SCOTT’S NEWSLETTER – 2005 IN REVIEW
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My last newsletter ended with August 2004, so I will continue with some of the events of September through December 2004 and then move on to 2005, which has also been a busy and eventful year.
 
September 2004 was highlighted by the celebration of my Grandmother’s 91st birthday celebration in the Philadelphia area with my uncle and his family and my mother’s college roommate.
 

Mac Bailey, John Sommers, Cindy Martin, and Scott
October 2004: The Scott Hallock duo with Dan Gutenkauf opened for Mack Bailey and the Heart of the Rockies Band, with John Sommers (a member of John Denver’s band who wrote “Thank God I’m a Country Boy.”) Mack Bailey is also a member of the Limeliters, who we have opened for five times.
 

Al Rappa performs in Fountain Hills
My mother Carolyn and I both worked for Damone Management Group with Perry Damone, son of Vic Damone. Carolyn was assistant to Perry and served as National Management Director. I was Backline Coordinator and Artist Consultant for shows that we presented, such as the Limeliters and Bill Haley’s Comets. The Comets did a big 50’s and 60’s night here with original member, Al Rappa, the Walking Bassman – now 73 years old. The Comets spent time in our home and my studio, as we were their hosts for the weekend.
 
Another event we attended in October was the Vote for Change Concert featuring Jackson Brown, Bonnie Raitt, Crosby Stills and Nash, CPR (Crosby, Pevar & Raymond) and Jack Johnson. It was the best I had ever heard CSN play. This was because they joined forces with Jeff Pevar and Crosby’s son Raymond from CPR for a super set.

Carolyn, Dan Gutenkauf, and I spent Halloween with Brian Wilson and his SMILE touring group at the Dodge Theater in Phoenix. It was a very nostalgic evening of music and it was great to see the genius of Brian Wilson live, and his comeback from his many problems. It is so nice to see him finally receive much-deserved recognition for his music. Brian junked SMILE over 33 years ago, so it was a real triumph to finally complete it and share it the way he had envisioned it with fans and the public . SMILE was created as a Symphony to God. The show opened with the group just singing in a semi-circle, playing acoustic, and singing with nine vocal parts. It was very inspiring.
 
December 2004: My Scott Hallock Trio opened once again for the Limeliters at two shows – one here in Fountain Hills and the other at the Kerr Cultural Center in Scottsdale. We played a completely new song list for our opening set. Original founding member, Alex Hassilev, with Mack Bailey and Andy Corwin, perform a great high energy show. This show was also recorded and highlights will be on a new Scott Hallock Trio Stage and Studio CD to be released in the fall 2006.
 

Bob Pasch as Bing, Perry Damone, and Kathryn Crosby

Kathryn Crosby with the gang at Scott's home
Also in December, we had the privilege of having Kathryn Crosby (wife of the late Bing Crosby) in our home. I served as the technical director for her Bing Crosby Christmas Show Tribute with our local “Bing”, Bob Pasch. They needed a place to rehearse and our living room, with my grandfather’s baby grand piano, was the perfect place. At 70 years old, Kathryn Crosby is a very vibrant, gracious, charming lady who presented a wonderful nostalgic tribute of Bing’s life and music. Kathryn was also promoting her second book, called My Last Years With Bing to commemorate what would have been Bing’s 100th year. She gave us autographed copies of this book as a thank you for hosting her.
 


Pete Huttlinger & Mack Bailey outside Scott's Barrel Cactus Studio
New Year’s Weekend: This weekend was highlighted by two events…First, Pete Huttlinger (of John Denver’s band) came to my studio to record with Mack Bailey on Cindy Martin’s CD. Pete is one of the most incredible guitar players. Living in Nashville, he is a very much in-demand, multi-instrument studio player. He also writes guitar lessons for the many of the major guitar magazines. He really liked my Barrel Cactus Studio and it was a pleasure to have him here.
 
On New Year’s Eve, for the second year, I performed at Mazatzal Casino in Payson, about an hour north of here at the rim of the Tonto National Forest.
 
January 2005: For the fourth year, I attended the NAMM Show at the Convention Center in Anaheim, California. This is always a highlight of the year: four days of being part of the world’s largest music manufacturer’s convention. This year a record 75,000 people attended. I have endorsements with several companies (Breedlove guitars, LR Baggs pick ups, D’Addario strings, John Pearse products, and FBT Audio), and I sometimes demo for them in their booths.
 

