Matt Connarton Unleashed 1-27-24, third hour

You are listening to wm n H point three command guy, don't get sorely

mat south coming you Welcome back everybody. It's Matt Connorton unleashed as we enter

our number three New Marrow Trace on this Saturday morning. Of course, it

is January twenty seven, twenty twenty four, and we are live from the

studios of wm NH ninety five point three FM Inglorious in Manchester, New Hampshire,

at our new Canal Street location. It's only our our second Matt Connerson

unleashed here at the at the new place, and Jenny is here as well

of course present and by the way, thank you again to After the Winter

for joining us. And we got to premiere their brand new single Adelphos to

World and yeah, that was really really good. I love that. Those

guys are great. Those guys are great. And if you'd we'll give the

studio line in a moment if you have any questions or anything for our guests

in this hour. So we have one of the gentlemen in the studio with

us, Tom Russo. Tom, you were on the show with us what

was two three months ago something like that. Yeah, time it all,

it all becomes a blur, but we also have with us his first appearance

on the show, Gary Lawrence is here. Hi Gary, Hello, how

you doing good? Good? And these guys have their acoustic guitars with them

and they are going to they are going to perform live on the show.

So looking forward to that. And by the way, so do you guys

work together a lot or do you play together often or occasionally? We just

met a few months back, okay at a play in and a place called

Riley's Place in Milford. Okay, it's kind of right in between our houses.

First first time I really played with over there five minutes ago, over

in the waiting The first time you guys played together was in our waiting room.

We did virtual. We traded recordings that did virtual. Oh wow,

so this is like its own world premiere and of itself. They've never played

live in person together. Wow. Okay, that's really cool. I'm even

more excited now. I like the I like the spontaneity of them too.

Yeah. Yeah, very nice, very nice. Now, Uh, why

don't we Why don't we hear something and then we'll uh and then we'll talk

if you guys want to play something? And so Gary, do you want

do you want one of these tracks from YouTube as a backing track or you

guys just gonna play You can just play one, we'll listen to it.

What we got a couple to do later without any backing tracks or anything.

Okay, all right, so let's see that. We'll play something from here.

So you wanted to play that? Is it? One More Step?

Is that? Yeah? This is a medley of a song I wrote called

One More Step in another song called Invitation Fountain. It's kind of got my

guitar parts and my lead part, and then I mixed in some lyrics that

I really liked from someone else. So, oh okay. And I have

a few groups I play with. One of them is a duo with a

fellow named Ryan Bradley, and he has a studio at his house that we

did this live at his studio a couple of weeks back, specifically for this

show. Oh, very cool, very cool. Okay, all right,

let's check this out. And this is Gary Lawrence and he is live with

us in studio and this is One More Step and this was recorded I'm sorry,

what was the name of the studio again? My friend Ryan Bradley as

the studio. He lives in western mass Oh does he does he have like

a private studio that he Okay, gotcha, gotcha? All right, all

right. He's released albums on the various sights. He's got his his group's

called Wayfaring Soul, another one he plays with. But he's got lots of

studio albums. Oh, very cool, Okay, excellent, excellent, All

right, Let's give this a listen and then we'll come back and talk with

with these guys. We have Gary Lawrence with us live in studio and Tom

Russo as well. But check this out. Oh who are we? Oh?

Who are we? Come to the rock, Come to the fancy,

Oh who have said on the river hard day, come to the sea,

Come on be sit free? If full leave me now I will fall love.

Will you leave me now? I will go? Commeny me, Yes,

I will fall. Will you leave me now? I will go?

I will go, We will go, We will go. Whare we will

go? Oh? Who are we? Oh? Who are weary? Come

to the rock, Come to the founcy, Oh who have climbed on the

mountains of Hardy, reach to the star. Come on, give your line

if you leave, and now I will fall. Lord, If you leave

in Lord, and I will go. Come me me now I will find

Lord. Will you leave me? Lord, I will go if you leave

me now I will find Will you leave me? Lord, I will go

Come and I mean now I will find where you leave me? Side go,

we will go, we will go, we will go on band and

we welcome, we will go, We wilcome, we will go. Very

nice. That is Gary Lawrence and uh yeah, you got a nice voice.

