The Ride

<p>Hello Everyone! I'm a guitarist from Plant City Fl,thats 10 miles from Tampa.I started playing when I was 10yrs old and am now 46.My grandfather played guitar and violin(fiddle) and I would lay the old Gibson acoustic in my lap cause I was too little to put my arms around it lol!I grew up playing in my fathers church and first discovered Phil Keaggy in the 70s as a Christian guitarist and I was blown away...he was,after my grandfather...my first real influence.I loved how he used volume swells with his little finger and I soon was doing so myself.</p><p>As a teen I listened to Al Di Meola,Larry Carlton and a lot of the funk rockers that were of the day...The Isley Brothers Go For Your Guns album is in my collection as a favorite.The Pat Travers Band,Frank Marino and of course all the wonderful artists after Eddie Van Halen...Satch and Vai.</p><p>I played in top 40 cover bands through the 80s and raised my children doing so...yea,I went to "bring your parent to school" day with long hair,leather and a black Les Paul fitted with a Kahler locking tremelo.The kids loved it but the other parents had a hard time following my guitar animal noises lol.</p><p>1990 brought many changes in music and I loaded up the family and headed to Nashville.We settled in Murfreesboro and I played gigs at night and mopped floors in Dillards dept store by day...it was quite an experience and I learned a lot.The first thing I was told..."Son,if your gonna make it in this town,you gotta play a Tele"...Well,I ended up back in Florida but the Tele worked out and I still play one today although the Stratage guitars are lookin' very sweet!</p><p>I became frustrated with the live scene and began recording at home about 6 months ago and found collabing on the internet...it has changed my life!</p><p>Mixposure is a wonderful platform for musicians of all levels and that's where I'm at now.I use a Tascam recorder and Zoom fx...cause' that's all I have lol.I make the best of it,I found that if you turn enough knobs, for long enough, your bound to stumble on a sound that works...just be sure to save the patch<img title="Wink" src="http://www.mixposure.com/include/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif" alt="Wink" border="0" /></p><p>Thanks for checkin' out my music and let me know if I can help you in any way!</p><p>Allen Venable</p>