Tony Levin at NAMM
There are always a ton of music celebrities doing demos, night time special performances, or checking out the newest music equipment. It is fun to meet and hang out with some of the music legends, such as Roger McGuinn, who have been influences on me. This year, in addition to Roger, we met Peter Frampton, Stevie Wonder, John Sebastian and Albert Lee again, Bernie Leadon (Eagles), Chris Hillman (Byrds), Lee Sklar (bass player for Jackson Brown & James Taylor), Nathan East (bass player for Eric Clapton’s Unplugged, Stewart Copeland (Police), Billy Sheehan (bass), Jon Anderson & Tony Levin (of YES), Jeff “Skunk”Baxter (Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan) (My cousin, David Palmer played in the original Steely Dan group),  James Burton (who has played with just about every famous musician, and Steven Seagall (yes, he is a musician as well as an actor). One of the most amazing newcomers we met was Kaki King, an incredible young 23 year-old guitarist. She has a most unusual style of playing and has been featured in many of the music magazines. We also saw Jeff Pevar again who we’ve met before on many occasions when he has played with Crosby Stills and Nash and CPR. One of Damone Management’s artists is Benise, a wonderful Spanish flamenco guitarist and he was one of the featured performers at NAMM this year. We spent a lot of time with him and enjoyed his high energy performance with his band. We also met several musician friends from New Jersey, Bob Beloff, and Joe Orlando and Belle, as well as several Arizona musician friends.
 
Every year when we go to NAMM we always enjoy staying with Carolyn’s college roommate, Felicia Coen and husband, Al in Huntington Beach, which is about a half hour from the Anaheim Convention Center.
 
In January we saw Roseanne Cash at a concert in Payson, AZ with her husband, guitarist, producer John Levanthal. Roseanne was very friendly and we enjoyed talking afterwards about her music and her famous father, Johnny Cash. She sang some wonderful tributes him, which were quite emotional. I perform some of Johnny Cash’s last songs at my shows, including Hurt and Own Personal Jesus.
 
February 2005: I was one of the entertainers chosen to play for three days at the 50th Anniversary of the Arabian Horse Show at Westworld in Scottsdale. I enjoyed seeing the beautiful stately Arabian horses competing in various events and meeting new and interesting people.
 
March 2005: For the sixth year, I played the Encanto Folk Festival in Phoenix. This year, I performed with my Scott Hallock Trio including Rhonda Lester (guitar and vocals) and Dan Gutenkauf (bass and vocals). We added a new song of Dan’s, Sing My Worries Away to the set list.

My New Jersey friend, Jim Barg visited us for a few days while on a photographic expedition of the Arizona desert wildflowers. Jim is the creator of my website and graphic designer of my Stories CD booklet. I visit him every summer in NJ so it was nice that he had the opportunity to visit us here. He is a great cook and we enjoyed a delicious Jambalaya dinner that he made.
 
At the end of March my bass player and friend, Dan, took me to see Lowen and Navarro in concert in Phoenix. They are a wonderful duo who have been a musical influence on me, and I enjoyed meeting them. Unfortunately, Eric Lowen suffers from Lou Gehrig’s disease and has difficulty getting around, so this could be their last tour. I feel fortunate to have been able to see them. They are fantastic singer song writers, with tight vocal harmonies. They have seven or eight CD’s that I recommend checking out.
 
April 2005: This was the busiest month ever since I’ve been in Arizona. I played 23 shows in 30 days – all outside – two and even three some days! It began with playing Cyclefest – a 10 day motorcycle event at Rawhide in Scottsdale. I was also playing poolside at the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Resort every weekend of the month, plus other shows and parties.
 
May 2005: In May, I completed a four month project of the renovation of my studio. I did a lot of the work myself, with help and guidance from my supervisor Larry Peterson. It was a project of putting more soundproofing in the walls, a new layer of sound block, and another layer of sheetrock to the existing walls. Then I added acoustic foam around the perimeter of the room for cutting bass frequencies and sound reflection. The room was complete after decorating with paint, wallpaper and trim boards. I have more clients now and several large projects in progress. One ongoing project is a CD for my bass player, Dan Gutenkauf, who will be releasing his CD at his induction into the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in September. Another project is for Francesca, who is British, but lives part of the year in AZ. She travels back and forth from the UK and AZ to work on her CD project with me. I enjoy my role as recorder and producer of musicians’ CDs. There is a great feeling of accomplishment when these projects are completed.
 