Yeah, absolutely absolutely, And Gary is with us alive in studio here

on Matt Connorton on Lee Tom Russo also joining us here in the studio Jenny

and I And if you have any questions or feedback or anything at all for

our guests, the studio line is open six oh three two five oh six

oh seven, six oh three two five oh six oh seven. You know

also text me at six one seven nine one seven four four seven six.

I'm on social media at Matt Connorton. You can email me Matt at Matt

connorton dot com and if you do so during the program, I'll try to

read your email on the air. And of course you can interact into opine

in the Facebook live chat, but the best thing to do so that we

can here and enjoy your dulcet tones. Is to give us a call at

six o three at two five oh six oh seven. By the way,

some folks who have joined us in the Facebook live chat who haven't had a

chance to acknowledge it. B Pinard joins us and says, good morning everyone.

Also, I see Tony Petrello is in there. I got to see

Tony last night for Retro Spectrum Radio with Polly C. Alex Whiteley, one

of our friends from the UK. Uh says, uh, what did Alex

say? Howdy folks, nice new digs enjoying the new studio here. See,

I just want to make sure I didn't miss anybody in here who we

didn't say hello to already. Yeah, it looks like we're it looks like

we're caught up there. But uh, so, Gary, how did you

learn to sing? I like your voice? Are you self taught or did

you take lessons or how did you kind of a mix of both. I

got into up. I started playing guitar when I was eight, so I

knew a lot about music. I started young on guitar. Wow, good

for you. Yeah that was my dad played guitar around the house all the

time. Yeah, yeah, good. He played church services all the time

as part of his work, so I was always hearing guitar playing. Yeah,

but I think I don't know. When I was like twenty, I

was I was volunteering at the church and they needed someone to sing. So

I said, well, I guess I got to learn how to sing.

So I got a recorder like a digital eight track back then, and recorded

myself and just started going to people who who sang well and would ask them

for tips. I never took formal lessons, but he had a lot of

input from people who I like the way they sound. Yeah. Yeah,

that's how Daryl Hall started, I think singing, you said in an interview.

His mom took him to church and he's ended up. That's how he

you know, that's how he started. He also at a young age.

But well, so it sounds like so guitar started at a young age,

But he started singing when you were twenties, said, sang a little bit,

but never not. I didn't really start focusing on it a lot till

later, like after twenty. Yeah. I sang in some bands in high

school and stuff, but it wasn't very good. I could hit the notes,

but the tone wasn't the greatest. Sure sure that track that we displayed

to that studio track, I really liked the guitar work on that. Now,

who's doing so you're doing that with Ryan Bradley, Who's doing what on

guitar? Who's rhythm and who's so we switch well, so during the first

parts of the song, I'm doing the vocal. It's a live recording,

right, so he's playing in between all the vocals, so that's him.

And then when we break to that instrumental part, I used a loop pedal,

and then it was both of us playing and that that little that riff

that goes like that, that was me. You can you can hear the

difference in the tone of the guitars. Yeah, it's a little bit thicker

sound I was using. He was a little thinner. So now tell me,

tell me about the loop pedal. You do that at your your live

shows where you for for the uninitiated. And I say it that way because

a lot of people who listen to the show are familiar with that, because

a lot of artists use it, use it live, and Tom, you

use it right, use a loop pedal live, keeps me keeps me entertained

even really, you know, if I have one part, it gives me

something to play off of, right right, especially live. So so with

the loop pedal, so you you play something and you record it. I've

use a loop pedal. But tell me if I have this, right for

if I were explaining it to somebody, would this make sense if I say,

so, you've got you record you doing something into the loop pedal and

then it and then it plays that whatever you did over and over. So

then you can add to what it's playing, and you can even add to

the loop itself or an ad and take away. So Okay, you make

a mistake, you can go back, and you can't keep undoing, right

right. Hopefully you don't have too many to undo, but you can,

and it allows you to kind of build the song. Yeah, I mean

all loop stations are different in how they work, but yeah, it has

to do with it playing a lot with your own timing too, you know.

