Rocky's Blog

A LIST OF ALL WEB SITES MENTIONED FOLLOWS “My flight arrives at 1:30 in Boston Rockster Dude….I’m coming to see you at the recording studio man!” The excitement in Bogie’s voice was contagious. Kym Shurbutt, the kind gentle soul, and Bogie, the equally compelling character he plays in the Carolina Opry Show in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, USA, although one and the same… are two of my very best friends. I hereby declare the intention to claim many stories about us and our musical and other adventures as true regardless of my remembering them correctly. I furthermore reserve the right to use the names Kym Shurbutt, Kym and Bogie interchangeably throughout this blog. Thank you very much. Toward the end of our stay in the mountains to finish recording the new CD, Kym and Cindy flew up to spend a few days with us in Vermont. Kimberly and I were honored as they have only four or five days in the Summer when they are able to travel and they wanted to spend it with us! :) It was great to see ...

On To Boston…with Bogie and Cindy So….we have finished all the music making for a while and decided to drive into New Hampshire to stay at a Bed and Breakfast/Lakeside cabin retreat for the day and night before going on to Boston. Kimberly had made the reservations and we were all very excited to see what we were getting ourselves into. Unfortunately they just were not ready for us. The place is called the Woodbound Inn and really will be lovely when the ongoing work on the main house and are is finished. The owners were out of town for Memorial Day weekend and the girls behind the desk said they were not allowed to give refunds. We left our contact information with them, expecting to hear from the owners that evening, and went on into Boston. I didn’t hear anything for some time and was a little upset about it so I wrote a firm letter of complaint to the owners via e-mail assuring them that some of you reading this might take it to heart. It turned out to be a miscommunication issue a...

This blogging thing has turned out to be a bit more difficult than I anticipated. Please accept my apologies for the lack of communication. An Internet connection strong enough to upload files and create a decent blog, while traveling, has been elusive but we’ll do the best we can :) Anyway….back to the recording of the Secret Symphony CD at Imaginary Road Recording studio in Vermont.... The entire process was probably in the top two of all the musical recording experiences of which I have ever been a part. The other being my first recording session as the keyboardist (at 15 years old) for a recording by a singer/songwriter named Danny Birmingham in Memphis Tennesee in 1974. Those music sessions were at the legendary Memphis Sound Studios under the guiding hand of equally legendary engineer and producer Roland Janes. That experience, especially at that age, was awesome! Now, some three decades plus later….I find my music in the hands of Grammy Award winning guitarist and producer (and ...

Rocky’s Recording Session with Will Ackerman Current What's up!? Lot's of new stuff to talk about. We, Kimberly and I, spent most of the month of May in Vermont finishing the tracking of my new CD. So let's catch up a little there. The vibe is very laid back and groovy. There are two Grammy Awards on the shelf. (and a paper version of one I made and cut out...) The gear is awesome and Corin is a genius behind the board. Oh...and did I mention my producer is Will Ackerman? :) Will is an awesome producer. He knows his stuff. Will was able to strip away a great deal of unnecessary fluff from my music and leave that which was needed and no more. We're not just talking about simplifying...it was more than that. I once heard someone say that a sculptor simply removes everything that doesn't belong....leaving only what is needed. If the subject is a horse the sculptor simply removes everything that is not a horse. It was like that. You'll hear soon...you see if you don...