The first weekend of May, Dan Gutenkauf and I performed at the Tucson Folk Festival. The headliners for the festival were the duo Aztec Two Step and Rory Block. I had opened for Rex Fowler of Aztec Two Step in 1996 and we became friends. I was honored to introduce them on the main stage at the Tucson Folk Festival. During the two day festival we spent time together playing and reminiscing old times. It was wonderful to see them again after so many years. Aztec Two Step have been together for 33 years.
 
I began a new venture this month doing demo and promotional performance for the Guitar Center in Scottsdale, playing at the store every Saturday for a few hours during the day. This has been challenging to do in the heat.
 
June 2005: I was asked to join Matt Salmon’s Band for a special event at Phoenix City Hall. Matt is a well known Arizona politician who ran for Governor against our current Governor, Janet Napolitano. This opportunity opened up a new area of playing for political events. We have another show with Matt in Aug. 2005
 
One of the highlights of this month was spending a memorable evening with guitarist extraordinaire, Doyle Dykes at the Tempe Guitar Center. I had met him two years ago at NAMM in the Taylor Room, as he is a Taylor endorsee. Two of his daughters performed with him and their music and their Christian message was most inspiring and enjoyable.
 
A new venture this month was the formation of the Scott Hallock Band, a 5 piece band, which played to a packed house of enthusiastic local fans here in Fountain Hills. The band members include guitarists Dan and Denny Gutenkauf (twins who will be inducted into the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Sept. 2005), Mike Fix, drummer (who with his former band, ‘Starfisher’ opened for Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Sting), and myself on lead guitar, mandolin and vocals. We hope to be getting more shows in the future.
 
Dan Gutenkauf and I played at the annual Flagstaff Folk Festival the second weekend of June. It is always nice to get up north into a cooler climate, which is a relief from the intense summer heat of Phoenix.
 
June ended with playing a large General Motors corporate show at the beautiful Enchantment Resort in Sedona, a five start resort surrounded by huge red rocks – definitely the most magnificent setting I have ever played in.
 
July 2005: The first week of this month I performed four days at the Matazal Casino in Payson – Fourth of July and the following three day weekend.
 
The weekend of July 22-23-24  I played at the annual Morris County 4H Fair in Chester, New Jersey for the 12th consecutive year. My former duo partner, Bob DiGirolamo from Tapping The Grey Sky, always joins me on one of the three days I play there and it is always fun to play together again. Also some of my other NJ musician friends often join me on stage for a music “reunion” and jam.
 
I will return to Arizona for a month where I will be busy with studio clients and some private parties and shows. Then it is back to New Jersey around Labor Day to play with another former duo partner Mike Alicke from the Alaskan group. Mike now lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, so we don’t play together as often as we used to. We visited Mike in Charlotte last Christmas when we were at my grandmother’s in Columbia, South Carolina. It is only about an hour and a half drive.
 
At the end of September, I will have my annual Hallock Musicfest Party to celebrate my birthday (which is actually October 1st, but I am always playing the Prescott Folk Festival that weekend, so we celebrate a week early). This is a great time of eating, swimming and jamming with my many music friends here.
 
This year I have played less restaurant gigs and many more corporate events at some of Arizona’s biggest and most beautiful resorts including, The Phoenician, Westin-Kierland, Desert Ridge Marriott, Pointe Hilton at Tapatio, Pointe Hilton at South Mountain, Legacy Golf Resort, Enchantment Resort, Wigwam Resort, Ritz Carlton and the Biltmore.
 
I have also played several shows with a Reggae Band. One was a pre-Buffett show and I was given a free ticket to Jimmy Buffett’s show. It was fun to see him perform in person, as I play many of his songs. He ended the show with a great version of the Grateful Dead’s Scarlet Begonias.
 
The name of the game in this business is “networking,” and I have been fortunate to have made many valuable contacts and associations with booking agents, with people hiring me for their private parties, with other musicians in the Valley, and with others around the country. Also, the NAMM Show is a valuable and successful networking experience for me on a professional level, meeting the right people in various music product companies, and getting more artist endorsements for more products each year.
 
Although I book most of my shows myself, I am also managed by Damone Management Group in Arizona and London. Since my mother works as National Management Director for the company, she has taken over management of me as well as several other artists. With an office in London, we hope a UK tour may happen in the coming year for me, and possibly for my trio or band. I am also registered with several other entertainment agencies in Phoenix that book me for most of the corporate events.
 
So you can see that my life is busy and productive with lots of interesting things happening. I look forward to another successful and happy year in this music business.

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