So some people might use the loop where they're making the loops at home

and they're pressing a button and playing to the loop. Yeah, like Gary

and I probably would, or most of the time you might also play the

loop live as well. Yeah, if I'm solo, I use a loop

pedal, and I like to use it with Ryan because he said to talented

guitar player, and we like we'll play off each other. We both have

played guitar many, many years, so those are kind of unique duo events.

But if I'm not playing with a lead guitarist, then I usually just

have them play the rhythm part and I'll add leads in. So it all

depends on what group I'm playing with. But it's a good tool, especially

for practicing, because you, yeah, you just oh, I'm gonna try

this song out, record, record the rhythm part and then you can practice

your lead part as it just loops the rhythm part. So it works pretty

good. That makes sense. That makes sense. Oh, hello to Tom

Blanchard, a very loyal listener who just joined us in the Facebook live chat.

And Isaac Banks Greensboro, North Carolina. Check very cool all over the

place. Yes, yes, absolutely, do you guys wanna Do you guys

want to play something for us? Sure, I'd love to hear you live

and and again if you're just joining us. So we have Gary Lawrence and

he is accompanied by Tom Russo and these guys are this will be the first

time you guys have played live together publicly. Right, Yes, so this

will be exciting. I'm gonna adjust. This is just a touch, so

hopefully you can hear the guitar. Oh yeah, I don't pick it up,

no problem. And all right. So this song, this was a

song I heard in a group called Raging Grace used to do it. I

tweaked the lyrics a little, and I added my own guitar part to it.

So it's it's kind of a mix of collaboration with them, but the

guitar part the companies that I kind of made my own is something I came

up with a while back. I do that a lot. I'm not a

big I haven't developed a lot with lyrics, but I come up with a

lot of melodies and guitar parts. So that's a lot of what I do.

So let's see you're ready. I am all right? It really things,

isn't the presence? Yes, there is peace in the presence of the

horse, sir, the peace in the whole ho spirit. We just sworn

answer. Red wanna go to the food the by five, won't go to

the food behind. King wona go to the throne, fo to the holy,

oh fool, oh fool. There is Joa, there is jo you.

Yeah, there is Joe. There is Joe with you. There is

love. There is love you today. Yes, they've blow. I won't

want to go room baha, I want to go through boh through to the

home. He very nice, very nice. We have Gary Lawrence here in

the studio, accompanied by Tom Russo. Yeah. I like your I like

your lead playing. Thank you. I do. It's very very tasteful.

It's good. Try to make it pleasant. No, no, no,

really, it's it's quite good. By the way, where are you from?

Originally you don't sound like you're from New Hampshire, but I'm not.

I grew up in a town called Chickabee near Springfield, Massachusetts. Okay,

okay, if you moved around or did you grow up there. I studied

electronics, but there wasn't much for work out there, so I ended up

coming out here to southern New Hampshire for work. That was back in two

thousand and one. Okay, okay, yeah, oh so you've been here

for quite a while. Yeah, but I still have my Western mass waves.

Yeah yeah, I can hear it a it, I can hear it

a bit. Now do you play out a lot. Are you playing a

lot of shows or let's see, it's it's usually some kind of event once

a week for me. Yeah, so not too much. I got young

kids, full time job, you know, beautiful wife, all nine yards,

so but I get I get plenty of opportunity. Do you when you

play out live? Is it are you usually using the loop pedal or do

you do a lot of shows where it's just you and a guitar or does

it vary? Yeah, I do a mix of things. I have a

group. There's a music venue in Weymouth, Massachusetts. Was there south of

Boston. It's it's a nonprofit kind of a Christian organization, and there's a

bunch of volunteers there. So I go down there maybe once a month and

kind of lead the group to get them coordinated, to support the nonprofit,

to save them a little money because when the artists come the other times,

then they got to pay them for travel or whatever. So that's like once

a month, and then I have there's another nonprofit I play at in Boston.

