower bar. No problem. They would just get up, get a fresh drink and not even remember their accelerated decent. If they didn't get up, a doorman would drag them outside and send them sliding down the frozen street, bouncing off mounds of ice and barely missing cars. It was live comedy and I had a first row seat. One night during the International Nuuk Snow Festival the temperature went a few degrees above freezing for a few hours. The next morning ice sculptors who had come from all over world were frantically reattaching limbs that had fallen off their huge creations during the night. They finished the task just in time for the judges in the ice carving competition to make their decisions. Yes, Greenland was indeed another interesting place to see. And what a great view of the Aurora Borealis! In 2000 I moved back to Austin and have been playing in the area ever since, mostly as a solo singer/guitarist, but I still play in Scandinavia occasionally. On September 11, 2001 I was about to perform my last set on the Princess of Scandinavia when a Swedish friend in the audience informed me about the attack on the World Trade Center. I rushed to the Crew Room and like many people across the world, I watched CNN as the second plane hit. No last set for me. My heart was torn as I returned to Copenhagen that night, but the outpouring of European sympathy after the incident was enlightening. For several evenings thousands of Danish citizens filled the town square in Copenhagen, lit candles, prayed and gave their hearts to all people affected by the terrorist act. Similar events transpired across Europe. Yes, I do love Europeans. We can learn a lot from them. Having done my share of traveling, I enjoy being in one place now and I spend much of my time writing. I still perform at clubs and private functions, but usually stay within a range of a few hundred miles. I also work as an actor and have been in films since 2002 as both a cast and a crew member. See my Film Resume. I hope you enjoyed the ride and thanks for dropping in… |
