Life experience acoustic/electric R & B/Blues/Folk Rock or BlueZic

13 MP3 Songs
BLUES: Rockin' Blues, FOLK: Folk Blues



Details:
Steve Rodin and Phil Berglund were introduced to each other by a mutual friend in August 2005. Phil was invited to tag along at some farmers market gigs Steve had booked and the two began to gel musically and vocally. They added a few of Phil originals, 'Fremont Blues', 'Bad News In Love', 'Good Woman' and 'Why Do You Love Me Like You Do?' to the mix along with Steve's first two songs 'Not Perfect' and 'The Way Things Are'. In December 2005, they decided to become a duet and use the name "Rodin-Berglund". As song info was exchanged via emails, that name got abbreviated to "R & B". In January 2006, Phil suggested the name "R & B Blues", since about 60 percent of the original and cover material fit into those two catagories. On January 25, 2006, the duet, with friend Tony Lahaina joining them on blues harp played their first public gig at Bungalow Martini, a nice upscale lounge, in Vancouver Wa. At that point 8 of Steve's song were now in the set lists. About 30 gigs and five months later, the duet went into the basement studio of KBC Records in Portland OR for their first four hour studio session. Original hopes were to get enough music laid out for a good demo. Sitting in the studio accross from each other, the two laid down 13 songs, all on first takes. The duet was so happy with the takes, they decided to proceed with more time and put out a CD. Two more new songs, 'Rock Bottom' and 'Stream of Consciousness Blues' were introduced during studio time and recorded on first takes. The guys brought in friends, Tony Lahaina and Dale 'the Doctor" Turnbull, and blues harp, lead guitar and bass tracks were added. Studio engineer-owner, Shay Scott, who was always jamming on his keyboards during playbacks at the recording sessions, was asked to add a few keyboard tracks and the CD was released on August 12, 2006. "Together Again... For The First Time" is the debut CD for both artists. Steve, who wrote his first song two years ago, has been in a groove. When the CD was completed, he had written 18 songs. By years end that number had grown to over 30. Favorite cuts of the artists are 'Fremont Blues', 'Independent Lady', 'Bad News In Love' and 'Say You Love Me'.

A second CD is being planned with more attention to studio quality detail for late 2007. It will have a few of the newer trademark blues tunes, but will feature more styles than the debut does. Expect to hear 'Believe It or Not', 'The Wonder of You', 'Kickin' Back' and 'Stack the Deck' on that CD as those will be among the first to get recorded when studio time begins again.
The new CD will most likely feature new members Kevin 'K-Dog' Eastes on bass and James Martin on drums and percussion. Like the current CD, it will also have some keyboards, lots of Tony Lahaina on blues harp and second lead guitar, and possibly some saxophone.

If arrangements can be made to capture a good live recording, they hope to have a third CD.