That's at first I was playing there a lot with the loop pedal,

but a friend of mine retired and I have every other Friday. I have

a lot of flexibility in my work schedule. My work does an alternate schedule,

so every other Friday is like a weekend day. Yeah, and so

we uh, now that my friend's retired, he goes with me and does

something kind of like this with Tom. Yeah, he'll he'll play rhythm with

me and and then I don't need to use the loop pedal, and then

what else? And then there's a group I volunteer at our local home church

too, so that's uh, they practice a couple of couple like one on

a Sunday and one on Wednesday. And I usually do more just lead guitar

there because yeah, I can't always make the Wednesday practice. So there's a

lot of a lot of a lot of different groups of people I play with.

Yeah, do you uh, do you have a preference, like is

there a favorite thing? Like do do you do you enjoy not having to

use the loop pedal? For example, just being able to play with somebody

else and like you're doing here, Yeah, I prefer there's you get more

flexibility if you get somewhere else or chemistry right and that, Yeah, the

songs go somewhere else, like when you're mixing it up with they can pick

up on that and accompany it right right, and and the and the other

song we're gonna do. You'll hear Tom do some more lead guitar work,

and that's another example. He'll he's gonna kind of weave lead guitar in between

the vocals. And that's another way you can take the song somewhere else live,

you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean that must be

nice to kind of have that flexibility, because I would imagine it kind of

you know, even songs that maybe you had written a long time ago.

It kind of puts a fresh coat of paint on them, right, yeah,

makes the new and fresh. And well, that's another thing I do.

I I'll come up with a recording, but I do a little bit.

I'm not very good at my own studio, but I have some simple

software. So if I have like all the tracks individual from somewhere, either

I recorded or somebody else, I can say, hey, I can put

out a list of post on Craigslist and say, hey, does anyone want

to add a drum part of this song? Oh? Okay? Yeah,

And actually it depending on where we end up with time. One of the

songs I wrote this fella who goes by Pony. I don't know that's a

stage name, but he he actually added a drum part remotely to it and

sent it back to me. Oh no kidding. So that's that's a lot

of fun. And I've done that. Actually with Ryan, I've done that

too. I sent him a song and say, hey, add a lead

guitar track to this, and he sent it back with He sent me the

individual guitar track and the whole thing mixed with how he heard it. Oh

no kidding. Yeah, that's something I really enjoy doing, to collaborate with

people. It's an amazing time to be alive, isn't it that you can

do that? You know that you can you know, like like I'm old

enough that you know, when I was growing up, you know, couldn't

imagine, you know, being able to email tracks back and forth with people

to create music. It's such a it's it's so amazing. Is that that

song you were just describing is that on the YouTube? Yeah, it's we

could we could play that. It's an instrumental it's more of a bluesy rock

song. But that's okay, nice to mix it up. Yeah, cure

us to hear it. Let's see it's if you go to the YouTube,

it says live Guitar Faith Rock Instrumental with Pony thirteen ten. Uh coming up?

Did he miss the Maybe the first name was his first name, my

little but I'm I had to ask if if I had to look him up.

I didn't, if i'd want to know that's true, he didn't on

my what's a good question? Is that coming up for you? Matt?

Looking for it? I've got let's see. It was something strange going on

with YouTube today, so let me let me Uh, I'll email it to

you real quick. I'm looking Yeah, if you can email. Yeah.

I was trying to use my phone and it was, uh, YouTube was

acting up a little bit. Gotta love technology, right, yes, yes,

oh wait, I found it. Okay, I found it. I

just wasn't seeing it. Live Guitar Faith Rock Instrumental with Pony got it.

Yeah, that's a different style than what we can do with the acoustics.

So yeah, that's this one where he collaborated and did the drum track remotely.

All right, let's uh, let's give this a listen. Here we

go. I don't be I like that. I like that a lot,

very very cool. Uh, Gary Lawrence live in studio with us. But

that track was, as we were talking about earlier before we played it,

that was the result of some emailing back and forth. But you did all

the So you did all the guitar and bass on that is that? Yeah?

