Category Archives: Atmos Trio

Have trouble making decisions? Behold, the Buy ‘EVERYTHING’ Button

“When you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.” Neil Peart

Sometimes, you just need to things to be easy. To that end, I’m offering ALL of the music I’ve recorded thus far in one easy download. Press the red button and you can buy EVERYTHING for $20. Easy-peasy.

All of this music is available at a “Pay What You Like” price when purchased on a per song or per album basis. This release is primarily for listeners that want to support my production of MORE music and obtain what’s out there thus far in one shot.

Video: Tearin’ it up One Night in Glen Ellen

Here is the Atmos Trio functioning as “The guys” in support of singer Cynthia Tarr. We’ve held down this regular gig in Glen Ellen CA at Olive & Vine for a couple of years and have developed a very enthusiastic audience there.

Here’s a fairly up-tempo tune that the band stretches out on a little. Good times!

This was filmed on a Creative Vado HD cam. Audio was EQ’d/ compressed using Ableton Live and video edited in Final Cut Express.

Love You to Hear This Song & All it Costs is a Tweet…

Work...play...whatever. 11:47pm session.I’ve been working away in my studio with some new toys and thought I would share some results. It’s my gift to you, and all I request in return is a tweet.

This is my favorite Led Zeppelin tune The Rain Song. It features me playing guitars (Acoustic steel-string, hollowbody & my trusty Strat), bass guitar and some software synths. I thought I had nailed some super-great electronic percussion when my favorite drummer, Atmos’ Joe Shotwell came to the studio and blew my work away with his perfect and effortless playing.

So, please enjoy today’s musical offering with my compliments. If you have any questions  or comments, I would love to know what you think!

Picture 2

Special thanks to @CashMusic for the clever twitter tools.

Demo vs Official Release. Which is better?

In 2006, the Atmos Trio released our first self-titled CD. On that album is a beautiful ballad written by our then bass player Jeff Obee called “Her Eyes.”

Around that time, in order to move music around the web, I used to have to store MP3s on my web server and link back to the files. A  music streaming company has been leeching from my web server for years serving up the DEMO version of this tune to their listeners. It has received thousands of hits over the years. I saw no harm in this and took no action to stop it.

But it made me wonder if the demo was better than the “Real” version.

Here is the demo circa 2004.

Her Eyes by AtmosTrio

Here is the officially released version.

Which one do you like better?

Sneak preview to another upcoming studio release: “Lembra de Mim”

Rob Michael, Joe Shotwell, Cynthia Tarr & Cliff Hugo“Lembra de Mim” is a masterpiece-level composition by the great Ivan Lins. Our wonderful singer Cynthia Tarr wrote english lyrics to the piece and our version is “Think Well of Me.”

I play once a month with this group a the Olive and Vine in Glen Ellen, CA. If you’re fortunate enough to find yourself in the Sonoma Valley on a Friday night, come on by!

Think Well of Me Preview by AtmosTrio

Why in the world would I give my music away for FREE?

A couple of weeks ago I conducted an experiment with the Atmos Trio bandcamp site.

It was toward the beginning of the holiday season and I was in a giving mood, so I priced all of Atmos Trio’s albums (which include sheet music along with music files.) at a “Pay what You Want (even nothing)” price. I’m accustomed and happy to giving music away for free. I’ve always offered individual song downloads for free and had a low minimum price set for albums. But I offered everything for free to anyone who was interested.

Over the course of the 3 Day Special, many more people than normal downloaded the 2 albums “Atmos Trio” and “Atmos Plays Waters.” They helped spread the word about the opportunity for “Free Atmos Trio tunes”on Twitter and Facebook. It was nice to get such a favorable response from people who seemed genuinely appreciative of the music.

But something else rather interesting occurred as well: More than 50% of those that downloaded opted to pay for the music. Some paid far more than any price I would consider setting. Was this merely the result of a period of actively promoting the music? Maybe. Should I price my music at the  ”Pay what You Want (even nothing)” price all the time? Maybe.

Why in the world would I give my music away for FREE? I would much prefer people hear the music and form some opinion on it rather than have it be locked away behind a price tag somewhere.

That’s why.

Posted via email from AtmosMusic

This week’s “Forgotten” Atmos Trio tune: Bill Frisell’s “Is It Sweet?”

From a July 2004 session, "Is It Sweet" is a classic Bill Frisell piece that features a really cool "drunken" feel in the groove and some folky- country-blues tones.

Again, I'm offering a tune we played out of the love of playing. There are no edits or overdubs here.

Is It Sweet? I think so…
Is It Sweet by AtmosTrio