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Take a Break onthe Courthouse Lawn
Local musicians form alliance to promote music
Albright says songwriting about drawing in listener

	Take a Break onthe Courthouse Lawn BY RICHARD 0 JONES STAFF WRITER The Take a Break on the Courthouse Lawn Music series kicks off at lunchtime next Wednesday with Gregory B. Albright, veteran singer/songwriter and the series founder. Albright said he first got the idea of a weekday, lunch-time music series when he was touring out West in 2005. "While I was in Salt Lake City, I played at a concert series much like the one we've produced here," he said. "I thought even then that this would be something great for the city of Hamilton." So when he got back home, he wrote a letter to Hamilton Mayor Don Ryan, who forwarded his proposal to the Downtown Special Improvement District, which just happened to be working on a promotional program to get people to "Go Out Downtown." "I was overjoyed by the excitement this has generated in the musical community, in the city and its business partners," Albright said. "This is one of the few events where everybody wins." Most of the players are from Butler County, he said, and those who don't live here have some musical ties-- such as being a regular performer at the Music Cafe at the Fitton Center for Creative Arts. "We have world-class, top-notch players who live right here among us," he said. After Albright's opening June 4 performance, the series will feature John Belanger on June 11; Sonny Moorman on June 18, Papa Joe Kretschmer on June 25; Eric Loy on July 9; Jerry Gillespie on July 16; Dave Hisch on July 23; Dave Sams on July 30; Mark Cormican on Aug. 6; Jamon Zeiler on Aug. 13; Rick and Hillary Wagner on Aug. 20; and Chris Dunnett on Aug. 27. Albright will have copies of his new CD, "Between Summer and Winter," released in March, on sale during and after his performance. "I turned 58 one month before the release of this CD," he said. "That definitely qualifies as being 'between summer and winter."' CONTACT this reporter at (513)820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.
	Local musicians form alliance to promote music By Richard 0 Jones Staff Writer ?Too often, musicians don?t realize we?re all in this together,? says David Hisch. ?There are a lot of people around here making good music with unique attitudes and styles.? To that end, Hisch and his local label, Tasty Orange Music, .has released an li-song compilation of some of the area?s singer/songwriters and guitarists. ?It?s another of my harebrained schemes that has been percolating for a while,? Hisch said. It began during breakfast at the now defunct Cozy Cafe on High Street in Hamilton, which featured an area musician every Saturday morning. Hisch, a Hamilton resident, and fellow singer! songwriter Gregory B. Albright of Fairfield Twp. were listening to Middletown?s Jerry Gillespie play, talldng about how scarce local venues were, and how nice it was to have another place to play, and how if they banded together, they might be able to promote each other?s work. ?We spent about two months meeting for breakfast every Saturday after that to put some flesh on that skeleton,? Albright said. ?We talked about a lot of things, mostly what this could be the start of and how we can support it.? They also talked about who to invite to participate, and looked at some of the regular players at the Fitton Center?s Music Cafe. ?Dave started asking people if they were interested and they were given the option of submitting something already recorded or setting up a session to record their songs,? Albright said. The result is ?Close to Home,? featuring performances by Hisch, Albright, Gillespie, John Belanger (Fairfield), Eric Loy (Lewisburg) and Tevi Thrler (Eaton). The CD is available at Mebas Music, Galaxy CDs and on the Web sites and at the gigs of the featured artists. Hisch and Albright are hoping to stage a show of all the participants sometime in May. "Our purpose is to enhance the local and regional music community,? Hisch said. ?This also gives us a chance to share our own resources, including audiences.? Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.
JournalNews Section D Thursday January 22, 2004 www.journal-news.com	Singer believes in power of story
	Albright says songwriting about drawing in listener By RICHARD 0 JONES rjones@coxohio.corn JOURNAL NEWS For local singer/songwriter Gregory B. Albright, there's not much space between his work and his self. "Being a songwriter is not what I do, but who I am," he said. Consequently, his songs are very personal, but in making the music personal, he said, he hopes that listeners will be able to relate and to understand something more about their own lives. "I believe in the power of the story," he said. "As we listen, we hear ourselves in the songs and look at this shared world in a new way. It's not just what's on the surface, but songs contain insights and revelations, revealing the hidden truths". Tuesday evening at the Fitton Center for Creative Arts, Albright will play new songs and songs from his 'Storyteller' CD-- which will he on sale when he performs at the next Music Cafe at 7 p.m. Joining him on the bill will be singer/songwriters Jerry Gillespie, Kevin Ross and Keith May, as well as a trio of singer/songwriters by the name Raison D'Etre. Like most singer/songwriters of a certain age, Albright pinpoints his interest in writing music to the emergence of the Beatles in the early 1960s. "My mom had a ukulele - like Arthur Godfrey -- and I'd walk around playing songs on that," he said. "After hearing the Beatles, I soon realized that I needed a guitar." Through the years, he's played with a number of area rock bands, including the Mystics and Steam Furnace, but two years ago he upgraded his home studio and began to work on more personal songs. "Historically, successful songs develop when an artist creates a story around something that actually happened," he said. "I often change the details around, and that helps take the ego out of the material, but there's very little of my music that isn't self revelatory in some way". And, he said, he hopes those revelations will extend to the listeners. He cites one recent song, On the B&O, that he wrote from his family mythology, how his grandfather would walk railroad tracks picking up stray pieces of coal to help keep his family warm during the Great Depression. By the time it reaches the stage of a performance piece, Albright said, "the story is no longer his story, but there's the kernel of the man saying, 'My family is going to freeze to death if I don't do something. When people hear that, they think about the times they crawled on their knees in the dark to look for whatever the coal is in their lives."

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