Yeah? And then he did the drums. Yeah. Yeah, I'm

still waiting for someone to want to add some bait. Actually a friend of

mine who does allow to work with backing tracks in midi, he came up

with an alternate bass part in a in a like an arrangement of the song.

Really, so uh yeah, I got to, Uh, one of

my next things I'm gonna do for fun is use his arrangement of the bass

and I think he added some drums too, Oh really, And uh do

I love doing alternate versions. It's kinda it's not quite live, but you

get to try these things with different people. Yeah. I like the baseline

that's on there, but yeah, it's cool to be able to, you

know, create different versions of things, no doubt, no doubt. Do

you have other things that you've recorded kind of in that vein, because obviously

that's very different from from you know, Yeah, we do all kinds of

stuff. Let's see what would be The recording quality is not as high,

but it's in that style. There's one. It's called live, Lord help

Me, to the right, says, featuring Greg Whistle on drums, And

it's kind of like that same style. Yeah, it's kind of rocky blues.

I'm curious that one not popping up. Let's see if I can find

it. What's it called again, Lord help me? Yeah, it's another

instrumental. Let's see here, says featuring Whistle to the to the right of

it. Okay, see if I can find it. Maybe what I can

do is like this playlist has a bunch of original stuff, so maybe i'll

email it to you and then if we have any more trouble, I think

I found it. Okay, yeah, we got it. Oh yeah,

this is another. Yeah, this one's This one's only three minutes, so

maybe we'll give this one to listen to and then we'll we'll have you guys

play live again. But uh yeah, I'm curious to Oh here we go.

Okay, got it, all right, Yeah, let's let's check this

out. See what we got here talking about? I really like your leads

on that really really good, really good. Yeah, absolutely absolutely. If

you're just joining us, we have Gary Lawrence here with us live in studio

accompanied by Tom Ruth. So and you guys want to play another one live?

Yeah, I think I'm gonna mix it up on Tom though. Okay,

this one will be you all right without talking? Oh yeah, he's

heard this song already. Oh okay, I give him the chords just as

Oh yeah that I'm may rise song. This is so My friend Ryan wrote

this song about his dad when he was going through a hard time losing a

lot of friends. So I just I love the music and I love the

lyrics. So I do this one live a lot. So let's see here,

m I feel lonely you still because the need you only I see you

who keeps me thirsty? Because my lips feel dry again. I'm down,

my spooky getting a poll in the hand. I tried to be a lead,

put a film stronger than my hands, a doud sae and I miss

my homeber would let you die by the lean next to your crown after all

these supportant to you your fashion, won't you? We need you, we

need you, we need you. Would let you die your after all these

disappoint you if I should want you, I need you won't we need you

won't? Oh Lord, you won't. Okay, Tom, you won't.

You know? Yeah, we gotta let you die finally next to your grand

after rolling. I'm me you need you should now? I like that.

I like the vibe. Very nice faes is it? Yeah? Yeah.

Gary Lawrence is here with us live in studio on Matt Connorton unleashed on this

Saturday morning, accompanied by Tom Russo. Gary. For people who want to

keep up with what you're doing, want to know where to see you live

and get new music and whatnot? What's the best way to do it?

Where should they go? If you go to YouTube and just type in Gary

Lawrence one four five, there's a lot of Gary Lawrence America's most wanted right

right, So you need to add that one four five at the end.

Okay, but that'll pop up with Gary Lawrence Music Southern New Hampshire. Ah

so yeah, yeah, And it also works on YouTube music if you don't

want video or whatever. There's there's a few videos up there and a lot

of recordings, so yeah, just audio, all right, very cool.

Do you have any full albums out or you just put out singles or eventually

I got to think about how I want to organize these singles into an album.

