1/14/06

Happy New Year!

Wanted to let you know that my tenure as guitarist for Jesse Gage & Otis has ended. Jesse and Craig have decided to forge on as a duo, which I think is a great idea as they sound fantastic. There are no hard feelings whatsoever; I adore Jesse, and I know he loves me as well. I wish him nothing but the absolute best of luck, and I can't wait to sit in with them when a guitar is called for, be it on a recording or at a show.

Craig and I are continuing to perform in our acoustic duo, and I can't wait to head to the Red Lion on Monday night to support them as they showcase for management and agencies.

I'll also be stepping up the live performances considerably this year... 2006 is gonna be a lot of fun. Be sure to check back often to know what's up.

6/29/05

Thrills me to announce that I've managed to start an acoustic duo with Jesse Gage & Otis drummer Craig Meyer. We're calling ourselves (in a true fit of excessive imagination) Martin Rivas & Craig Meyer. Craig will be playing various forms of percussion while I wrestle (often unsuccessfully) with a Gretsch acoustic guitar, and we're singing and playing a boatload of r&b covers, along with a heapin' helpin' of songs of my own, including several from my new cd, Pride of the Valley.

We've got a website up where you can hear some snippets of our performances and keep abreast of where we'll be playing... mostly weeknights in clubs around New York City & New Jersey, including Slane and Session 73 in Manhattan. We'll be booking dates around the dates that Jesse Gage & Otis book, which will be increasing as summer goes on, so keep in touch!

5/5/05

¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Pride of the Valley has gone to press. I hope to have discs up and for sale here at the site as well as at other sites like barnesandnoble.com, amazon.com, and borders.com in 30 days' time, if not sooner. I'll send an e-mail out as soon as I know the release date... click here to join my e-mail list if you're not already on it.

4/22/05

Just received word that "Designed to Break," a song from my new album, Pride of the Valley, is being featured rather prominently in an independent film being produced by Thank You Stanley Productions. The movie is titled Showcase, and "Designed to Break" appears in the opening scene, and in a few other scenes throughout. They expect to have the film wrapped soon and to premiere it in August.

Many thanks to Dan Parilis for choosing to use one of my tracks.

2/23/05

Jesse Gage & Otis continue to roll along... we've got a showcase for a few labels tonight at the Red Lion in Manhattan, we've finished recording an album's worth of material, and we're set to play as many dates as possible this year, including what we're planning as a "coffeehouse tour"... more about that when we figure out what's going on. See my Shows page for the dates we've currently got booked, and click here for Jesse's site.

Meanwhile, I've finally completed the recording of my 3rd solo album, Pride of the Valley. Now to get on the artwork and manufacturing aspects of it. A daunting task, but one I'm more than up for. I hope that Pride of the Valley is available to you in April. When it's ready, I'll let you know. You'll be able to pick it up at most major music websites, including the iTunes Music Store, amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, towerrecords.com, etc.

In other news, I've picked up one of those Line 6 Variax guitars, and it's a hoot so far.

10/12/04

Happy to report that things are going more than swimmingly with The Jesse Gage Band (that's not gonna be the final name, we just haven't come up with one yet... it'll be Jesse Gage and ??? once we've got one).

We've played a nice string of shows in NYC and elsewhere, making fans along the way who seem very excited about what we're doing, based on the e-mails that Jesse has received.

We're currently recording what was supposed to be a demo for Jesse's management to shop, but we're doing so well that it's most likely going to be a full album. Guess we better come up with a name.

While that's going on, we're continuing to play a bunch of Shows. Check the page out, and if it behooves you, come on out and see us. We're not bad and getting better.

5/10/04

I've found a home in The Jesse Gage Band. Jesse is a singer/pianist/songwriter based out of lower Manhattan, and he writes a mighty terrific song. Chock full of melody. We're just getting started gigging, and we're doing a series of Tuesday night shows at The Whiskey Bar in Hoboken to get things going. See my Shows page for more info on that. Hope to see you at one of the shows. Oh, click here for Jesse's site.

1/21/04

It's as much a shock to me and John as it must be to those who've been keeping track of the band's progress... Fernando Estrella is leaving the MR3 to pursue a career in the Marines. John and I wish him the absolute best of luck and we'll keep you abreast of how he's doing.

With that, the January 29th show at CBGB will be a farewell show for the MR3. Of course, we reserve the right to pick up a new bassist, but more likely this will be it for the MR3. Of course, you can still catch John and me together in the occassional gig with R&B powerhouse What It Is, and I will continue my acoustic performances as they've been quite fun and raucous.

Additionally, I'm still working on a new CD, Pride of the Valley, which will I hope to have done sometime in 2004.

This site will be adjusted, and it will continue to follow my progress, as well as provide mp3 downloads of bonus tracks, as well as live mp3's with the MR3, and perhaps some recordings from my days with Serious Pilgrim as well.

9/2/03

Espudd.com recently interviewed me for a Serious Pilgrim retrospective piece. You can read the story now at espudd.com.

8/25/03

"Hope", which will be featured in the forthcoming motion picture Leaving New Hope as well as on my forthcoming CD (to be released in 2004), is one of the top-charting songs at garageband.com, which Time Magazine named one of the 50 best websites of 2003. As of this writing, "Hope" is #62 of 6,496 songs in the rock category!

Click here to read reviews that "Hope" has gotten and see where it currently sits in the charts.

Click here to download your very own mp3 copy of "Hope".

8/25/03

You can now order my CDs Bottleneck and Glorious at one of the web's most popular music websites, Tower Records! Visit them at www.towerrecords.com. No, you won't find them in the stores (that's a different story altogether), but hey! They've got 'em at their website. Yippee!

6/12/03

I've been asked to compose the soundtrack for Leaving New Hope, an independent film being produced by my good friends at Speedy Busboy Productions.

Shooting has already begun, and I've got something like 3 songs already completed for use in the film, which is expected to be completed and released in 2004.

Visit the Leaving New Hope website by clicking here.