Yeah. Yeah, but it's pretty easy with today's you just make a

playlist and call it. Yeah, that's pretty cool with the technology. That's

true. That's true. And Tom, how about you? What do you

have coming up? And where should people go to follow you? Let's see,

Actually don't have a gig for quite a while, taking time off and

working on some stuff. I think the next gig I have is Hampshire Hills,

and I don't think it's still March fifteenth, Okay, Yeah, ham

do a lot of recordings. Yeah, and I've definitely been spending my time

recording lately, so I want to kind of take some time and almost start

over a little bit. Yeah yeah, rearrange what I'm doing, and then

I'll be back out. Well, we look forward to featuring your new music

on the show when it's ready. Yeah. Yeah, you're gonna sing with

me at one point. I'm gonna I'm gonna really Oh yeah, did you

know that? I didn't know that. Well, so we'll have to plan

that. Is he completely joking? Or do you sing? I don't sing?

Well? Well, I'm actually you know what, I'm not a bad

harmony singer. I can find the octave and kind of lock in, but

on my own I get lost. Yeah, oh yeah, I've never been

too. Got a chance. There's always a chance he can sing harmony with

you. There, you know he's got a mic right there, he's good.

Yeah, that's true, that's true. Oh my goodness. Well,

uh yeah, singing Holley Lujah was I think the first song I played in

here in the new studio of your school. And I still love the fact

that that song one yeah, yeah, right right, because then it's not

there's much a mystery anymore. But yeah, this is a cool, fun

fact, that's for sure, all with one cool. It's harder than you

think to actually make it still like be entertaining or make it not be boring,

right right, Yeah, I think Bruce Springsteen's song. I think Cadillac.

I think was just eh, that's cool. I think event mostly it's

stays in the right right Yeah, you know, you're right, yeah,

yeah. Does the bassline change it all in your song or is it all

the one? No, that's I'll still see too. So just rhythms,

just a loop like yeah, oh well that that adds a little extra down

and like this and then you had a that's the difference of cool. Yeah,

yeah, absolutely, very good, it'll be cool. Gentlemen. Thank

you both so much. I appreciate this very much. And uh, before

we go too, I want to thank After the Winter for coming in and

of course our friend Derek Pilcher for joining us in the first hour. And

Jenny, did you want to plug your website? And uh, you've been

doing really well on TikTok. Yeah. Actually my TikTok account is actually kind

of gotten gotten some good attention, so yes, doing new videos up on

TikTok. You can find out more about me at Gencoffee dot com. J

E N N C O F F e y dot com. Yes, absolutely,

And uh, do you remember offhand who we have next week? Do

you haven't or do you have it from a let's see, we have Ricky

Mapleton coming in and a pretty and actually have some open space. If there's

someone that does want to come in, they should get in touch with me.

Yes, all right, well, very good. Well it'll be nice

to see Ricky Mapleton. Yeah, very very talented, gentlemen. What town

is is he just out of curiosity? He is. Uh, he's local.

I think you might live in golf Town. I'm not sure, not

sure, not too far. Okay, yeah, yeah, no, he's

he's Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely, And of course if you missed any

part of today's show, it will be up in just a little bit at

w m n H radio dot org and website Matt Connorton dot com. And

uh so we're gonna I think, just because we were talking about it,

I think we should end with yeah, do it that way, they know

what we're talking about exactly. No, it's such a great tracks from from

Tom Russo and with the Conetta singing backup. Oh yes, yes, actually

I think I I'm not sure, but she actually might be the one.

She does a lot of like jingles. Yeah, I think she sings the

the auto fair Oh really yeah, yeah, she sent that to me one

day. Oh wow. Okay, I don't know if it's it. Oh

yeah, I've definitely heard the I've definitely heard the jingle. That's for sure.

That's for sure. Yeah. So we'll end with us sing Hallelujah of

course, not from the great Tom Russo and Gary Lawrence. Thank you again,

wonderful to meet you. Thank you for coming in and playing for us.

It's nice to meet you. Thank you, absolutely, thank you Jenny

and uh, thank you to everyone listening. And we'll we'll talk to you

a little bit later. Check this out. Bye bye,

Game Plan